How To Increase eCommerce Sales: 19 Immediately Actionable Ideas

Setting up an online is rather easy these days. The real challenge is knowing how to improve ecommerce sales.

We talk to ecommerce store owners all the time, and make it a point to ask them what they're doing to improve ecommerce sales.

We've collected a lot of good ideas over the last few months, and this post is like a summary of sales strategies that actually work :)

How To Increase eCommerce Sales: 19 Immediately Actionable Ideas

1. Prevent product page drop-offs

2. Use visual cues to get shoppers’ attention

3. Deliver top-notch customer support 

4. Use your brand story to build a connection 

5. Use discounting smartly

6. Make those Thank You emails sharper

7. Increase prices (but use anchoring)

8. Create helpful content

9. Finetune your loyalty program for repeat business

10. Create a display strategy around “hero products”

11. Target high intent customers with paid ads

12. Use user generated content to hook shoppers

13. Prevent cart abandonment at all cost

14. Don’t overdo the cart page *nudges*

15. Upsell strategically using the buyer’s mindset

16. Make post-purchase a smooth ride

17. Strategize your peak season marketing efforts

18. Make your eCommerce site *mobile first*

19. Make A/B tests a regular practice

1. Prevent product page drop-offs

In the conversion funnel, the product page is where sales most happen—but people also keep dropping off without buying. 

And this means creating assurance becomes a priority here. 

Here are a few ways to explore when you’re wondering how to increase eCommerce sales:

✅ Highlight a positive review—a callout in the first fold is enough

✅ Drive trust through the product description—for example, talk about where you source your materials from

✅ Create links to all important policies—mention the return policy link, shipping policy link and link to FAQ if it’s on a separate, detailed page—make your microcopy do this

✅ Say what’s great through icons—like health brand Ritual does:

✅ Feature contact info way up—right below the first fold is good positioning

✅ Show the price differently for product variations—if one variant has an ongoing discount, label it in the thumbnail

✅ Offer images & videos in reviews—visuals help relay more information like fit, color, fall and effect 

Recommended reading: 30 Ways to Build Trust FAST (On Your eCommerce Store)

2. Use visual cues to get shoppers’ attention

Now that we’ve spoken about images, it’s time for visual cues. 

The idea is to make your shoppers experience a subconscious connection with your products. 

Yes, one of the best ways to increase eCommerce sales is to bring in labels. 

Here are a few that make them sound authentic:

✅ “What our customers love”

✅ “<Insert brand name>’s favorites”

✅ “Frequently out of stock! Get it now!”

✅ “Critics love it!”

✅ “Highest rated”

Don’t forget to use swatches on your product pages—this is one way to make sure you don’t end up duplicating products & also offer a sense of “variety” to shoppers. . 

Your category page callouts also need to be top notch—so that shoppers exactly know what they can expect on the product page. Here’s an example from ASOS:

Bring out the warranties and guarantees through emblems. 

That’s because only text might not stand out when multiple elements are competing for attention. 

Limited time warranties and guarantees work especially well if you’re looking at upping sales. 

3. Deliver top-notch customer support 

89% of customers have confirmed they will come back for another purchase if they’re happy with the support they’ve received. 

To prevent delays and in the process, increase eCommerce sales, prioritize:

✅ Self-help resources—Make the FAQ page super accessible, ensure your product pages & product descriptions answer a lot of questions etc.

✅ A call-back option—especially if you’re in different time zones than the customer or don’t have live chat representatives available around the clock.

✅ Customer feedback—If multiple buyers have asked you to change the way checkout works, then you’ve got to pay attention.

✅ Initiate live chat on product pages—trigger the chat from your end, ask  something specific like “Have questions about the <product name>?”

✅ Use data to register customer intent—try this especially on returning customers as one of your eCommerce strategies, so that they don’t have to repeat themselves time and again

One eCommerce brand that has imbued customer support in the very business model they work with is skincare brand Prose—one look at this snapshot and you’ll know:

4. Use your brand story to build a connection 

According to a 2015 study, 55% of people will buy from a brand whose brand story they’ve found compelling. 

Good enough reason for you to use this strategy to increase eCommerce sales. 

To create *stickiness* in your brand narrative:

✅ Look at the “why” behind your business

✅ Introduce the “personal” element to make it more “human” (famously enough, how Warby Parker’s beginnings are pinned on the founders wanting to make prescription glasses available more widely)

✅ Bring out the people who make your brand (why they’re around, what they do, what kind of effectiveness or innovation they drive—shoppers find it extremely worthwhile to connect with the authentic story of a brand)

✅ Spruce up your “about us” page—this may well be the most authoritative page for you to write company info at length and build customer trust in the process

✅ Find a way to feature more social proof across—use them in surprising ways like in pop-ups or as product image labels!

5. How to improve eCommerce sales via discounting smartly

Too many promotional offers, and your profit margins are likely to take a serious hit. 

Too few, and you run the chance of losing your visitors & loyalists to competitors. 

The in-between is the sweet spot of announcing just the right kind of deals around the year:

✅ Limited time flash sales

✅ Reduced shipping rate window for shoppers who don’t qualify for free shipping 

Art supplies brand Blick does this to get more sales while not impacting margins by offering this benefit for a price range:

✅ Offer a discount on taking a survey

Enhances the non-transactional connection between the customer & brand, while helping you increase eCommerce revenue. 

✅ Feature discounts on some of the most popular payment methods—if you’re introducing secondary CTAs based on this, ensure to label them with the % off

6. Make those Thank You emails sharper

What you’ll really need to do is ensure the transactional & non-transactional elements create a balance in making the customer consider another purchase. 

We’ve noticed the best thank you emails do some of the following, apart from offering deals:

✅ Feature content that’ll help the receiver use the product they’ve just bought

✅ Talk about add-ons the receiver is likely to benefit from, in future purchases

✅ Take the receiver’s attention to the brand’s customer support / FAQ details

eCommerce brand Loeffler Randall makes their post purchase thank you emails feature discounts with an edge—the one below actually offers early access:

7. Increase prices (but use anchoring)

How shoppers perceive price is always relative. 

Because of this, the anchoring effect becomes crucial when you’re trying to increase eCommerce sales. 

Here are a few instances you can apply it:

✅ Launch a product at a higher price

And then lower it to increase eCommerce revenue.

Let’s say you launched a sling bag at $300 and now that it’s picked up, you can reduce the price to $200 and still make a profit. 

In this case, what will bring the sales in is enough promotion of this new price—make sure to highlight it on the homepage, use appropriate labels on the image in the category page and include it in ongoing deals. 

✅ Highlight “after sale” pricing

When you show customers that they will have to pay a higher price after a sale is over, you basically “nudge” them to buy when the sale is on. 

Here’s how Nordstrom anchors prices during their anniversary sale. 

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✅ Feature similarly priced products next to each other

But don't forget to bring in that price difference.

Shoppers feel convinced in buying the less expensive alternative—whereas they may have bought neither if the placement wasn’t like this. 

Here’s an example from Wayfair doing an experiment on how to increase eCommerce sales:

8. Create helpful content

Since every conversion funnel starts with awareness and ends with a purchase, your content needs to bridge these two points to increase eCommerce sales. 

Here are a few steps you can take in that direction: 

✅ Make your blogs resolve customer objections—check out what kind of questions shoppers are raising on social media or even in reviews, and answer them

✅ Respond to social media queries with suggestions—if you’re wondering how to increase eCommerce sales 

✅ Feature super short product videos—this can help you elaborate on product benefits and also talk about use cases etc. 

✅ Don’t wait for the product page to offer crucial info—if you’re showing products anywhere else on the website, keep a “quick view” option handy

✅ Bring a transactional & non-transactional mix to your emails—as shoppers mature, they also want to see non-salesy communication from your brand to strengthen their conviction about long-time buying

✅ Feature funnel quizzes that make people think—even if your final goal is to recommend, make sure you ask questions that help them delve deeper into their problem or concern. 

That’s exactly what haircare brand Living Proof does:

9. Use loyalty programs for improving ecommerce sales

No matter how many wonderful offers you create for customers, there’s a limit to how many you can keep giving. 

Not the case when you sign them up for your loyalty program—if you’ve been thinking of how to boost your eCommerce sales, consider:

✅ Replacing other nudges with loyalty program nudges—the best way to do is to highlight the price differential between what the usual customer would pay vs. what a member would.

That’s exactly what Dossier does on their product pages: 

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✅ Clarify why your membership program trumps competitor programs—some of the best “fair price” eCommerce brands like Beauty Pie do this as one of the types of sales strategies: 

10. Create a display strategy around “hero products”

In our experience of helping eCommerce brands grow conversions, we’ve seen how you treat your hero products on your site impacts sales conversions drastically. 

Your hero products are your flagship products that communicate your brand value the most and also help in building community. 

To ace your hero product display strategy, go beyond the “bestseller” label:

✅ Utilize the hero image section for ONE hero product

That’s exactly what Golde does, positively impacting conversions: 

✅ Feature a hero product specific offer on the notification bar—free shipping on BOGO or saving on a hero bundle can work well

✅ Experiment with a “Didn’t find what you were looking for” pop-up in displaying your hero product & driving an on-the-spot discount with it

11. Target high intent customers with paid ads

Wondering how to boost eCommerce sales but using paid ads to just drive traffic to your side?

✅ Create highly specific meta tags & meta descriptions—and don’t forget to align them with your landing pages. 

This ad and related landing page from Sova Health targets people who’re really looking to buy:

✅ Show an ad in a relevant newsletter—for example, if you show furniture, round up newsletters that write about interiors or home decor 

✅ Single out all “negative keywords” you don’t want Google to show results for—basically, these are broad keywords you wouldn’t want to rank for as they don’t serve the search intent of more mature audiences

You might like: 33 High-Converting Product Landing Page Examples

12. Use user generated content to hook shoppers

Since only 46% trust sponsored content, you’re better off being strategic about UGC while applying eCommerce strategies to grow sales. 

To make the best of the user-generated content on your site: 

✅ Maximize the placement (a review snapshot in the first fold, for example, works wonders)

✅ Make social shares shoppable (hotspot your images so that upon hover, product names become visible)

✅ Feature product recommendations along with social proof highlights—here’s an example of how Patagonia Provisions does it: 

13. Prevent cart abandonment at all cost

Lack of time. Too many options. Second thoughts about spending. All these and many more contribute to shoppers wanting to abandon their carts. 

So, it’s important that one of your eCommerce sales strategies be about keeping your shoppers engaged when they want to bounce off—here are a few steps clients have applied & seen sales improve with:

✅ Offer discounts to your most frequent shopper segments (eCommerce brand Death WIsh Coffee offers in-cart discounts to teachers, fire responders & military personnel among a few others)

✅ Indicate that the shopper will find a special discount auto-applied at checkout—this is exactly what eCommerce helmet brand Ruroc highlights to increase sales:

✅ Instead of the classic “save for later” prompt, experiment with “mail this cart to me”—which when clicked should ask them for their email address so that you can send a cart abandonment email

✅ Show an in-cart bundle & save prompt for shoppers to keep discovering

14. Don’t overdo the cart page *nudges*

Miller’s law states that our short-term memory can handle approximately 5 to 9 objects at a time.

So if you add too many nudges, it’ll overwhelm shoppers and prompt them to abandon the cart.  

Here are a few suggestions that clients have used to increase eCommerce revenue:

✅ Feature a stock level nudge

 It can create a sense of urgency and make shoppers buy the product right away. 

To make it more realistic, use a “order in the next x hours and y minutes to get guaranteed delivery by <date>.”

This will instantly segment buyers who want to buy the product faster than others. 

Without these nudges, shoppers are also more likely to think it’s okay to abandon their cart. 

✅ Feature payment nudges

Make sure to distribute them.

Nordstrom has 4 nudges around payments and we see how the information has even distribution.

On the lower left side, they have shown acceptable cards and an international shipping note.

On the right side, near the CTA, they have added financing options and a loyalty program nudge.       

15. Upsell strategically using the buyer’s mindset

It’s tempting to show a never-been-here shopper upgrades and products that can go along with products they might like. 

But it’s a lot like shooting in the dark. 

The reason is that a relatively new customer is at the *discovery* phase—most of them aren’t even aware that they might need a specific product. 

Using the buyer’s mindset based on where they are in the journey, you can create more strategic upsells. 

Here are a few ideas if you're figuring how to boost eCommerce sales and increase AOV:

✅ On the product page

An interested shopper may skip an upsell if you say something slightly vague like “You might like” versus “Goes really well with.”The latter is a hook that becomes a reason for the shopper to pause a bit more. 

For a more seasoned customer, because your idea is to retain them, you may not want to push them around too much. 

Let’s say, if someone has subscribed for a six-month period instead of a three-month one, NOW is the time to tell them that if they subscribe next time for 12 months, they will save X% more—it’s also safe to throw in an exclusive discount over email to make it sound more appealing. 

✅ On the cart page‍

Positioning great recommendations as “here are some last-minute add-ons” or “some last-minute items on sale right now” can increase the chances of instant sales. 

If you do decide to upsell post-checkout, do it on the order confirmation page and make sure it takes shoppers just a click to buy the items (Shopify’s One Click upsell is famous for this.)

Check out: Shopify Upselling Ideas for Product page, Cart, Checkout

16. Make post-purchase a smooth ride

90% of shoppers are clear that they see the post purchase experience to be as important as the quality of products. 

Now, this is exactly why when you’re wondering how to increase sales in eCommerce, fine tuning the post purchase experience can be vital:

✅ Segment your emails based on recent buying behavior—even if a regular customer would be okay to receive product recommendations from you, an idle one will leave such an email likely unopened

✅ Link your FAQ sections / page to your post-purchase emails even order confirmation pop-ups

✅ Make the return /refund/ exchange policy easy to read, understand and take action on—a complicated policy pushing shoppers to spend extra time on support calls is bad news for your eCommerce sales

eCommerce brand Veja features a self-explanatory FAQ page with highlights of sections that shoppers ask most questions on—the brand also sends post-purchase advice on how to maintain and care for sneakers:

17. Strategize your peak season marketing efforts

Starting from the end of September till early January, eCommerce brands can apply the right types of sales strategies and improve revenue. 

Yes, most advice would tell you to start selling early and offer those flash deals, but what else can add to the strategic mix?

✅ Bring out BNPL nudges across selling channels and highlight them

✅ Use retargeting on most-browsed products—and make them more attractive through a seasonal discount

✅ Use a more nuanced filtering system within your gift guide category pages

✅ Prominently display gift cards in your primary navigation

18. Make your eCommerce site *mobile first*

Most eCommerce store owners are late to realize they are facing conversion issues due to complicated mobile UX.

For better mobile shopping experiences, focus on usability. 

Good mobile store usability means customers can see clear navigation cues that help them explore products without frustrating them.

✅ Don't interrupt user experience

On mobile, pop-ups are a deterrent, interrupting user experiences.

‍Google announced how “intrusive interstitials” or aka “popups” on mobile sites hinder page ranks.

Tip: Utilize a scroll or time-triggered pop-up that doesn’t cover the whole page.      

✅ Include pinch and expand & double-tap

Research shows a whopping 40% of eCommerce stores don’t support pinch or tap gestures for product images. 

The problem is that a single, large image does not help shoppers most often to view more product intricacies. 

Tapping and pinching enable shoppers to view different parts of the same product image & arrive at buying decisions more instantly. 

✅ Avoid the whole screen for a popup

Also, make it easy to close. 

If you do decide on a popup, optimize its size and ensure the main content is still partially visible in the background. 

Even better? Make the popup disappear if the shopper keep scrolling (it’s a sign they don’t want to see it!)

19. Make A/B tests a regular practice

UX across your funnel deserves constant improvement. 

And A/B testing can really prop up that department. 

When amplifying your sales strategy overall, consider A/B tests on the following prime areas:

✅ Copywriting (check on tone, length, features, benefits etc.)

✅ Visuals (does people-led work better than product-led? Or is it a mix of both?)

✅ CTAs (color, shape, text—remember these can make or break your conversions)

✅ Forms (number of fields, information you ask for, where you feature them etc.)

✅ Landing pages (this includes the most frequent landing page, “the homepage”—and also the ones you’ve set up for paid marketing efforts

✅ Emails (because once they’re off that website post purchase, this becomes your primary engagement of hyper personalized communication)

For more ideas, check: 153 A/B Testing Ideas for eCommerce (Homepage, PDP, Cart, Checkout)

5 Metrics to Track Your eCommerce Sales More Effectively

When you’re trying to increase eCommerce revenue, it’s absolutely important that youm track the right metrics—they essentially tell you what marketing efforts are working and what you’ll need to focus on more:

1. Average Order Value

When you pick a certain time period and divide the total revenue by the total number of orders, what you get is the average order value. This metric shows businesses how to increase eCommerce sales first by helping analyze spending behavior and then identifying marketing efforts that can potentially contribute to increased spending. 

2. Customer Acquisition Cost

eCommerce businesses can calculate their CAC by dividing the total of marketing and sales costs by the total number of new customers they acquire for a time period. Customer Acquisition Cost is a critical metric because it tells a business if the types of sales strategies they’re using are cost-effective enough and able to get the kind of leads that’ll convert. 

3. Customer Lifetime Value

CLV measures the total revenue a business can hope to generate from a single customer from the entire duration of the business relationship. Tracked correctly, customer lifetime value can indicate problems with your loyalty program as well as how you could improve your product offerings. 

4. Cart Abandonment Rate

Cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the total number of purchases completed by the total number of cats created and subtracting that from 1. This is a metric that helps businesses increase sales on their eCommerce website by looking at major friction areas: forced account creation, surprise additional costs, trust issues and lack of payment methods to name a few. 

5. Returning Customer Rate

Divide the number of returning customers by the total number of customers, multiply the result with 100 and what you have is the returning customer rate. RCR is a vital metric to track because it throws light on how well you are positioning your products, the quality of discounts you’re offering as well as the satisfaction levels from your loyalty program. 

eCommerce Sales 101

What are the 4 Cs of eCommerce Sales?

The 4 Cs responsible for higher eCommerce sales are:

Choice

In eCommerce, shoppers need a sense of choice first and foremost to feel fulfilled about a buying experience.

On a website, this means multiple aspects including:

- A detailed navigation system with categories and sub-categories that create no confusion

- Product recommendations that match a customer's mindset and journey so far

- Offers that make immediate buying more atrractive to a shopper

- Payment options that are well-known, trusted and easy to use

- The ability to pick opt-in preferences

Communication

The component of communication in eCommerce is meant to create trust, assurance and anticipation in shoppers as against doubt, confusion and frustration.

To make this C work for your business, you need to ensure:

- Immediate help (in the form of live chat, on-call support with a professional, chat with a support professional etc.)

- Self help (this includes the ability to view FAQ easily, search for top asked questions within a live chat, gain information through detailed product descriptions)

- Channel alternatives (the ability for the shopper to try out various channels to seek clarification and support—let's say if a support professional isn't available, they should find an email accessible to write in to the business)

- Call-back options (activate this with a touch of a button within the live chat feature—specify how long a call-back can take in case of delays)

Convenience

How easily and how fast a shopper can convert into a customer has a direct impact on eCommerce sales.

Convenience in a sales context can look like:

- Finding products of choice on the homepage itself

- Finding it easy to decide on a purchase (because of labels, trust signals and price clarifications)

- Finding it easy to continue a shopping experience if it ended abruptly earlier

- Finding it convenient to "save for later" and not buy right away

Customization

Effective segmentation is the reason behind this C of eCommerce.

To bring in effective customization, focus on:

- Browsing and purchase history

- Content that can help future purchases

- Offers & freebies that will retain the customer

What are the 5 Whys for Better eCommerce Sales?

Asking the 5 Whys can significantly change your relationship with customers, leading to increased conversions and better retention.

This is one of the eCommerce strategies widely used by businesses —the 5 Whys go like:

- Why should you care? (this can lead you to what kind of challenges potential customers are facing)

- Why should you change? (this can lead you to the gaps you may not be covering yet—not just in product development but also in the way you cater to existing and new customers)

- Why is it you? (this can lead you to see what is missing in the competition and what you can leverage because customers are turning towards you)

- Why is it now? (this can lead you to why the challenge is pressing currently)

- Why is it important? (this can lead you to the "root problem")

What is an eCommerce Sales Strategy?

An eCommerce sales strategy is a combination of efforts that an eCommerce business makes to either acquire new customers, retain existing ones or both.

Such a strategy typically revolves around integrating social more effectively into the marketing mix, using upselling and personalization to improve AOV, creating more responsive experiences for mobile and improving SEO to trigger better search and discoverability.

Don't forget to check out: 31 Brilliant Examples of eCommerce Personalization

What is the most cost effective eCommerce Sales Strategy?

People on an average spend 5 hours a day checking their email.

61% of email subscribers say they would like to receive promotional emails every week.

72% of B2C marketers use email for content distribution.

But most importantly, those who purchase through email are 138% more likely to spend extra than those who don't.

This makes email have steady and well-defined ROI—something that can instantly add to your sales strategy without breaking the bank.

Recommended reading:

31 insanely powerful online sales promotion ideas for eCommerce

eCommerce Subscriptions: 15 Amazing Examples (+ Ways to Increase Subscription Sales)

eCommerce Newsletter: 20 Ways To Stand Out And Actually Drive Sales

Increasing Sales Through Email Marketing: The No-Nonsense Guide

Before you go...

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:

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