You’ve found a product you want to sell, and your online store gets a handful of weekly sales. Now, you want to step on the gas and increase sales tenfold. But with limited time and a finite marketing budget, where do you start? This guide shares effective techniques to boost your online sales—without requiring a significant time investment.
Uncover your unique value proposition
Your value proposition explains why your target market would choose your brand and products. Discover yours by surveying existing customers. Once you’ve identified your value proposition, showcase it everywhere. Include it in social media bios, prominently on your homepage, and within product descriptions. Gabriel Bertolo, founder of Radiant Elephant, uses this technique to increase sales on client websites.
Act on customer feedback
Use apps like Octane AI or Shop Quiz to gather insights from potential customers. Ask questions that uncover pain points and recommend personalized products based on their answers. Follow up with targeted email marketing campaigns that address these problems, positioning your product as the solution to increase customer satisfaction.
Share customer reviews
Did you know 93% of customers actively seek reviews before buying a new product or service? Reach out to satisfied customers and ask them to leave a review on your Google Business, Yelp, or TrustPilot listing. Share these reviews through various channels to attract more customers.
Answer questions via optimized blog content
Blog content is a cost-effective alternative to expensive social media advertising. Identify keywords your target audience is searching for, address their questions on the topic, and use SEO best practices to improve your chances of ranking for terms they’re entering into Google.
Offer free shipping
Modern shoppers expect free shipping for all online orders, and 47% will abandon their carts if extra costs (like shipping) are too high. Meet these customer expectations by running marketing promotions centered on free shipping offers.
Run abandoned cart email campaigns
Use cart abandonment emails to remind people they added an item to their basket but didn’t buy. Give them a reason to buy now (like an additional discount) rather than later.
Use upsells and cross-sells
Encourage potential customers to make a purchase using upsells and cross-sells. Upsells are product recommendations that are more expensive than the one they’re currently browsing, while cross-sells are product recommendations that complement what an existing website visitor already has in their shopping cart.
Add trust signals to your online store
Prove that customers should trust your online store with sensitive information by displaying trust signals like money-back guarantees, customer reviews, return/refund policies, SSL certificates, and logos of credit card processors.
Improve website navigation
Help shoppers find what they’re looking for with your main navigation. Point toward main category pages with search/filter functions that allow customers to specify exactly what they need.
Speed up the checkout process
Limit form fields to prevent potential customers from feeling overwhelmed at the checkout page. Enable Shop Pay to auto-populate a shopper’s details so they can check out in one click.
Accept alternative payment methods
Today’s consumers use various payment methods to buy products and services online. Increase sales by offering the most popular options.
Provide exceptional customer service
Be proactive, apologize for issues, and rectify them quickly. This strategy leverages the service recovery paradox: You build more goodwill with customers after solving their complaints than you would’ve done with no problem.
Offer customer loyalty programs
Encourage previous customers to purchase again with a customer loyalty program. Consider rewarding them for generating word-of-mouth referrals, sharing your products on social media, and making repeat purchases.
Leverage social media marketing
Around 61.4% of the world’s population are active social media users. Tailor your ecommerce social media strategy to reach your target audience and drive traffic to your online store.
Partner with influencers and creators
Influencers and creators are people who’ve accumulated an impressive following on social media. Use Shopify Collabs to shortlist potential influencers to work with or create an application page for your existing customers to start promoting your products.
Expand your product range
The more products you sell, the more opportunities you have to increase sales. Consider expanding on already bestselling products to re-engage customers who’ve already tried (and loved!) your products.
Launch a flash sale
A flash sale works similarly to a promotion but is much more time-restrictive. The “flash” concept means customers must buy before the sale ends, tempting online shoppers into making a purchase.
Set up instant replies to customer support
An automated chatbot can give potential customers immediate answers to frequently asked questions, addressing their sales objections and increasing the likelihood of making a purchase.
Show a clear returns policy
Highlight the essential information from your returns policy to give on-the-fence customers the confidence to buy.
Optimize product pages for SEO
Start with keyword research to determine which terms your audience is searching for. Include these keywords in your meta title and descriptions, heading tags, image alt text, URLs, and product descriptions.
Diversify your product collections
Experiment with product collections that enable discovery beyond grouping products by category. Curate collections like bestsellers, items on sale, products under a price point, use case, and recipient.
Use price anchoring
Position an old price against a new one to show customers the value of the deal they’re getting.
Consult sales analytics
Base your sales and marketing strategies on historical data that shows how people buy from you and interact with your site. Adjust your priorities and allocate resources to channels that have a higher return on investment.
Increasing sales for your online store is a continuous process. Find out what works for your website and double down on it. Stay in touch with your existing customer base to stay one step ahead of their ever-changing preferences when shopping online. Whether you need to improve customer service or offer free shipping, you can steadily increase sales.
