You have just completed the setup of a fantastic online store for selling products. You have carefully chosen popular items, designed an impressive website, and are eagerly anticipating a surge in sales. However, the outcome so far has been disappointing. Launching a successful online business involves more than just getting an eCommerce store up and running. It is crucial to develop sustainable strategies that can effectively increase sales.
In this comprehensive guide, we will unlock the secrets to increasing your eCommerce sales without overwhelming yourself in the process. We’ll walk you through step-by-step on how to transform your online store into a high-performing sales powerhouse.
Read on.
Tactic #1 Create a mailing list
On average, email generates an amazing $36 of ROI for every $1 spent. Emails can help you achieve a range of goals such as boosting sales, maintaining customer relationships, marketing your products, and ultimately increasing your revenue. However, there’s a hurdle to overcome: you need a recipient list for your emails.
To develop this list, you must provide multiple options for people to opt in. For instance, you can employ a website popup or include an opt-in button during the checkout process. Don’t get frustrated if your initial list is small. It takes time to expand your reach. To get more chances for a higher open rate, remember about crafting compelling and clickable subject lines.
By incorporating an enticing hook at the beginning of your subject line, one that can only be fully appreciated upon opening or clicking, you’re likely to captivate your audience and leave them wanting more.
Also, encouraging customers to share their information doesn’t have to feel pushy or too sales-y. There are various organic approaches you can take, such as providing website discounts, offering special incentives for newsletter reading, placing signup boxes at checkout, and employing similar tactics to build an extensive email database.
To enhance eCommerce sales, personalization is key. Tailoring your emails with personalized greetings and creating audience-segmented email lists can significantly boost your eCommerce sales.
Consulting Get your website back on track to high profits. We’ll identify what’s wrong with your website, choose the best tools, and fix any issues keeping your business from growing.
Tactic #2 Implement email marketing campaigns
To optimize the potential of your email list, it is important to integrate it into your marketing strategy. Rather than sending the same generic newsletter to all subscribers, it is more effective to segment your audience based on their actions and preferences.
By considering factors such as the products they have purchased and their email promotion preferences, you can personalize your email content to make it more relevant to each subscriber. This can be achieved through the features provided by your email list provider.
For example, when requesting visitors to confirm their subscription, you can include checkbox options to gather information such as:
- The specific category of products they are interested in
- The types of promotions they would like to receive
- How they discovered your store
Tactic #3 Leverage scarcity
If your product appears to have limited availability or if a sale is only accessible for a brief period, your website visitors are more likely to make a purchase immediately. This is because they cannot be certain that your items will be obtainable at the same price or even available at all in the future. Here are a few simple scarcity tactics to utilize in order to enhance your eCommerce sales:
- Conduct flash sales
- Incorporate a countdown timer on your website during sales
- Indicate the limited quantity remaining for your items
- Provide free shipping for a limited duration
Implementing scarcity is very effective yet very simple: just add a popup on specific pages with a concise message and/or a coupon code to seize the opportunity.
Tactic #4 Use popups
Popups are highly effective for eCommerce websites. To ensure they don’t become overly intrusive, you can activate them when a customer has been on your page for a specific duration or when they reach a particular scroll point on the page.
To increase eCommerce sales with popups, you can follow these effective strategies:
- Exit intent popups. Use exit-intent popups to target visitors who are about to leave your website. These popups can offer discounts, special promotions, or incentives to encourage them to make a purchase before exiting.
- Welcome offer popups. Display a popup with a special offer or discount code when visitors land on your website for the first time. This helps create a positive first impression and encourages them to explore your products or services further.
- Cart abandonment popups. When a user adds items to their shopping cart but abandons the checkout process, trigger a popup offering an incentive to complete the purchase. This could be a discount, free shipping, or a limited-time offer to motivate them to finalize their order.
- Upselling and cross-selling popups. Implement popups that suggest complementary or upgraded products to customers who have added items to their cart. These popups can increase average order value by showcasing related products or highlighting product bundles.
- Email capture popups: Use popups to capture visitors’ email addresses by offering them exclusive content, access to a newsletter, or a discount in exchange for subscribing. This enables you to build a mailing list for future marketing efforts and retargeting.
- Social proof popups. Display popups showcasing positive reviews, testimonials, or recent purchases by other customers. This social proof helps build trust and confidence in your products or services, leading to increased conversions.
- Limited-time offers popups: Create a sense of urgency and scarcity by using popups that highlight limited-time promotions, flash sales, or countdown timers. This motivates visitors to make a purchase immediately to take advantage of the special offer.
Tactic #5 Offer a money back guarantee
Establishing trust is of utmost importance when it comes to online shopping, as customers lack the ability to physically interact with or test products. To gain their trust as a reliable retailer, it is crucial to provide special assurances.
One effective way to build trust and demonstrate confidence in the quality of your products is by offering money-back guarantees. However, there may be concerns regarding potential misuse or exploitation of these guarantees by some customers, viewing them as opportunities for taking advantage.
To protect yourself and strike a balance, it can be beneficial to impose certain limitations. For instance, you can implement a time constraint, such as a 30-day or two-month guarantee, depending on the nature of the product. Additionally, establishing specific conditions for the validity of the guarantee can further safeguard against potential misuse.
Another option is to seek the assistance of a legal professional to develop a comprehensive policy regarding money-back guarantees. Incorporating this step into your strategy is highly advantageous for those seeking ways to increase eCommerce sales, as it instills confidence and reassurance in potential customers.
Tactic #6 Optimize the checkout process
The longer it takes for customers to input their personal information and payment details, the higher the likelihood of cart abandonment.
Certain users may be hesitant to sign up for an account before completing their purchase, while others may have a preference for a specific payment option. Additionally, some customers may find the layout of your website confusing, which can impede the checkout process.
By implementing minor enhancements such as offering guest checkouts, providing multiple payment options, integrating clear call-to-action buttons for products, and facilitating password resets, you can greatly streamline the customer journey and increase sales. These improvements address common pain points and reduce friction, making it easier and more convenient for customers to complete their purchases.
Tactic #7 Promote customer reviews
Nearly 70% of people study reviews before making purchasing decisions. If you’re not leveraging reviews, you’re missing out on a significant portion of potential revenue.
An effective way to harness the power of reviews is by incorporating product ratings. It’s important to encourage buyers to leave reviews as they may not think of doing so on their own.
Another strategy to boost the impact of reviews is to reach out to your most loyal customers, those who have made multiple purchases from your store, and request testimonials. Testimonials differ from reviews as they focus on the overall brand experience and can help build trust in your brand as a whole. Utilize your email list to contact your loyal customers and request testimonials, as they are likely to be found there.
Once you have collected these testimonials, prominently display them on your landing page to immediately establish trust with new visitors. Testimonials are even more effective when accompanied by a real name and photo, as it allows visitors to identify the customer as a genuine person, further enhancing credibility.
Tactic #8 Use a live chat
Oftentimes, potential customers are interested in making a purchase but need a specific question answered before proceeding. If you make it difficult for them to reach out to you, they are more likely to abandon the website altogether.
Consider this scenario: A visitor wants to know if your clothing items are true to size before selecting the appropriate size to purchase. If they have to navigate through multiple steps, such as visiting the contact page, copying your email, opening their email application, and composing an email, it becomes cumbersome and takes them away from your store, potentially resulting in a lost sale.
However, with a live chat option seamlessly integrated on your website, the visitor can stay on the page and engage in real-time conversations with your customer service representative, eliminating unnecessary friction and improving the chances of completing the sale.
Integrations Automate eCommerce processes with Magento integrations: ERP, CRM, analytics systems, payment gateways, marketing automation solutions and any other tool you need to sell more.
Tactic #9 Integrate a chatbot
You can go even further, and introduce a chatbot. These AI-powered virtual assistants are available 24/7, providing instant support and assistance to customers. By integrating chatbots into an online store, businesses can enhance the overall shopping experience as well as save time for businesses, allowing them to reduce manual workload.
Chatbots can answer common customer queries, offer product recommendations, and guide shoppers through the purchasing process. With their ability to engage in personalized and interactive conversations, chatbots help build trust, address concerns, and provide timely assistance, leading to increased customer satisfaction and higher conversion rates. Additionally, chatbots can streamline order tracking, facilitate upselling and cross-selling, and even offer proactive customer support, contributing to a seamless and efficient buying journey.
Tactic #10 Consider Gmail ads
Paid Gmail Ads or Gmail Promotion Ads are interactive advertisements that appear at the top of a potential customer’s inbox, specifically in the social or promotions tab.
There are numerous ways to create effective Gmail ads to promote your eCommerce business. The options range from incorporating a playable video to including clickable links that direct users to your online store. An advantage of using Gmail Ads is that they are automatically optimized for both mobile and desktop devices, saving you time and effort.
Users who come across Gmail Ads are typically in the awareness and interest phase of your marketing funnel. Therefore, it is important to design your Gmail Ads similar to a post-click landing page. Ensure that you highlight your unique value proposition early on to capture the attention and interest of your target audience.
Tactic #11 Offer free stuff
It may initially sound counterintuitive, like shooting yourself in the foot. After all, our goal in business is to make money online, not lose it, right? However, what if we told you that offering freebies could actually boost your revenue? Yes, providing free items or services can have a positive impact on your long-term sales.
For example, offering free products can help build trust with customers. But giving away free items isn’t the only way to go. You can also provide free trials, allowing customers to experience the value of your products before making a commitment. Additionally, offering free shipping and delivery for purchases above a certain amount can increase the average order value.
Consider this approach as a solid investment to establish value with new customers rather than a practice that leads to losses. By providing freebies strategically, you can enhance customer trust, generate more sales, and ultimately increase your overall eCommerce revenue.
Tactic #12 Try retargeting on social media
By leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you can reach out to potential customers who have previously shown interest in your products or visited your website. Retargeting works by displaying tailored ads to these individuals, reminding them of the products they were interested in and encouraging them to make a purchase.
This strategy helps to keep your brand top-of-mind and re-engage potential customers who may have abandoned their shopping carts or left without making a purchase. With the ability to create personalized and targeted ads, retargeting on social media can effectively reach a highly relevant audience, resulting in higher conversion rates and increased eCommerce sales.
Lean about the state of headless in eCommerce
Tactic #13 Promote best-selling products
Showcasing products as best sellers is an excellent strategy to generate excitement among customers for trending items. The desire to acquire what everyone else is eagerly seeking is a powerful motivator.
Many eCommerce platforms provide built-in bestseller metrics within their reporting systems. These reports offer valuable insights on the top-selling products based on various criteria such as vendor, SKU, sales, and other essential metrics. Leveraging this data, you can create a dedicated Best Sellers category or designate specific products as Best Sellers on their respective product pages.
It is important to prominently display the all-time bestsellers as well as the products currently experiencing high sales volumes. Utilize filtering options in the reports to showcase items sold within specific timeframes, such as by the month, year, or day.
Tactic #14 Offer multiple payment options
When customers add products to their cart, their intention is to make a purchase. However, their decision can quickly change if their preferred payment method is not available during checkout.
In the past, there were limited payment options such as credit cards or PayPal. The drawback of credit cards, in particular, was the high-interest rates and potential late fees.
Today, many online stores offer “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) options like Klarna Pay, which can significantly contribute to increased eCommerce sales. These BNPL services allow customers to defer payment with minimal fees and interest rates. By offering flexible payment options, cart abandonment rates are considerably reduced, ensuring you receive upfront payments without the risk of fraud or non-payment.
However, it is crucial to not only make Buy Now Pay Later options visible during the checkout process. Introducing these options early in the customer journey, such as through banners and paid ads, maximizes the benefits of these flexible payment alternatives.
Tactic #15 Offer targeted pricing
Staying competitive in the market requires constantly adjusting prices and launching promotions in response to changing conditions. Without specialized, targeted, and dynamic pricing models, you risk falling behind your competitors.
One effective approach is to optimize pricing through IP geolocation. By utilizing IP geolocation, you can analyze your website traffic and offer customized pricing based on the gathered data. Failing to provide a differentiated pricing structure for customers in different locations, such as the US versus India, can result in potential profit loss. It is crucial to consider factors such as tax rates and other geographic pricing dynamics.
Leveraging IP data can also enable you to implement geo-targeted strategies to increase eCommerce sales. For instance, customers from South Asia may have a preference for cricket-related products, while those from Canada may show more interest in ice hockey-related items.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, increasing eCommerce sales requires a strategic and multifaceted approach. By implementing the strategies discussed in this article you can drive more traffic, engage customers, build trust, and ultimately boost your revenue.
Keep in mind that continuous monitoring, analysis, and adaptation are key to staying ahead in the competitive eCommerce landscape. Don’t forget about A/B testing. By comparing two versions of a webpage or marketing campaign, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and behavior. Through A/B testing, you can experiment with different elements such as headlines, layouts, color schemes, call-to-action buttons, and pricing strategies. By systematically testing and analyzing the results, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your website or marketing efforts, ultimately leading to increased conversions and higher sales.
Stay proactive, embrace innovative techniques, and consistently strive to enhance the overall customer experience.
