Business of e-Commerce // 9 Simple Ways to Increase Sales

In today’s #ThinkPiece we share 9 simple ways in which you can grow your e-commerce business and eventually boost your sales.

There are an estimated 4.6 billion active internet users as of March 2021, making the world of e-commerce an exciting prospect.

Your online business has the potential to grow and become a global sensation thanks to the sheer number of people who now have access to the internet and spend a lot of time browsing.

However, the question begs how you should go about ensuring the right people see your platform, know about your brand and buy into your product or service offering. Increasing sales on your e-commerce platform starts by intentionally putting the effort and adopting strategies that will give your brand a competitive advantage in the ever evolving digital economy. 

The first step would be understanding your brand positioning and identity in the minds of your target market. This will inform the strategy that you will take as it needs to form a connection with your target market. Once you have this figured out, you are well on your way towards the desired outcome.

Invest in SEO

Having the right SEO strategies in place will enable your e-commerce website to rank higher on the search engines. The search engine algorithms favour websites that are responsive, user-friendly and have great content that is easy to grasp. 

As you are building up the content on your e-commerce platform, do adequate research on the keywords that your target market is likely to use any time they are searching for your products and find ways of including those in your content. 

Targeted Adverts

Google Ads are a great way of reaching a wider audience online and easily converting them to sales. Understanding your target market is the first step towards having an effective google ad campaign. With the right target market in mind you are able to create content that is educative, relevant and timely such that it will attract them and they will be able to click on the ad which will make it easier to convert the traffic to sales. 

Win on Social

Social media is a great place for brands to build a community with their customers and target market. It is an easy way to humanise your brand and make it easier to connect with people. Over the years the social media software entrepreneurs have introduced vast options that help businesses sell more on social media. 

In 2020, Facebook announced the launch of Instagram Shop. The innovation provided e-commerce business owners  to have an online store on the social media platform. Their customers can now shop comfortably in one place without having to redirect to another page. An act that helps reduce bounce rates and increase conversions.

Checkout Seamless 

Understanding your customer journey throughout your sales funnel will make it easier for you to make it enjoyable and to enable a seamless checkout process. It is not uncommon to find people dropping off at the point of checking out due to a complicated payments and checkout system. 

Offering your customers multiple payment options is important in ensuring that they use the method that is most convenient for them. Due to the increase in online fraud, partner with a trusted online payments service provider so as to earn your customers’ trust, which will help you build a loyal customer base. 

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Occasionally run sales on your e-commerce platform so as to drive more traffic to your product pages. It is a good way of boosting sales of some of the products that are not moving off the shelves as fast as you would want them to. The first step of a sales funnel is creating awareness then providing a smooth customer journey will make it easier to sieve the traffic to the point of conversion. 

Influence Your Audience

Partnering with influencers who you would want to be associated with your brand so that they can create more buzz around your products/services and generate more traffic to your e-commerce website. 

Brand endorsements and partnerships are a great way of leveraging on the influence that your partners come with and building a larger community. It makes your brand relatable which simplifies your marketing by bearing more fruit.

Up & Cross Sell

People are drawn to your e-commerce website because of a particular need or want that they are looking to satisfy. While they are there, make maximum use of that by introducing other products that they never knew they needed but that would be a great addition to their cart.

You can find something that boosts the effectiveness of the product they have purchased such as up-selling a baby car seat with a baby stroller. Make it subtle and always aspire to give your customers solutions to problems they could be having. 

Customer is King/Queen!

Make it easy for your customers to give you feedback about their experience interacting with your platform. One way to do this would be to have a well displayed chat-box where they can write their feedback or have a live chat with someone when they experience a challenge while shopping.

Ensure that your response time is fast so that their shopping experience is without many hitches. People will care more about your brand when they know how much you care. Placing their interests at the core will make them feel appreciated therefore referring you and coming back for more. 

Shipping & Return Policies

A/B Test your conversion rates with and without free shipping. This will highlight your potential for boosting conversions and profits. Include a return policy in your communication so as to give your customers the confidence that they can always get help in case they are not pleased with their delivery. 

We hope as you employ these tactics your e-commerce business grows leaps and bounds.

Feature Photo by emirkhan bal from Pexels