Did you know ecommerce businesses contribute more than $461 million in revenue every year? Also, this figure is expected to grow by a whopping 48% in the next 5 years.
With ecommerce marketing getting more competitive day by day, ecommerce store owners constantly seek promotion ideas to boost their online sales. Not only do beginners need to have an effective ecommerce promotion strategy, but seasoned sellers also have to implement their creative marketing skills to stay afloat and progress.
According to Google, there are thousands of searches relating to ecommerce promotion ideas every month. But only a few will help online sellers boost their ecommerce sales and conversions.
In this post, we’re going to have a look at eleven smart ecommerce promotion ideas to boost your online sales. After reading this post, you will successfully create a result-oriented ecommerce promotion strategy that can multiply your sales and conversions in no time.
Eleven Smart Ecommerce Promotion Ideas To Boost Your Online Sales
1. Run Flash Sale Campaigns To Trigger Urgency
Flash sales trigger urgency and create a FOMO (Fear of missing out) effect that encourages the buyer to take immediate action. As a result, you will not only attract visitors who are looking to invest in exclusive yet affordable products but also achieve your sales goals.
Many studies prove that flash sale campaigns perform better than conventional marketing campaigns.
Here are a few things you should consider before creating a flash sale campaign for your online business:
- Use it as an opportunity to win back inactive customers
- Target customers who have abandoned their carts for some unknown reason
- Run limited-time Google Ads
2. Use Social Media
There is no other marketing medium as powerful as social media. Having business profiles on prominent social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit, is an absolute must for both new and experienced online retailers.
Almost every social media channel has a dedicated list of features that they offer to ecommerce businesses and online stores.
For instance, Facebook has introduced a feature that allows businesses to display their product catalog on their business pages. Similarly, you can create shoppable Instagram posts to showcase product prices and basic features.
Owners using Pinterest can connect their websites to their pins.
In a nutshell, there are many things you can do with your social media marketing strategy to boost online sales and conversions.
For more, you can read our guide on "Social Media Marketing Tips For Your Shopify Store In 2020" to know more social media marketing tips for your online store.
3. Optimize Your Ecommerce Site With The Right SEO Strategies
You need to reconsider your approach if you think SEO is dead. SEO is pretty much alive and more powerful than ever before.
With the right ecommerce SEO strategies in place, you can help your ecommerce website rank higher on SERPs. That goes without saying that when more people see your website in search results, you’ll get more traffic on your website, and more traffic eventually leads to more sales and conversions. We have this Ecommerce SEO Guide for Beginners to help you out.
Make sure you target all 3 SEO categories to boost your online sales. Yes, you got that right. We’re talking about on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.
On-page SEO is all about keyword targeting, meta titles, meta descriptions, optimized URLs, etc. Off-page SEO revolves around backlinking and guest blogging. Technical SEO requires you to tweak technical areas of your ecommerce website to bring more traffic and conversions.
All of these aspects are crucial, and if done right, deliver excellent results.
4. Include Reviews On Product Pages
According to a Podium survey, more than 93% of customers admit that they read reviews before purchasing anything online. Reviews act as social proofs that encourage other visitors to make up their minds and buy from your website.
You can also add product reviews to Debutify using our Product review add-on. Watch this video for more details.
5. Personalize
Whether it’s your content, customer service, or emails, it’s critical to keep your approach targeted and personalized.
Customers prefer to interact with businesses that know their needs and offer tailored solutions.
For this, you have to conduct thorough market research. Make sure you collect as much information as possible to create strategies that cater to the needs of your target audience.
There are several ways you can collect that data. For instance, you can segment your market based on demographics (age/gender/location), buying preferences, etc.
You can also collect information through surveys and one-to-one interviews. Data collected by your live chat support team can also help you figure out the needs of your customers.
6. Offer A Flexible Return & Refund Policy
Nobody likes to pay hefty shipping charges. One of the smartest ecommerce promotion ideas to boost your online sales is to offer your customers a free shipping benefit.
You may also need to work on your return and refund policy. Keep it flexible so that first-timers feel confident that they can return a product without bearing additional costs if the product they receive isn’t up to their desired standards.
The best bit? You don’t have to bear a loss if you follow these strategies while creating your shipping and return and refund policies.
- You can restrict benefits to an order purchase of a certain amount
- Always calculate the delivery cost in your product cost
- Offer it on products where the delivery cost is low
7. Stay Connected With Your Audience Through Live Chat Support
What sets a successful online business apart from others?
Their customer service.
No matter how attractive your product range is, all of your efforts will go down the drain if you fail to answer your customer queries in time.
While having a chatbot installed on your website is a good idea, you should also have a 24/7 live support team that is available when your customers need any assistance.
Live chat support is not only on-site, but it’s also real-time, meaning your customers will get assistance on the spot from human representatives.
Getting Started with Live Chat Support
- Choose the best live chat support software
- Customize your chat window
- Configure your agent’s profiles
- Train your team
8. Promote Your Products On Curated Shopping Websites
Sometimes buyers need a little help. Considering the competition we have in the ecommerce space, customers find it easier to explore curated shopping websites instead of searching through an endless supply of products.
Websites like Svvply, AHAlife, and MYHABIT are life-savers for many busy customers. These websites offer personalized recommendations by industry experts and celebrities.
9. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is another effective ecommerce promotion idea that enables ecommerce businesses to collaborate with influencers working in the same niche as theirs.
With an influencer marketing plan, you can expand your reach, create brand awareness, and boost your online ecommerce sales.
You can either collaborate with celebs and macro-influencers (if your budget allows) or can also partner with micro-influencers who hold niche expertise and a decent fan base of engaged followers.
Here are a few things you should consider before you create an influencer marketing strategy for your business:
- Choose the right influencer
- The cost of influencers
- The return on investment of influencer marketing
10. Reward Your VIP Customers
Did you know customer acquisition can cost you 5✕ more than customer retention? Also, the value your existing customers add to your business is more than anything else.
They not only choose your brand for their needs but also recommend it to their friends and family once they’re happy with your services.
As an online seller, it’s your responsibility to reward those VIP customers who’re constantly adding value to your marketing efforts.
That reward could be anything - a discount code, cashback offer, or a BOGO deal.
11. Surprise Your Customers With Discounts And Offers
The most obvious one, of course. Who doesn’t like deals, discounts, and special offers? We all do.
When you announce a surprise deal or discount, the customers on your email list will feel valued. It’s a foolproof strategy to win back inactive buyers who once were your loyal customers.
Things To Consider Before You Create An Ecommerce Promotion Strategy (Bonus Tips)
Know Your Customers
Knowing your customers is critical for your business’s success. You can’t offer a personalized user experience unless you know who your customers are. After the implication of GDPR, it has become challenging for businesses to collect their customer’s personal information.
With online ordering, you get to collect plenty of information about your customers, including their location, age, email address, etc.
That’s a great deal of information that you can use to target or retarget your customers.
Test Products
Testing is another critical part of the digital marketing strategy that enables you to find out the most trending products. If you run a brick-and-mortar store, it might not be possible for you to choose products that sell. But that’s pretty much doable with an ecommerce business model.
You can change your products or add more products to your existing product range almost instantly.
This testing feature allows businesses to invest in those winning products that are higher in demand and are more profitable.
Did you know you can also find winning products using our Product Research tool? This feature comes built-in in our Master Plan and is amazingly easy to use and effective.
Use Online Resources, Tools, And Paid Ads
As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your business updated with recent technological innovations, tools, and resources.
Make sure your product pages are interactive and attractive enough to capture your visitor’s attention. Instead of relying on text-based descriptions, you can add video descriptions and images to help your buyers know about the real product benefits.
In addition to that, you can also benefit from paid ads. All prominent platforms, including Google, Facebook, and Instagram, allow online businesses to market their products using their paid ad campaigns.
Retarget
Every customer is different. Some respond to your emails as soon as they receive them, while some take time. Make sure you retarget those customers who have interacted with your brand previously but weren’t involved in the buying process.
You Can Retarget People Who Have:
- visited your website several times but didn’t purchase anything
- visited your website, added products to their carts, but didn’t complete the checkout process
- purchased products from your website in the past but haven’t interacted recently
Develop An App
The ecommerce promotion strategies we have discussed above are more or less used by almost every online business. But some advanced ecommerce promotion ideas can up your ecommerce game in no time if done correctly.
For instance, you can create an app for your business to stay at the forefront of your customer’s minds.
A personalized business app will not only make the shopping experience stress-free for your buyers but also brings your buyer’s attention back to your business.
Target VR Technologies
Another advanced ecommerce promotion strategy is to integrate AI and VR into your marketing framework.
For example, VR can help your buyer envision the look of the bracelet on their hand before they even purchase anything from your Shopify store.
What else could be more fascinating than previewing the final look of your house with all those fixtures and furniture your customer is about to purchase from your online store?
Interesting, isn’t it?
Also, this strategy can go a long way.
Wrapping Up
It could be challenging to master the art of ecommerce promotion. But things will become much easier for you once you’re on the right track.
There are many things that Debutify can handle on your behalf. We have created this theme to share your load so that you can focus more on other important things.
If you’re a beginner with no technical ecommerce knowledge, we have got you covered. Feel free to check out the list of add-ons you get by downloading our theme here.
For more details, you can also get in touch with our live customer representative. We wish you all the best.
Trisha Ballesteros