Every website or online store wants to increase traffic. From sophisticated SEO strategies to carefully curated content and clever advertising, a store can go a long way to getting people into its virtual door – but making conversions and scoring a sale is a little more complicated. 

Firstly, many visitors may be from the other side of the world and have little interest in ordering or are locked out of your mailing zone entirely. Secondly, they may tick all the boxes but your website fails at the last hurdle with a confusing user journey or broken order forms that turn people away in an instant.

Those two examples aside, pushing conversions has never been easier, and has never been harder – it’s a game that plays out online and is hard to make sense of until it’s over. Here are five eCommerce marketing strategies we think will help your eCommerce website turn more conversions , increase traffic, or both!

1. Cross-Sell and Up-Sell

You’ve all heard “would you like to make it a large” at the fast food restaurant – and with online sales, that type of up-selling is common and effective. For most online businesses, up-selling or cross-selling (where you recommend a replacement version or sell another product that pairs or is needed to make the most of what they have chosen) is more effective than acquiring a new customer.

Try up-selling a product that’s a little higher in quality or offer a paired product that makes the customer feel they are missing out without it – such as a smart remote for that fancy new 4K TV. Just be sure that you up-sales are related to the original product and keep the change in price small – a big jump often puts people off, even when it’s worth it! 

2. Integrate Social Media

With millions and millions of active users every day, an eCommerce store would be foolish to ignore the benefits of social media. Take Instagram for example. By using  strategic hashtags, and posting at the right times, you can build an audience of people interested in your products. By mastering a carefully curated organic presence, you will be in the consumer  eyeline when they are ‘relaxing’ on social media as opposed to ‘shopping’ on your website. Making a Facebook store is also very straightforward if your products are suitable, which help to integrate your shopping experience into the social media app itself – making it easier and more convenient for the customer. 

Social media marketing experts such as Myk Baxter Marketing are brilliant at working on your social media strategies so you don’t have to.

3. Focus More on Abandoned Carts

According to the Baymard Institute, almost 70% of all shopping carts online are abandoned. That’s a huge amount of lost revenue. Hesitation when buying online is a normal reaction for many, but by directly addressing these issues could boost conversions tenfold. Try persuading those who ditch their trolleys with a discount or free shipping offer. Do this by setting up an automated email recovery campaign which helps to pull customers back and convince them to make a purchase. Again, experts like Myk Baxter Marketing know how to do this best.

4. Capture More Subscribers and Email Them More

We all know that a cluttered, spam filled inbox is frustrating at the best of times, so you wouldn’t want your company to be another ‘annoying’ brand that is forever ignored because of the mad amount of emails every day. 

However, that being said, social media posts can easily be forgotten or not even seen in the mass of other posts, so an email can add a personalised touch that communicates directly with the customer. Actively promote your newsletter, blog and any other email capture efforts to get as many subscribers as you can.

5. Keep it Easy

Most importantly, as a responsibly eCommerce website owner, you MUST keep your website easy to use for your visitors. If your store is poorly designed, you will be losing customers – hands down. 

A poorly designed website is not only perceived as untrustworthy, but it prevents visitors from accessing what they are looking for. If a site loads slowly or is too confusing, visitors will be closing the window in a matter of seconds. The truth is, web users are notoriously impatient, but as there’s little you can do to change these habits, you need to do everything in your power to make sure you offer everything they need on a silver platter. 

As you can imagine, MBM has a dedicated team of experienced web designers who can do a lot to help your website flourish.