Effective eCommerce Conversion Tips to Proliferate your Website Conversion Rate

Posted on by Peggy

In an eCommerce space, increasing sales means everything. Undoubtedly it takes a lot of resources and effort to set up and run an online business successfully. And becomes even more frustrating if a visitor leaves your website without really buying anything. A high-traffic website is pointless if it does not convert visitors into customers, regardless of the source of the client. This is why creating a responsive website design, optimizing your website and landing pages is essential. If you lack technical knowledge and want a highly optimized website for your online business, availing of responsive web design services is the best thing you can do. Anyways, if you can optimize your eCommerce website and its conversions, you can easily increase the annual revenue for your business, thereby increasing the market shares. Therefore, the eCommerce conversion rate is the key metric you should focus on improving if you have an eCommerce store. Your entire growth funnel will be improved if you focus on optimizing your conversion rate. But, how come you know the outcome of your updated strategy without tracking the changing behavior of the users. For that, you need to measure the conversion rate of your website. In this blog post, we are going to talk about What conversion rate is, why it is crucial, and how you can improve it to accelerate your business. This post will definitely help you track the progress of your eCommerce website in a simple way.

Necessities of a Powerful eCommerce Store

Driving the right traffic
Having a reasonable conversion rate
Delivering high-quality products with support

No matter your business niche, every eCommerce business should necessarily have the above three elements for success. The right traffic means your targeted audience, and conversion rate refers to what we are going to discuss in this article.

What is eCommerce Conversion Rate?

Conversion Rate can be defined as the percentage of visitors landing on your website and making a successful purchase. This creates a significant impact because the conversion rate of the industries is as low as 3 percent. This is pretty good, but it results in hundreds of conversions as most of the big websites get thousands of visitors daily. Understanding it by doing a little math, Assume you get 10,000 visitors daily, and your conversion rate is 2%, which means only 200 of these 10,000 visitors are making a purchase. There are numerous ways of improving this number. If you optimize your website, fortunately, this number can increase surprisingly. There are various tools that will help you optimize your eCommerce Conversion Rate. Read further to know more.

Tools for Optimizing eCommerce Conversion Rate

Website Development is important for online business, but optimizing it with the best user experience is even more critical for converting clients. Not only user experience, but your website should also be compatible with all screen sizes, be it smartphones and tablets or even laptops. A mobile website should function properly on every mobile device regardless of the operating system. Also should be optimized according to the search engines in order to get ranked on Google. Here are the various tools that will help you optimize your website’s conversion rate.

Google Analytics 360 Suite

As compared to Google Analytics, the Google Analytics 360 Suite gives you the more advanced details to track each and every step of your conversion process by event measurements such as the number of clicks on your website’s CTA buttons. When you use 360 Suite, you no longer need to check the conversions based on URLs. Instead, you can just calculate the difference between the CTA buttons clicked and the number of successful conversions. Also, unlike regular Google Analytics, your data is updated every 10 mins rather than 24 hours. Moreover, you can also create customized funnels to analyze the journey of your customers more precisely.

Shoppimon

Shoppimon is an eCommerce Conversion Optimization tool that analyzes, monitors, and tests the issues related to your eCommerce website. These issues can hinder the user experience and can affect your conversion rate. Issues like visuals not loading, responsiveness, broken links, site crash, server issues, etc., are the issues detected by Shoppimon.

Hotjar

Hotjar is one of the fastest ways of understanding your users and making necessary changes according to the user’s preference. This online software provides instant visual feedback, and you can see how people use your website to make changes accordingly. Hotjar uses heat maps to let you know what your customers want, expect, and do on your website on the basis of their visit patterns. Read also: Website Usability – Definition, Importance, and Tips to Improve

This is a conversion optimization platform providing solutions for the audience to research and design roadmaps, run A/B testing and Optimization on their eCommerce websites. These were the tools for optimizing your eCommerce store’s conversion rate. Now moving forward, let us discuss the tips to proliferate your Website’s Conversion Rate.

Proliferate your Conversion Rate with these Verified Tips

1. Not More than 2 Seconds to load

Even Though 2 seconds is a very short time, but if your website is taking more than 2 seconds to load, you need to worry. If your website loads in more than 2 seconds, approximately 53% of the users lose interest. A delay of just 1 second can result in a 7% loss of conversion. There are many things you can do to improve your website’s performance. You can test your website speed by using tools like Google PageSpeed or Pingdom to figure out your website’s speed. You can even optimize images and change your hosting plan to improve the speed.

2. Be Friends with SEO and CRO

If you want to drive traffic to your website and increase conversion, you need to make SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) your friends. Doing this is ideal for an eCommerce website. SEO optimizes content for the search engines to get your website ranked on the top, while CRO optimizes content for the users with the aim of taking them to hit the CTA. If you are availing of responsive website design services, make sure to avail SEO and CRO services as well. However, using these two together isn’t easy. You might have seen websites with merely unreadable content due to SEO efforts. The sole purpose of such websites is to drive traffic to the website. To optimize your website according to the Google search engine, you need to include these things to your website – keywords and on-page SEO, quality content and improved data usage. Read also: How to Leverage Social Media to Boost eCommerce Conversions

3. Smooth Navigation

If you want to convert more visitors to your eCommerce store, you should have a website that is easy to navigate. Most often, the websites are disorganized, and the visitors are unable to find what they are looking for. If you walk into a brick-and-mortar store that has its products disorganized, you will probably turn around and walk out immediately. The same is the case with the online store. If your visitors are not able to find what they are looking for with just one click, they will probably navigate to your competitor’s website. The more products you offer, the more crucial it is for your website to be easily navigable. Visitors can easily find the desired product category page using the navigation bar at the top of the screen. From there, they will be able to find the specific product they were looking for. However, this is the solution for the people who are just browsing the website for the products they may like. Therefore, you need to offer a powerful search solution for the people who know exactly what they want.

4. Responsive Web Development

Responsive website development means developing a website that fits every device the visitor is using. If your website is responsive, it will provide an enhanced user experience reducing the need to scroll, resize, or pan. Website pages should load quickly, and the visitors should be able to do what they want to on your website. Moving to a mobile-first design strategy is the key for your eCommerce store. Since Google is shifting towards mobile-first indexing, your website will be lost in rankings if you do not adapt to the strategy. These days mobile phones are the most preferred device for online shopping; therefore, they target mobile users first over tablet or desktop users. The design and development of the website should be such that it is compatible with every device, no matter mobile, laptop, or desktop. Don’t lose a customer to another website just because they include a mobile website and you don’t. Instead, hire a responsive web design company for top-notch development services, and enjoy the growth in your business.

5. Improve your Copy

According to the study done by Referral rock, a copy is the most vital element that significantly impacts website visitors. This is something that helps you to convince the visitors to buy from you and puts a significant impact on the conversion. When people shop online, they do not have the same advantage of touching and checking the product. Therefore, it is important to convey your story to the customers. They are dependent on the written text to know more about your brand and products. Do not rush while writing your copy; take time to make each word meaningful and trustworthy.

6. Target Abandoned Carts

Even if you have the most simplified checkout process, cart abandonment is unpreventable to some extent. However, this nowhere means you should give up. There are people who add the product to their cart, hence, are already familiar with your brand and product. It is much easier to sell your products to them as compared to educating a complete stranger. Just send a follow-up email to the targeted abandoned carts. Cart abandonment email campaigns have a massive 45% open rate, approximately 11% of which are converted. So just by targeting abandoned carts, you can boost your conversion rate up to 11%, which is a considerable number.

7. Convert through Social Posts

Social Media is one of the greatest networks for all people to meet anywhere, anytime. There were more than around 3.6 billion social media users in the world till 2020, and the number is estimated to increase to 4.41 billion by 2025. With such a great number, it becomes an opportunity for the eCommerce owners to grab this potential number to promote their brand. Social Media has become one of the most famous eCommerce conversion hacks, and there is a rare chance to find a brand that does not promote its products on social media. However, it is not at all necessary that every brand that is using social media is leveraging its full potential. There are various ways social media can help you with an increased conversion rate.

8. Use Robust Call to Actions

The Call-to-action button tells users what action you would like them to perform on your website. It encourages a particular response and helps in boosting the conversion rate. Even though CTAs have an average conversion rate of 4.23%, many websites still do not have proper CTAs. Customers do not always know what you want them to do on your website; therefore, you must include CTAs wherever necessary. It should not necessarily be in a button form; it can also be a video, hyperlink, phrase, or infographic. Another important factor is the placement of CTA. Placing a CTA on the top cannot always be an effective option. You should always put the CTAs where they are more likely to be noticed by the customers.

Final Words

The most crucial hack to implement all the other eCommerce growth hacks is consistency. Being consistent is the key to being successful, and if you break the chain, you won’t be able to survive longer in the industry. The eCommerce tips mentioned above directly influence your customer’s thought process and actions towards your online business. Ensure using these eCommerce conversion tips at the right time, right place, and consistently. Using one hack too many times may keep you over-occupied, and using one hack rarely may not produce the desired outcome. If you are looking for a responsive web design company to design and develop your website, or if you are looking for more such expert eCommerce Conversion Tips, feel free to contact us anytime. We will be happy to deliver the most satisfactory results for your requirements.

Strategies to Improve Customer Experience in eCommerce Websites

Posted on by Pratik

Introduction, Why Customer Experience is the Real Growth Engine for eCommerce

A customer lands on your eCommerce website after clicking an ad. The page loads slowly. Navigation feels confusing. Product details are unclear. Checkout feels longer than it should.

Within seconds, they leave and complete their purchase somewhere else.

This scenario plays out every day across thousands of online stores.

In today’s competitive digital landscape, customer experience in eCommerce has become the primary differentiator between brands that grow and brands that struggle. Price and product features still matter, but the way customers experience your website, your checkout flow, and your support often matters more.

For startups, SMBs, and enterprises, the challenge is no longer just attracting visitors. The real challenge is optimizing the entire eCommerce customer journey so visitors become customers, and customers become repeat buyers.

When you focus on improving eCommerce customer experience strategically, you can:

Increase conversion rates
Reduce cart abandonment
Improve customer satisfaction
Build long-term brand loyalty

This blog explains how to improve eCommerce customer experience using proven, conversion-focused strategies that directly impact revenue. You will learn what the eCommerce customer experience really means, how the modern customer journey works, and what actions you can take to optimize customer experience across every touchpoint of your online store.

What is Customer Experience in eCommerce?

Customer Experience in eCommerce refers to the complete perception a customer forms based on every interaction they have with your online store, from the first visit to post-purchase support.

It is not limited to website design or usability.

eCommerce customer experience includes:

How easily users find products
How clearly the information is presented
How smooth the checkout process feels
How quickly issues are resolved
How personalized the shopping journey is

In simple terms, eCommerce customer experience is how your customers feel while buying from you.

Customer Experience vs. User Experience (UX)

These two terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.

User Experience (UX) focuses mainly on:

Interface design
Navigation
Page layouts
Visual hierarchy

Customer Experience (CX) is broader and includes:

UX
Content clarity
Product discovery
Checkout flow
Customer service
Post-purchase communication

UX is a component of CX. CX is the entire journey.

What Makes a Strong eCommerce Customer Experience?

A strong eCommerce customer experience is:

Fast
Intuitive
Personalized
Consistent
Trust-building

When these elements work together, customers:

Stay longer on your site
Add more products to the cart
Complete purchases
Return for future orders

This is why brands that invest in CX consistently outperform competitors on conversion rate and retention.

Why This Matters for Decision-Makers

For business owners and leaders, eCommerce customer experience is not a “design concern”. It is a growth strategy.

Optimizing customer experience helps you:

Improve customer experience on your eCommerce website
Increase conversion rates
Lower acquisition costs
Increase lifetime customer value

In short, a better experience equals better business outcomes.

Why eCommerce Customer Experience Directly Impacts Revenue

Every improvement you make to the eCommerce customer experience has a measurable impact on revenue. This is because experience influences how easily customers move from browsing to buying.

When your website feels intuitive, fast, and trustworthy, customers are far more likely to complete purchases.

When it feels slow, confusing, or unreliable, they leave.

Here is how customer experience in eCommerce directly affects your bottom line:

1. Better Experience Increases Conversion Rates

A smooth shopping experience removes friction from the buying process.

Examples of friction include:

Slow-loading pages
Confusing navigation
Unclear product information
Complicated checkout

Eliminating these obstacles makes it easier for customers to say “yes”, which naturally increases conversions.

If your goal is to improve customer experience on your ecommerce website, conversion optimization must be a top priority.

2. Positive Experiences Reduce Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment often happens because something feels difficult or uncertain.

Common causes:

Unexpected costs
Forced account creation
Too many checkout steps
Limited payment options

Improving these areas creates a smoother path to purchase and recovers revenue that would otherwise be lost.

3. Strong CX Increases Repeat Purchases

Acquiring a new customer is expensive.

Delivering a positive experience encourages customers to return, which increases lifetime value and reduces dependency on paid acquisition.

Repeat customers also tend to:

Spend more per order
Purchase more frequently
Recommend your brand

4. Customer Experience Builds Brand Trust

Trust is essential in eCommerce.

When customers consistently have good experiences, they associate your brand with reliability. That trust lowers hesitation and shortens future buying cycles.

This trust factor plays a major role in optimising customer experience for long-term growth.

5. Poor CX Silently Destroys Revenue

The most dangerous part of a poor experience is that customers usually don’t complain.

They simply leave.

If your store isn’t converting well, the issue is often not your product. It’s the experience around it.

Key Takeaway: Improving ecommerce customer experience is not a cosmetic upgrade. It is a revenue strategy that directly influences conversions, retention, and profitability.

Understanding the Modern eCommerce Customer Journey

The eCommerce customer journey is the series of steps a customer goes through before, during, and after purchasing from your online store.

Understanding this journey is essential if you want to improve customer experience on your ecommerce website, because experience gaps usually appear at specific stages.

A modern eCommerce customer journey is no longer linear.

Customers may:

Discover your brand on social media
Visit your site from an ad
Leave without buying
Return through search
Compare competitors
Purchase later

Your goal is to deliver a consistent, friction-free experience at every touchpoint.

Stage 1: Awareness

This is when a potential customer first discovers your brand.

Common touchpoints:

Social media posts
Paid ads
Search engines
Influencer content

CX focus at this stage:

Fast-loading pages
Clear brand messaging
Strong first impression

If the first interaction feels slow or confusing, the journey ends immediately.

Stage 2: Consideration

Customers begin exploring products and evaluating options.

They look for:

Detailed product information
Images and videos
Reviews and ratings
Pricing clarity

CX focus:

Easy navigation
Search and filters
Well-structured product pages

This stage heavily influences whether customers trust your brand.

Stage 3: Purchase

This is the most critical stage of the journey.

Customers expect:

Simple checkout
Multiple payment options
Transparent pricing
Secure transactions

Even small obstacles here can destroy conversion rates.

Stage 4: Post-Purchase

The experience does not end after payment.

Post-purchase experience includes:

Order confirmation
Shipping updates
Easy returns
Customer support

Positive post-purchase experiences increase satisfaction and reduce refunds.

Stage 5: Loyalty and Advocacy

Happy customers become repeat buyers and promoters.

They:

Reorder
Leave reviews
Recommend your brand

This stage fuels sustainable growth.

Why This Matters

When you view ecommerce customer experience through the lens of the entire customer journey, it becomes clear where improvements are needed.

Optimizing only one stage is not enough.

To truly optimize customer experience, you must improve every stage of the journey.

3 Brands Crushing Customer Experience

Some eCommerce brands consistently outperform competitors, not because they sell radically different products, but because they deliver exceptional customer experiences at every stage of the journey.

Here are three well-known examples and what businesses can learn from them.

1. Amazon, Obsessive Focus on Convenience

Amazon’s success is built on removing friction from shopping.

What Amazon does exceptionally well:

Ultra-fast site performance
Powerful search and filtering
One-click purchasing
Transparent delivery timelines
Easy returns and refunds

Why it works: Customers never have to think about how to buy. They simply buy.

Key takeaway: If you want to improve customer experience on your ecommerce website, reduce friction everywhere, especially in search, product discovery, and checkout.

2. Apple, Experience-Led Product Presentation

Apple doesn’t just sell products. It sells clarity, simplicity, and confidence.

What Apple does well:

Clean, distraction-free design
Simple product comparisons
Strong visuals and videos
Clear benefits instead of technical jargon

Why it works: Customers understand exactly what they’re buying and why it’s right for them.

Key takeaway: High-quality product pages with clear messaging and visuals dramatically improve ecommerce customer experience and conversion rates.

3. Warby Parker, Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Warby Parker blends online and offline experiences effortlessly.

What they do well:

Virtual try-on tools
Home try-on programs
Consistent experience across website, mobile, and stores
Simple returns and exchanges

Why it works: Customers feel supported regardless of how they interact with the brand.

Key takeaway: Enabling omnichannel experiences helps optimise customer experience and builds trust.

What These Brands Have in Common

They remove friction
They prioritize clarity
They personalize experiences
They design for the customer, not the company

These principles apply to businesses of all sizes.

You don’t need Amazon-level budgets. You need customer-first design and strategic execution.

Proven Strategies to Improve eCommerce Customer Experience

Improving ecommerce customer experience requires a combination of technology, design, data, and strategy. There is no single tactic that fixes everything. Successful brands continuously optimize multiple areas of their online store.

Below are proven strategies to help you improve customer experience on your ecommerce website and drive better business results.

1. Optimize Website Navigation and User Experience

Customers should find what they want within seconds.

Best practices:

Simple, logical menu structure
Clear product categories
Prominent search bar
Breadcrumb navigation

When navigation is intuitive, users explore more and bounce less.

2. Improve Site Speed and Mobile Experience

Most eCommerce traffic comes from mobile devices.

Focus on:

Fast page loading
Mobile-friendly layouts
Compressed images
Lightweight scripts

A slow site equals lost revenue.

3. Create High-Converting Product Pages

Product pages are conversion engines.

Essential elements:

High-quality images and videos
Clear product descriptions
Benefits-focused copy
Pricing transparency
Reviews and ratings

Strong product pages directly improve ecommerce customer experience and conversions.

4. Personalize the Shopping Experience

Personalization makes customers feel understood.

Examples:

Product recommendations
Recently viewed items
Personalized emails
Location-based offers

Personalization increases engagement and average order value.

5. Simplify the Checkout Process

Every extra step reduces conversions.

Best practices:

Guest checkout
Minimal form fields
Multiple payment options
Clear error messages

Simple checkout flows optimise customer experience and reduce abandonment.

6. Enable Omnichannel Experience

Customers interact across devices and platforms.

Ensure consistency across:

Website
Mobile
Social media
Email

Omnichannel experiences build trust and continuity.

7. Strengthen Customer Support

Fast, helpful support improves confidence.

Options include:

Live chat
Chatbots
Email support
Knowledge base

Good support is part of the ecommerce customer experience, not an afterthought.

8. Build Trust and Social Proof

Trust drives conversions.

Use:

Customer reviews
Testimonials
Security badges
Clear policies

Social proof reassures hesitant buyers.

9. Use Data and Analytics to Optimize CX

You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Track:

Conversion rates
Bounce rates
Heatmaps
Funnel drop-offs

Use insights to continuously optimise customer experience.

Key Takeaway: Improving ecommerce customer experience is an ongoing process, not a one-time project.

Metrics to Measure eCommerce Customer Experience Success

If you want to improve ecommerce customer experience, you must be able to measure it accurately. Without clear metrics, it’s impossible to know what’s working and what needs improvement.

Below are the most important metrics decision-makers should track.

Conversion Rate

Shows the percentage of visitors who complete a purchase.

Why it matters: A rising conversion rate indicates that your customer experience is becoming smoother and more persuasive.

Bounce Rate

Shows how many visitors leave after viewing only one page.

Why it matters: High bounce rates often signal slow loading, poor relevance, or confusing design.

Cart Abandonment Rate

Shows how many users add products to the cart but don’t purchase.

Why it matters: Helps identify checkout or trust issues.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Measures how satisfied customers are with their experience.

Why it matters: A direct indicator of customer happiness.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Measures how likely customers are to recommend your brand.

Why it matters: Strong signal of loyalty and advocacy.

Repeat Purchase Rate

Shows how many customers buy again.

Why it matters: Reflects long-term experience quality.

Pro Tip: Track these metrics monthly and correlate changes with UX, content, and checkout improvements.

Common Mistakes That Hurt eCommerce Customer Experience

Many eCommerce businesses focus heavily on driving traffic but fail to invest enough in experience optimization. As a result, they attract visitors but struggle to convert and retain them.

If you want to optimise customer experience and drive sustainable growth, avoid these common mistakes.

1. Designing for Aesthetics Instead of Usability

Visually impressive websites do not guarantee good experiences.

When design prioritizes style over function, users struggle to navigate, find products, or complete purchases.

What to focus on instead:

Clear layouts
Logical hierarchy
Easy navigation

Usability always beats visual complexity.

2. Overcomplicating Navigation and Site Structure

Complex menus and deep category structures confuse users.

Common symptoms:

Too many categories
Unclear labels
Hidden products

Simpler navigation improves discovery and reduces bounce rates.

3. Ignoring Mobile Optimization

Most shoppers browse and buy on mobile devices.

If your mobile site is slow, hard to tap, or visually broken, customers leave.

Mobile experience must be treated as primary, not secondary.

4. Hiding Important Purchase Information

Customers need clarity before buying.

Hiding or delaying information such as:

Shipping costs
Delivery timelines
Return policies
Warranty details

creates friction and abandonment.

5. Using Generic or Thin Product Descriptions

Short, vague descriptions fail to answer buyer questions.

Strong product pages explain:

What the product does
Who it’s for
Why it’s better
How it solves problems

Detailed content improves ecommerce customer experience and SEO.

6. Offering Too Many Checkout Steps

Long checkout flows frustrate users.

Each additional step reduces completion rates.

Simple, streamlined checkout improves conversions.

7. Not Showing Social Proof

Customers look for reassurance.

Without reviews, ratings, or testimonials, trust is weak.

Social proof strengthens confidence.

8. Treating Customer Support as an Afterthought

Slow or unavailable support damages trust.

Customers expect quick help when issues arise.

Support quality directly affects experience.

9. Failing to Use Data for CX Decisions

Many businesses rely on assumptions.

Without analytics, heatmaps, and feedback, improvements become guesswork.

Data-driven optimization leads to better outcomes.

Key Takeaway: Most ecommerce customer experience problems are preventable. They stem from overlooked fundamentals, not advanced technology.

Why Partnering with Experts Improves Customer Experience Faster

Improving ecommerce customer experience is not just about making design tweaks or adding plugins. It requires strategy, technical expertise, data analysis, and continuous optimization.

For many startups, SMBs, and enterprises, building and maintaining this capability in-house is challenging.

This is where partnering with experienced eCommerce and CX specialists creates a competitive advantage.

1. CX Strategy Aligned With Business Goals

Experts start with your business objectives.

They map:

Target customers
Customer journeys
Conversion funnels
Growth goals

This ensures every experience improvement supports revenue, not just aesthetics.

2. Access to Cross-Functional Expertise

Effective CX improvement requires:

UX and UI designers
Front-end developers
CRO specialists
Analytics experts

Hiring and managing all these roles internally is costly and time-consuming.

Partners provide immediate access to specialized skills.

3. Faster Implementation and Testing

Experienced teams already know:

What patterns work
What mistakes to avoid
How to test efficiently

This reduces trial-and-error and accelerates results.

4. Scalable Optimization Process

Experts build repeatable frameworks for:

Auditing experience
Prioritizing improvements
Testing changes
Measuring impact

This creates sustainable growth.

5. Technology and Tool Expertise

Specialists are familiar with:

eCommerce platforms
Analytics tools
Personalization engines
Automation solutions

This ensures correct implementation from day one.

Bottom Line: If ecommerce customer experience is a growth priority, treating it as a specialized discipline, not a side project, delivers faster and more predictable results.

Conclusion, Customer Experience Is the Foundation of eCommerce Growth

In today’s competitive market, customer experience in eCommerce is no longer optional. It is a critical growth driver.

Brands that win are not always the ones with the lowest prices or the largest catalogs. They are the ones that deliver fast, intuitive, personalized, and trustworthy experiences across the entire eCommerce customer journey.

By understanding how customers move through your store, identifying friction points, and applying proven strategies to optimise customer experience, you can:

Increase conversions
Reduce cart abandonment
Build customer loyalty
Drive sustainable revenue growth

Improving ecommerce customer experience is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing process that requires strategy, testing, and continuous optimization.

If your goal is to build an eCommerce business that scales, investing in customer experience is one of the highest-ROI decisions you can make.