There are a lot of ways to run an e-commerce business, but no matter how you do it, ecommerce sales are the ultimate barometer for success. You can optimize your conversion rate, find the best products to sell and drive traffic to your site using the right digital marketing strategies. However, if you're not making sales at scale, then all your efforts will be in vain.
Ecommerce continues to grow in popularity, and many businesses are turning to the platform as a way to reach more customers and increase revenue. With this shift comes an increased opportunity for brands to leverage ecommerce platforms for sales growth. Take a look at 10 proven ways you can accelerate your ecommerce sales:
1. Nurture your old customers
Focus on improving customer retention, which is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.
Nurture your old customers by keeping them updated on what’s going on in the company and with their order. One way to do this is through email marketing, which can be a cost-effective way to reach the people who have already purchased your product.
Offer discounts, coupons and other incentives for returning customers. Studies show that this boosts conversion rates by 15%. This is a good way to get customers who have abandoned their shopping cart to come back and complete the purchase.
2. Display icons for https to show that your site is secure
You can easily show your site is secure by using the HTTPS protocol and displaying a lock icon in the browser.
This will help to reassure customers that they are visiting a legitimate site, which is especially important on sites that are handling payments.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a Google initiative to make the mobile web experience faster.
If you have an AMP version of your site, you can indicate this by adding an AMP icon to your site.
In order for Google to recognize your site as an AMP version of the original page, it needs a special tag.
Display popular security icons on your ecommerce website.
Here are two of the most popular security badges:
VeriSign is a leading provider of Internet security, trust and safety solutions.
McAfee Secure is a certification program for e-commerce sites that use the McAfee Web Gateway to help keep customers safe on the Internet.
3. Make use of Videos to show Product Demonstrations
Videos are the best way to explain how a product works. It is also an excellent way for you to show your products in action, so that customers can get a better idea of what they are buying.
Video is also very easy to use, and it can be embedded in your website or blog with just a few clicks of the mouse.
People easily believe on videos. A video also has the ability to increase your brand awareness, as well as generate more traffic. It is an excellent way to promote products and services without having someone read through pages of content.
A picture speaks a thousand words, but a video speaks a 100 pictures.
Video is not just for entertainment purposes. If you are looking to increase your sales, then video marketing is the way to go. People like videos because it's easier and more convenient than reading a long article. So if you want to increase the number of people who buy your products, then create informative videos that are short and snappy about your product or service.
Video marketing is also a great way to build trust with your audience. A study by a brand marketing agency shows that "Online consumers are most likely to purchase from a site if it has a sample or demo video."
Video marketing is also a great way to increase your sales with minimal effort.
Create an explainer video for each product or service you sell. This is a short video that explains what your product or service does and why people should buy it.
Video marketing can be easily done on sites like Wistia, Vimeo, or Youtube.
You can also use a service like Animoto or Animaker to make high quality videos that are easy to create and share.
Video marketing is an extremely effective way of getting your message across to your audience.
For example, a study from the University of Florida found that consumers who viewed videos were more likely to purchase than those who did not.
"The findings suggest that video is an effective means of influencing consumers' perceptions of product benefits and brand value," the study said.
Video marketing is an extremely effective way of getting your message across to your audience, and it can help you boost sales.
4. Your customers are using their mobiles. Are you optimizing your ecommerce portal?
Customers are using their mobile devices more than ever before. Businesses that have not optimized their website for mobile use are missing out on a lot of opportunities to generate revenue.
There are lots of ways to optimize your portal for mobile use. The following are ten tips that will get you started.
Add a responsive design
Responsive designs adjust the layout of the website to fit various screen sizes. This is the most important thing you can do, as it will ensure that your website looks good across all devices and screen sizes.
Make sure your theme is mobile-friendly
Most themes are designed for desktops, not mobile devices. Check the theme's documentation to see if it is optimized for mobile devices. If not, you may need to customize the theme's CSS or find a different one that is optimized for mobile users.
Use the right images
If you use product images in your email marketing campaign, make sure that they are optimized for mobile devices. Images that are too large will slow down your emails and prevent them from being viewed on mobile devices.
5. Give discounts to your loyal customers
Giving discounts to your loyal customers can give you a major boost in sales. However, this is not just an incentive for new customers: it can also help with customer retention and loyalty over the long-term.
Discounts can be applied to any type of product, but it is especially effective in the following scenarios:
1) when you are giving a discount on your own products;
2) when you are giving a discount on complementary items (i.e., accessories, batteries, etc.) that your customers need to complete the purchase of their main item; and
3) when you are giving a discount on complementary items that your customers need to use their product (i.e., software, accessories for electronics, etc.)
Discounts can be given in the following ways:
1) a percentage off, which is typically applied to the price of all items in your store;
2) free shipping for orders above Rs.x (typically used when you are selling low-priced items); and
3) free shipping on all orders (typically used when you are selling high-priced items).
6. Highlight your top selling goods
If you are new to ecommerce or have been running your business for some time, it is important to take the time and evaluate which products are selling well. When customers can see that a product is popular, it encourages them to buy the product.
By highlighting your top selling products on your site, you are able to give customers an idea of what they should be buying from you. This will help you to increase your sales and profits.
Here are ten ways that you can highlight your top selling products on your site:
1. Create a banner or widget which shows off your top selling products
2. Add a link to your best sellers in the sidebar or footer of your site
3. Create a dedicated page for your best selling products
4. Showcase your top selling products on your home page
5. Add a link to your best sellers in the description of each product
6. Create an email signature which includes links to your best sellers
7. Highlight your best sellers in the email footer of each message
8. Include a link to your top selling products on every page of your site
9. Add a widget or banner which showcases your top selling products
10. Include a link to your best sellers in the sidebar of every page on your site
7. Step up your production during the festival seasons
During the festival seasons, people are often buying more than usual. This means that during these times, companies should focus on increasing production so as to keep up with demand. The following are some tips for increasing production.
-Increase the size of your inventory - Find out what sells well during these seasons, and increase that product's availability in order to meet demand. For example, if you sell toys, you should have a large inventory of dolls available during Christmas.
-Focus on increasing ecommerce sales - During festivals, people are more likely to spend money on entertainment and merchandise. Thus, you should focus on increasing sales during these times. For example, you can offer a 10% discount to customers who purchase more than $100 worth of merchandise.
-Increase storage space - If you have a large inventory, you'll need more storage space.
-Increase manpower - You'll also need to hire more employees in order to meet the demand during peak seasons.
-Find a new location - If your current location isn't big enough to accommodate the demand of your customers during peak seasons, you'll need to find a new location.
-Increase advertising campaigns - During these times, you'll need to increase your advertising campaigns in order to attract more customers.
-Offer free shipping - Free shipping is a great way to attract customers who don't live near your physical store.
-Hire more customer service representatives - If you're shipping out a lot of products, you'll need to hire more customer service representatives.
-Offer in-store pickup - You can attract customers who don't want to wait for their packages by offering in-store pickup.
8. Create a sense of urgency to get orders
In order to create a sense of urgency and get more sales, try implementing the following:
-Offer free shipping or expedited shipping (if applicable) for orders placed in the next 24 hours
-Decrease prices for a limited time or offer discounts if items are purchased in bulk
-Offer free samples of the product to those who order now (customers will be more likely to order if they get something for free)
-Offer a discount on your product or service (such as an ebook, tutorial, etc.) when customers purchase the main product
-Promote a limited-time sale or special deal (such as buy one get one free)
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a powerful tool that can be used to your advantage.
-Use urgency to your advantage. Include sentences like "Last [amount] left in stock" or "Buy now to receive by [date]"
Flash Sales are a great way to increase your sales. It is essentially the same thing as a Sale, but it is only available for a limited time.
-Offer free shipping if an item is purchased within a certain amount of time
-Offer free shipping if an item is purchased above a certain amount of money (for example: spend Rs.500, get free shipping)
How to increase ecommerce sales in India ?
There are many options to increase ecommerce sales in India. But before that you need to know what is the main reason behind low conversion rates of Indian customers. We Indians are known for our love of discounts. We want to buy things at a cheap price and hence we don't show much interest in buying products that are sold at full price.
To increase ecommerce sales, you need to come up with some strategies that will make your customers feel like they are getting a good deal.
Here is what you can do to increase ecommerce sales in India:
1. Offer cash on delivery
One of the main reasons that people don't like to buy online is because they can't see what they are buying. They want to touch and feel the product before actually making a purchase .
2. Free shipping
Offering free shipping is a great way to increase ecommerce sales in India. Most Indian customers are not ready to pay for delivery charges, so if you can offer free shipping, you will get more customers.
3. Discounts and coupons
Offering discounts is a good way to attract new customers. You can offer discounts on specific products or for entire categories.
4. Provide a choice of payment options
Most Indian customers still do not have credit cards and they are also very wary about giving out their bank details online . So, providing a choice of payment options like cash, credit cards, debit cards, net banking is a good way to attract more customers.
5. Provide product descriptions in detail with images
Indian ecommerce shoppers are very detail-oriented, so you need to provide as much information about the products as possible. You should also provide high-quality images of the products .
6. Build your website on a mobile friendly platform
According to a recent report by Google, about 50% of all ecommerce sales in India comes from mobile devices. So, it is necessary to have a mobile friendly website.
7. Give round-the-clock customer support via chat and email
According to a recent report by Forrester , 46% of online shoppers in India are more likely to make an online purchase from a retailer that offers 24/7 customer support. So, it is important for ecommerce sales businesses to offer support via email and chat.
And, last but not the least, Use influencers to promote your brand and products.
1. Find influencers - Influencers are people who have a strong following either on social media or in the blogosphere. They can be celebrities, popular bloggers, famous athletes, or anyone else who has a large audience.
2. Identify the influencer's strengths - What are they well known for? The key here is to find someone who can help promote your product in their area of expertise. For example, a luxury watch company might want to find an influencer who has a large following in the fashion industry.
3. Establish contact - Once you've identified someone who might be a good fit, you need to reach out to them. But before you do so, make sure that your product is something that they would actually use and enjoy.
4. Build a relationship - The key to influencer marketing is building a relationship. You need to get your contact excited about the product and convince them that it's something worth promoting. Don't just ask them for a favor right away. Instead, work on building a relationship first and then ask for the promotion later.
5. Prepare your pitch - When you're ready to make your request, be sure that you have all of your materials ready. You need to be able to send them a compelling email explaining why they should promote your product and include any relevant information that they'll need, like links or graphics.
6. Follow up - You may need to follow up with your contact a few times before they will agree to promote your product. Be persistent and be sure that you're always polite. If they don't respond to your email, try contacting them via phone.
7. Promote your product - Once you've gotten a promoter on board and they're promoting your product, make sure that you provide them with any materials that they'll need to make their promotion successful. You may have to give them a special coupon code or link for your product, so be sure that you're always prepared .
8. Measure results - If you're not sure how well your promoter is doing, look at the number of sales that they've made and compare it to the number of sales that you've made . If they're doing a better job than you are, consider asking them to promote your product for you.
9. Get more promoters - Once you've gotten one promoter on board, it's important to get more. The more promoters that you have, the better your chances of selling a lot of products.
10. Keep track - If you're going to use an affiliate program, it's important to keep track of the sales that are made by your promoters. This will help you determine which promoters are doing a good job and which ones aren't.
If you are still unable to accelerate your ecommerce sales, you need the guidance of an able Digital Marketing Trainer and Consultant. Get more information about me here.