In this fast-paced eCommerce industry, converting visitors into customers is an ongoing goal for every e-business. No sales equal, no money.
So, if you’re looking for ways to increase your online sales, then this blog post is for you. We’ll list 11 of the most effective methods that can increase your conversion rates and boost your eCommerce revenue.
So read, take note, and enjoy these tried-and-true strategies that have been proven to work time after time… And thank us later!
1. Run ads with a Paid Online Marketing Strategy
Sometimes, to increase online sales, you might have to consider a paid marketing strategy in your marketing budget.
Trying out paid advertising can actually pay off by increasing relevant traffic and boosting online sales. To do so, you can run different types of paid ads on search engines or social media, with different platforms such as:
Google Ads
The go-to advertiser for many businesses is Google Ads. It allows you to increase sales by displaying your ads on the Google search engine.
For the most common ones, you can use search ads, shopping ads, display ads, or video ads.
The force of this tool is the impressive reach Google has. Not only you could advertise on its search engine but also potentially on its applications such as Gmail, Google maps, or its partners.
Pro tip: Google Ads sometimes offers coupons to small business owners to try their online advertisement services, which can come in handy if you want to give it a try without investing too much!
Social Media Ads
On Facebook, you can also increase sales by promoting your products with paid marketing strategies to increase related traffic and boost online sales.
It’s an easy way to increase the reach of the promotion without spending too much money!
The great advantage of Facebook ads is that you can target your buyer persona thanks to a very grained description of audiences Facebook has. You can then target your ads to people that have specific interests – including what you sell! How great is that?
Handled through the same platform, you can also think of targeted ad campaigns built for Instagram. This is especially relevant if your online business focuses on beauty and fashion.
Other paid social campaigns could be made on Pinterest, Tiktok, and so on. Pick the platform that’ll work best for your eCommerce business.
2. Engage with your customers on Social Media
Talking about social media… Note that this is also important to have social proof in the eye of a potential customer.
It’s not only about making organic or paid social media posts, it is also about showing the existence of your social media accounts on your website.
The latest posts are great proof that the company is up and running, but also to build engagement with your customers or prospects.
3. Boost your reputation by displaying customer testimonials and reviews
A testimonial feature on your website is a powerful tool for increasing sales and encouraging repeat visits. Tell your visitors that you pay attention to their feedback and strive to be nothing less than the best.
You can increase trustworthiness by allowing satisfied customers to rate your business and leave feedback. These reviews increase customer confidence and increase the likelihood of future purchases.
Don’t be shy to display them on product pages, landing pages, the home page, and so on!
4. Make your online store mobile friendly
In the last years, mobile commerce has been exploding. It’s not a surprise that many e-businesses have started to increase online sales by creating an app for their business or at least making their website responsive and compatible with any device.
This will aid in the retention of your users and make the information more accessible, resulting in higher mobile conversion rates.
5. Make it easy for people to find what they want
Remember that you can increase sales online simply by making it easier for customers to find what they want. This is indeed one of the first steps of the customer journey, and this can increase conversions if done properly.
This means prioritizing navigation through pictures or icons over text links; a nice web design; generating unique and useful content; creating a search bar with drop-downs; having a neat menu; putting important keywords at the top and so on.
6. Use live chat on your website
Shoppers also like to be able to chat with the e-shop in real-time when they are browsing online. Of course, a contact form is always appreciated on the website, but nothing gets better when a real person can answer your questions within a few seconds.
It’s a great way of building trust with your audience and improving customer satisfaction by helping them faster. This can help improve your conversion rate especially if your services or products are very specific and may require a bit of tech knowledge.
7. Give your potential customers a reason to make the first step!
If you want to increase sales on your website, you should give users a reason to make their first purchase.
Offer free shipping
Offering free shipping can be one way to increase the likelihood of someone purchasing your products. Indeed, shipping costs can negatively impact new customers while existing customers already know the quality of your products so they are more likely to make a purchase and pay for the delivery.
By offering free shipping, you might convert some more prospects!
Make sure they earn some credit!
Another way to increase online sales is to give credit points for purchases. This will increase the likelihood of converting your visitors into buyers! It’s also an opportunity to create loyalty and increase customer retention.
Offer a discount for all new customers
Finally, you should consider offering discounts on products or services, especially on new potential customers. This will increase the likelihood of more people purchasing from you and give them a reason to make their first purchase!
Think about a 10% discount on their first order by registering to your newsletter for instance. This is always a great way to grow your customer’s email list for future email marketing campaigns while helping to get more sales!
8. Don’t be shy to push some cross-selling strategies
Cross-selling is another way to boost online sales.
Indeed, more products are sometimes better than just one! So you might want to push some cross-selling on your website by suggesting complementary products that could interest the user.
9. Provide multiple shipping and payment options
Offering free shipping and coupons is great, but providing your target audience with different options can also make a difference!
It’s worth mentioning that offering multiple shipping methods with different speeds and prices is a must-have for any e-commerce website. It has now become a “silent norm”: Online shoppers expect to have the option to choose between expedited shipping, standard shipping, economy shipping, or even international shipping.
If you want to improve the customer experience on your website by providing a great, cheap, and extended shipping service, have a look at our free shipping software where you can save up to 70% on your first shipment!
On the checkout page, they’ll also want to see several payment options. Classic credit or debit card payment, as well as online payment solutions such as Paypal and ApplePay.
Indeed, more and more customers use those solutions that can protect them by avoiding entering credit card details for every purchase they make, but that can also accelerate the buying process.
10. Simplify your checkout process
Simplifying your checkout process can increase your sales by removing any problems that might dissuade customers from purchasing.
Indeed, checkout should be quick and uncomplicated, with information such as billing details and shipping methods pre-selected for the customer or pre-filled thanks to Google Maps Places autocomplete API for instance.
If your website has the option to activate the guest checkout option allowing any potential customer to purchase on your website without having to log in, it’s a win-win!
Finally, you can also offer a close-by payment option, like PayPal or Google Wallet. Overall, a single checkout page is preferred.
11. Don’t let those abandoned carts fly away!
If you want to increase online sales, you can also look at the abandoned carts on your website.
Just think, those carts are a click away from being confirmed and converted into an eCommerce sale. Don’t let those fly away!
Program an automatic email marketing campaign to retarget that future (we hope), online shopper, reminding them that they have a pending cart ready to be validated.
If needed, add a small coupon, and that should do the trick!
If you want to drive more online sales on your website, you should pay attention to the whole customer experience on your online shop, from the time they discover your brand to the end of the checkout process.
Remember, attracting new visitors thanks to a targeted ad campaign, or a proper SEO strategy will help you raise traffic and thus possibly lead to more sales.
Then, once they are on your website, make sure that they will have a great navigation experience from the first page of your website to the last.
And finally, using a few digital marketing tactics such as cross-selling, couponing, and free shipping can also increase the value proposition of your company, and help you increase online sales!
One last tip, it’s important to monitor all actions you take thanks to defined and measurable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This will help you to see if the decision you take are actually the correct ones and so end up in an increase in online sales.
Which marketing efforts have you been taking to boost online sales and conversion rates?
