How to Sell More Online: Best Marketing and Sales Strategies

You’ve built an online store, found products to sell, and gotten some customers. But you want to get many more sales than your current level. Many online retailers and dropshippers face this challenge, and you’re at the right place if you fall into this category. This guide explains proven strategies you can apply to increase your sales and build a profitable long-term business.

Why increasing online sales matters

Growth is a yardstick for success in the intensely competitive e-commerce sector. By adding new customers and boosting sales, your business becomes more competitive and resilient to industry headwinds.

However, scaling your business isn’t often straightforward. You may face some challenges stemming from increasing competition, logistical bottlenecks, and general economic conditions. The key is applying the right strategies to overcome these challenges and boost online sales.

The importance of sales growth for business sustainability

Sales growth is essential to building a sustainable e-commerce business. By amassing more revenue, you can invest more in marketing and customer service, building brand value you can depend on for long-term growth. Even when you reduce or pause marketing campaigns in the future, the brand value can work wonders for your business.

Having more revenue also enables you to scale through challenges, such as short-term price increases and shipping delays. You can absorb additional costs to weather these challenges without running low on funds. Likewise, increasing sales helps you stay ahead of competitors who are hellbent on doing the same.

Common challenges that businesses face when scaling online sales

Competition

As you work to improve online sales, competitors also have the same idea. Hence, there’s often a race to the bottom in prices, and rivals invest heavily in marketing to win more customers. You’ll need unique marketing and sales strategies to keep up with this tough competition.

Trust

E-commerce businesses, especially up-and-coming ones, need to establish trust to win customers. Building this trust takes considerable effort, mainly targeted marketing campaigns and delivering excellent customer service. 

Cart abandonment

When you run marketing campaigns, people often visit your website, add products to their cart, then abandon the process instead of paying for the products. This challenge is common to all online stores, but you can mitigate it by sending abandoned cart email reminders to the relevant customers.

How to increase online sales

The proven strategies to boost online sales include:

Build trust and credibility

Earlier, we highlighted building trust as a major challenge e-commerce entrepreneurs face. As a new, up-and-coming business, you need a unique proposition to convince customers to choose your brand over well-established competitors. Let’s explore some below.

Use customer reviews and testimonials

When customers leave positive reviews, you can proudly display them on your store’s homepage for visitors to observe. Visitors who read these reviews will be more likely to buy products from your store, given the positive firsthand experiences of other customers. This social proof helps you sell more online. 

Add trust signals

You can display signals that boost your store’s credibility to visitors. These include a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) badge highlighting your store’s robust security, certifications from industry groups, and positive customer reviews. These signals are subtle yet have an outsized effect on your store’s credibility.

Showcase a bulletproof return & money-back guarantee

Your store should include a designated page highlighting your product return and money-back guarantee (refund) policies. The standard money-back guarantee is 30 days, allowing customers to return items and receive a refund within 30 days of the purchase date.

A money-back guarantee boosts your store’s legitimacy by assuring visitors that they can return products if unsatisfied with what they receive.

Optimize the user experience

Delivering a smooth user experience is an effective way to increase your sales. The best ways to optimize user experience include:

Simplify website navigation

Your online store should be easy for a new visitor to understand and navigate. Ideally, a menu should be displayed at the top, from which visitors can view all product categories. The footer menu should contain links to your return policy, terms of service, and display trust badges.

Your store should use minimal colors and clearly highlighted buttons to make it easy for visitors to find the products they seek. It should be mobile-friendly, as many visitors, if not most, will interact with your store from mobile devices.

Speed up the checkout process

The checkout process should be as simple as possible, ideally on a single page. Customers should be able to input their shipping address, name, and other details, then click the payment button on the same page. If someone has previously purchased an item from your store, they should be able to autofill their existing details instead of retyping them.

If a checkout process requires navigating multiple pages, it increases the chances of a customer abandoning the process, which you want to avoid.

Reduce cart friction 

Allow customers to save their carts and return later to continue shopping. If a customer abandons their cart for a specific time, e.g., 1 day, you can send an email reminder nudging them to complete the checkout process. These features may seem complex, but most e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, make it easy to implement them on your store. 

Offer multiple payment options

Allow customers to pay you via multiple channels, including credit or debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital wallets. Multiple payment methods make it convenient for customers to pay you with the option they prefer. Otherwise, you may lose customers who don’t find a convenient way to pay for your products.

Improve product pages with SEO and quality images

Every product page should have a high-quality, visually appealing image. This visual appeal should be accompanied by a precise description of the product, ideally in an engaging tone. This description will be indexed by a search engine and can draw organic traffic to the product page, serving as a textbook example of search engine optimization (SEO).

For example, you can describe a water bottle as “Get this bottle to stay refreshed in style and make hydration feel effortless.” Along with this description, the product page should have a high-quality image of this water bottle in a real-world setting. This visual appeal and catchy description will encourage visitors to click the buy button.

Create irresistible offers

Running discounts is an effective online sales strategy. You can boost online sales by giving deals customers can hardly resist. Examples include:

Use discounts, promotions, and flash sales

Customers love few things more than promotional packages. Hence, you can offer time-limited discounts on specific products to encourage them to click the ‘buy’ button hastily. Promote these discounts through banners on your website or via social media posts and ads. Discount programs can generate considerable revenue boosts.

Apply price anchoring

Price anchoring is a strategy where you display a higher price for a product, along with a lower actual price, persuading customers to take advantage of a good deal.

Price anchoring works because the higher price serves as a mental benchmark for customers, and when they compare the actual cost to this benchmark, buying the item feels like a bargain.

Test subscription models and loyalty programs

Subscription is an innovative way to boost e-commerce sales. With a subscription package, customers can pay a monthly fee to get a steady replenishment of products from your store. This model works best with consumable goods, such as cosmetics and pet food, where customers frequently use up their supply and need a replacement. It provides stable, long-term revenue you can count on in the future.

You can also run loyalty programs that provide discounts to repeat customers. When people buy products from your store, these programs incentivize them to stick around and become loyal customers.

Provide free shipping to encourage conversions

You can provide free shipping for a customer’s first order. This freebie gives visitors an incentive to choose your products over the competition, and first-time buyers can potentially become loyal customers. 

Free shipping can also be included for high-value orders above a specific threshold, e.g., $100 or more, encouraging customers to purchase multiple products to take advantage of this offer.

Leverage marketing channels effectively

Marketing is an inseparable part of learning how to increase online sales. The more you promote products, the more you’ll find new customers and encourage existing buyers to get more products. Let’s explore how to increase online sales via marketing campaigns.

Run targeted ads on social media

Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are marketing goldmines for online stores. You can run targeted ads on these platforms that are shown to a precise audience.

For example, if you sell smartphone accessories, you can target people aged 18 to 30 years old, based in your city, and who have previously expressed an interest in smartphone accessories. This audience is more likely to relate to your ads and purchase products.

Have a clear understanding of your target audience, specifically the demographics that are interested in your products. Then, you can show ads to this precise audience, boosting the chances of getting positive responses.

Optimize ad campaigns with extensions and remarketing

Someone who has previously interacted with your ad is more likely to respond to it when it is shown again. To take advantage of this habit, you can run retargeted ads on social media platforms or search engines like Google. These platforms make it easy to show new ads to an existing audience, increasing their effectiveness.

Collaborate with influencers 

Influencers are prominent social media accounts with sizable followings. They exist in all product niches, from gaming to fashion, personal care, pet products, kitchenware, electronics, and many more.

You can collaborate with influencers to promote products to their followers. To find influencers, you can browse through accounts yourself or check influencer platforms like Upfluence. These platforms specialize in connecting brands with influencers in their respective niche. A partnership with the right influencer can draw significant sales to your store.

Use customer testimonials to make ads relatable

Social media users are bombarded with ads every day, so yours needs to stand out to make it effective. Instead of using only plain promotional messages, you can highlight customer testimonials in your social media ads to increase engagement. 

Testimonials give viewers firsthand opinions that they can relate to, rather than just marketing phrases they encounter every day. A legitimate review from a previous customer encourages ad viewers to respond positively.

Capitalize on holidays and seasonal campaigns

Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, and other holidays offer numerous opportunities to promote your products. You can create holiday-themed discounts to encourage customers, who often spend more money during these holidays than in regular periods. 

For example, you can introduce a 10% discount on Christmas or offer free shipping to encourage sales on that day. If you sell customizable products, such as clothing and smartphone accessories, you can offer Christmas-themed items to customers who are eager for the jolly season. Holiday-themed campaigns are one of the most unique ways to increase sales.

Power up content and SEO

Content creation draws traffic to your website, some of which converts into sales. Some ways to power up your store’s content strategy include:

Improve SEO for better search visibility

Earlier, we mentioned search engine optimization (SEO) when discussing the importance of writing precise product descriptions. SEO encompasses various other aspects, including adding alternative text to every image, creating meta descriptions for both product and non-product pages, and incorporating relevant keywords that your target audience searches for. 

By adding the above information, search engines can index your website more effectively, increasing the likelihood of your website being suggested when people search for relevant keywords.

Likewise, SEO involves getting backlinks, which are links from websites with similar content and established search engine rankings. These backlinks boost your reputation on Google and other search engines.

Create optimized blog content that answers customers’ questions

A proven strategy for growing traffic is creating relevant blog posts that answer customers’ questions. For example, if you sell fitness equipment, customers in your niche often search for stuff like “Which cardio equipment should I buy?,” “Best exercise bikes,” and “How to set up a home gym.” You can create blog posts that answer these questions in detail.

Customers searching for these queries can be directed to your blog posts from search engines. Then, they can browse your catalog and purchase some products they need. You can link to relevant products in your blog posts to make them easy to find. 

Consistent messaging across campaigns and your website

You should use the same slogans, mottos, photos, and colors in your ad campaigns as on your website. This way, when someone visits your website through an ad, they’ll get a similar experience that convinces them to keep scrolling through. Consistent messaging reduces confusion and helps visitors remember your brand identity.

Use email and automation to nurture customers

With over 4 billion active email users worldwide, it’s a marketing channel that you can’t afford to ignore. Email marketing is an essential part of learning how to increase online sales.

Run abandoned cart campaigns

If a customer adds products to their cart and provides their email address but abandons the checkout process, you can send them reminder emails about the items they left in their cart. Ideally, you can set a first reminder email within an hour of a customer’s abandonment and another 24 hours later. An abandoned cart email can include a discount to persuade the customer to complete their purchase. Many customers don’t complete the checkout process initially, but do so after receiving abandoned cart reminders.

Send personalized follow-up emails

After a customer buys a product, you can send follow-up emails to ask them about their experience with the product, then sneak in some recommendations for related products. It’s a subtle way of building trust and advertising products simultaneously. Customers can read these emails and buy more items from your store.

Add opt-in popups with special offers

We’ve discussed sending marketing emails, but how do you obtain the emails in the first place? You can do that by creating popup banners that nudge customers to add their email address to your mailing list for a one-time discount. For example, a 5% off coupon is enough to convince visitors to provide their email address and opt into your mailing list, which you can leverage to advertise products in the future.

Set up automated instant replies and chatbots

The recent artificial intelligence (AI) craze has impacted all industries, including e-commerce. It has become easier than ever to create AI-based chatbots to perform various tasks, including responding to routine customer inquiries.

You can create a chatbot for your online store that’ll reply to common inquiries, for example, a customer asking about shipping times, the availability of a product, or how to track their order. These instant chatbot replies give visitors a positive experience and encourage them to buy your products. By automating replies to routine inquiries, you’ll also free up time and effort to resolve issues that require your full attention.

Deliver outstanding customer experiences

We can’t write a guide on how to increase online sales without emphasizing customer service. With tough competition in many niches, excellent customer service is one of the most effective ways to outshine rivals. Businesses that offer the best service tend to sell more products online.

Provide excellent customer support

Always go the extra mile to assist customers in resolving their issues. Provide quick responses and empathize with customers’ problems, letting them know you’re willing to find a solution.

Implement multi-channel support, wherein customers can contact you on different platforms, including email, social media, and a form on your website. Multi-channel support leads to increased customer satisfaction, which in turn improves sales.

Ensure easy and transparent returns

Managing returns is a situation that online stores often struggle with. Admittedly, it can be frustrating for customers to return a product they’ve already purchased and request a replacement or refund, but it’s your duty to fulfill their request. 

Firstly, have a firm return policy that outlines the timeframe and conditions under which returns are allowed. The standard arrangement allows customers to return products within 30 days of their purchase. Depending on your logistics process, you can either receive returns yourself or outsource the process to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. Initiating returns, obtaining refunds, or requesting replacements should be a straightforward process for customers.

Personalization

Personalization is one of the best strategies to increase sales. It involves creating tailored messages based on your customers’ preferences. 

For example, you can separate your customer list by country of residence. Then, for each country, you can send customers emails about national holidays and events. These personalized emails resonate with customers and make them more likely to cherish your brand.

Analyze, adapt, and improve

We’ve discussed many ways to improve sales and scale your business. These are general strategies, but recognize that there’s no perfect formula for boosting sales. It differs for each store, so you always have to analyze results and adapt when necessary. 

If you aren’t getting the expected results, be willing to tweak or completely change your strategy and watch out for improvements. Key things to monitor include:

Attribution and conversion paths

Observe the sources your customers originate from and how they interact with your website. By analyzing the customer journey, you’ll know which marketing channels yield the most results and focus your efforts on them.

For example, you may notice that most customers originate from Instagram over Facebook and other social media platforms. In that case, you can focus your marketing efforts on Instagram over the rest. 

Most e-commerce platforms have analytics dashboards to help you track the customer journey. You can also integrate Google Analytics with your website to get even more detailed insights.  

Consult sales analytics regularly

You should constantly monitor sales figures and compare current numbers to past ones. A month-to-month comparison is a good starting point. If you observe significant monthly revenue drops, it’s a signal to adjust your strategy and monitor for improvements. If you observe big order increases, you can double down on your existing strategy to get even more revenue.

Act on customer feedback to improve processes

There’s no better way to learn how to improve your services than by asking customers directly. You can create surveys asking customers to rate their interactions with your website and provide feedback. Always adhere to this feedback and address the complaints.

For example, if customers complain about shipping delays, you can consider changing your logistics provider or ask the existing provider to speed up deliveries. When customers notice faster shipments, they’ll be joyed and willing to get more items to benefit from your improved service. Constant feedback, analyzing it, and adhering to it are key parts of success for any e-commerce entrepreneur.

Final thoughts on boosting online sales

Boosting sales is a continuous process, not a one-off. Sales won’t improve dramatically overnight, but instead grow gradually. We’ve discussed many proven strategies on how to get more sales, which you can apply when running an e-commerce business. Celebrate your short-term sales boosts but also stay focused on long-term strategies, mainly excellent customer service, to maintain the improvements and earn more revenue. 

Above all strategies, you need a reliable supplier that provides high-quality, durable products to your customers. Customers who obtain high-quality products often become repeat buyers and spread the word about your products to their social circles. Zendrop is a reliable supplier you can trust to get high-quality products, with industry-leading shipping times and excellent customer service. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)