Drive More Ecommerce Sales by Doing These 5 Things

Traffic, traffic, traffic. While you may spend your commute avoiding roads filled with harried drivers, you need to spend your working hours knee deep in traffic.

Website traffic, that is. Your goal is to drive more eCommerce sales to your website. That’s especially true during the lucrative holiday shopping season.

If you’re like many eCommerce retailers, you may have a terrific website, but you’re most likely not using it to its full potential to drive sales and revenue. In this article we’re going to tell you how to drive more eCommerce sales by doing five things.

According to emarkete.com, this holiday season is expected to be quite strong in the United States. They predict that during the months of November and December, revenues will reach $885.70 billion. That’s an upward adjustment from the 3.2% growth rate predicted earlier this year and the highest since the 6.3% rise in 2011.

They also predict eCommerce will hit 9% of total retail sales this season, or $79.40 billion which is up from 8.3% share last year.

With those statistics in mind, let’s take a look at how you can drive more eCommerce sales by doing these five things.

#1: Use Re-targeting

Re-targeting or re-marketing can increase your conversion rate optimization and drive more eCommerce sales. What is re-targeting? It’s online advertising that helps keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after it has left your website.

Re-targeting helps you reach those customers you don’t target right away. Several avenues exist for re-targeting, but let’s talk about using Google AdWords for grabbing your customers.

If you are currently using AdWords to drive customers to your landing pages, you can simply add some code to your website to create a re-marketing list. So, when someone visits your landing page, a cookie is saved.

You can then build campaigns in AdWords to re-market to those visitors. The goal here is to present them with something they were already interested in.

This re-targeting campaign addresses them specifically. If they were undecided about making a purchase the first time on your website, once they’re followed around the Internet with your re-targeting ad, they are more likely to visit your page landing again.

#2: Improve Your Images

Images speak volumes to your eCommerce website visitors. Imagine wanting to buy a blouse online. You pick the pink one, but when it arrives it’s salmon, and you send it back. This is an epic fail that could’ve been avoided with professional images.

Your customers will respond to images. It’s vital that you accurately and professionally portray your products. It shouldn’t be difficult for your ecommerce visitor to get a true picture of what you’re selling.

Here are some tips for improving your images:
1. Hire a professional photographer to take your eCommerce photos.
2. Keep it simple and stay away from cluttered images.
3. You can use an image of a person wearing or using your product, but be sure to also feature it on its own.
4. Show multiple views.
5. Guide your website visitors so they follow the line of sight.

#3: Add Video Content

Videos are a great way to drive more eCommerce sales. Videos grab the audience’s attention and get the message across quickly and effectively.

The human brain processes visual information at a much faster rate than text. This is why both images and video can result in better sales. Plus, video content is dynamic and engaging.

The Marketing Profs tell us that that using videos helps nearly 50% of customers purchase more products on pages with informational videos. They say this number is continually rising.

Your customers are more likely to stick around on your website when it has videos. They are also more likely to return. Use product videos, customer testimonial videos and videos of people using your products to engage the consumer.

Here are some tips for using videos to drive more sales:
1. Make sure the video has an objective and is relative to the page.
2. Keep it short.
3. Stay away from the overactive sales approach. Communicate great content and save the call to action for the end.
4. Plan how you’ll use the video. Will it live just on your website, YouTube, Facebook, etc .
5. Promote the video in your email marketing and social media.

#4: Deal with Cart Abandonment

As people spend more time shopping during the holiday season, you might see an increase in cart abandonment. With it already high, take steps to reduce it now. It’s time to add a special offer that is triggered by a customer getting ready to leave your site.

Pop-ups are a great tool to deal with shopping cart abandonment. Just as your visitor is about to leave your site, offer them something – it could be a discount or a free shipping coupon. This might be just what they needed to get them to purchase from your eCommerce site.

When it comes to popups, you always want to make the exchange. By this, we mean your visitor gets a special deal, and you get their email address. This is very important for your future marketing.

#5: Use Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are a super tool for getting visitors from Facebook to your landing page and thus helping with your conversion rate optimization.

You have many options when it comes to Facebook ads. You can simply boost your company’s posts, or go all out and conduct Facebook ad campaigns. Ads are great for promoting products and specials.

In addition, we talked earlier about re-marketing. Facebook has a robust platform for re-targeting. Using custom audiences, you can target the right customers to drive more eCommerce sales.

To Conclude

The goal of your marketing is to drive more eCommerce sales, especially during the busy holiday season. By using one or all of these five things to drive traffic to your site, be sure to track everything and keep note of what works and what doesn’t.

As a last note, make it easy for your customers to use your site. If it’s not responsive and mobile-friendly, it’s time to revamp your site. Take a look at your navigation and your sales funnel. Are they easily navigable? If not, fix them.

One more thing you can do to drive more eCommerce sales during the holiday season is to revise some of your site graphics. Brick and mortar stores decorate for the holidays, and you can, too!

We can help you find ways to drive more eCommerce sales to your website. Contact us today. We’ll provide you with our FREE site performance analysis to help you decipher how you can use these seven email marketing tips for conversion rate optimization.

Image: Tax Credits