If you’ve just started an e-commerce business and want to learn more about how you can grow your sales and increase your traffic, you’ve come to the right place.
Being in such a competitive market, it’s more important than ever to have a strategy that helps you differentiate from the rest and increases your traffic and sales.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into learning more about how you can increase your traffic and sales for your e-commerce business.
1. Optimize your website with the required SEO strategies
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a fundamental strategy that improves your website’s visibility and attracts organic traffic. To optimize your SEO strategies, you need to identify and use high-intent keywords that are relevant to your products.
Focus on the technical aspect of your website, make sure it’s loading on time, and doesn’t exceed three seconds. As a general rule, anything that loads slower than 2.5 seconds needs improvement.
Another way to make sure you are optimizing your website is to build backlinks with your content marketing. For example, if you are writing blogs about retail, or anything that is related to the e-commerce world, you can build backlinks to make sure you are reaching a larger audience.
The best approach is to build backlinks with websites that have high domain rankings. Only make sure that you are building these backlinks on the same niches and not in areas that are irrelevant.
2. Take advantage of social media channels
Social media platforms are powerful tools that help increase traffic and engage with potential customers.
The first step in successfully leveraging social media channels is to identify where your target audience is most active.
Popular e-commerce social media platforms are Instagram and Facebook. In most cases, many are also using TikTok to showcase their products. TikTok is great if you have a young audience and are firmly targeting them.
Next, you can start including user-generated content (UGC) which shares and promotes content that is created by your audience. For example, sharing stories that customers have to say about your product, or something similar.
3. Consider influencer marketing
Influencers are one of the most powerful people on social media channels. Each social media platform has different influencers and some of them might work on multiple channels at the same time. It’s always a good idea to reach out to them, mostly to the ones that are focused on a specific niche.
Influencers are separated into three different categories that include:
- Macro-influencers
- Middle-tier influencers
- Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers have a much more engaging fan base compared to macro ones. They charge much lower prices compared to other types of influencers and are always the best option to go with. Middle-tier and macro-influencers are not only more expensive but also have a much less engaging fanbase.
Popular platforms where you can find influencers to help you drive traffic and increase your sales are: Traackr, GRIN, Klear, CreatorIQ, and Upfluence.
4. Implement email marketing campaigns
Email marketing is an excellent way to nurture leads and increase sales. It’s one of the most powerful ways to engage and build long-term relationships with your customers. With the right approach, you can easily turn subscribers into loyal buyers.
If you want to maximize your email marketing strategy, here’s how you can do so:
- Build a high-quality email list: Use lead magnets and pop-ups (discounts, free guides) to encourage sign-ups. Also, don’t forget to segment your email list based on customer behavior, purchase history, and interests.
- Personalize emails: Address your recipients by name and tailor content based on their preferences.
- Automate key campaigns: Set up welcome emails to introduce new subscribers to your brand and send out abandoned cart emails to recover any lost sales. Additionally, when someone makes a purchase, it’s always a good idea to send them a follow-up email to boost engagement and show how appreciative you are.
- Create attractive offers: It’s always important to include an attractive subject line that will encourage people to click on the email. For example “5% discount this week”, “Limited time offer”, etc.
Email marketing has been around for quite some time and not only has it impacted how we communicate with each other, it has made it possible to market your business in ways like never before.
5. Optimize your website for conversions
Increasing your website’s traffic is only half the battle, but optimizing your site for conversions is more important than anything else. A well-optimized website can not only increase conversions but turn visitors into customers and maximize revenue.
Optimize your website’s speed and mobile experience
As we mentioned before, if your website’s speed is too slow, then you'll have conversion problems. That’s why it’s important to make sure your website is loading faster than 3 seconds. You can compress all your image files by using image file compressing tools. This helps in improving your website’s speed and increases conversions.
Above all, it’s important to make sure your website has a mobile-friendly design with responsive layouts.
Create clear and compelling Call-To-Actions (CTAs)
CTAs play an important role when it comes to encouraging customers to take action. This includes using action-driven buttons like “Shop Now,” “Get Started,” or “Claim Your Discount.”
CTAs are most effective when you place them on high-traffic pages. For instance, if you see that one of your pages is getting more traffic, it’s always a better idea to place CTAs on these pages. Make sure your CTA is visible and you aren’t using dark colors.
As a good approach, you can consider testing out different colors, placements, and wording to maximize your clicks. This way, you know better what works and what doesn’t.
Simplify navigation & user experience (UX)
It’s always important to make your website easy to browse with clear menus and search functionality. The user experience impacts how many users will shop on your website. If everything is easy to navigate and simple, it’ll be easier for them and if it’s not, they’ll just leave the website.
The user experience is best when you minimize distractions and remove unnecessary steps in the checkout process. Above all, pay attention to the design and fonts you use to improve your engagement.
The more easy your font is to read, the more engaged customers will be.
6. Optimize the checkout experience
A complicated checkout process can lead to lost sales and cart abandonment. The best checkout optimization strategies you can use to improve the checkout experience are:
- Including guest checkout: Allows customers to purchase without creating an account.
- Multiple payment options: When you accept credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and other methods.
- Transparent pricing: Show all upfront costs, including shipping fees and taxes.
- Mobile-friendly checkout: Makes sure the checkout experience on smartphones is smooth.
- Trust signals: Displays security badges and refund policies.
Only in the US, 22% of online shoppers have abandoned their purchases due to a complicated checkout process. This means that once you make these types of purchases simple, it’ll attract customers much easier.
7. Take advantage of affiliate marketing programs
Affiliate marketing programs allow you to drive sales for a commission. You can create an affiliate program where you offer commission-based incentives to partners.
If you partner with influencers & bloggers, they can feature your products in their content and this will help with your affiliate marketing programs.
Other than that, you can also consider using affiliate networks such as Rakuten that will connect you with affiliates. Above all, you can monitor which affiliates are driving you the most sales and which aren’t. This will help you know better which links are driving sales and which aren’t.
These programs are successful if you follow a set of rules which include conducting product reviews, comparison guides, and incorporating SEO strategies to attract traffic organically.
After you’ve cleared that out, it’s now time to consider joining the best affiliate programs out there, such as Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, or niche-specific programs. You can compare commission rates, cookie durations, and payment terms before joining.
Growing your traffic and sales requires consistency
Growing traffic and sales for your e-commerce business is all about being consistent and strategic. These seven steps will all contribute to the long-term success of your e-commerce business and make sure you attract more visitors and turn them into loyal customers.
Success definitely doesn’t happen overnight, but with continuous improvement, your online store can remain competitive in the current online market. Now, it’s time to take action and put these strategies into practice.