How to increase your e-commerce sales in 2024

As we begin to navigate a new year, many e-commerce businesses are starting to plan their business activity for year ahead and looking for ways to increase their e-commerce sales in 2024.

Ultimately, there are three key ways to increase your e-commerce sales:

• Get more customers
• Get customers to spend more
• Get customers to buy more often

But how do you achieve these three core goals?

As we look ahead to 2024 and beyond, here are our top strategies for increasing your e-commerce sales next year.

E-commerce strategies for increasing online sales

Increasing sales is essential for the growth and sustainability of an e-commerce business. Higher sales is directly related to increased revenue which provides businesses with the financial cushioning they need to incest, innovate, and stay competitive.

Additionally, strong sales growth is appealing to investors and stakeholders. In turn, this improves stakeholder confidence and can attract funding to further accelerate growth.

By focusing on sales growth, e-commerce businesses can unlock new opportunities for growth, expansion, investment, and innovation.

Be where your customers are

Consider your target customers and understand where they are looking for products just like yours. Are they searching on Google or Amazon? Are they searching on social media platforms? Wherever they are, you need to show up there. After all, if they don’t see your products when they’re looking to make a purchase, they will buy from elsewhere.

For example, Gen Z and Millennials in 2023 are turning away from conventional search engines, such as Google, and searching for products, services, and recommendations on TikTok, and similar platforms such as Instagram. So, this year, e-commerce businesses should tap into social media to target and engage their audience.

Find out more about Amazon vs eBay for e-commerce entrepreneurs here.

Give your customers what they want

If you want to make more sales, you need to make it as easy as possible for your customers and potential customers to decide to buy. Consider the potential barriers that may prevent them from making a buying decision and then look for ways to overcome these barriers. This could include providing the payment methods they want to use, or ensuring there is content available that answers any questions they might have.

Often, customers abandon their cart at the last moment before checkout due to high delivery costs or limited payment options. To maximise sales in 2023, ensure to be mobile compatible by accepting Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay payments, and offer promotions for free or discounted delivery.

Streamline the shopping experience

If you want to increase your sales, you need to create a robust user experience. If customers can’t buy your product easily, they’ll find it elsewhere.

So make sure your website loads quickly and is easy to navigate, look at how your shopping cart and checkout pages work, and reduce the likelihood that shoppers will abandon their carts before finalising the purchase. Research shows that is a customer has a negative experience with a store’s website, they are unlikely to return and make a repeat purchase so website speed, correct links, and fast response times are crucial for customer retention and recommendations.

You’ll also need to ensure it’s easy for customers to contact you if they any queries or questions.

If you aren’t already offering free shipping, this is definitely something to consider if you want to increase your sales in 2023. This is a key barrier to making sales – with so many e-commerce businesses now offering fast, free shipping, if you’re not, potential customers will look for alternative products from sellers offering this service.

It is likely that there are a range of similar products available somewhere else on the internet for consumers to buy, so to keep a competitive edge, stay ahead and level with competing businesses to secure sales and remain in the game.

Have an easy, transparent returns policy

Another way to increase sales is to ensure that your customers have the best possible experience when shopping with you. This way, they are more likely to become returning customers, as well as recommending you to their friends and family. Word-and-mouth marketing is a powerful marketing tool which is cost-effective and trustworthy.

So make sure you have a clear, hassle-free returns policy in place. If your customers have a bad experience returning something to your site, they will simply buy elsewhere next time. Remember, research shows that customers who have a bad experience are twice to three times more likely to write an angry review than customers who had a great experience are to post a positive review.

In addition to this, ensuring that your site has clear product photos and accurate product descriptions will help prevent returns from occurring in the first place.

Cross-sell products

Cross-selling is a powerful strategy to increase your sales. Look for products that complement each other or are frequently bought together and promote them on your product pages.

Promotions

Point of sale promotions can give potential customers the final push they need to commit to a purchase. Whether it’s a free gift, a volume discount, or any other promotion, these offers will provide a great incentive for customers to buy.

On some e-commerce selling platforms such as Etsy, you can also offer customers who have your products in their cart, but have not yet completed their purchase, a discount code to secure the sale. Upon purchase, you can also thank the customer with another discount code, or voucher they can use next time.

Loyalty programmes

 Loyalty programmes are a great way to get existing customers to buy more often. Research shows that loyal customers are 10 times the amount of their first purchase, so they’re well worth the investment!Retaining existing customers can also be much cheaper for your business than attracting and advertising to new customers.

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