A year worth of eCommerce marketing ideas and growth strategies
Want to grow your online store this year? Here are more fresh growth ideas than you need.
You’re always on the lookout for new ecommerce marketing ideas because your online store’s open 24/7 and your customers have access to all other stores, too.
We’re in this with you.
To help you always be on top of your sales game, we gathered the best marketing ideas for online stores in one place so you run your finger down the list, implement one or more and get extra sales flowing in.
Of course, that comes after choosing the best products to sell.
On-site marketing and conversions
Optimize product exposure to stimulate loyalty
Make space in your ecommerce marketing plan for product page rearrangements. Some products win you more loyal customers than others and that’s why they need to be seen and ordered by more people.
Put forward those products on category pages, feature them on your home page and in ads, create more content around them. They’ll bring you returning customers.
Wish lists
Wish lists drive extra sales, apart from helping your customers save items to review later.
They can be used as lead generators, as reminders for items back in stock, for creating urgency and “special sales”, and as social proof of the hotness of the product.
Social proof
Reviews, other users’ activity, and user-generated content are pretty much a norm now, not an ecommerce marketing stunt.
You should definitely imitate a busy physical store to reassure people you’re ok to buy from. Fear of missing out is also a strong driver of sales and you can stimulate it with peer pressure from your brand’s community.
Product videos
If your product needs explaining how to use it or has some special benefits, video is probably the best way to show it. It allows you to be creative and to polish your brand image.
Speeding up conversions
There are always shoppers who take too much time and sessions to decide to buy something. Luckily, there are ways to help them make a decision faster — and more often.
With emails triggered by certain customer actions, well-timed reminders, and smart hacks that shorten the customer journey, you can push them to complete a purchase and feel happy about it.
Read more on how to convert hesitant shoppers
Bundles your customers love
It’s hard to bundle up the right products. But if you know which products your customers consider similar or even more so — which ones are bought together, your bundles will be best sellers.
A little product insight and you’ll almost feel like you can read customer minds.
Ecommerce Email Marketing
Perfectly timed emails
You don’t have to send emails all the time and annoy your subscribers. All it takes is striking the right time when people are ready to buy again.
Using tracking data, you’ll know how much time your customers take between orders. Then, you can send them an email right at the time mark and hit when your chances are the highest.
Cross-sell and up-sell emails
Those emails are among the indispensable eCommerce marketing ideas.
When done right — timely and relevant — cross-selling and up-selling emails dramatically increase AOV and order frequency.
Segmented newsletters by interest
Instead of sending out one general newsletter, you can try sending a few variations targeted at different types of subscribers. This way, the experience will be more relevant and the conversions — much higher.
How to do it? Segment your list by behavior and interests — people who read articles, download ebook, play game, shop with coupons, buy new products, etc. — and tailor your newsletter to fit those interests.
Automated cart abandonment emails
Recovering abandoned carts is a never-ending thing you have to do for your online store. But once you set up cool abandoned cart emails, you’ll be earning extra money while doing something else — and you won’t miss a single abandoned cart.
Customer experience improvements
Promos by location
If you sell internationally, consider having separate promotions for customers in different locations.
This way, you’ll be more culturally and even seasonally relevant, and people will feel much more appreciated. It’ll also increase your conversions because your efforts will be much more concentrated.
Personalized experience flow
Using segmentation based on behavior, you can create unique experience flows for your major customer groups.
For example, you want your high spenders to feel differently when interacting with your store than your deal hunters, right?
By looking at their behavior and adjusting your emails, messaging, offers and frequency accordingly, each person will be much more comfortable with your marketing.
Create a community around your brand
This eCommerce marketing idea is not easy to do — it takes lots of time and effort — but it pays off generously.
A community for your core target group where you can add value, share your passions and visions with them and talking to them every day. That’s priceless for your marketing research, engagement, loyalty, referrals, and even brand voice.
Packaging and the unboxing experience
Online stores’ only physical interaction with the customer is at delivery, so you should use the opportunity to make it memorable.
Your packaging can say a lot about your brand and the act of opening it can be a ritual in itself. Make it cool so people want to share it on social and experience it again.
Values and mission
We can’t get tired of preaching how important it is to have your values and mission in place when selling online. It’s not just a bonus, it should be the basis of your eCommerce marketing strategy.
Our favorite iHeartDogs, for example, support local dog shelters with every sale on their site and the amount donated from each product is listed alongside the price. That’s a really strong value position that makes their customers buy more than any marketing tactic.
Partnership with other brands
Who said you can’t use traditional marketing tactics in eCommerce? Partnering up with another brand can give you greater exposure (if your audiences overlap) and can add context for your products.
For instance, a clothing shop joining efforts with a music festival or a healthy food store — with a kitchen appliances brand makes perfect sense and inspires customers with ideas how to include the products in their lives.
Referral program
One of the most cost-efficient ways of bringing new and qualified prospects is a referral program. When done right, your customers should be happy to talk about it with friends.
People like to look cool and to set trends among their social circle so it’s essentially giving them a really good incentive to share your store with others.
Set core processes to autopilot
If you dropship, this shouldn’t be taking up all your time. This is meant to be a lifestyle business.
You’d better use a tool like Oberlo to run the sourcing and shipping and so you can focus on more important stuff like customer care and brand building.
Give out samples
To imitate a physical store’s selling techniques, you can promote a new product with free samples in deliveries.
People love free stuff and it’s a good surprise. Plus, it’s an alternative to emails and other digital new product announcements that may get lost in the informational overload your customers suffer.
Remarketing based on past orders and browsing history
One of the best eCommerce marketing tips we can give you is to use what you already know about your customers to sell to them again. Remarketing is most effective when past behavior is taken into consideration.
What customers ordered and what they keep looking at; how much they spend and how often they shop — all these are the basis of your remarketing campaigns so they’re relevant and highly converting.
Make up for the missing feel and touch
If you compete with physical stores, you have to level up the game in order to persuade buyers because they still enjoy touching the items before buying and taking them home right away.
You can replicate the offline experience by offering home try-out; having live chat available; and building excitement in the time while they wait for delivery.
Inbound marketing ideas for eCommerce sites
Content
Content is an inbound resource that drives qualified traffic to your store — people who are really interested in your products and/ or niche.
Whether it’s a blog, ebook, reports, guides, videos, podcast or demo (see the full list of ecommerce content marketing ideas), it’s a great way to keep people around until they’re ready to buy from you.
You can use content to inform, educate, entertain, and engage your audience without paying for traffic.
Quizzes
Most people enjoy quizzes because they’re fun and tickle their curiosity.
Now, what makes this an awesome marketing idea for an online store is the info you get from prospects — depending on the quiz, it can be tastes, preferences, habits, experience and so on. Then, you can use that info to tailor your products and offers and to personalize their experience.
Events
Organizing or participating in events that your audience attends should be in your eCommerce marketing strategy. It is a great way to get more exposure and interact face-to-face with your target group.
Such events can be festivals, markets, expos, industry fairs, meetups, sports/ music/ art/ lifestyle events, meetups and lectures, etc. An added bonus is that your brand gets better positioning given the context of the event.
Promote on industry-specific sites
Stepping out of the usual promo channels, getting yourself featured on niche sites is an awesome eCommerce marketing idea.
They’re hungry for new entries and you need the target audience. It’s a plus if you have features, patents, certifications or anything else to show off. Our clients in the vape marketing and coffee niche see massive results in referrals from industry review sites.
