3 Simple Ways to Drive Sales to Your E-Commerce Website

Getting traffic to your e-commerce website is the first step but the most crucial is getting your online visitors to stay a while, be interested in a product and then actually make a purchase. If you want to drive sales to your ecommerce website, you want to make sure you’re doing the following:

Build & Use Your Email List to Engage Customers

Email lists are invaluable when it comes to promoting sales, new merchandise, following up when a shopping cart has been abandoned and remaining sticky in your customers’ minds.  Establishing a means of collecting email addresses begins with creating a call to action on your website that asks website visitors to sign up to receive all the great news you plan to send.

Many ecommerce websites use incentive tactics to gain email addresses, offering newbies a small one-time discount or access to insider info. They do so because it works.

By acquiring email addresses, you have access to your subscribers’ inboxes. This allows your brand to engage with previous website visitors and remind them of your offerings – directing them back to your website to check out the details. Just be sure you don’t spam your subscribers because that will result in a quick unsubscribe. Limit the number of emails you send so you aren’t cluttering inboxes and make sure when you do send an email it contains information that is relevant, timely and worth opening!

Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Abandoned shopping carts are the bane of all e-commerce website owners, with users selecting products but failing to follow through with the transaction. Determining why consumers have left before making a purchase is the key to fixing and reducing abandoned carts. More often than not customers abandon shopping carts because of:

• Surprise shipping fees:
  Be transparent about shipping fees from the get-go. Think about offering free shipping or a standard rate if you can. Nothing is worse than thinking you’re scoring a deal online only to find that the shipping costs nullify whatever savings you thought you were getting. So as an ecommerce website, be sure to have shipping fees stated on the website or early on in the transaction so no rude surprises scare your clients away from completing their purchase and abandoning their cart.
• Confusing navigation:
  Poor navigation on an ecommerce website can lead to confusion that outright angers your customer and makes them go elsewhere to buy the product they need. It’s all about creating a user experience that is intuitive and user friendly. The process should be simple, asking only for the information that is necessary to process the transaction. Any other information is just another barrier/hurdle that gets in the way of a completed sale.
• No images:
  People like to see what they’re going to purchase before buying something so having high quality images of your products is essential for a good-looking website and for closing sales. Having a thumbnail image in your customer’s cart throughout the checkout process helps them to remember what it is they’re actually purchasing and keeps them from navigating away from the checkout process. So, do use images wisely.

Show Social Proof

People like to hear good reviews from other people about services and products they are interested in. Prior to making a purchase many online shoppers will take to reviews to solidify their decision about whether or not they should in fact buy the thing. Publishing customer reviews is beneficial for e-commerce websites because it shows social proof that you deliver what you say. Not from your mouth, but from past customers who are happy and aren’t trying to sell something other than their approval.

Creating a review acquisition strategy is essential for getting reviews and this means incorporating into your ecommerce website design a place for people to rate products or leave their comments. By having customer reviews on your website, you also provide additional content for your website visitors to go through rather than directing them to another website that may have the information. Why not just have all that they want in one place?

Want more expert advice on e-commerce websites? Contact our team today to take your digital marketing to the next level!