Finding yourself in an ecommerce sales slump? Don’t lose hope. You may just need to rethink your strategy. Whether you’re selling high ticket items, custom merch or practical utility products, there are quite a few things you might be overlooking. Make the most of your efforts by going over this helpful checklist. Implement the following ecommerce selling strategies to boost and optimize your store’s performance.
#1 Define your value proposition
Ask yourself: What kind of value can the customer expect from the use of your product? What problem does it solve? What does it have or do that competitors don’t? Then use the answers to clearly define your selling advantage.
Once you’ve determined and defined your brand’s value proposition or USP (unique selling proposition), make sure your customers are aware of it. Do this by making your unique position highly visible on your homepage, throughout marketing materials and on social media channels. A slogan or tagline helps sum up the gist of what it is you offer, so you may want to consider exploring short and snappy one-liners for your brand. If you need help crafting slogans or strategizing brand messaging, feel free to reach out to me. I actually offer this service over at Fiverr. Click here to check it out.
#2 Quiz your customers
A great way to increase conversions is to customize the user experience by quizzing customers and then recommending specific products based on their answers. Customers appreciate the investment in intuitive design because it feels more elevated and personalized. And the good thing is implementing such quizzing capabilities isn’t as hard as it seems. There are actually some pretty nifty quiz apps out there available. Visual Quiz Builder and Product Recommendation Quiz are two popular options that make setting up custom branded quizzes for your store a piece of cake.
#3 Share customer reviews
It’s no surprise customer reviews still hold a ton of weight when it comes to swaying shoppers to buy or subscribe. This is why you’ll want to showcase reviews from actual customers who have used your product(s). Shopify’s Product Reviews app is a great choice for adding reviews to product pages. Besides product pages, you can also look to include reviews in email marketing campaigns and social media platforms to motivate customers to purchase your products.
#4 Answer frequently asked questions
Another excellent way to increase ecommerce sales is to set up a blog or FAQ page for your store. This is because doing so allows you to answer common questions your customers may have so that they feel confident proceeding to purchase. A customer is more inclined to buy when they feel the brand understands them, their pain points and their expectations. You also won’t have to spend chunks of your time answering emails or DMs asking the same questions over and over again. Instead, make better use of that time by applying it to other areas of business.
#5 Offer free shipping
There’s nothing that deters a buyer like a shipping fee tacked on at checkout, which is why the words “Free Shipping” are known to trigger conversions. FYI: You don’t have to actually ship your products for free. Just build the costs for shipping into the price of your product! Then add a Free Shipping icon to your header, footer and/or sidebar to make sure your customer knows there won’t be any surprises at checkout.
#6 Run abandoned cart email campaigns
Turned those abandoned carts into conversions by sending out reminder emails to nudge buyers. An effective strategy is using an expiration for abandoned carts to create urgency. For example, once the cart has been abandoned, you can send a follow up email that alerts them their cart is on hold for only a certain amount of time. (e.g. “items will be surrendered in 30 minutes, so act now!” or “time’s ticking: you only have 30 minutes to complete your purchase”)
#7 Use upsells and cross-sells
Customers are more likely to purchase from brands they feel know them. How can you make the buying experience more personal? Easy. Cross-sell and upsell products recommended based on customer demographics. Upselling and cross-selling helps increase average order value and item quantity per order so that you can clear products faster and boost your profit margin.
#8 Add trust signals to your online store
Adding trust signals to your store lets customers know you care about protecting them. These are some of the trust-building factors buyers look for:
- Hassle-Free Money-Back Guarantees
- Uncomplicated Return/Refund Policies
- Customer Reviews (as already mentioned)
- SSL Certificates
- Logos of Trusted Payment Processors
#9 Offer a customer loyalty program
Shoppers love being welcomed into the fold with loyalty or rewards programs that allow them to earn special perks such as discounts, first access to new arrivals, event invites to launch parties and more. Ask store visitors to register for your program with a pop-up email capture, then send out emails explaining the different tiers or levels so that they become loyal to your brand by being part of an exclusive “society”.
#10 Provide excellent customer service
It goes without saying the most effective way to win over customers is to provide them with a high level of customer service. In the realm of online shopping, stores that offer chatbots and other fast-response tools have a higher conversion rate because they help simplify the checkout process by being available and responsive. Show customers you care by ensuring their online shopping experience is safe, easy and effortless.