Dec 26, 2022
20 Simple Growth Hacks for Boosting your eCommerce Sales
Are you ready to take your eCommerce business to the next level? Of course, you are. So, why not use a little growth hacking along the way?
Growth hacking has become one of the most popular tools for digital businesses looking to increase profits — and with a good reason.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss an array of effective tactics that can help you accelerate growth, foster customers’ loyalty, and enhance their experiences.
Strap on those virtual seatbelts and get ready to bump up your bottom line in no time! 🔝
What Is Growth Hacking?
Growth hacking is a buzzword that’s often tossed around in business circles, and it’s all about extending your customer reach and maximizing profits.
A growth hacker in eCommerce is like a master chef carefully layering different ingredients to create the perfect recipe for success. They use website optimization, data analytics, and SEO as its building blocks and mix in a hint of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit to create powerful results. It’s the alchemy of merging technology with modern-day marketing techniques — essential tools to power up online businesses and propelling them into the stratosphere. 🚀
By leveraging data and experimentation to quickly identify real opportunities for growth, eCommerce companies can use A/B testing, strategic partnerships, and content promotion to communicate with customers in novel ways and expand a company’s outreach exponentially.
As all seasoned marketers know, the challenge isn’t growth hacking per se — it’s doing it in an effective and efficient manner that maximizes ROI.
Best Growth Hacks for Your eCommerce Business
1. Start by identifying your problem areas
The best way to approach growth hacking is by identifying the areas of challenge and then finding effective solutions for them. 🗝️
To uncover where the weak spots might be, you need to look closely at the data. Study things like customer behavior, retention rate, average cart value, website performance, etc. Analyze how visitors interact with your website and figure out when and why they leave without taking any action. Study customer reviews and pay attention to negative comments that can be used as touchpoints for improving some aspects of your product or service.
Knowing the underlying causes for low sales and ROI provides a great foundation from which you can build and refine your growth hacking strategies. Ultimately, this allows you to fine-tune the engine of your eCommerce success.
2. Do your research, and know thy audience
“The most crucial aspect of marketing is understanding the target audience. And if you ask me who you should target more on the Internet, I would say your most valuable clients. Your top clients are those that purchase from you repeatedly and contribute the most of your revenue. If you have been selling for a while, you should be aware of your top clients.” — Jamie Irwin, Digital Marketing Expert at TutorCruncher
Understanding your audience is a must in an eCommerce business. You need to analyze who your customers are and what they want. Get familiar with the language they use and their behaviors — this will help you craft engaging and relevant content and create offers that meet your customers’ needs (or even go above and beyond their expectations). 🤩
3. Learn from your competitors
In business, it’s always useful to look at what your competitors are doing and learn from their successes and mistakes. Analyzing their strategies can give you a great understanding of what works in your market and also provide ideas for how to tweak your own practices.
Getting inspiration from but not copying your competition is all part of the game. So, don’t be a copycat — be competitive! 🤼
4. Segment your audience
Every product is different, and different people will respond to them differently. That’s why we need targeting, segmentation, and personalization. 🎯
Segmenting your audience into demographics like age range, gender, and interests can help you tailor your marketing message so that it’s better aligned with the needs and wants of each person. And one thing is certain — custom newsletters, targeted product offers, and personalized ads have a much better chance to engage your audience than any message addressed to a generalized and abstract group of people.
“Personalization is the most effective technique to distinguish oneself from others vying for the same person’s attention. By customizing your internet marketing, you may attract the attention of everyone. If you can convince someone that you know them well, you can convince them to purchase your product or service.” — Jamie Irwin, eCommerce Growth Expert at James and James Fulfilment
5. Improve your SEO strategy
In the eCommerce industry, search engine optimization (SEO) is king. Boosting your rankings on search engine result pages can mean a world of difference when it comes to web traffic. If you’re looking for an efficient way to get more eyes on your site and ideally convert them into paying customers, SEO is where it’s at.
From delicately crafting content designed to reach your target audience to understanding keywords and optimizing pages, mastering SEO can give an eCommerce business an edge they won’t find anywhere else. Taking what you already know about your customers and how they interact with your brand and marrying that insight with knowledge of how search engines work and which kind of content it takes to rank well will ensure the right people come across your company.
An effective SEO strategy is essentially a carefully honed operational strategy akin to a beautiful marketing ballet. So don’t be left in the dust — get creative and embrace the strategies needed for a successful online presence. 🌐
6. Create valuable content
Creating valuable content can be a tedious affair, but it’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds (and highly effective!).
Providing helpful resources, such as educational articles, e-books, and comprehensive FAQ pages, not only helps customers make informed purchase decisions but also shows that you take your business seriously and are committed to providing excellent customer service.
Additionally, sharing creative images or video demonstrations of products can result in higher sales and build trust with potential customers. Just start thinking outside the box when it comes to content creation, and, who knows, it may easily become one of the most powerful tools in your growth hacking toolkit. 📝
7. Decrease website loading time
“Did you know that if a site’s load time takes three seconds, there is a 32% probability that the user will bounce? An overwhelming 90% will navigate away at the five-second mark. This means that web surfers today are clearly not putting up with slow load times, so ensure you have the infrastructure in place to accommodate that preference.” — Stephanie Venn-Watson, a researcher and eCommerce guru at Fatty15
Cutting the fat from your website loading time can make or break the success of your venture. Just consider this: you want a customer to browse your products and complete a purchase, but if they arrive at your site only to be greeted by pages loading like sludge, then they’re as good as gone — and your growth prospects take a massive hit. 💥
That’s why decreasing website loading times is one of the best methods for eCommerce growth around: fast loading times encourage more visits, provide better user experience, result in higher conversion rates, and contribute to more growth. After all — what better hack is there than making sure customers actually get to see what you have to offer?
8. Enhance your product descriptions
A few strategic keywords can make all the difference when it comes to attracting new customers. And by crafting compelling, keyword-rich descriptions, you will elevate your products in the rankings of the search engine results pages and draw much-needed attention to your products. 👀
But that’s not all.
Achieving success through bigger sales starts with knowing how to talk about your product overall: a keyword and a picture alone are simply not enough! Give customers a unique experience that takes into account all of their senses. You know what they say — a picture may be worth a thousand words — but the right words are still just as important for success.
So, combine engaging, creative prose with cleverly crafted visuals, and you’ll be able to encourage purchases and convert potential buyers into loyal customers with greater ease.
9. Try guest blogging
If you haven’t heard of guest blogging, you’ve been missing out on a powerful growth hack for your eCommerce business.
It works like this: instead of writing content for your own blog, you reach out to reputable industry blogs and offer to write content for them in exchange for backlinks to your online store. Every link included in the blog post is like giving your website a vote of confidence from an established source, driving more organic traffic back to you, and helping to increase search engine rankings over time. 🔗
“If you want to secure a guest post on a popular blog, it’s crucial to write a strong outreach email. The ideal approach to composing it is to be sincere, thorough, and brief. Introduce yourself, discuss why you’re interested in writing for the blog, and highlight your prior writing experience. Include several samples of your work in the email and explain why you believe your new piece will be a worthwhile addition to the blog’s content.” — Dean Lee, Head of eCommerce at 88Vape
10. Use interactive content
By transforming seemingly mundane content into something engaging and captivating, you will leave customers wanting more. And the most effective way to do this is to use interactive content such as quizzes, polls, or surveys that engage customers on a deeper level. Besides, such content provides a chance to gain valuable insights into customer preferences, and you can apply this information for the good of your business.
11. Optimize for conversions
You want to make it easy for visitors to find what they need so that they don’t give up and go elsewhere. In this regard, it can be useful to rethink how your website menus look and are organized by trying out different styles and making them more intuitive and aligned with customers’ needs. 👍
Additionally, make sure to craft content that not only informs the potential customers about your products but also entices them to take action (maybe a coupon or newsletter signup offer if they haven’t bought anything yet?).
By tapping into website and content optimization, you can speed up traffic through your sales funnel and boost those revenue numbers by a large degree.
“Your website is the most important asset in running an eCommerce business. Investing in a good website design, user experience, and technology can have a powerful impact on conversions and help you stand out from the competition. Additionally, ensure your website is easy to use and includes features like shopping carts, secure payments, and shipping options.” — Rahul Vij, CEO at WebSpero Solutions
12. Cross-sell and upsell
Cross-selling involves offering customers related products that can be used alongside their original purchase, and up-selling involves offering better, upgraded versions of a product at a slightly higher price. By implementing both cross-sells and upsells in your online store, you can give shoppers an easier path to potential purchases they’ll definitely appreciate.
For example, if you are selling batteries, you could cross-sell chargers or upsell longer-lasting batteries. It’s an easy win all around — more sales for you and more value for customers. 📈
13. A/B test your products and website elements
A/B testing is like gold dust for an eCommerce business — it unlocks the door to an untouched world of customer insight and data-driven decision-making. Imagine being able to understand what design elements lead customers to engage with your site better or how minor changes in pricing can trigger a jump in sales — all this is possible with A/B testing.
An A/B test starts with an original concept, and then two disparate versions of the page are created. The versions can vary in colors, images, and even text. Once everything is ready to go, it’s time for the great challenge: waiting on the results.
Depending on what kind of changes were made to each version of the page, you’ll be able to analyze which one performed better than the others. You just might be surprised at how even the smallest tweaks or adjustments in product or website design can have a huge effect. 🌊
“Experiment with the design of your pages and evaluate various design elements. This includes everything from image sizes, fonts, and colors to the location of each element. Determine the optimal method for displaying prices, discounts, customer ratings, etc. Make sure to A/B test only a single element at a time; otherwise, you won’t be able to determine what caused the performance change.” — Max Whiteside, SEO & Content Lead at Breaking Muscle
14. Encourage and highlight customer reviews
Nothing encourages potential customers to buy from you more than reviews from existing customers! They are the safest bet for authenticating your eCommerce business’s credibility and confidence. ⭐
Therefore, don’t shy away from gathering as many honest reviews as you can. Feature success stories, focus on your satisfied users, and offer incentives (such as free shipping and loyalty points) to those who leave genuine reviews. Share the kind words with your current and potential customers alike so everyone knows the great experience of shopping at your store. That’s one excellent way to inspire trust and drive more conversions.
15. Prioritize effective customer communication
“Don’t leave consumers hanging. If you’re just starting out by yourself or with a small team, it can be incredibly difficult to stay on top of all inquiries and comments. A fast customer service turnaround time equates to a better rapport with possible clients and customers.” — Will Ward, the founder and CEO of Industry Arabic
Everyone knows that customer experience is key to success, so it’s no surprise that making sure your customers feel heard at every step of their journey should be the top priority. ❗
The ways to communicate with customers can range from automated emails thanking them for their purchase to prompt follow-ups after they’ve received a delivery. And whatever route you opt for, adding an extra dose of personalization and wit can do wonders — because there’s nothing worse than generic, one-size-fits-all messages. If you put in a bit of effort, your customers will recognize and appreciate the extra effort put into keeping them in the loop.
16. Place trust badges strategically
Placing trust badges around your website not only helps win over prospective customers but can be the difference between a full cart and an abandoned one. Think of them as both a gentle nudge and a golden endorsement — helping visitors feel more secure when they share their information and make purchases.
When done right, employing trust badges can give you an edge in the competitive eCommerce world. Not to mention that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing your shoppers are truly comfortable with their purchase decision. ✅
17. Offer seasonal campaigns
The timed, limited-period promotions draw attention from customers by playing off popular events or holidays — like offering discounts during Black Friday or providing custom, new-season wardrobe pieces when the weather changes. Everyone loves a good sale and a better bargain, so why not take advantage of seasonal offers to bolster your sales numbers? 🎁
“Every significant holiday should be accompanied by ongoing promotions. That also applies to extended weekends like Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Additionally, it’s crucial to have a sale tab on your website where you may run deals for slow inventory that has to be sold quickly as well as new product launches and seasonal products.” — Paul Somerville, Editor-in-Chief at Electric Scooter Guide
18. Simplify the check-out process
Having a streamlined and intuitive checkout process encourages customers to purchase your products with ease and, thus, increases your revenue.
Consider removing unnecessary steps in the form completion process, creating an automated “thank you” page after purchase, and offering multiple payment options. The goal is to make purchasing as hassle-free as possible, so customers feel comfortable hitting the purchase button. 💳
In short, ease up on the endless questions and lengthy forms — who needs them anyway?
19. Befriend an influencer
Partnering up with social media influencers is one of the fastest ways to spread the word about your business. These influencers can be Instagrammers, YouTubers, or bloggers who already have established audiences that are likely to be interested in what the business has to offer.
Such collaborations are mutually beneficial: while the influencer gets paid for their endorsement, the eCommerce business is rewarded with widespread exposure and credibility. Working with influencers also helps to build trust and loyalty among customers. 🤝
“Influencers are incredibly powerful in the eCommerce world, and partnering with them can help establish credibility, increase engagement, and grow your customer base. By finding influencers who align with your core values and connecting with them through meaningful conversations, you can create a successful and beneficial partnership. Influencers can have a huge impact on your brand, so make sure you make the most of this powerful tool.” — Julianne Stone, co-founder of Cicinia.fr
20. Focus on efficiency
When it comes to eCommerce growth, establishing the work process right is crucial. By streamlining operations and optimizing team productivity, your business can unlock a wealth of opportunities for expansion.
Sure, you could try buying advertisements or pursuing other marketing tactics, but nothing beats a well-oiled, efficient process that has everyone on your team on the same page.
Whether it’s outsourcing customer service, learning the best resource management practices, or using a sales funnel platform to measure performance — investing in process efficiency can truly be the gift that keeps on giving for an eCommerce business. And in case you wanna improve your inner workings and boost business productivity, make sure to try actiTIME! It’s a time tracking and project management software that allows you to make the most of every hour of your day. 🕐
Say goodbye to overloads and inefficient processes — actiTIME will help keep your projects organized, mitigate multitasking and ensure optimal productivity. Not only that, but its automated reports and progress tracking features can even help you identify bottlenecks so that you can get ahead of any problems before they arise — all without investing loads of time or effort.
Make actiTIME part of your arsenal and see just how much your business can expand. Sign up for a free online trial now.
Conclusion
By embracing a growth hacking mindset, you will begin to look at your eCommerce business in new and innovative ways, and the tips we’ve outlined in this post should help you get started. 🙌
Who knows, with a little bit of creativity and outside-the-box thinking, you might just come up with the next big thing in eCommerce. So, don’t waste any more time — start hacking your way to success!
