Nothing about running an ecommerce business is straightforward or easy.
The goal is, of course, to present a product on your ecommerce website, entice buyers to purchase through ecommerce marketing, and then process payments.
This is how even the most basic ecommerce site should run.
But, unfortunately, goals are often easier said than met. To meet your goals, you've got to put in work — especially if you're working to build and grow your ecommerce business.
Whether you're an ecommerce veteran or are new the world of ecommerce, here are four genius tactics to entice buyers and increase sales.
4 Tactics to Increase Ecommerce Sales
The world of ecommerce is always changing. These tactics are some of the most impactful for boosting sales and attracting new customers to your ecommerce website.
1. A/B Testing
Absolutely every aspect of your site could be tested for improvement — including images, headlines, product descriptions, and even the overall design. Even if you think you’re already doing well with your current website collateral, there’s always room to A/B test your content.
Before you start changing everything on your website to see what works, stop and create a battle plan. If you change everything at once, you won’t know what’s effective and what’s not. Plan two weeks for each change so you can gather enough data to make a decision.
Then, start with one component at a time. You could test something every two weeks and still find room for improvement years down the road.
2. Social Media
Are you sure you’re using social media to the best of your ability? What if you could keep an eye on what people are saying about your company and your products on all your social media outlets? With HubSpot's social inbox, you can.
You’ll receive a notice any time you’re mentioned, which then gives you the opportunity to follow up, start conversations with followers, and potentially attract them to your website.
Use this feature to provide stellar customer service when buyers have a complaint, or simply answer questions when visitors ask. If you really want to have some fun, respond to even the most ridiculous of mentions with your own special brand of humor. Your customers will love you — enough to check out your ecommerce products.
3. Heat Mapping
What if you could track the parts of your website where buyers hung out for a while? Would that help you provide better information for the next time they stopped by?
With heat mapping, you can keep an eye on the pieces of your website that visitors really love. Tools like Hotjar pull together your website's scrolling and clicking information to give you a full picture of what your buyers want to see and buy.
You can also track where your visitors come from and how long they hang around. In other words, if you use your social media for marketing, you can discover how many clicked on your offer and how long they stayed. This helps you determine which social media outlets you should focus on.
4. Exit Calls-to-Action for Lead Generation
The truth is that 99% of first-time visitors to your ecommerce site have no intention of making a purchase. You can accept this statistic and hope to get them the next time they stop by, or you can do something about it.
An exit call-to-action (CTA) with one last offer can be added to your site for last-minute lead generation. Some sites generate a pop-up the moment a customer enters the site. The exit CTA instead pops up just before customers bounce.
By providing the possibility of later savings, you might just convince those visitors to give you contact information so they can stay on top of things. If they’re interested enough to stop by the first time, potential discounts could bring them back and finish the job.
As you can see, these tools go a lot further than just offering products and accepting payments. If you’re ready to step things up a bit, consider any of the tools listed above.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
