Can an Automatic Image Slider Hurt Conversion Rates?

Automatic image sliders show up on all sorts of websites, and e-commerce ones are no exception. While they seem to be effective in providing multiple types of content all in one accessible place, they don’t do much to help with conversions. In fact, they can do more harm than good. Here are some reasons why.

Users React to Movement

Part of our ancient survival mechanisms means that people react quickly to movements. And while that rotating image slider may not be a life or death situation, it’s still a source of movement. That means that a visitor who is trying to look at any other type of important information on your site will become distracted by the source of movement, ultimately missing out on the parts of your website meant to boost conversions. And, yes, this concept applies even if you have products and CTAs on your slider.

Banner Blindness

Another problem with automatic sliders is that they tend to look like banners and advertisements. Once customers notice that, they move on and start looking elsewhere. In effect, they don’t even see your banner, meaning that it’s wasting space that you could use to shift up the rest of the content of your web page – or even reformat the content of your banner into a static layout.

They Move Too Fast

If a visitor does look at an image slider, there’s every chance that they won’t get the chance to complete the message before another one appears, competing for attention. Since sliders tend to have multiple images, you’re showing off too many things at once – and none of the information will stick.

Your Visitors Don’t Have Control

As an e-commerce business, your website should be all about getting what your customers want into their hands. Setting up an automatic image slider that operates on its own takes away the control a user should have when navigating your site. Even on the off chance that that person does want to read an ad, it can be a fight to keep the slider still long enough to focus. And when your site causes frustration, there’s a strong chance that a potential customer will go somewhere else.

Customers Don’t Click on Them

If anything convinces you to leave automatic image sliders out of your website design, let it be this: they don’t receive clicks. You may receive a decent percentage of click-throughs on the first position, but forget about the rest, especially if you have a long slider. Customers will have moved on and found what they were looking for elsewhere on your site. To learn more about user behavior on your Magento website, reach out to the Magento managed services team here at Forix.

Alternate Strategies

Stop wasting your space and highlight content that will bring you conversions instead. Select one of the banner options to highlight, then place the others elsewhere; dedicated landing pages will do you a lot more good than a constantly spinning bar. You especially want to avoid these sliders on your homepage, but it’s best to cut them out of the rest of your e-commerce website, too. To learn more about how to improve conversion rates on your Magento website, reach out to the Magento managed support team here at Forix.

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