13 Simple Strategies to Increase E-Commerce Sales in 2023
Updated July 2023
Simply Having an E-Commerce Site is Not Enough!
You have an e-commerce website. Good for you. Hopefully, you have great content, breathtaking product images, and a smooth and intuitive checkout process as well. But even if you do, you are barely getting started as a digital competitor without certain essential e-commerce elements and strategies. In addition to the above, they include mobile-friendly designs, a sense of security and transparency, social media integration, and customer reviews.
We work with many e-commerce clients, and we noticed a consistent if somewhat alarming trend. Many businesses think they need to buy an e-commerce website, add products and pricing, and start selling. In reality, many things go into building and maintaining an e-commerce store. Today I want to focus on a few useful strategies to help you increase e-commerce sales.
It is easy to understand why e-commerce site owners focus on sales only; they are ready to sell when visitors arrive. But consumers may not be prepared to buy at that stage. Especially if they are new to your business, they are at a different step in their journey of conversion. Instead of being an overly pushy salesperson, you can use effective e-commerce strategies to align your selling process to your consumers.
13 Ways You Can Increase E-Commerce Sales
An e-commerce website requires so much more than just a shopping cart, simple images, or descriptions. It requires you to provide a fluid and robust user experience. Great user experience will dramatically increase conversions on your website.
The following tips will give your e-commerce consumers the best possible user experience and increase e-commerce sales. And this experience is precisely what the modern and increasingly finicky social, mobile, and local shopper (So-Mo-Lo) expects. Most of these strategies should be obvious, but others are less obvious. Let’s help you do better!
Businesses should optimize digital strategy for conversion.
BigCommerce
Conversion Optimization
No matter what you sell, chances are you have some competitors. Staying ahead of them means getting more potential customers to your site and converting them once they’re there.
Average e-commerce conversion rates fall around 2% to 4%. By investing time and money in e-commerce conversion rate optimization tactics, you can expect to see conversion rates as high as 3% to 4%.
Popupsmart
Conversion optimization is a growing concern in 2023 as businesses look to finetune their product pages. One effective strategy is to make sure your products stand out across multi-channel marketing avenues. Conversion optimization includes dynamic ads on Facebook, shopping ads on Google, and on-site digital marketing efforts.
Mobile-First Design
To increase e-commerce sales, you simply must have a mobile-first e-commerce site in 2023. Currently, 72% of online shoppers are visiting your website from a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone. Mobile viewing includes initial browsing, actual shopping, social sharing, and return visits. Make sure your visitors have a rewarding and engaging user experience across all devices.
Mcommerce sales are projected to exceed $510 billion in 2023 and $710 billion in 2025.
Tidio
This mobile-friendly test tool lets you quickly check if your e-commerce site is ready for mobile consumers.
Voice Search
If you want to increase e-commerce sales in 2023, you need to focus on voice search usability. Mobile shoppers are increasingly relying on voice assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to do everything from checking the weather to buying products online.
Around 28 percent U.S. households owned at least one smart speaker in 2018. That share is projected to reach around 75 percent by 2025.
Statista
More and more households get this technology and grow more comfortable using it to make purchases. There is great potential for e-commerce businesses looking to get in on the ground floor.
Artificial Intelligence
Another aspect of brick-and-mortar shopping that is missing in online shopping is a helpful in-store associate. This assistant or helper can offer product recommendations and personalized guidance based on the shopper’s needs or requests. Therefore, to increase e-commerce sales in 2023, you should utilize artificial intelligence to act as your virtual in-store associate.
A recent study found that 84% of eCommerce companies either actively integrate AI technologies into their operations or have it as a key priority.
Locate2u
As artificial intelligence and machine learning increase in sophistication, many e-commerce businesses have started leveraging them to make smart product recommendations. This will likely increase in 2024, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg in ways AI can contribute to retail and e-commerce. It is expected to grow beyond $15 trillion by 2030, with 80% of emerging technologies stemming from AI in 2023.
Chatbots
A chatbot can serve the role of the brick-and-mortar greeter and salesperson. Chatbots allow stores to communicate with thousands of customers while giving them the feeling of personal attention and thoughtful recommendations based on their responses.
34% of online retail store customers accept AI chatbots.
Popupsmart
A growing number of shoppers prefer to converse with bots and other digital self-service tools. One study found that more than 74% of customers report preferring having websites, apps, or chatbots answer their more straightforward inquiries. One of the primary reasons for this is because of the faster response time.
Today, more businesses are using chatbots than ever. The market was already worth $2.6 billion in 2019, and it’s expected to reach $9.4 billion by 2024. In addition to just increasing in frequency, there are several ways experts predict bots will evolve in the coming years.
Quick Load Time
You must have a fast-loading website if you want or need to increase e-commerce sales. Studies show that you lose 40% of your customers if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. There are many things you can do to increase site speed.
Start by using a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare or StackPath. Optimize product and other images by using a compression plugin such as Imagify, Smush, or ShortPixel. Image editing programs like Adobe Photoshop enable some image compression tools.
Seventy percent of consumers indicate that page speed influences their purchasing decisions from online retailers. Each additional second of load time decreases conversion rates by an average of 4.42 percent (in the first five seconds).
BrowserStack
Other steps, like minifying your codes and restructuring your data, usually require professional web developers.
Call to Action Buttons
When your customers arrive on your website, they begin a journey of discovery. And they will need someone to lead them. Make it easy for your visitors by providing them with call-to-action (CTA) buttons on every page. By creating effective CTAs, you can steer your customers toward the buying decision and increase e-commerce sales.
On-Site Personalization
As I mentioned earlier, AI is increasing in e-commerce and various related applications. To increase e-commerce sales, AI can gather information about visitors and help adjust the site to their expectations and requirements. Humans value experiences and products customized for them. This personalized service went missing in the switch to online, self-service shopping.
Personalized homepage promotions influenced 85% of consumers to buy while personalized shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of shoppers online.
Instapage
Implementing personalized experiences on-site or in marketing efforts has been shown to substantially affect revenue, with one study finding it had a 25% revenue lift. Recent data also indicates that personalization efforts can reduce bounce rates by 45%.
Secure Checkout and Payment Options
Of course, leading your clients toward your shop doesn’t work if your checkout process is overly complicated or time-consuming. 17% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order in the past quarter solely due to a “too long / complicated checkout process”. We consider a transparent and secure checkout process essential if you want to increase e-commerce sales.
In 2023 many mobile consumers are also expecting more and better payment options full stop. For example, when shopping from an overseas business, they may expect to be able to buy using their preferred local payment provider.
Additionally, mobile consumers are used to the ease of shopping on big online retailers like Amazon and Walmart. They save the customers’ billing and shipping information to make for a fast and simple checkout experience without a lot of data entry. E-commerce sites are increasingly using payment options such as Square, Stripe, Apple Pay, Paypal, Google Pay, and other financing options that enable a frictionless checkout.
Security Certificates
To increase e-commerce sales, you must have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate for your e-commerce domain. You can easily recognize sites that have them by the https:// prefix and the green padlock in the browser bar. Not only have SSL Certificates been a Google requirement since 2018, but your potential shoppers will also get a sense of trust and security from them.
It also helps if you can list other certificates, such as BBB Licenses or VeriSign. Adding as much transparency and certification as possible lets you tell your potential customers that you are not a risk.
Many domain registrars like GoDaddy and website hosting providers like Cloudways, BlueHost, and WPEngine offer free SSL Certificates as part of their hosting packages. And we do as well!
82.9% of the websites use a valid SSL certificate, up from 18.5% five years ago.
SSL Dragon
Contact Information
Another simple way to increase e-commerce sales is to list your contact info. But many e-commerce websites lack easy-to-find contact information! Your potential clients and existing customers need your contact information to inquire about your products and services and resolve any problems. Make sure you list at least the following: phone, email, mailing or store address, Skype, Line or WhatsApp (if applicable), and fax (if applicable.)
Because they don’t have to wait on hold, 42% of customers prefer live chat over other help options.
SaaSworthy
Social Media Links
Here is another simple way to increase e-commerce sales, social media integration! Social media has a significant impact on your e-commerce website and can also help drive traffic. Among people who buy things online, 97% accessed social media the previous month. 24. Among American internet users between the ages of 18-34, almost 40% have bought a product from social media.
According to online purchase statistics, 87% of online shoppers use social media while making shopping decisions.
Fashion Discounts
Be sure to promote social sharing on your site through apps like Monarch. And offer your clients social check-in as an alternative to creating an actual account to enhance user experience further and increase e-commerce sales.
Customer Reviews
And finally, don’t forget about customer reviews if you want to increase e-commerce sales. 92% of buyers consider reviews before buying your product, so make your customer reviews stand out. A customer review can be as simple as a sentence or two or as elaborate as a video testimonial or case study. Consumer comments will also help your site rank for the review keywords.
98% of shoppers say reviews are an essential resource when making purchase decisions. Nearly half (45%) of consumers won’t purchase a product if there are no reviews available.
PowerReviews
How to Increase E-Commerce Sales Yourself
Now that you have a list of recommendations to help you increase e-commerce sales, it is time to add and implement them on your website. You should already be able to maintain your e-commerce website as far as adding product information and images and updating content is concerned. You can implement some of these e-commerce tips as part of that process, such as adding testimonials and current contact info.
Social media integration should be part of an organic social media strategy. You may also want to consider what other social media options you wish to add. And some of my recommendations to increase e-commerce sales may require some additional help from your web designer or developer. If you don’t have a web designer or developer, here is a Guide To Hiring a Web Designer.
Increasing online conversions must be a primary objective in 2023 if you want your online store to support your business objectives. But this is not a one-time effort. You need to keep working on it to meet the user expectations of ever more demanding and sophisticated mobile consumers. If you want to increase e-commerce sales, we are here to help!
Do You Need Help Increasing E-Commerce Sales?
We would be happy to add and implement any or all of the e-commerce strategies listed in this post. Our professional e-commerce designers will be happy to help you with this. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.
Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your ecommerce web design needs, reach out to us! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.
And if you are unsure how to increase your e-commerce sales, let’s talk! We will listen to you, answer your questions, and help you provide your visitors with the fluid and user-friendly experience they expect. As a top e-commerce development company, that is one of our specialties!
Did You Increase E-Commerce Sales?
Did you finetune your e-commerce site to increase engagement and conversions? Which strategies worked best for you? Do you have any tips of your own you would like to share? Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit as well.
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For more content relevant to your business or product brand – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, explaining how fixing ecommerce design mistakes increases sales, is an excellent place to start!)
Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita
