How to Increase Ecommerce Sales

Increasing ecommerce sales comes down to three levers: bringing in more of the right visitors, converting more of them into customers and getting each customer to spend more, more often. Most stores focus heavily on the first and overlook the other two, even though improving conversion and repeat purchases is often cheaper than buying more traffic.

This guide covers practical ways to pull each lever.

1. Bring in more of the right visitors

• Improve search visibility. Optimise category and product pages for the terms buyers use, and publish helpful guides that answer pre-purchase questions. See SEO & Content Marketing.
• Run focused paid campaigns. Start with search and shopping ads for high-intent terms, then test social ads for discovery. See Digital Advertising & Media Buying.
• Sell where shoppers already are. Marketplaces and social commerce add reach without building traffic from scratch. See Marketplace Management.
• Work with creators and partners. Relevant creators, affiliates and complementary brands can introduce you to trusted audiences.

2. Convert more visitors into customers

• Speed up your site. Slow pages lose shoppers, especially on mobile.
• Write product pages that answer questions. Clear benefits, specifications, sizing, delivery times and returns information remove doubt.
• Use better images and video. Show the product from every angle and in use. See Product Photography & Imaging.
• Show social proof. Reviews, ratings and customer photos build trust.
• Simplify checkout. Offer guest checkout, digital wallets and clear delivery costs early. Unexpected costs at checkout are a common reason for abandonment.
• Recover abandoned baskets. Automated reminder emails bring back a share of lost sales. See Email & SMS Marketing.
• Answer questions in real time. Live chat helps hesitant shoppers decide. See Live Chat Solutions.

For more on this, read What is Conversion in Ecommerce?.

3. Increase average order value

• Set a free-shipping threshold slightly above your current average order value.
• Recommend related products on product pages, in the basket and after purchase.
• Create bundles of products commonly bought together.
• Offer volume discounts for buying more than one item.
• Upsell thoughtfully to a better version when it genuinely suits the customer.

4. Get customers to buy again

• Make the first experience excellent. Fast delivery, good packaging and helpful service make customers want to return.
• Use post-purchase emails to share tips, ask for reviews and suggest the next purchase.
• Run a loyalty programme that rewards repeat orders.
• Remind customers to reorder consumable products at the right time.
• Win back lapsed customers with a targeted offer.

5. Measure and test

Track traffic by channel, conversion rate, average order value and repeat purchase rate each week. Change one thing at a time where you can, and keep what works. See Analytics & Reporting Tools for setting this up.

Where to start

If you are not sure what to fix first, look at the biggest drop-off in your funnel. Lots of traffic but few sales points to product pages or checkout. Strong conversion but low traffic points to marketing. Plenty of first-time buyers who never return points to customer experience and email. Fix the biggest leak first.