Every eCommerce business owner wants to improve their sales numbers. The question is, how can you do this?

You’ve tried some of the more traditional strategies but only received mixed success at best. You could run more ads or try to change your website but this is costly and may not work.

Improving eCommerce Sales: Automation and 5 Other Strategies

Your goal is to find and implement proven strategies that are sure to drive up your sales numbers at an affordable cost.

Every business is different, but there are some strategies that work well for just about any brand, regardless of their budget. With this in mind, here are some key strategies you should explore.

eCommerce Automation Software

A great way to improve your eCommerce sales is through automation. Thanks to automation tools, tasks that once required a large portion of your time can now be done automatically.

This not only frees you and your team up to work on other things, but it allows you to make sales faster and for a smaller operating cost. To get started with automation, there are two key areas you can begin to explore.

First, look into adding a chatbot to your website. A chatbot is a customer service tool that customers can use to interact with your brand directly through your website.

Chatbots can take over a significant portion of your customer service operation by handling the most common inquiries you receive. On top of that, you can use your chatbot to complete sales and even train them to implement upselling techniques.

Another area to implement automation is through your email marketing campaigns. Email marketing is one of the most effective tools for driving customers to your website.

However, if you don’t use the right tools, it can take up a lot of your time. With automation tools, you can send out emails at specific times, without having to do anything.

For example, you can automatically send out emails when a customer completes an order, when you haven’t heard from a customer in a while, or when it’s the customer’s birthday.

You can even tailor these messages to the specific customer, adding a level of personalization that customers love.

Better Shopping Cart Software

After automation, the next thing you should explore is better shopping cart software. One of the main reasons that eCommerce brands lose out on customers is because it is too complicated or takes too long to complete a purchase.

This is often the result of poor shopping cart software. You’ll want a shopping cart software that allows users to check out in as few steps as possible, that can accept credit cards and other forms of electronic payment, and allows users to enter discount codes.

Business Coaching

If you’re new to running an eCommerce business, one of the best things you can do is seek out advice from people who have experience running successful businesses.

To that end, consider using business coaching services. With them, you get one-on-one attention and tips on how to improve your business.

People who have run successful eCommerce businesses will examine your specific business and give you tailored recommendations for how you can improve. It’s a great way to not only improve this business but learn vital information you can carry into future endeavors.

Encourage Upsells and Additional Sales

Getting someone to decide to purchase something from you is the hardest part of the process. Once you are able to achieve this, you should seize the opportunity to encourage additional sales.

For example, when someone adds something to their cart, you can display similar products or products that go well with it. If someone adds a kitchen table to their cart, you could recommend a set of chairs to go with it.

Another strategy is using upselling on your eCommerce site. This is when you work to convince someone to purchase a more premium version of the product they desire.

For example, let’s say you offer a software application on your website. When someone adds it to their cart, you could let them know there is a version with more premium features for only a small increase in price.

This person has already shown an interest in your product, making it the perfect time to show them the benefits of a more expensive version.

Social Media Contest

Looking for a simple way to drive more eCommerce sales using your social media channels? Consider running a social media contest. Running a social media contest accomplishes a few things. Let’s say you decide to run a contest on Twitter.

Everyone who “retweets” your message receives an entry into the contest and after a week you pick a random winner to receive a free product.

With a strategy like this, you can gain a lot of attention for your brand. Each time someone shares your message, it goes out to their followers, giving it exponential reach. Now people who have never even heard of you learn about your product or services.

Next, it gets people excited about a product or service of yours. Even if they don’t win, they may end up buying it after the contest. Finally, if you require a person’s email address in order to enter the contest, you can add a lot of entries to your email marketing list, significantly improving its reach.

Track and Study Your Data

The last strategy is to track and study all your data. The best way to learn how you can improve your specific eCommerce brand is by learning what’s working and what isn’t.

If you don’t already have tracking implemented, start recording data about your website traffic, your cart abandonment rates, your social media followers, your most viewed pages, your bounce rates, and more.

Then, set aside time to analyze all this data. Do you have a product page that a lot of people visit but leave without purchasing?

Perhaps you have a poor product description or the cost is too expensive. Is a large portion of your social media followers from a certain demographic? Consider altering your marketing strategy to better appeal to this market.

You can make significant improvements if you gather the right data and make it a point of making changes based on what you find.

Always Look for New Opportunities

The eCommerce landscape is always changing. To continue to make sales, you need to keep up to date on the latest strategies and figure out which ones will work best for your brand.

Make it a regular habit to look for new strategies and run tests to see if they are effective for you. Start with the strategies mentioned above, then look for some more.

By continuing to look for better strategies, and being willing to test them, you can grow your sales numbers over time.