Promote Your Online Store in the USA - 17 Unique Ideas

Promoting an online store in the USA can be overwhelming and particularly difficult. There's a lot of competition and shoppers are exposed to many many many options.

This guide is for you:

• if your business is based in the USA and your sales numbers are disappointing  
• if you’re trying to expand, launch a new product, or break into the American online shopping market 
• if you have exhausted conversion strategies and are struggling to find inspiration or ideas to boost your revenue 

After working with more than 500 brands, our team has tried and tested various ideas on how to promote your online store in the USA.

Most of these strategies are evergreen and will help you answer that nagging question: “how do I promote my eCommerce store?”

Let’s get into it.

How to Market an Online Store

1. America-inspired copy it is!

American Eagle. Oaklandish. Coach New York. 

Many brands have capitalized on the ‘American’ or ‘Made in USA’ element to differentiate their products. 

While writing America-inspired copy to promote your products online, touching upon the following emotions can be worthwhile:

✔ Pride

✔ Nostalgia

✔ Adventure 

✔ Fantasy-led entertainment (hint: Disney)

Here are a few ideas on how you can promote your online store in the US:  

💡 Take inspiration from the names of mountains, cities, lakes, foods and even pop figures to come up with product names—exactly what American Giant does:

‍

💡 Apart from product titles, get the American sentiment into how you write descriptors and even microcopy—outdoor cooking equipment brand Solo Stove is a master at this flavor of copywriting:

‍

2. Plan for the Black Friday sale – a year in advance  

Spanning 50 states, Black Friday sales have recorded the highest number of conversions in major product categories across American shopping events. 

The downside? Shoppers are spoilt for choice. 

Here’s how you can promote your online store in the USA leveraging the Black Friday event:

✅ Run sitewide discounts to see how your website performs when there is a surge in traffic and sales, and experiment with pricing/discounting strategies to know what works best

✅ Launch special edition product ranges to see how shoppers respond and curate the Black Friday collection accordingly

✅ Learn from the success of events leading up to BFCM, assessing aspects like product bundles, gift guides, sitewide discounts and membership offers

✅ Ask shoppers to sign up for a early access waitlist—and promise a discount to these X number of people

Check out how David Jones began to amp up Black Friday marketing a year in advance:

Remember: A report says that more than 50% of shoppers browse through Black Friday deals on mobile, so make sure to test your online store and website for mobile shopping experiences.    

3. Appreciate community heroes 

Cause marketing helps to boost your brand identity. 

But when it comes to promotion ideas for eCommerce stores, you’ll have to do this in a way that doesn't seem forced:

✅ Apply a special segmented in-cart discount that can be availed when a shopper checks it 

✅ Feature a sitewide discount only for a community segment (do this around a calendar day & you can hit more conversions)

✅ Create a discount for categories your chosen community segment typically shops from

Fashion brand Madewell, for example, shows appreciation for community heroes by offering them discounts and conveniences. All they have to do is verify their ID to get started. 

Similarly, Sephora has supported the Black Lives Matter cause by curating campaigns and collections to boost the presence of Black beauty brands.

We recommend you read: How to Boost Fashion eCommerce Conversion Rate

4. Leverage patriotism as a theme

Believe it or not, your holiday marketing efforts can actually pay off really well around patriotic days. 

Here’s how you can promote your online store in the USA using patriotism as a theme:

✅ Pick a day that’s super relevant for Americans—like the elections, Independence day or even the Super Bowl

✅ Promote products that reflect the colors of the event through a sale (and if you have the budget, look at event-specific packaging too!)

✅ Feature uses and ideas based on what people specifically do during that event (for example, outdoor parties around barbecuing are a hit during 4th of July) and plug product recommendations

Babe Wine took a creative route by curating an election night survival kit complete with wine, tissues, a stress ball, and a "scream here" pillow. This limited edition kit sold out in days:

5. Don’t limit inclusive marketing to local causes

It’s not just for nothing that 85% of Latin people would make a purchase if they saw an inclusive ad. 

When you’re considering how to promote products online, choose causes that aren’t necessarily local but popular. 

So, if you have to use inclusive marketing to promote your online store in the USA, remember to: 

✅ Survey your shoppers to understand their values (can be as small as asking them if they would be willing to donate 1$ at checkout to raise funds)

✅ Spread awareness through your content on what to buy and what not to buy (from competitors)—in this case, bring authority through comparison charts 

✅ List two to three popular causes at checkout and let shoppers donate to a cause of their choice

✅ Highlight your support for a cause year round—just like the Phulid Project celebrates and shows its commitment by celebrating pride all year:

6. Add a twist to the ‘celebrations’  

“Celebrations” are a fine way of garnering eCommerce conversions—but take note: peak gifting season can be overwhelming for shoppers and some may even be turned off by similar messaging. 

When you’re trying to promote your product online during peak season, consider:

✅ Relating with shoppers on a personal level—peak holiday season is the best time to show your shoppers dynamic recommendations based on past searches, wishlists etc.

✅ Feature UGC along with product recommendations—highlight just your bestsellers if you don’t want to come across as pushy

✅ Create unique categories & filters to target audience segments that don’t show traditional shopping behavior—see how Uncommon Goods has a self-care section for Valentine’s Day:

‍

7. Ride the wave of a popular trend

When Bridgerton was released, it had everyone hooked, including me. 

Suddenly, there were Bridgerton trends in makeup, clothing, and music. Everyone was doing a Bridgerton-themed something. Restaurants created regal cocktails, shops curated pastel displays, and many brands added the regency lingo to their social media.  

Now, if you’re wondering how to market an online store on these lines, experiment with: 

✅ Showcasing the trend-based collection in the homepage hero header

✅ Featuring BTS or a founder’s note on blending the trend into your marketing efforts

✅ Displaying select UGC around products from this trend on the lines of “Customers can’t stop talking about…”

✅ Leaving some email teasers for your subscribers for an email-only upcoming sale (some brands use the blur effect in design to make these effective)

Here’s an example of how Kitsch officially collaborated and released an exclusive edition of Bridgerton x Kitsch Satin Pillow Scrunchies:

8. Connect your socials 

At least 55% of those who belong to the 18 to 24 age group have used social media to shop. 

And even otherwise, 40% buy because of social media influence. 

Reason enough for you to keep your socials updated and plug them across your channels. 

Here’s how you can market your online store using the power of socials:

✅ Set up “Get the look” prompts on your product pages—and link UGC from your social channels by either listing each product with a separate CTA or making the post shoppable

✅ Feature a brand-specific hashtag and show off associated tags on your website—just like Ikea does with #MyIKEAUSA and @IKEAUSA

✅ Create separate categories based on what’s selling really well on socials with tags such as Tiktok Favourites’ and ‘Influencer Picks’

9. Get those ‘samples’ going w/o losses

Imagine Americans and generational traditions like “Costco Sunday.” They’re sometimes all about buying more just to get as many samples of untried products as possible. 

What would make in-store runs interesting, continue to also drive product sales in eCommerce. 

Here’s how you can promote your online store in the USA using the sample approach:

✅ Add a limit to offer customers samples—that is, only if their cart is worth a certain $$$

✅ Feature complementary products as samples—and make sure they’re almost one-tenth or more of the price of the main product to avoid cutting losses—Luxy Hair shows how to:

✅ Experiment with paid samples—leverage shopper hesitation to make this more fruitful, for example in makeup and cosmetics, shoppers may want to try out before buying because there may be skin reactions etc. 

See how Kosas implements paid try-outs with multiple product variants in one sampling card—they also offer a site credit with the paid samples which customers can encash later:

10. Offer multiple shipping plans

Free shipping is great but sometimes, to promote your online store in the USA, you have to offer paid options too, to convert more segments of shoppers. 

When you’re considering promotion ideas for your eCommerce store around shipping:

✅ Offer different shipping options to let customers decide their delivery timeframe—that’s what eCommerce fitness apparel brand UnderArmour does:

✅ Offer in-store pick-ups and curbside pick-up, if you run physical stores

✅ Feature an optional shipping protection plan—this is especially helpful if you sell products like furniture, cutlery or even jewelry:

11. Plan seasonal campaigns 

Who doesn’t love the autumnal drinks at Starbucks? For those of us in the USA, pumpkin spiced latte signals the change of season. 

So, if you’re on of those wondering how to promote your eCommerce store online, here’s how you can make the most of seasonal themes:

✅  Curate collections based on seasons—and give them category or subcategory status in your main menu—this is exactly what H&M does:

‍

✅ Feature bestseller picks from any seasonal collection—and feature these in a separate section on your homepage

✅ Create seasonal tags in your blog content—so that you can feature how-to content and recommendations easily & also archive them for later discovery

12. Use persuasion triggers to encourage the next step

A study found that it takes an average of 8 touches to generate a conversion. 

Persuasion triggers can help online stores go as far as converting buyers into long-term, loyal brand advocates. 

Here are some ways to create a more frictionless experience and promote your online store in the USA:  

✅ Display labels such as ‘Low Stock’, ‘X customers just bought’, or ‘Recently Restocked’

✅ Feature progress bars

✅ Provide them with explainer videos

✅ Use live chat support for real-time assistance

✅ Introduce BNPL options (and highlight them across the site!)

✅ Show social proof across high intent pages

✅ Feature recommendations they’ll consider seriously

✅ Enable guest & express checkout

13. Offer a cross-device shopping experience 

Many customers switch between their devices before completing a purchase. 

In fact, for 50% of shoppers, research happens on mobile and then the final purchase happens on a desktop device. This makes it necessary for you to create an exemplary cross-device experience for your storefront. 

Here’s what you’ll need to keep in mind to promote your online store this way:

✅ Provide a sign-in option for returning customers to save carts so they can access their previously saved items

✅ Leverage auto features like date & address pickers across devices

✅ Feature recommendation & live chat prompts to visitors based on what they were previously browsing—this is also an opportunity to feature additional products they’d like to explore

14. Add a fun & functional footer 

The footer brings a closing note to a web page. While some brands are doing away with it, the footer works as a bottom navigation tool that provides customers with useful information that offers closure to their customer journey.

Here’s how you can use the footer to promote your online store in the US:

✅ Reserve a section that throws light on the origins of your brand—your story, the press you’ve received, your membership program as well as your policies

✅ Make your social handles clear—this is in fact a great micro-conversion opportunity that attracts even non-buyers

✅ Offer email opt-in info even if your exit intent pop-up already does so

Check out how eCommerce beauty brand Truly Beauty keeps their footer section functional, informative and engaging:

And here’s yet another engaging footer from Firebox—we can’t get over how neatly optimized it is:

‍

15. Offer multiple payment options 

Studies show 56% of shoppers want multiple payment options on a website during checkout. 

So if you’re trying to use multiple payment options to promote your store online, here’s what you’ll need to remember: 

✅ Make sure to highlight your payment options across the website—and this includes the footer section as space around CTAs on product pages, you can also use your notification bar to highlight split payments

✅ Feature an express or popular payment option as secondary CTA on product pages and mini cart

✅ If you have offers running on any other payment option, make sure to bring that microcopy into your cart as well as checkout pages

16. Make it compelling to sign up for emails

Move over “15% off on your first purchase.” Shoppers now want more as differentiation from your store and if you have to stand up against competitors, this is key. 

When you’re figuring how to promote your product online, your email sign-up messages have to:

✅ Act as a preference center—if you run a skincare brand, for example, ask if they’d like info on dry skin, oily skin or combination skin

✅ Feature contests and giveaways—this is the only way you can feature a huge reward in the message and people will be willing to show up for it

✅ Offer non-transactional value—if you really have to target a variety of customers, it’s a good idea to feature value-add content as the hook

Look at how women’s health supplement brand Bonafide urges shoppers to take their personalization quiz as a way to make them opt-in:

17. Drive brand relevance on your storefront

If you’re busy looking for answers to how to promote online store in the US, start with your brand. 

How you give voice to what it stands for decides how well you can promote its various high points:

✅ Share a snippet of your brand story origins on your homepage—this helps those visitors cover ground who may not make it to your “about us” page

✅ Tell your shoppers what you solve and make their lives better

✅ Feature what you do differently about your packaging or if you’ve earned an important certification in your category—dog supplement brand Native Pet features a comparison chart to drive brand differentiation: 

Let UX promote your online store

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.