So, you are going to set up your e-commerce store? Yes, of course, you do, as many e-commerce platforms like Shopify nowadays make it easy for everyone to create e-commerce store with ease.
Online shopping is not only increasing, but it is turning into every consumer's preferred method of spending, as 71% of shoppers believe they will get a superior deal online than they will in stores. If you have decided to defeat through the eCommerce waters, keep on reading!
To make money online, there is no other better and easy way than creating an e-commerce store. But wait, just creating a store is not worth if it’s not generating enough sales. You have to do a lot of efforts to make your store goes to some people that eventually helps in increasing your traffic as well as boost sales.
Today, in this post, I am going to discuss ten great ways that help you generate sales for your e-commerce store.
1) Paid Traffic
If done properly, Paid Traffic is one of a great way to generate e-commerce sales. It’s quite expensive, and many people spend a lot in it but not get a satisfactory result.
You thought if this doesn’t provide good returns, then why I am suggesting it to you? But, as I already told you that if you do it properly, it will take your business to the new heights of success.
The people or businesses those who was failed in Paid traffic be likely to make common newbie mistakes that lead to no success. So, here I am discussing some things that you need to protect your e-commerce business and get success with Paid Traffic.
The most common mistake people make when they start paid traffic is that they spend a lot of money for the first time as they thought to spend big money brings big result. But, this is not true. Firstly, spend a small amount and see the results.
Dumping a lot of money in the campaign is something like ‘killing the goose that lays golden eggs’. Start with not more than $50 because there is no any surety of the success of your Paid traffic campaign.
If you invest lots of capital in the first campaign, and it will not work, then you get a huge loss. On the other hand, if you spend less amount, you can again create another campaign.
Other than this, if you still wish to spend some good amount, then don’t invest all your money in a single campaign. Create multiple campaigns and devote the certain sum of capital in each and every campaign. This help you keep track of the campaign that brings traffic, and also those who doesn’t provide any result.
When you spot this difference, you can start spending on the campaigns that give you positive results.
With right campaign, you will know your right audience, which increases the chances of enhanced e-commerce sales.
Another method to find out the right customer is to send surveys to them via email if you have an email list of all customers. Add coupon code or some prize for the customers who will complete those surveys. This way, customers will send you the survey, and you will get to know your right audience.
Use Social Media Platforms
Now, the next method to generate sales with Paid Traffic is use social media platforms- Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Each platform work in a different way, so let’s discuss each one and see how the platform help in driving traffic as well as sales.
There is not enough information available for Twitter, so let’s start first with Twitter:
Here, I am going to discuss the process of creating Twitter ads.
Open the link – business.twitter.com and click on “Twitter Ads” button.
When you click on this button, a new page comes in which you have to select your country and permanent time zone to continue. After selecting click on “Permanently save these details.”
Next step is to select the objective of your campaign you wish to create. Select from the list and continue.
After this, you will be taken through the setup process for you ad. The process contains four steps – Overview, Audience, Budget, and Creatives.
(A) OVERVIEW
In overview section, give a name to your campaign and select the time when you want to run the campaign.
(B) Audience
In audience section, select the location that best represents your target customers.
When you select the country, for example, you select “United States”, then Twitter will show you the estimated audience size of your selected location.
Select the gender based on the products you are promoting in this campaign.
Select the language to ensure that ads are shown to people who understand the selected language.
Now you need to select “devices and platforms”. If you are selecting mobile devices, then make sure your website is responsive that run properly on all selected mobile devices.
No need to select “Target new devices” at this moment.
Now, the next and most important option in Audience section is “Select Additional Audience Features.”
Here are several options that help you target audience. Keywords option let you target the user who uses your selected keyword.
When you enter your keyword, you have the option to decide what Twitter will do with the keyword you selected.
For example, I want to sell “Leather wallet”. I can choose the keyword and also decide that I want all variations or similar versions of it to be targeted with “Broad match, Any Order.”
“Phrase Match” option facilitates you to target the phrases of your selected keyword.
With “Exact Match” option, the keyword you selected will be targeted exactly as it written.
By using “Negative Match” keywords, you can do the same in reverse. Here you can eliminate the keyword you selected.
You can see what would happen if you choose “Negative Phrase.”
“Negative Exact” avoid the searches that have no other word than the keyword.
After selecting the keyword with a suitable option, Twitter will tell you the daily global volume of Tweets containing each keyword.
“Add Followers” Option help you target the users of Twitter, who have similar interests regarding your selected keyword.
“Add Interests” Option let you target the users who are interested in the category you add select here.
“Add Tailored Audiences” help you target the list of all your current customers as well as prospective buyers who have already visited your store.
With “Add TV Targeting” Option, you can target the audience who are engaged in the TV programs or advertisement in the specific market.
You can target specific shows too with “Add Shows” option. For example, for my keyword “Leather wallet” I will target television shows based on Men’s Fashion or Accessories.
Add the networks as well as genres facilitate you to target the users based on network and different kinds of genres.
Pick the genre from here:-
“Add Behavior” Option help you target the audience based on their online as well as offline behavior.
With “Event Targeting” Option, you can target your ad based on global or regional events.
Other than this, you can also limit your targets by eliminating tailored audience and behaviors.
As I already told you, the better you sense your target audience, the better you take advantage of these features.
(C) BUDGET
Set your daily budget or the total budget for the entire campaign. When you select the total budget, you will see the estimated reach on the right side.
With this, you can see the potential of your market as it show ‘645K’ as estimated reach and ‘1M’ as targeted audience. This way you can easily get the users or audience that will convert.
(D) CREATIVES
In Creatives, you need to create a new tweet, or you can also select a tweet from the existing tweets.
If you are creating or composing a new tweet, then make sure you add fresh and engaging content in it that catch the attention of customers towards your tweet and ultimately on your campaign.
Other than this, if you are using the tweet from the existing tweets, then make sure you add call-to-actions to it, which will eventually help you boost brand awareness.
If you wish to make the most of the influence of your tweets, do add your website card. It will facilitate you to add a bigger clickable image with your tweet.
Now, the last step is to make the payment and launch your Twitter ad. This way, you can make use of Twitter ads to drive traffic and generate traffic.
Next social media platforms are FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM. Let’s cover these two also-
Facebook and Instagram both are two different platforms, but as Facebook owns Instagram, you will create the Instagram Ads inside the Facebook Ad Manager.
Setup Lookalike Audience
Based on audiences that are similar to the ones you’re already targeting or serving, Facebook will show your ads. This will be done because you create something known as a ‘Custom Audience.’
Facebook will then evaluate that Custom Audience and target other people on Facebook, who share similar behaviors. This diminishes the amount of time you have to spend adjusting targeting settings while also facilitate for your ads to be shown to the right audience.
Facebook will need to investigate your website visitors or even just a list of clienteles you have in your possession to create this audience.
If you wish to create “Lookalike Audience,” go to this link –
https://www.facebook.com/ads/manager/audiences/
When you reach to this page, you will see three kings of the audience here- Custom Audience, Lookalike Audience, and Saved Audience.
For lookalike audience, first you need to create “Custom Audience”. Click on “Create a Custom Audience” option first. After this, select your Source Audience.
If you wish to make “Website Traffic” as your source audience, then you need to install Facebook Pixel for this.
I have already covered in detail- “How Facebook Advertising Pixels Helps in Creating High Converting Ad Campaigns?” So, let’s take a look and see how you create ad campaigns with Facebook advertising pixels.
Other than this, if you want to use people on your email list, select the “Customer List” option and continue. You can upload the list from you PC, copy paste it and also import the list of customers from Mail Chimp.
After uploading the list, now you can create “Lookalike Audience” by clicking on “Create Lookalike Audience.”
After clicking, choose the audience you have created as custom audience and country.
Keep the audience size near 1% for now, as this will make sure that the targeting is fairly tight.
2) Boost Trust within Your Funnel
Improving trust within your funnel is another method you can use to boost your sales. It sounds complicated, let see how we can make it happen.
When a user buys any product from your site, the process will be like this:-
View Product page --> Add product --> View Shopping Cart --> Go through Checkout Process
To enhance customer trust, you need to add advanced things to your product page. As if you increase customer trust, it will eventually enhance your conversion rates.
Some of the things to add on product page with the intention of boosting trust are as follows:-
1) Quick & Handy Checklist
Many will be hesitant to buy from an e-commerce store they have never heard of. You have a chance to establish trust from the beginning via your advertising. A well –designed ad can help establish a great first impression.
But, here are a few quick and handy tips and things you may want to mention in your advertising:-
- Mention total number of orders shipped.
- Include customer service hours.
- List the phone numbers.
- Mention the number of customers served.
- Use a solid domain name.
- Include “trusted since xxx” (for e.g. “Trusted since 1990).
- If you are a verified reseller of a brand, include this fact.
- If you take PayPal as a payment method, do mention it.
- If you have been quoted in a credible publication, show that quote.
- If you are on Stella service, mention your ranking. In addition, also, add a link to that rating.
2) Add Product Reviews
With this, you can provide a social proof of how good your products are to the customers. This is important because 77% users check product reviews before buying any item.
3) Imagery
Make use of only high-quality e-commerce images.
4) About
A photo of your staff in your About us page can help. If you were previously a founder of another company or worked for a well-known company, do mention it clearly.
5) Though Leader
Educate users on your products. Being a thought leader can be beneficial.
6) Live Chat
Live chat feature gives a customer a feeling that you are a genuine seller and also help them to clear their queries/concerns right away.
7) Trust Badges
Just about, 17% of users who abandon their carts have payment security concern. So it’s a very god and beneficial option to add a trust badge on your site. Other than this, if you are a member of Better Business Bureau, post your grade (badge) on your website.
8) Add Testimonials
Testimonials are probably one of the best forms of Social proof. If you properly make use of them, they provide you website visitors with the comfort that they need before they click on the buy button.
9) Contact
Make your contact info clear. You may even want to put it at the bottom of every page.
10) Policies
A clear and concise return policy gives consumers a feeling of security; that what they are buying is guaranteed to be what it is represented to be. It is like a guarantee that reflects the trust retailers have in the products they sell.
11) After They Put Items in Cart
Now they have put items in their cart. You have a visitor with intend to buy. They are so close to becoming a customer, but how do you assure them through the checkout process and complete the sale? Here are some tips:-
- Mention the number of order shipped.
- Get an SSL certification to make sure you have https.
- List the phone numbers
- Show a delivery date and not the shipping date.
- Security badges like McAfee Secure, VeriSign, etc.
- Show where your shipping facility is. People may like to know from where their products are coming.
3) Make your Checkout Process Easy
The third option to generate sales is to make your checkout process simple.
People usually find it irritating to sign-up, verify the email address and mobile number and so many other formalities for buying the product they need. So, always try to make your checkout procedure simple and smooth.
1. Don’t need registration to shop
Your customers are here to buy, not fill out forms. Make sure that the registration is done during the checkout process and not before a visitor places products into their cart. Sign-up forms are obstacles because they take time and efforts to fill in.
By moving these obstacles further down the line you enhance the chance of your visitors becoming paying customers. This is because they have already spent time shopping so they are less likely to stop now and waste that initial involvement. If that barrier is placed right at the beginning, however, they might just walk away. Think of it as holding the door to your store open for your customers to come in.
2. Inform customers if the product is available
Be clear about the accessibility of the products and notify your customers about the stock levels. If a product is not available, don’t take your potential customer through several steps just for them to discover that they can’t really buy it right away. Don’t just display stock levels on product pages either, show them right on the search results page.
In addition to this, if a product is out of stock right but will be obtainable at a later date, offer a pre-order option so those people who are not worried about getting it straight away can still make the purchase.
3. Allow your customers to easily modify the order
Everybody makes mistakes. People put the wrong products into their shopping cart or change their mind. Make sure you don’t discourage your prospective customers during the checkout procedure by making things simple to modify.
If someone wish to delete one or more products from their shopping cart, don’t force them to enter the zero amount; in its place, provide a “remove” or “cross icon” that will delete a product from the cart and make sure order modification is easy and quick.
4. Provide users with real-time support
Since the checkout procedure needs user’s input, it is very likely to assume that many users might face difficulties – caused by any misinterpretations or some particular interests or needs that cannot be effortlessly defined by making use of the existing web-interface. In these circumstances, it may be essential to provide users with personal, professional assistance in place of sending them to large assistance- or FAQ-pages that may not have the solution to user’s problem. And, unquestionably, if users don’t get the support they need and have uncertainties about the whole thing, they are very likely to cancel the checkout process.
Therefore, it is a good idea to add a telephone - or chat assistance for the checkout process. Not every company can afford it, but middle and larger companies may want to consider this option, particularly if the checkout process is more involved.
5. Keep the ‘Back’ button fully functional
The back button is one of the most utilized buttons in a web browser, so you can be sure some peopl
