Running an eCommerce business is hard. It takes commitment, time, and consistency. An awesome website, quality products, and enthusiasm won’t be enough.
You need a sustainable, measurable, and routine strategy for increasing online sales. But, if you’ve checked all the boxes and still get underwhelming results, we’ve got some recommendations!
7 eCommerce Tactics to Boost Sales This 2023
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E-commerce is one of the most lucrative and competitive industries out there. In order to thrive, you’ll need dynamic strategies and tactics such as:
Investing in Dedicated Servers
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Every successful eCommerce entrepreneur knows that customer experience is king. Great products and visually appealing websites won’t mean much when everything is slow.
Studies suggest that slow websites that take 3-4 seconds to load eCommerce cause 40% of users to exit. That’s a lot of lost potential sales. Several factors play into this—the most prevalent being your server.
But, there’s more to a dedicated server than just improving speed that specifically helps eCommerce sites. You also get the following:
- Full control of configuration, software, accounts, and resource allocation.
- Better security against potential attacks and threats.
- Easier troubleshooting of network activity, server load, and memory usage.
- Ability to run multiple sites on one dedicated server.
- Can handle high traffic volumes.
- Customized hardware to fit specific business needs.
Building an Email List
Email lists got a lot of potential—but, it’s often underutilized. In some eCommerce, email marketing beats popular tactics like SEO and social media.
Running an email marketing campaign allows you to personalize your sales tactics, give customers tailor-fitted product recommendations, and provide an easier way to upsell.
To help expand your email list, offer discounts and incentives or add signups during checkouts. You can also tie in social media campaigns to help you expand your list. Choosing the right email marketing tool is crucial for effectively engaging with your audience, as tools vary in features and usability. For a quick yet detailed comparison of some well-known email tools, check out the TinyEmail vs Mailchimp comparison. This guide can help you decide which tool suits your business needs best. When building an email list, it’s crucial to know which tools best suit your business for effective engagement. One option you might consider is a woocommerce email marketing software that specializes in automating your campaigns and ensuring seamless integration into your existing WooCommerce store. This allows you to set up various automated tasks such as welcoming new users or sending product updates, effectively increasing customer engagement and reducing churn.
Money Back Guarantees
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Customer trust is directly tied to sales. Perfecting sales etiquette guarantees that each interaction fosters trust and leads to success. The more customers trust you, the more likely they are to spend on your site. Unfortunately, building trust takes time, especially for new customers.
Address their concerns by offering money-back guarantees on your products. This positions you as a reputable seller in your industry and shows that you’re confident about product quality.
But, this leaves your business open to abuse. To protect yourself, create conditions for a money-back guarantee or hire a professional policy maker. For example, you can:
- Impose time constraints on returns.
- Require product conditions to be met.
- Forgo returns with physical damage
Upselling and Cross-Selling
You get more revenue from existing customers than new ones. Trust is already built and they’re more likely to buy more. These customers just need a little nudge.
Upselling entices customers to buy a better (ideally more expensive) version of the same product. For example, if a customer is about to check out a 15W iPhone charger, you can upsell a 30W version that can charge faster.
Cross-selling also helps increase a customer’s average order value (AOV) by selling customers products that they didn’t even know they needed.
Let’s say a customer already has a puppy leash in their cart. A great cross-sell would be a customizable collar or even a clicker to help them train the pup.
Offer Multiple Payment Options / Buy Now Pay Later Models
You’d be limiting your business if you only have one payment option. If a customer doesn’t have their preferred mode of payment, they’ll be likely to look somewhere else.
Transferring cash from one place to another just to buy a product is such a hassle. So, help out your customers by providing different payment methods—Apple Pay, Credit Cards, PayPal, Crypto, or even cash on delivery.
Many online stores now implement a “buy now pay later” (BNPL) model to help boost sales. Stores like Shop Pay, Affirm, and Afterpay use this model to reach out to millions of customers.
It’s also safe for eCommerce businesses as most BNPL providers would assume the risk of non-payment. Your business would get the payment upfront, and the provider collects from customers.
Affiliate Marketing Programs
Affiliate marketing can help any eCommerce store supplement sales. It’s an extremely low-cost (sometimes free) strategy that utilizes user-generated content (UGC).
You get to reach a wider audience, build brand loyalty, and build authority in your niche. Most affiliate marketers would already have a following. They could even be influencers looking to expand.
Offer Free Shipping
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Even when shown the best deal imaginable, some customers just won’t bite if the shipping fee is too high. Offering free shipping is sometimes enough to convince them to buy even more expensive items.
According to MultiVariants, free shipping helped businesses improve conversion rates by 50% and improved AOV by 7.32%. And, in a survey, 93% of survey respondents attributed free shipping as a major factor in purchasing items online.
Keep in mind that a server can’t do everything by itself. You’ll need to hire experienced IT staff who have knowledge of networks, troubleshooting, and eCommerce fraud types to get the most out of your servers.
Key Takeaways
The fastest way to improve online sales is by providing customers value at every step of their sales journey starting from the moment they land on your site. If you want to boost your sales, remember the following:
- Invest in dedicated servers to improve the site experience.
- Build an email list so you can offer personalized email marketing.
- Offer money-back guarantees to build trust.
- Upsell and cross-sell items to boost AOV.
- Offer multiple payment options.
- Offer free shipping to entice customers to check out items in their carts.
