4 Ecommerce Promotional Strategies That Drive Sales
4 Ecommerce Promotional Strategies That Drive Sales
Every ecommerce store on the market strives towards having more sales. In fact, sales are the number one business goal for any ecommerce business. However, it’s not easy to encourage online consumers to make a purchase. The main reason is that the online market is crowded with various businesses and different offers. That makes it difficult for businesses to stand out and it’s even more difficult for consumers to choose the right store to do business with.
That’s why it’s important to help customers make that choice by having unique and creative promotional strategies. Still, that’s easier said than done, mainly because ecommerce stores are looking for a long-term revenue increase and not just a one-time sales boost. In order to achieve that, you must have a good understanding of your target audience and their preferences, as well as their expectations and needs. Here are a few ecommerce promotional strategies that drive sales.
Offer discounts
Discounts have always been a powerful means of encouraging customers to make a purchase. It’s also a great way to boost your sales when you need it the most. Not only that, but you can leverage special discounts, such as coupons, to encourage your indecisive leads to make the desired action. You can also leverage personalization in your discounts to appeal directly to a specific group of consumers or individual customers.
In addition, coupons work well with your other promotional strategies. For instance, you can add coupons or discount codes to almost every marketing promotion, such as email, social media, direct mail and so on. It’s a good way to get customers interested in your offers and it’s also a great way to gain new customers, as well as inspire existing ones to conduct repeat business at your store.
Seasonal giveaways
Special seasonal events are a great way to engage with your customers. In the ecommerce business, not every lead will turn out to be a customer. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take the opportunity to further nurture those leads until they decide to become customers. The holiday season, for example, is a good time to create special sales. Make a strong presentation of your offer that will communicate with your audience in a meaningful way, while being visually captivating. Consider teaming up with professionals, to create a unique design and to maintain the consistency of a branded message.
While informing your email subscribers about your seasonal sale, you can also send them some promotional products. That way, you’ll definitely gain their attention and even increase the odds of those leads making a purchase. Not only that, but you can implement the same strategy for your existing customers to encourage them to participate in your seasonal promotions. Having free giveaways is a good strategy to engage with customers and show them that you still care about them.
Cross-sell and up-sell
Ecommerce stores oftentimes have a wide variety of products made available for their customers to choose from. In most cases, your customers don’t have the time or the patience to browse through everything. In that case, you can implement a cross-sell strategy. The way it works is that you add recommended products that align with the customers’ purchase, in order to encourage more purchases. For example, if a customer bought a keyboard, you can also suggest a mouse and other peripheral hardware that goes along with the item.
Just make sure your cross-sell promotions are practical for your customers. If your cross-sell strategy isn’t working too well, you can also up-sell. In fact, the up-sell strategy can be 20 times more effective for ecommerce stores. Up-selling is offering customers a product superior to the one they’re willing to buy. However, the increase in price may be an issue, so make sure you explain to the customers why the recommended product is better and more beneficial for them.
Include a loyalty program
Loyalty programs are a great way to ensure customer engagement and loyalty, as well as to improve repeat business and boost your sales. As a matter of fact, existing customers oftentimes spend up to 67% more than new ones. What’s more, it’s around 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one.
Not only that, but customers that are part of your loyalty program are more willing to promote your store further through referrals and personal word-of-mouth recommendations. Moreover, 91% of consumers read online reviews and 84% of them trust recommendations online as much as they trust recommendations from friends. Therefore, a loyalty program can be a great promotional strategy that will ensure that your sales continue to grow.
Developing a good promotional strategy that will yield considerable profits and boost sales isn’t easy. Not every approach works for all ecommerce stores equally. That’s why you must plan ahead and develop a strategy that will work out for both your business and your customers.
Author Bio:
Lauren Wiseman is an entrepreneur, currently based in Melbourne and a regular contributor to bizzmarkblog.com. She assists clients in growing their personal and professional brands in a fast-changing and demanding market environment. Covering finance and investment topics, Lauren strongly believes in holistic approach to business.
Do you currently have any of these ecommerce promotional strategies in place?