Strategies to grow your eCommerce Business

Strategies to grow your eCommerce business

Starting an eCommerce website is just the first step to making money online. However, you have to put in some work if you want to generate sales. There are probably thousands of stores that offer similar products to those on your eCommerce website, so you need to do something different if you want your target audience to choose you over them. 

If you are not satisfied with the sales your eCommerce website is currently generating, this article is for you. We shall look at some of the tested strategies that you can use to grow your eCommerce business. By the end of the article, you will have a clear picture of what you are supposed to do to improve your eCommerce website's performance in terms of sales. 

Let’s get started

     1. Use SEO 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the tested and most sustainable ways of pulling traffic to your website. With over 50% of website traffic coming from search engines, it is more likely that your next customer will come from a search engine like Google more than any other source. 

Some of the SEO strategies you can get started with include; adding a blog section in your website and creating blogs consistently, using keywords in your product descriptions, ensuring all content on your site is well organized and readable, etc. We recommend bringing on board SEO experts like Afrobyte to help you implement some of these strategies for better results. 

     2. Paid traffic

Whether your website is new or already established, you need to run paid Ads to maintain consistent sales. The most reliable platforms where you can run Ads and expect to get conversions are Google AdSense and popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  

Before running these Ads, you need to establish your target audience so that you don't waste your marketing budget on the wrong people. It is also necessary to determine the kind of content that your target audience easily connects with so that you craft your Ads in a way that is appealing to this audience. 

     3. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy that has been around for a couple of years now. This strategy involves paying a commission to anyone who redirects people to your store that end up buying any of the products you are selling. Most of the affiliate marketers do this through blogs and YouTube channels. 

For better results, you need to work with affiliate marketers that have an audience that will most likely buy your products. For instance, if your website sells ladies' bags, partnering with a YouTuber whose channel is focused on fashion will yield more results than working with one whose channel is about reviewing tech products. 

Your affiliate marketing program also should be good enough to attract many affiliate marketers to join it. If you are not very conversant with structuring your affiliate marketing program, you can hire a digital marketing agency to help you out. 

     4. Ask for reviews and referrals from previous customers 

If you are confident that the customers you sold your products to were happy with what you gave them, you can go ahead and request them to review your website on Facebook, Google, or any other review platform. These reviews will provide new potential customers confidence since over 90% of online shoppers trust reviews. 

You should also not hesitate to request referrals from your previous customers and give them some form of reward if they refer someone. It is way easier to sell to someone that has been directed by their friend or family member than a stranger that has never heard about your business. So, always do as much as you can to satisfy your current customers so that you find it easy to request them for referrals and reviews. 

     5. Add complementary products 

One of the tested ways to increase your sales is by adding complementary products to your website on top of what you are already selling. For instance, if your website sells computers, adding computer accessories to your catalog will further grow your sales. The idea is to ensure that your target audience gets everything that complements your main products from your site. 

Getting these customers to your website was no easy job, so make sure they get everything they want from there as long as it aligns with what you're currently selling. 

     6. Use Email marketing

The return on investment(ROI) of email marketing is up to 4300%, which is enormous compared to any other digital marketing strategy. However, getting this return will require you to implement this strategy appropriately. You can first of all start with your previous customers because you already have a list of their emails since they had to share them while checking out. 

You will also have to create a new email list of potential customers by running a lead generation campaign to get new emails. For a successful lead generation campaign, you will have to offer a giveaway that your target audience gets in exchange for their emails. This giveaway can be anything related to what you sell. 

For example, if your website sells phone accessories, you can give your target audience a step-by-step guide for putting a screen protector on their phone in exchange for their emails. After getting all the Emails, you need to avoid spamming these people with your marketing Ads. The ideal number of emails you can send them in a month is about two. 

Final thoughts 

Growing your eCommerce site will require using both free and paid strategies. The idea is to use a strategy that works well for your audience. SEO, paid Ads, and Email marketing are some of the most reliable ways of growing your website traffic and conversions. If you don't have enough time to do all these, by yourself, consider hiring a digital marketing agency like Afrobyte.