Increasing online sales is the primary goal of countless businesses, large and small alike. Whether you run a mom-and-pop retail business or work for a vast eCommerce giant like Amazon, increasing sales through online channels is a little like bowling a strike
Meet your customers where they are on social media
It’s one of the best ways to drive new visitors to your store, convert them into paying customers and re-engage them to buy even more.
According to Adweek, the average return on investment from Facebook Ads in e-commerce is 152%, and it’s the largest social media referrer for e-commerce orders.
Not advertising on this channel is a major missed opportunity for online brands.
The best part: it’s easier than ever with tools like Vantage that specialize in Facebook ads for e-commerce to build and launch campaigns that drive sales.
Use data analysis to improve your strategy
If you have your numbers and the analytics tracking them down to a science, you can scale your business far, far quicker.
Having a clear sense of who your target customer is and developing a proper attribution system in place to effectively measure the efficacy of your marketing.
Once you address those items by removing them from your catalog or altering prices, you will find you are making a lot more money by way of doing the same amount of work.
We have repeatedly helped clients remove 40% of their catalog, only to increase profits by 20-40%
Be Honest in Your Sales Copy to Increase Ecommerce Sales
This might seem painfully obvious, but it’s amazing to me how many sites write checks their products can’t cash. Not only is honesty in your copy crucial to your business’s reputation, it also fosters and encourages trust in your brand. Don’t make claims you can’t substantiate, and don’t use hyperbole lightly – today’s consumers are hypersensitive to marketing BS, so be honest, straightforward, and approachable in all your sales copy, from your homepage to your email campaigns.
This principle also applies to how you position yourself as a business. Ever come across a site that’s obviously run by one or two people, but features copy that would be better suited to a multinational enterprise company? This approach not only makes you look foolish, but it also damages your brand’s credibility. If you’re a small company, take pride in that and be upfront about it – many consumers are turning to smaller businesses precisely because of the more individualized, personal service they can offer. Don’t try to be something you’re not.
Provide excellent customer service to improve customer loyalty
Chatbots and engagement automation are something most brands miss because they see chat as “customer service.”
Customer service is the new marketing for many successful brands.
Many shoppers feel more satisfied when they’re able to chat with a staff member and are more likely to convert.
Engagement automation in the form of context chat can help brands push promotional content or invite customers to ask questions.
In this day and age, you cannot spend enough time reading your own product reviews and improving your products based on that “boots on the ground” feedback.
Use shipping to your competitive advantage
That means that your job isn’t done after the consumer clicked ‘purchase’.
Use shipping as a way to surprise and delight customers.
Did you know that shipping confirmation emails are opened 1.5 times on average?
It’s the easiest way to engage with customers right after purchase.
Consider including your brand name in the subject line, since that has a 7 percent increase in unique open rates compared to emails without it.
And don’t forget to offer it to your international customers as well.
They will purchase two or three times more because they understand how rare it is to have that “free shipping” unicorn.
Run strategic promotions on your website
Run flash sales on your own site and offer a great price.
Blast that out on paid social channels.
You’ll have some spend on marketing, but the cost will be less than the percentage you’d pay Amazon and you now have a customer that you own, rather than getting a one-time sale.
When you leverage deal sites, coupon platforms, and comparison shopping engines that accelerate product launches, you supercharge coupon distribution efforts and increase brand awareness.
This helps you to promote product offers to larger audiences in less time compared to launching these same initiatives solely using their website.
Create a Sense of Urgency
It’s important to be honest and transparent about who you are and what you do, but there’s no rule against creating a sense of urgency to persuade prospects to buy from you right now.
Many consumers respond positively to incentives that create a sense of urgency, from time-sensitive special offers to limited-edition products. Although the ways you can accomplish this are as diverse as the products you can buy online, some strategies may be more effective than others.
For example, if you don’t (or can’t) make a limited-edition product to entice prospects, maybe you can offer a financial incentive to customers who commit to a purchase right away, such as free shipping or a discount.
Offer a Bulletproof Money-Back Guarantee
Oftentimes, one of the most powerful factors in a consumer’s decision not to buy something is risk aversion – the desire to avoid a potential loss. Most times, this perceived risk is a financial one.
Why should someone buy your products? What if they don’t work, or the customer doesn’t like them? Even small purchases can carry the risk of “buyer’s remorse,” so overcome this objection from the outset by offering a bulletproof money-back guarantee.
The more risk you remove from the prospect’s decision, the more likely they are to buy from you, so take away anything that could dissuade prospects from buying from you.
Target Lookalike Audiences on Facebook
One of the best ways to increase online sales is to use the data you have about your existing customers to find people just like them. Facebook allows you to do this through the targeting of lookalike audiences.
Lookalike audiences in Facebook are essentially users on Facebook who share characteristics and behaviors with customers in your database. You upload your data to Facebook, which then cross-references its own data (and information from third-party data brokers) to create matches based on the criteria you specify.
You can also use tracking pixels and data from app installations to help you create lookalike audiences. This is an excellent way to make the data on your existing customers work for you, as it effectively allows you to greatly expand your reach with minimal effort and use highly targeted ads to entice Facebook users who are very similar to your existing customers.