In today’s tough online market, it’s really important for all businesses to increase their sales. With more people shopping online, companies need to come up with good plans to get people to buy their products on the internet.
This means using different ways to improve a website, make it better for users, use social media to get more people to visit the website, and use data to make marketing decisions. It is important to understand how customers behave and what they like so that you can make personalized shopping experiences that keep them interested and loyal.
This post gives you 20 practical tips on how to increase online sales. By using these tips, companies can grow their sales on the internet and gain loyal customers. This will help them keep growing and succeeding in the digital age.
Hiring an expert digital marketing service provider is crucial for increasing online sales, as they bring specialized knowledge and proven strategies to drive traffic, enhance user engagement, and maximize conversions.
20 Tips on How to Increase Online Sales
SEO
The ultimate goal of online marketing is to be at the top of Google when people are searching for what you sell. This traffic is really good and doesn’t cost you anything when people visit your website, so it’s basically free.
The best thing about SEO is that it can help bring a lot of people to your website and make more sales without spending a lot on advertising. SEO can help you spend less money on marketing and make more profit.
Many websites bring in about $100,000 worth of traffic every month. This means that if their website didn’t show up on Google search results, they would have to pay more than $100,000 every month for ads to get the same amount of visitors.
You can use Ahrefs Website Traffic Checker to get an idea of how much traffic a website gets and how much comes from organic search. You can find the most important keywords that are relevant to your business.
If you focus on these words, you can appear higher in search results. This makes more people see you and trust your brand. Pay attention to making the category landing pages better and think about adding new categories to include more keywords.
Don’t forget, each category page should only be optimized for 3-5 keywords. Be sure to clearly ask people to do something on your landing pages. Make it simple for the visitor to find their way and quickly understand what you care about.
Another important part of SEO is regularly creating new content. This content is not only good for how users feel, but it also helps you focus on keywords that you don’t have pages for. How do you choose topics?
Think about the questions customers usually have about your products. Begin by answering these questions and use keyword research tools. If you want to increase how much you sell online by more than 500%, we suggest using SEO as the best strategy.
PPC Campaigns
PPC ad campaigns help you reach your desired customers and increase online sales easily. A study from Search Engine Land found that 75% of people shopping online said they can find information about products and services easier through paid ads in search results and on social media.
Advertisements can help people find what they need quickly, which can lead to more sales for you. Google says businesses can make $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads.
PPC strategies can also involve paying for ads on social media.
This helps to remind customers about your products and services, even when they are not actively looking for them. For instance, social remarketing can remind customers who put something in their online cart but didn’t buy it yet.
Nowadays, people often go through several steps when they buy something, instead of just buying it all at once. This is especially true when it comes to online shopping. With remarketing, you can remind customers to finish buying things whenever and wherever they want.
In simple terms, PPC can help boost online sales quickly. Try using PPC ads to reach more people and get better results for your business. Put in a lot of effort to create a profile of the type of person you want to sell to.
Know who your customer is, why they are looking for your product or service, and how they look for it. This will help you pick the right keywords that will make people want to buy your products, and you can use them in all your online marketing plans.
Value Proposition
Every business needs to be able to easily and clearly tell customers why their product or service is valuable. If not, why should they pick you instead of other businesses. To increase sales on the internet, you should take a break and think about your product or service. Ask yourself these questions:
- Does it help my customers with their problems?
- Does it provide measurable advantages for people who use it?
- How is my product/service different from others? Does it stand out?
- Does it help solve problems and also make my customers feel good emotionally and socially?
- Does it do something that nothing else can, or does it much better?
The responses you come up with will help you understand why customers should pick your product or service and keep using it. If your sales are not growing, it could be because you are not getting your messages across clearly on your website, social media, ads, or brochures.
Once you make small changes to your website, ads, and sales materials that show how they will help the customer, you will quickly increase your online sales.
Social Media Marketing
It’s not just about making social media posts or having accounts. It’s more than that. You should be available and engaged to make a good impression on your potential customers. Many people contact brands on social media because it’s easy, and they may have a question that needs a quick answer.
Customers may send you a message because they are not happy with your product or service. In this situation, you need to act fast and try your hardest to fix the problem or have a marketing manager take care of it. You can help them feel more confident again.
Even if you haven’t done anything else, you have shown other potential customers that you are paying attention and willing to assist them. Making your business easy to approach can help you keep current customers and attract new ones, leading to more sales online.
That being said, you don’t have to use every social media platform. Just pick the ones that are right for your business. For instance, if you have a creative business with pretty products and services, you might pick Instagram, a place where people go for inspiration.
Alternatively, if you want to put a lot of effort into paid ads on social media, you should consider using Facebook. Use LinkedIn for professional connections.
Also Read: 20+ Social Media Trends To Follow in 2024
Checkout Process
It’s important to get all the payment and shipping information from your customers, or scheduling details if you’re providing a service. But if the checkout process takes a long time, customers may not like it.
A study by the Baymard Institute found that 22% of customers left their shopping carts without buying because the checkout process took too long or was too hard. Check your payment process and payment pages for:
- Do customers need to go through lots of pages before they can see how much they need to pay and buy something?
- Are you making them create an account before they buy, which can make them not want to buy?
If yes, think about getting rid of these rules and extra steps. Place all the forms on just one or two pages and show the total cost as they go through the process. This will help them to buy quickly and confidently.
You can also offer to store their information so they can have a faster experience next time.
Simplifying the checkout process isn’t the only way to make it better. You should also offer different ways for people to pay for your product or service.
Many people still use debit or credit cards, but some like to use Google Wallet or Apple Pay, as well as PayPal, Venmo, and other payment apps. Please accept different ways of payment in addition to debit and credit cards.
Ultimately, you want to make it really easy for the customer to give you their credit card info or payment details. This will reduce the number of people who leave their card without completing a transaction. Making it easy and convenient to check out will help sell more things online.
Testimonials, Reviews and Case Studies
It is hard to know if a product or service is good on the internet because you can’t see it for real. That’s why most customers depend a lot on other people’s reviews, testimonials and case studies to help them make decisions.
Showcase your best reviews on your homepage and think about adding a separate page on your website for displaying other happy customer testimonials and case studies. If you have reviews on your website and want to make them more effective, you can add photos.
Adding a face to a review can make it more believable, especially in a world where some reviews are not real. You can give more ways to contact you if the people in your testimonials or case studies are okay with it.
This lets potential customers reach out and check the reviews. Being able to easily find real customer reviews can help people trust your product more and increase the number of sales you make on the internet.
Make sure to check out your competitors and see how many reviews they have. If your competitors have lots of reviews and you only have a few, you should try to get more. Having more reviews can help you sell more, especially if you sell things to consumers.
Trust Signals
Getting positive feedback from customers can help build trust, but some people still might not want to buy from you if they don’t feel their payment information is secure. The internet can be risky because it’s easy for people to steal your credit card and personal information.
This makes people hesitant to trust new websites, even if they really want to buy something. Actually, Acquisio found that 61% of people who shop online didn’t buy anything because the website they were on didn’t have trust icons.
You can make these fears go away by adding trust badges to your website, like Norton Secured, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), or VeriSign. Add a short explanation of how each seal helps keep the customer’s information safe.
If you want to make sure you’re really secure, you can get fully checked by a third-party company. Some companies need these extra checks before you can show their badge.
This badge tells your customers that you work extra hard to keep their information safe. Following these steps will help you sell more of your product or service.
Giveaway Products
Offering free trials or samples to customers is a great way to get them interested in your product or service and make them more likely to buy it online. Giving away product samples can make customers want to buy more of your product.
Offering free trials without any obligations is the best way to show customers that they can’t live without your service. Another way to increase online sales is to reduce shipping costs, provide free shipping, or have a shipping promotion.
Offering free shipping on all orders is the best. Even if you set a price limit of $25, people will still be more likely to buy more things to reach that limit instead of paying for shipping.
At least offer a fixed price for shipping so customers can easily know how much they will pay in total.
This will help you have more to talk about and increase the number of people who buy something from you. If there is important information that customers should know, you can use a pop up. The pop up can tell them about a discount or free shipping.
Honesty
It’s important to be honest about your products and services and show your brand’s true self to gain customer trust and sell online. Stretching the truth may seem simple, but people can easily see through lies with just a little investigation.
Instead, be honest about yourself and what you provide, and be friendly so people feel comfortable asking questions and learning about what you offer. Just be yourself and everything else will work out.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Even though social media is popular, email marketing is still the best way for companies to make money. According to Campaign Monitor, 59% of marketers make the most money from email marketing.
If you don’t have a list of email addresses, making one can help you sell more things online quickly. Test out using a combination of personalized emails and automated campaigns, and make sure to test important emails before sending them to see how well they work.
Another way to get customers to come back is by sending them a follow-up email. Don’t stop talking to customers after they buy something. Send them instructions and tips on how to use the product. To get more people to sign up for your emails, give them a discount code as a reward.
Instructions on how to set up something are helpful, especially if it’s hard to put together or install. Checking in with customers can turn them into loyal fans who tell others about your great company. People talking about your business can be just as powerful as your online marketing for making sales.
Also Read: The Anatomy of a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign (with Examples)
Customer Service
As we mentioned in the social media part, talking to customers is really important to make sure that everyone’s questions are answered and problems are fixed. If people like the help they get from you, more people will trust you and buy from you online.
Look for your business and “reviews” on Google to see what people are saying about your brand, or visit sites like TrustPilot or HostAdvice. Adding a live chat feature to your website will make people see your business as helpful and reliable.
Yes, customers can fill out your contact form, but they can’t be sure when you will respond. Live chats or chatbots should be available to listen and answer their questions at any time. If they have any questions, they will get answers quickly. Excellent for building confidence.
Contact Forms
One important feature in providing excellent customer service is to make sure that contact and inquiry forms are easy to locate. If a customer has questions about your product, it should be easy for them to get answers that will help them decide to buy.
Make it easy for people to find your “Contact Us” page on your website. Put quote request forms on the right pages. Let your website visitors know that they can contact you easily.
Less Purchasing Risk
Another way to make people trust and buy more things online is to promise that they’ll be happy with their purchase, so they feel more comfortable trying something they’ve never bought before.
Getting your money back if you are not happy with a purchase is the best, but if a store promises to match prices or give you a refund based on the results, that’s also good for customers. It makes sure they are getting the best deal and if not, they will get their money back.
A good example of this is in the growing online mattress industry. Most mattress companies let you try their mattress for 100 nights for free. If you don’t like it, you can return it. Some companies are offering a whole year to try out their mattresses.
Make sure you know what your competitors are doing and try to be as good as them. If their policy for returning or exchanging items is much better than yours, it will be difficult for you to increase your online sales.
Social Proof
Yes, there are ways to show that people like a product or service even more than just using reviews and testimonials from customers. Social proof can be shown in different ways, like pointing out the products and services that are popular or using widgets to show recent purchases.
Watching what other people like and buy can help convince people who are not sure what to buy to make a decision and increase online sales. This important information should be placed in your homepage and other places where people can easily notice it.
Spotlight
If you sell software or another service with different prices, show which one most people choose. In the design, we can use a different color or make the most popular option bigger to make it stand out from the rest in a pricing chart.
You can also use banners and other attention-grabbing elements on your website to draw attention to the plan in different ways. And, you can also have a page or section for your most popular products that is easy for customers to find.
Mobile-Friendliness
In today’s world, customers can go to your online store and buy things anytime they want because we are all so connected. This is why it’s very important to make sure your website works well on mobile phones, as well as on computers and tablets, if you want to sell more things online. To make sure your website is mobile-friendly:
- Make your checkout process easier
- Offer many ways to pay using your phone, such as Google Wallet and ApplePay
- Make pages load faster
- Simplify the navigation to make it easy and understandable
- Make it easy for users to go back to their shopping carts, even if they switch to a different device
Keep in mind that people using mobile phones may not buy something from your website right away. They might visit your website multiple times using different devices before they decide to make a purchase.
This is why using remarketing campaigns can be very useful in getting people to buy from your website. Make it easy for them to find their things and get the information they need on your website without getting lost.
Website Design
The design of your website is very important for how customers feel and for making a good first impression. Here are some numbers from Acquisio that show us the information we need:
- 93% of people decide to buy something based on how a website looks
- 42% who buy things online decide if an online store is good or not just by looking at how it’s designed
Your old, hard-to-use website design could be hurting your online sales and marketing efforts. If you want your customers to trust you more, stay on your website longer, and buy more things, then you should invest in making your website better. This will help your website stand out and do better than others.
Pictures and Videos
To make your website better, use good photos and videos to show customers how your product works before they buy it. Photograph your products from different viewpoints to show users a complete view, and if needed, provide a video showing how to set it up.
Even if you offer a service, using video can still help you sell things online. Create video infographics that explain why your product or service is valuable, or share reviews from other customers to show its credibility. Videos are seen as more reliable than just pictures, which can make customers more likely to buy something when they are unsure.
Split Testing
If you have an idea for a new email or homepage, it’s a good idea to test different versions before using it. Split testing means trying out different things to see which ones work better. For example, you can test if emails with emojis in the headline get more clicks than emails without emojis.
Or you can see if a website header with images gets more people to sign up or buy something compared to a header with no images. Even small changes can make a big difference in how well your online sales and marketing work.
Some of the most important pages to check are product pages (especially the ones with prices), category pages, and your homepage. Utilize Google Analytics data to see which pages or types of pages are looked at the most.
Some ideas need to be tested to see if they work, but some ideas are clearly good and don’t need testing. If you believe your idea is great and easy to understand, try it out and see how the website does.
Urgency of Conversion
No one wants to feel like they are missing out, especially on a good deal. Making people feel like they need to act quickly is very important when trying to sell more things on the internet. To persuade people to buy now, you can attempt:
- Putting popular items on sale for a short period of time
- Giving away free shipping for a limited time on all orders or on orders that reach a certain price
- Adding a free present with your order for a short time
- Highlighting the small number of products that are available
- Setting a deadline for customers to finish their purchase
- Adding the number of items remaining in stock to show that there are not many left
- Sending emails to people who have signed up to receive updates, to let them know about when things are on sale
Saving money can be the thing that convinces people to buy something. Even if you don’t have a sale, giving your customers a really good reason to buy your product or service will help increase your online sales a lot.
Challenges in Increasing Online Sales
More Competitors
The online shopping market is getting very crowded, with lots of companies competing for the same customers. This contest makes it hard to get noticed and get people’s attention. Well-known brands have loyal customers and are easily recognized, making it hard for new businesses to compete.
It can be really hard to stay ahead of the competition because there is a lot of pressure to always come up with new ideas and offer something special. Small businesses have a hard time competing with big companies because they have more money for marketing and making their products better. This makes it tough for small businesses to sell things online.
Customer Trust
Gaining the trust of customers is very important but it can be hard. People are worried about using the internet to buy things because they are scared that their information might not be safe and that the things they buy might not be real. Distrust can happen if you had bad experiences before or heard about a lot of data breaches in the news.
Making sure that transactions are safe and that businesses are honest is very important, but it can be hard to do this all the time. Negative comments from customers can make it difficult to gain their trust back. Businesses need to show they are trustworthy and open with customers to keep their trust and build long-lasting relationships.
Website Traffic
Getting people to visit an ecommerce website is hard because there are so many other websites to choose from. Good strategies like SEO, content marketing, and paid ads are important but need a lot of knowledge and money. Moreover, when search engines change how they rank websites and how they show advertisements, it can affect where website traffic comes from.
Social media and other online channels can be complicated, so it’s important to have a good strategy to keep people coming to your website. Continuously getting lots of good visitors to the website is still a big challenge.
Conversion Rate
Having lots of people visit your website doesn’t always mean they will buy something. It can be hard to turn visitors into customers. The things that affect how many people buy things on a website are how the website looks, how easy it is to use, how things are priced, and how easy it is to pay for things.
Complex navigation, long time to load, and not clear what to do, can stop people from buying. Also, it’s important to constantly look at and adjust to the different needs and wants of various groups of customers. Improving the conversion rate means always testing and making things better to get more overall effectiveness.
Customer Expectations
Today, people expect products to be really good, customer service, and quick delivery. It’s hard for small and medium-sized businesses to meet these demands all the time. Any problems like being late, not understanding each other, or not doing a good job can make customers mad and write bad things about the business.
This can hurt the business’s image. It’s hard to keep costs down while still giving really good service, especially when other companies offer quick shipping and better return policies. To meet these expectations, we need to plan and carry out tasks carefully in all parts of the business.
Returns and Refunds
Returning and refunding is really important for customer service. It can make customers happy and keep them coming back. However, managing returns in a way that is both efficient and doesn’t cost too much money is a problem that relates to managing the flow and storage of goods.
Many returns, especially in fashion, can reduce profits and make it harder to keep track of inventory. Creating a simple and easy return policy for customers is important, but making sure it doesn’t cost too much and runs smoothly can be tricky because of complex logistics and operational challenges.
Technological Changes
Businesses need to keep changing their processes because technology keeps improving really fast. Keeping up with the newest online shopping platforms, ways to pay, and ways to market is expensive and takes a lot of time and effort. It is difficult to smoothly add these technologies to current processes without causing problems for the customers.
Using new technology not only costs money, but also requires learning how to use it and changing how we do our work. Businesses that don’t keep up with new technology risk getting left behind by their competitors who use new tools and systems to work better and connect with customers.
Final Thoughts
To increase your online sales, you need to improve your website, use social media, make customer service better, and analyze data. We hope by using the tips in this post, you can make a shopping experience that is easy and interesting. This will surely help you attract and retain customers.
Build trust with your audience by being honest and providing great service. Always change to match what’s popular in the market and new technology so you can be better than our competition. Consistently check your sales information to find ways to do better and make smart choices that help your business grow.
If you focus on making your customers happy, interact with them on social media, and use good marketing techniques, you can sell a lot more online. Don’t forget, being successful online means you need to keep learning, changing, and coming up with new ideas. With these plans in place, you are ready to have continued growth and success for a long time.
FAQs
What are the best ways to get more people to visit my online shop?
Simple ways to get more people to visit your online store are to make sure your website is easy to find on search engines, to create interesting content like blog posts and videos, to use social media to connect with more people, to pay for ads on platforms like Google and social media, and to send emails to keep in touch with potential and current customers.
How can I make more people buy from my website?
To make more people who visit your website buy or sign up, make sure it’s easy for people to find things on the website, make the website load quickly, and make sure it works well on mobile phones. Also, make sure to use strong phrases to encourage people to take action, make the process of buying something easier, give customers different ways to pay, and make sure your product descriptions and pictures are really good.
Why is good customer service important for selling things online?
Great customer service can make your business stand out from the competition, make customers keep coming back, and make people say good things about your business. Quick and friendly answers to customer questions, an easy return policy, and keeping customers updated on their orders can make customers happier and want to buy more.
How can I use social media to sell more things on the internet?
Using social media to sell more online means making interesting posts that your customers like, showing your products on social media, and talking with your followers to make a group. Furthermore, working with popular social media users, hosting competitions or deals, and using social media data to improve your plan can help increase the number of people visiting your site and making purchases.
Why is it important to look at sales numbers and how can it help sell more?
Studying sales data is important because it helps us understand how customers act, what they like, and how they buy things. Businesses can make better choices about what to sell and when, by knowing what people like to buy, when they like to buy it, and who is buying it. This can help them with managing their stock, advertising, and making new products. Analyzing data helps you customize your products and marketing to make customers happy, and that can make your business do better and sell more.
