3 tips to improve conversion rates in SAAS.

Here is a very good blog from KissMetrics with tips to improve your website.

Here are 3 things that I consider are very important for SAAS websites:

1. Simplify your sign-up process.

• Throw the doors open for your (potential) customers to explore the app, without a complex sign-up process.
• Nobody likes to go through pain of signing up, verify email & what not before getting to explore an app.
• If you get them to sign-up, allow them to use at least a limited feature set, till they verify the email id. Trust should be mutual.

Keep it simple.

2. Help your users visualize how to use your app with readily available sample data.

• Have demo data filled up & ready for your user to play around & get a feel of your app.
• Staring at blank screens & not knowing where to start would make users lose interest.
• Recent example of an app that did this well is Trello.

Test Data in Sandbox: For EASE of use, try ChargeBee.

3. Streamline your checkout process.

• Displaying several payment options is fair point. Some websites are forced to use PayPal, a payment gateway for card / bank transfer mainly due to convenience of using one over other and lack of solid metrics to choose one over the other option in specific geographies. However, this is no excuse to setup a cluttered checkout process and shoot yourself in the foot.
• Measure the drop-off rates in the checkout pages and at different points to understand drop-off rates specific to each payment option chosen.
• Do not ask for more info than you need – some payment gateways in India display billing, shipping information even though there is no shipping involved (Crazy, I know). And avoid billing address or any other unwanted information for net-banking transfers, if you can. The lesser you need from your user the better the chances of converting the lead into a sale.
• Even better if you can control your checkout page without redirecting to payment gateway pages with API integration.

What are your experiences in designing these? Any best in class apps that you think we should learn from? Would love to hear from you.