5 Business Consultant Approved Strategies to Boost eCommerce Sales

As an eCommerce business owner, it goes without saying that sales are a massive priority. After all, your business won’t stay afloat if you aren’t bringing in enough to break even and maintain operations.

However, I also know how tricky it can be to land sales as a new brand. I work with tons of CEOs who own eCommerce businesses, and a common problem they all face when starting out is generating a steady, consistent stream of sales.

So, if your sales aren’t where you want them to be (or you’re in a period of slow sales, which happens to every eCommerce business owner at one point or another), today’s blog post is a must read. I’m going to be sharing five GENIUS, consultant-approved strategies that you can use to regain momentum and give your sales a big boost.

Let’s dive in!

Strategy #1: A/B Testing
A/B testing is a strategy that involves “testing” two different versions of something (like a webpage or app) to see which is preferred. When running an eCommerce business, A/B testing your website is a must. If your audience doesn’t enjoy the experience of browsing and shopping on your website, it’s unlikely that they’ll stick around long enough to make a purchase — especially if they find the interface difficult to navigate, slow, or buggy.

When A/B testing your website, you’ll want to look at ALL of the components — even the little things matter! This includes product and stock images, website copy, and overall design. In particular, you’ll want to pay extra-close attention to the following areas:

• Mobile optimisation
  A HUGE portion of your audience is likely shopping via their mobile device, which means your website needs to be optimised for smartphone users. We all have experienced the frustration of trying to load a website that’s not meant for our phones — it’s not fun and makes purchasing an item downright impossible for your customer base.
  
  
• UX experience
  If you’ve ever visited a website with a poor user experience (such as never-ending pop ups and advertisements or a glitchy checkout system) you’ll know the importance of designing your website with the customer in mind. Your customer should be able to arrive at your website, browse for as long as they want, and complete a purchase with ease. It shouldn’t be a complicated or annoying process.

If you’re new to A/B testing, don’t worry about changing everything all at once. Instead, create a game plan consisting of small, simple changes and then collect data for two weeks following each change. This will make it much easier to see what is and isn’t working without giving yourself a headache trying to redo your entire website in a matter of days or weeks.

Strategy #2: Email Marketing
Are you using email marketing as a tool to connect with your customers and boost sales? If the answer is “no”, you’re missing out! Email marketing historically has an insane ROI — it’s been known to generate $42 for every $1 spent, if you can believe it.

Before you can jump headfirst into email marketing, your focus needs to be on building your list. Your “list” is the list of people who have agreed to receive your marketing emails — meaning they want to hear more from you!

To start building your list, you’ll want to create a way for your audience to ‘opt-in.’ This is a simple form they fill out with their name and email address. A great way to get people to opt-in to your email list is to offer them some sort of incentive for doing so, like a discount or free gift with their next purchase. Be sure to make your customers aware of what kind of content they can expect to see from your emails. You can also add an opt-in form pop up to your website and at checkout so your customers are reminded to sign up.

Once you have a few people on your list, you can go ahead and start sending out your emails! It’s not a bad idea to work with an expert to help you craft and refine your email marketing strategy to ensure your copy is high-converting.

Strategy #3: Social Proof
A great way to boost sales is to place an even larger emphasis on social proof — AKA customer reviews! Your audience wants to know how other people dealing with their same problems are liking the solution you provide. I’m sure SOME of you reading this have even chosen to not make a purchase based on a lack of reviews, so you can see why this is so important.

In short, reviews and social proof build trust, and trust leads to sales. It’s that simple!

If you’re new to business and don’t have a solid foundation of social proof yet, don’t worry. You can build trust in other ways — like content and social media marketing, great customer service, clear product descriptions and demonstrations, and an intuitive, easy to navigate website.

Strategy #4: Heat Mapping
If you’re data-driven like me, you’re going to LOVE this strategy! Heat mapping is a way for you to track where your audience is spending the most time scrolling and clicking on your website. Softwares like Hotjar and Lucky Orange are designed to show you specific micro-data regarding how your customers behave on your website, allowing you to tweak and optimise your website to align with what your customers want and need. If you aren’t “sure” how you could possibly improve your UX experience, heat mapping is a great place to start.

Strategy #5: Exit CTAs
One of the most frustrating issues eCommerce business owners face is shopping cart abandonment. While not every customer who browses on your website will immediately convert, sometimes “sweetening the deal” is exactly what they need to go ahead and make their purchase. You can do this by implementing an exit call-to-action as a last ditch effort. An exit CTA will pop up when customers are about to leave your website. Ideally, it will offer them an exclusive last-minute discount or gift with purchase to encourage them to buy immediately. 

Another way to “win back” customers who spend time on your website but leave without making a purchase is a cart abandonment email sequence. This is an email sequence that is triggered when a customer on your email list leaves something in their cart, and involves a simple series of emails reminding the customer to complete their purchase. Most email marketing platforms are equipped to integrate with your eCommerce store to create cart abandonment sequences.

And there you have it! My top five actionable strategies for boosting your sales, whether you’re new to eCommerce or are in a slump.

If you’re seeking deeper support (or are wondering how you can start applying these strategies to your specific business), click here to learn more about scheduling a 90 minute intensive with me!