Did you know that you can drastically increase your sales with just a few tweaks? This is what growth hacking is all about – It is about leveraging your existing resources creatively for a higher return. Since it involves creativity, it usually employs strategies so plain that most eCommerce marketers miss them.
Today, I’ll show you 20 eCommerce marketing growth hacks that can get you more sales. This would hopefully get your creative juices flowing.
Growth Hack #1: Combine Urgency and Scarcity
If you want to increase your sales with just a few tweaks, you can easily do that by employing two concepts: urgency and scarcity. You see, customers can be slackers. While they know that they want a particular product, they usually undergo the process of convincing themselves out of it.
One of the reasons they bail is that they found that the product will always be there in case they change their minds. The best workaround for this tendency is to provide a product with a limited amount. Adding this to your eCommerce website is easy.
All you need to do is add a stock number, highlight it in red and just put 1 in it. That’s it. This is magical. Usually, customers will stop stalling and buy right away in fear of missing out. Try it. It works.
Growth Hack #2: Offer Incentives for User Generated Content
There are some customers who love to read reviews before buying. These customers are careful on where they spend their money and they want to only get the best for them. With this, you need to have other people tell them how great your product is and how well they can trust you.
For this, you’ll need user generated content. To gather these, simply offer some incentives for reviews. It doesn’t even need to be an item. You can just give them discounts for their future purchases.
Growth Hack #3: Use Offline Marketing for Reviews
And if you want to up the ante, you can always set up a booth and ask people to review your website for you. I have seen several brands do this. They set up a booth and they ask people to like their page in exchange for a discount or an item.
The best part? You can also record these people on video so that you can have convincing video reviews. These are often enough to get a customer who is on the fence on buying to take out their wallets and buy.
Growth Hack #4: Don’t Give Your Visitors a Choice
If you have visited several eCommerce websites, you’ll notice that they have one thing in common: the clutter. They usually have dozens of images on the front page and they also have tons of categories. While this setup is useful for SEO and navigation purposes, it is not that good for sales.
Think about it. If you enter a shopping area and found that you have so many choices. Your tendency is to dismiss the idea of buying from being overwhelmed.
With this, I suggest that you keep your website’s front page free of clutter. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have categories or products. Just keep the front page clean. That’s it.
What should you put there? Well, an email capture page is nice. I will tell you more about its benefits later.
What happens when a customer purchases? Usually, you give them an expected time of delivery and that’s it. But what if you use this chance to ask for a share?
It wouldn’t hurt right? After all, this is the time when they are fully engaged with your website. One way to encourage them to share your site is to ask them to fill up a short survey about their buying experience.
Ask them if they would recommend the site to other people and add some share buttons. It’s that easy.
Growth Hack #6: Power Your Website with Images
We live in an age of social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. More than ever, images and multimedia elements are now more in demand than ever. Online surfers are now more receptive to visually appealing elements.
With this in mind, you should also design your website in this way. And this is not only to appeal to your customer’s visual taste but also to showcase your products in an appealing way. The lack of good images can sometimes hurt your eCommerce website so be sure to only use images with clear resolutions.
Aside from reviews, you can also incentivize shares. This is where you give your customer a reward whenever they share your website with other people. Sharing can be done through social media or through email.
With each share, you can give them something small like a discount coupon or you can give them a limited edition item. You can use contests as well. This is where you ask them to share your site so that they can enter to win a particular prize.
I have seen some brands do this on Facebook and it has allowed them to get more exposure in a shorter period of time.
Growth Hack #8: Use Referral Marketing
Aside from shares, you can also reward your customers for bringing other people into your site. This is what Uber and AirBnb has done. They give people a discount for succeeding purchases if they refer a person to the website.
This is also PayPal’s secret to its success. It started by paying people to join the site. You may think that it may lose money.
It probably did but it gained so much in return. Now, it is the leading payment processor on the Internet today. The key is to offer something of value in exchange for a referral.
This can be a discount coupon or a coupon with a specific money amount. You can also give away some freebies. It just needs to be valuable to your target market.
Growth Hack #9: Discounts or Points for Repeat Orders
You can also keep the rewards coming by giving discounts or points for repeat orders. If someone has bought from your site and you have not heard from them for a while, you can send them a personalized email giving them a discount if they proceed to order again. Some stores do this already.
But instead of discounts, they give away points. These points are accumulated with each purchase and can later be redeemed for free products. They usually have a swipe card or a stamp card to do this.
Online, you can also do this by giving your customer some points for each order. Once they accumulate enough points, they will be able to get a free item. It will encourage them to keep buying from you again and again.
Growth Hack #10: Offer Incentives for Abandoned Carts
Abandoned carts are an eCommerce website owner’s worst nightmare. This is where a customer decided to order but changes his mind half-way. The best solution to this problem is to offer an incentive.
This can be a simple email telling them that you’ll give them a discount just for continuing their order.
Growth Hack #11: Retargeting Works
There are customers that constantly need reminding. For this, you may need retargeting ads to help you. What are retargeting ads?
These are ads that follow the customer no matter where they go. So if they visit their favorite social network, they will see your ad. When they are searching for something on Google, they will still see your ad. That’s retargeting.
Retargeting is great because it reminds the customer about your product. This is usually enough to get your customer to go back to your website to buy.
Growth Hack #12: Employ Exit Marketing
Just when you have employed every method imaginable to get people into your website, they would visit for a few minutes and click ‘Back’. That’s just insane. And if that is not enough, they would just open other tabs just to spread their attention too thin to even remember that they are buying from you.
With this, you need a strategy to get their attention and get them back to your site. This is where exit marketing comes in. What is exit marketing?
This is where a pop-up comes out when your customer clicks back or moves to another tab. It gets their attention back to your store. And if the pop-up contains an enticing offer, it is usually enough to get them to buy.
Growth Hack #13: Offer Seasonal Deals
Also, don’t forget the seasonal deals. There’s a reason why the Starbucks Christmas frappe is so popular and it is because it is only available for a limited time. Although it is expected to come again next year, the urge to purchase is still high.
With this, you should also add some seasonal deals to your site to convince your customers to buy from you.
Growth Hack #14: Split Test Your Product Pages
It never hurts to split test your product pages. This will let you know the type of product pages that your customers respond to. To do this, simply use some split testing softwares and create some pages with smaller images and others with bigger images.
Try to tweak the other elements and watch if your conversion rate changes.
Growth Hack #15: Attract with Technology
These days, you need to attract customers with more than just the usual. After all, you don’t want to be seen as just another website selling your product. You want to be unique and stand out.
With this, technology can be your friend. I have seen brands create really useful apps for their brand and this has given their customers a reason to choose them over their competitors. App development is not cheap but it is worth it especially if it will make your brand stand out from the others.
Growth Hack #16: Learn the Art of Preselling
Did you know that you have to get your customer ready to buy? The act of buying is not as simple. After all, not all people are impulsive buyers.
They usually take the time to think about their purchases before doing it. Preselling can help you sway your customer to the right direction. This is where you give them content (in their email or in your blog) that will convince them to buy.
This can be a collection or reviews or a simple top 10 list showcasing your best products in a particular category.
Growth Hack #17: Work with People with the Same Market
Also, aim to drive more people to your website. How? You work with people in the same market. So if you are in the health niche, you would want to work with fitness bloggers.
They will often give you the same market – people who are concerned about improving their health. The same is true if you are selling gadgets. You can work with gaming blogs as this will give you a market that is interested in the changing technological landscape.
Growth Hack #18: Always Capture Emails
I have said it earlier and I will say it again. Don’t make the mistake of just letting your customers pass through your funnel without collecting their emails. Always capture their emails.
I love to use Sumo’s full screen overlay for this. This allows me to create a direct-to-the-point front page that can help me capture emails before the customer proceeds in my site.
Growth Hack #19: Bundle Products for More Sales
Just when your customer is about to hit ‘Buy’, you can offer them bundles at a slightly lower price. This will often make them think twice about the product that they are buying and they will more likely take you up on your offer. You can set these bundles in the checkout form or just list some related products just as they are about to checkout.
Growth Hack #20: Blow Your Customer Away with After Sales Services
Sales don’t end after your customer hits ‘Buy’. After all, your customer is not there to only buy from you one-time. They are there to buy from you again and again.
Because of this, after sales service is crucial. You have to be there to not only address all of their questions and concerns but also provide services without them asking. This will often result to referrals and repeat purchases which will eventually improve your sales.
What do you think? Do you like these growth hacks? Which growth hack strategy will you use first? Tell me all about it below.
Did you know that you can drastically increase your sales with just a few tweaks? This is what growth hacking is all about – It is about leveraging your existing resources creatively for a higher return. Since it involves creativity, it usually employs strategies so plain that most eCommerce marketers miss them.
Today, I’ll show you 20 eCommerce marketing growth hacks that can get you more sales. This would hopefully get your creative juices flowing.
Growth Hack #1: Combine Urgency and Scarcity
If you want to increase your sales with just a few tweaks, you can easily do that by employing two concepts: urgency and scarcity.
You see, customers can be slackers. While they know that they want a particular product, they usually undergo the process of convincing themselves out of it. One of the reasons they bail is that they found that the product will always be there in case they change their minds.
The best workaround for this tendency is to provide a product with a limited amount. Adding this to your eCommerce website is easy. All you need to do is add a stock number, highlight it in red and just put 1 in it. That’s it.
This is magical. Usually, customers will stop stalling and buy right away in fear of missing out. Try it. It works.
Growth Hack #2: Offer Incentives for User Generated Content
There are some customers who love to read reviews before buying. These customers are careful on where they spend their money and they want to only get the best for them. With this, you need to have other people tell them how great your product is and how well they can trust you.
For this, you’ll need user generated content. To gather these, simply offer some incentives for reviews. It doesn’t even need to be an item. You can just give them discounts for their future purchases.
Growth Hack #3: Use Offline Marketing for Reviews
And if you want to up the ante, you can always set up a booth and ask people to review your website for you. I have seen several brands do this. They set up a booth and they ask people to like their page in exchange for a discount or an item.
The best part? You can also record these people on video so that you can have convincing video reviews. These are often enough to get a customer who is on the fence on buying to take out their wallets and buy.
Growth Hack #4: Don’t Give Your Visitors a Choice
If you have visited several eCommerce websites, you’ll notice that they have one thing in common: the clutter. They usually have dozens of images on the front page and they also have tons of categories. While this setup is useful for SEO and navigation purposes, it is not that good for sales. Think about it.
If you enter a shopping area and found that you have so many choices. Your tendency is to dismiss the idea of buying from being overwhelmed. With this, I suggest that you keep your website’s front page free of clutter.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have categories or products. Just keep the front page clean. That’s it. What should you put there?
Well, an email capture page is nice. I will tell you more about its benefits later.
What happens when a customer purchases? Usually, you give them an expected time of delivery and that’s it. But what if you use this chance to ask for a share?
It wouldn’t hurt right? After all, this is the time when they are fully engaged with your website. One way to encourage them to share your site is to ask them to fill up a short survey about their buying experience.
Ask them if they would recommend the site to other people and add some share buttons. It’s that easy.
Growth Hack #6: Power Your Website with Images
We live in an age of social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. More than ever, images and multimedia elements are now more in demand than ever. Online surfers are now more receptive to visually appealing elements.
With this in mind, you should also design your website in this way. And this is not only to appeal to your customer’s visual taste but also to showcase your products in an appealing way. The lack of good images can sometimes hurt your eCommerce website so be sure to only use images with clear resolutions.
Aside from reviews, you can also incentivize shares. This is where you give your customer a reward whenever they share your website with other people. Sharing can be done through social media or through email.
With each share, you can give them something small like a discount coupon or you can give them a limited edition item. You can use contests as well. This is where you ask them to share your site so that they can enter to win a particular prize.
I have seen some brands do this on Facebook and it has allowed them to get more exposure in a shorter period of time.
Growth Hack #8: Use Referral Marketing
Aside from shares, you can also reward your customers for bringing other people into your site. This is what Uber and AirBnb has done. They give people a discount for succeeding purchases if they refer a person to the website.
This is also PayPal’s secret to its success. It started by paying people to join the site. You may think that it may lose money.
It probably did but it gained so much in return. Now, it is the leading payment processor on the Internet today. The key is to offer something of value in exchange for a referral.
This can be a discount coupon or a coupon with a specific money amount. You can also give away some freebies. It just needs to be valuable to your target market.
Growth Hack #9: Discounts or Points for Repeat Orders
You can also keep the rewards coming by giving discounts or points for repeat orders. If someone has bought from your site and you have not heard from them for a while, you can send them a personalized email giving them a discount if they proceed to order again. Some stores do this already. But instead of discounts, they give away points.
These points are accumulated with each purchase and can later be redeemed for free products. They usually have a swipe card or a stamp card to do this. Online, you can also do this by giving your customer some points for each order.
Once they accumulate enough points, they will be able to get a free item. It will encourage them to keep buying from you again and again.
Growth Hack #10: Offer Incentives for Abandoned Carts
Abandoned carts are an eCommerce website owner’s worst nightmare. This is where a customer decided to order but changes his mind half-way. The best solution to this problem is to offer an incentive.
This can be a simple email telling them that you’ll give them a discount just for continuing their order.
Growth Hack #11: Retargeting Works
There are customers that constantly need reminding. For this, you may need retargeting ads to help you. What are retargeting ads?
These are ads that follow the customer no matter where they go. So if they visit their favorite social network, they will see your ad. When they are searching for something on Google, they will still see your ad. That’s retargeting.
Retargeting is great because it reminds the customer about your product. This is usually enough to get your customer to go back to your website to buy.
Growth Hack #12: Employ Exit Marketing
Just when you have employed every method imaginable to get people into your website, they would visit for a few minutes and click ‘Back’. That’s just insane. And if that is not enough, they would just open other tabs just to spread their attention too thin to even remember that they are buying from you.
With this, you need a strategy to get their attention and get them back to your site. This is where exit marketing comes in. What is exit marketing?
This is where a pop-up comes out when your customer clicks back or moves to another tab. It gets their attention back to your store. And if the pop-up contains an enticing offer, it is usually enough to get them to buy.
Growth Hack #13: Offer Seasonal Deals
Also, don’t forget the seasonal deals. There’s a reason why the Starbucks Christmas frappe is so popular and it is because it is only available for a limited time. Although it is expected to come again next year, the urge to purchase is still high.
With this, you should also add some seasonal deals to your site to convince your customers to buy from you.
Growth Hack #14: Split Test Your Product Pages
It never hurts to split test your product pages. This will let you know the type of product pages that your customers respond to. To do this, simply use some split testing softwares and create some pages with smaller images and others with bigger images.
Try to tweak the other elements and watch if your conversion rate changes.
Growth Hack #15: Attract with Technology
These days, you need to attract customers with more than just the usual. After all, you don’t want to be seen as just another website selling your product. You want to be unique and stand out.
With this, technology can be your friend. I have seen brands create really useful apps for their brand and this has given their customers a reason to choose them over their competitors.
App development is not cheap but it is worth it especially if it will make your brand stand out from the others.
Growth Hack #16: Learn the Art of Preselling
Did you know that you have to get your customer ready to buy? The act of buying is not as simple. After all, not all people are impulsive buyers. They usually take the time to think about their purchases before doing it.
Preselling can help you sway your customer to the right direction. This is where you give them content (in their email or in your blog) that will convince them to buy. This can be a collection or reviews or a simple top 10 list showcasing your best products in a particular category.
Growth Hack #17: Work with People with the Same Market
Also, aim to drive more people to your website. How? You work with people in the same market.
So if you are in the health niche, you would want to work with fitness bloggers. They will often give you the same market – people who are concerned about improving their health.
The same is true if you are selling gadgets. You can work with gaming blogs as this will give you a market that is interested in the changing technological landscape.
Growth Hack #18: Always Capture Emails
I have said it earlier and I will say it again. Don’t make the mistake of just letting your customers pass through your funnel without collecting their emails. Always capture their emails.
I love to use Sumo’s full screen overlay for this. This allows me to create a direct-to-the-point front page that can help me capture emails before the customer proceeds in my site.
Growth Hack #19: Bundle Products for More Sales
Just when your customer is about to hit ‘Buy’, you can offer them bundles at a slightly lower price. This will often make them think twice about the product that they are buying and they will more likely take you up on your offer.
You can set these bundles in the checkout form or just list some related products just as they are about to checkout.
Growth Hack #20: Blow Your Customer Away with After Sales Services
Sales don’t end after your customer hits ‘Buy’. After all, your customer is not there to only buy from you one-time. They are there to buy from you again and again.
Because of this, after sales service is crucial. You have to be there to not only address all of their questions and concerns but also provide services without them asking. This will often result to referrals and repeat purchases which will eventually improve your sales.
What do you think? Do you like these growth hacks? Which growth hack strategy will you use first? Tell me all about it below.
Thanks for the great value. Growth hack #9 will be my favorite!
Thanks for the informative posting. Sharing everywhere.
Wow!!! So many ideas I can start working on right now.
Awesome
This post is very informative about hacking eCommerce businesses. Thank you for sharing this.