By 2022, eCommerce sales are predicted to account for 20% of global retail sales. That’s a massive jump from only 10% in 2017, showing a doubling in just five years.
Becoming an increasingly important part of the consumer experience worldwide, eCommerce offers immense opportunities for business owners.
However, many businesses struggle with taking advantage of them. So if it looks like no one wants to buy in your eCommerce store, you’ve come to the right place.
The key to success is to create a highly compelling value proposition around your business so people are more likely to buy your products. But how can we do this?
This article will answer how to increase sales in eCommerce based on verified methods, research data, and real-life examples of successful eCommerce brands.
Ways to Increase Sales in eCommerce
Many inexperienced business owners think that the easiest way to increase your sales is to lower the prices. However, selling the goods with a minimum margin may turn out to be unfavorable in the long term. Therefore, let’s check which strategies may successfully increase sales in your e-commerce store.
Show That Your Website is Trustworthy
In the last five years, 46% of Americans have been victims of credit card fraud.
That being said, installing an SSL certificate on your eCommerce website should be your starting point.
Why do websites need an SSL certificate?
- It creates a secure connection between your hosting server and your visitor’s web browser. This means any data exchange (for example, passwords or credit card numbers) is completely safe.
- It increases the trustworthiness of your website. Once the SSL certificate is installed, web browsers will show a padlock next to your web address, informing customers that your site is secure.
When you sign up with a company that provides an SSL certificate, you receive trust badges. The right checkout badges will make your customers feel safe and secure.
In a CXL study, the three most recognized branded trust badges for safe checkout were McAfee (79%), Verisign (76%), and PayPal (72%).
Focus on Loyal Customers
Don’t get us wrong – increasing the customer base has always been important. However, many businesses instantly diagnose their sales problem in a lack of new clients. While that may be true for some of them, the majority simply don’t put enough emphasis on taking care of existing customers.
To illustrate this, let’s have a look at the graph below:
Compare new customers and customers with one purchase to the ones with a long purchase history. As you can see, loyal customers:
- add more items to their shopping cart (23.15% add-to-cart rate);
- have a higher conversion rate (8.55%);
- generate more revenue each time they visit your site ($10.67 per session).
The first step to reward your loyal customers is to implement a customer loyalty program. They give customers an extra incentive to make a purchase. Furthermore, they keep your brand top-of-mind through marketing automation.
You may appreciate your loyal customers in various ways, with some of the ideas enumerated below:
- Offer discounts for high-spending customers;
- Give away free items with multiple purchases;
- Send customers a free trial of new products and services;
- Offer a referral bonus for inviting new customers.
Create an Email List
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing, on average, has a 4300% return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the USA. Someone who gives you an email address actually wants to know what you have to offer.
Another great thing about emails is that they stay until your email subscribers actually read them. For example, with social media, your message is much more likely to get covered by posts of other users.
Additionally, social platforms may reduce your reach to encourage businesses to pay for ads. With a subscriber list and an email campaign, you don’t have those kinds of restrictions.
Accept Different Payment Methods
According to Oberlo, almost 70% of shopping carts are abandoned.
One reason customers withdraw in the last phase is the lack of choice concerning payment methods. Therefore, eCommerce stores that accept only Visa and MasterCard are missing out on many potential customers.
The diagram shows which payment methods are the most popular among online shoppers. Therefore, don’t neglect user experience and make sure the checkout process includes the preferential choices of your customers.
Use Follow-Up Emails
As we mentioned in one of the preceding sections, customer retention is an often neglected aspect of the sales funnel. Many companies ignore the upsell stage as they are wrongly satisfied with a single purchase.
This poses a significant mistake for customer retention. To increase sales volume online, your marketing efforts could benefit from an email marketing strategy using a follow-up procedure.
Interestingly, abandoned cart follow-up emails have an average open rate of 41%. That poses an extra possibility to present the advantages of your product or service to the target audience.
Follow-up emails may also include product recommendations. They are a great way to increase revenue through upselling and cross-selling.
And if there’s anybody who sets an example on how to boost revenue with sales follow-up techniques, it’s Amazon. Check out how this eCommerce giant generates more repeat purchases via personalized recommendations.
Source: OptinMonster.com
Read also: What Is a Sales Funnel, and How Does It Work?
Meet Customers on Social Media
- There are 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021—a 5% increase from a year ago and a whopping 32.2% jump in just five years. [Oberlo, 2021];
- Out of 4.57 billion internet users, 83.36% are active social media users [Backlinko, 2021]
Considering not only the current popularity but also the pace it grows with, social media are an open window of sales opportunities as they:
- drive new visitors to your store,
- convert them into paying customers,
- re-engage them to buy even more.
Yes, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform out there ( with 2.79 billion users worldwide). As convincing as this statistic may seem, there’s also another side of the coin. Let’s have a look at the research carried out by SproutSocial in 2021.
Of all U.S. social media users surveyed, 32% of those aged 12–34 identified Facebook as the social media platform they used the most often. This was a drastic drop from only five years ago when the top usage was at 58%.
This shows how important it is to know the demographics of your recipients. While choosing the social platforms you want to be present on, select the ones where you can meet your target audience. Instagram or Facebook ads don’t necessarily have to be the best advertising choices for your business.
| Are you running an eCommerce business in the gaming industry? In one of our blog posts, we have covered the best social networking for gamers. Have a look at how to level up your marketing game! |
Take Care of Mobile Optimization
Smartphones play an increasingly important role in the era of digitalization. Today, around 298 million smartphone users in the US stand for 91% of the country’s population [Statista, 2021].
This has led to a big change in Google search trends – nowadays, 60% of Google searches are performed from mobile devices, nearly double the volume from five years ago.
Unsurprisingly, that’s also reflected in the number of purchases made from mobile devices. Currently, 80% of B2B buyers are using a mobile device to make purchases.
Still not convinced?
DigitalExaminer has also found that 90% of buyers report that an excellent mobile experience is likely to convince them to make a repeat purchase from the same company.
To check if your website is mobile-friendly, you can make use of this Google tool. Simply paste the URL of your website into the white space, and then click “Analyze.”
Display Your Social Proof
It’s obvious that telling about the drawbacks of your products would be shooting yourself in the foot. That’s something customers are well aware of, knowing that marketers advertise their products in superlatives only.
That’s why consumers conduct online research before making a purchase online.
An easy idea to make use of social proof is to add ratings on your products. Be sure to ask buyers to leave a review, or they might not think of doing it themselves.
Yet another way to boost your social proof is to reach out to some of your most loyal customers to ask for a testimonial. The 2019 BrightLocal study revealed that 76% of people asked to leave reviews to go on to do so.
Testimonials differ from reviews because they’re not strictly related to items in your product line or service — they can build trust in your brand as a whole and recommend the overall shopping experience on your site.
Mark Brinker has shared some of his personalized and useful client testimonial templates. Here’s one of our favorites:
| Subject: Can you help me out? Message: Hi FirstName, I have a quick favor to ask. Could you write a brief testimonial that I can add to my list of satisfied clients? I’m not looking for a novel or anything. Just a few sentences describing your experience with me. Prospective clients don’t care so much about what I say about myself, but they do care what my clients have to say. For an idea of what other clients have written, please click here. All you have to do is simply reply to this email with your testimonial. Also, if you are able to do this in the next day or two, that would be awesome. Thanks so much, FirstName. {Your Name} |
Implement a Live Chat
Even though customer reviews are highly convincing, some people may still want to hear directly from you. Many eCommerce store owners think that email contact is enough. But what if the website visitors have a burning question to ask? This usually decides whether they make a purchase in your store or go somewhere else.
That’s why a quick response is crucial – if you don’t manage to answer their question, your target customer will probably ask your competitors.
In fact, 77% of customers won’t purchase on a website if there’s no live chat option. Thus, you should allow your customer service representatives to solve consumer’s issues instantly.
Take a look at the example below.
Sellers and Friends is an online store that provides players with in-game goods such as gold and items. They have a good product description for each item, fair commission levels, and offer exceptional lifetime value to their users by providing useful video game advice and blog posts.
Nonetheless, they also understand that customer service goes beyond branding or search engine optimization. In the virtual world, just as in real life, time is money – players want everything here and now. Having been well aware of it, The S&F eCommerce store owner implemented a live chat to answer popular user questions immediately.
Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is often an essential choice for customers. When landing on your eCommerce store’s website, customers first make sure how much they will additionally pay for the shipment.
According to SaveMyCent, 28% of people will abandon their shopping carts if they notice an unexpected shipping cost.
As you can see, free shipping is even more encouraging than free discount coupons. Sometimes even if that coupon code percentage is more than shipping.
However, that’s not everything. Free delivery tempts customers to buy something else just to exceed the threshold of free delivery. If shoppers had an option to qualify for free shipping, almost a quarter of them would be willing to spend more money to do so.
Erik Christiansen, the CEO of conversion optimization platform Justuno, says:
| Shopping cart abandonment almost always has to do with price or shipping. Combat it the moment it occurs. Rather than waiting to engage a person after they abandon their cart, engage them with an exit offer right at the moment of abandonment. |
Think About Video Demonstrations
Have a look at the chart below.
Videos undoubtedly are customers’ favorites now.
Thus, one of the best ways to increase e-commerce sales in the modern world is by adding videos to the product page. This way, you save customers’ time, as they don’t have to read long and often boring product descriptions. Instead of looking at product photos, a website visitor would rather watch a short video presenting what it has to offer.
The power of video marketing is also reflected in the data analysis conducted by Wyzowl. The sample included both marketing professionals and online consumers.
Here’s what they found:
- 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
- 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
- 79% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
Here’s how Zoom utilizes video demonstrations to show the key features of their product. The clip briefly presents how Zoom works, allowing the site visitors to listen and see how they can benefit from using it in their everyday work.
Start a Content Marketing Program
Every eCommerce store should consider blogging regularly to increase brand awareness, create customer relationships and rank better in search engines. If you aren’t already creating content, you are also missing an excellent opportunity to bring SEO traffic to your eCommerce site.
Although having a company blog has tons of other benefits as well, there are more ways to take advantage of content marketing, such as podcasting or guest blogging.
Podcasts
Podcasts are on the rise. Their popularity is constantly growing as more and more people are getting accustomed to the era of multitasking. Nowadays, listening to interesting content while performing everyday duties is something of great value. And the amount of time saved in this way – the most valuable currency.
The 2019 Statista survey found that 51% of consumers above the age of 12 in the US listen to podcasts. That’s a big jump from the 44% registered in 2018.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can have different purposes. Depending on them, you should choose the blogs you would like to post your content to. The three main goals of guest blogging are:
- increasing brand awareness;
- getting leads and new traffic to your website;
- obtaining backlinks.
However, all these three steps ultimately lead to the same goal – increased conversion rates. In the case of the first two, you should look for blogs with an engaged and large group of readers. However, if your primary aim is to obtain backlinks, search for blogs with a well-established reputation that provide high-quality links.
When Danny Iny started working on his blog “Firepole Marketing” (now Mirasee), he was getting roughly 30 visitors on a really good day and had over 250 thousand dollars in personal debt.
To make a name for himself, Danny started reaching different blogs, asking for a chance to publish a guest post. In a couple of months, he wrote 80 guest posts, growing his traffic and developing an email list. In just a few short years, he has published nine best-selling books and grew the business to multiple-seven figures in revenue.
Final Words
If your store’s sales are starting to get stagnant, it may be time to change your eCommerce marketing strategy. You should come up with some new and creative ways to market products and services on your eCommerce site.
Among the many ways to boost eCommerce sales, we have chosen the strategies most often recommended by experts in the field of digital marketing. Use these marketing tactics and tips to boost commerce sales and grow your conversion levels.
FAQ
How Can I Increase My Online Sales Quickly?
Things that you can do to increase online sales quickly are:
- putting more attention to loyal customers,
- setting up social media profiles,
- taking care of mobile optimization,
- adding free shipping to your offer,
- enriching your product pages with video demonstrations.
What Makes a Good eCommerce Business?
A good eCommerce business is characterized by:
- mobile-friendly website,
- many payment methods,
- compelling CTAs,
- security features,
- keyword-optimized pages.
What is an Online eCommerce Sales Strategy?
E-commerce strategy is a detailed plan of how your eCommerce store will achieve its goals and improve its position in the market.
SEO enthusiast and digital marketing strategist. My expertise lies in optimizing websites for organic traffic growth and search engine visibility. I carry out, among others, SEO tests, keyword research and analytical activities using Google Analytics. Privately, he is a lover of mountains and bicycle trips.