On-page SEO: The goal’s to show up where people’ll actually buy what you sell – here are a few eCommerce marketing tips to fix your on-page SEO: research relevant keywords, add those to the meta titles, meta description, and URL – add alt texts to images, and use long-tail keyword variations on product pages.

Off-page SEO: This basically tells Google how valuable your website is. For this, mention brands on your website, add your store to Google My Business, and link your store back from Q&A sites like Quora.

Technical SEO: This involves improving the backend of your website. Working on mobile optimization, site speed, and internal linking are some useful tactics.

2. Create some good content

When someone finds good content on your website – they trust you. This trust leads them to buy from you.

But there’s more to creating a content marketing strategy for eCommerce – here are some tips:

Your content should be visually appealing – in sync with your eCommerce branding strategy – it should have catchy titles, read human, have a clear value proposition, social proof, link to your website, and give details of the products offered

You can’t go after every channel – it is neither economical nor sustainable. Test out different marketing channels on a small scale and scale the ones that show promise

Create videos – don’t worry, we aren’t talking about the fancy ones that cost a ton. Just pick up your iPhone – shoot some BTS or testimonials of happy customers, and post them on your website and social media. This will give your brand a personality (and your eCommerce brand strategy, an added edge)

Set up your content for all stages of the funnel – this means your content should be able to attract, explain, convert, and retain shoppers – yes, this can include videos too – here’s this eCommerce strategy example in action:

You might also like: eCommerce Video Marketing Ideas That Actually Improve Sales

3. List your shop to get discovered on Google Shopping campaigns

When Google gives you an opportunity – you must utilize it. List your store on Google Merchant Center and see those footfalls on your website.

Your listings will appear in the Google shopping tab, Google Search, Google Images, and YouTube.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY ECOMMERCE

4. Incentivize your shoppers to become your advocates (referrals)

People talk about where they got a certain product all the time. But what a referral marketing program does is – it adds a ‘You should get it from there too’ to the conversation.

The referral code or referral link can be given to customers as soon as they:

Sign up for the company’s newsletter
Make a purchase with the company
Complete a certain number of purchases
Create an account with the company’s website

In terms of the rewards for this eCommerce strategy, you can consider:

Cash rewards
Credit
Discounts
Free products
Gift cards

Referral marketing strategy for eCommerce stores

Also read: eCommerce Referral Marketing Cheat Codes: Hacks from 6 Amazing Programs

5. Expand your reach through affiliate marketing

While affiliates do seem like an effortless eCommerce marketing idea, there are a few steps that you should take to create a successful eCommerce strategy.

Goes without saying that you must have a clear dashboard in place for your affiliates to keep track of their sales and commissions.

Provide your affiliates with marketing materials and ideas to market your products. We would suggest that you have an affiliate starter kit in place – comprising the product catalog, USP, target audience, photos of products and videos (if any), and examples of how other affiliates have marketed your products.

Affiliate marketing for eCommerce websites

Also read: The Do's And Don'ts Of Affiliate Marketing For eCommerce Brands

6. Give your shoppers a reason to keep coming back (loyalty programs)

To encourage repeat purchases, you will have to understand the buying behavior of your customers – what they have been buying and what piques their interest.

This will help you create the most effective offerings for your loyalty program like:

Reduced price on repeatedly bought products
Free samples
Complementary products or services
Point-based reward system

Loyalty can be difficult to buy sometimes, hence careful planning of rewards is necessary – which brings us to our next point.

7. Surprise and delight – always works wonders

Why is the element of surprise so important? Because it is addictive (and helps make relationships a part of your eCommerce business’s marketing plan).

A few implementable ideas for your eCommerce strategy:

Personalized offers: Create something just for your shoppers – it helps in building a 1:1 relationship with your customers – like Birchbox does:

Surprise and delight for eCommerce stores

Run giveaways: And it doesn’t always have to be giving away products – it can be weird memorabilia like invitations to destroy expired merchandise

Random acts of kindness: This can really U-turn the emotions of your shoppers – deepening the bond with your customers. Activities can range from handwritten notes to gifts on birthdays and anniversaries

8. Make your customers a part of your brand’s community

When you offer your shoppers the opportunity to be a part of something bigger and exclusive, they get promoted from your customer to a member of your brand.

While what you can do with the community will be very unique for each brand, here are a few eCommerce marketing ideas using your customers:

Formulate clear boundaries that distinguish your community from outsiders. The more defined the community is, the more engaged the members are
Assign a clear goal to your community that will guide interactions and engagements
Use qualifiers to specify your community’s focus. For instance, “This is a community for health-conscious individuals who focus on organic nutrition,” or one like “a couple of fiction book collectors, jumbled together”

ECOMMERCE PROMOTION STRATEGY

9. Flash sales – big FOMO – max conversions

A lot of people actually wait for this – your discount hunters, cart abandoners, etc.

No wonder why, 50% of the sales occur in the first hour of the flash sale. However, the key to this eCommerce marketing strategy is timing and seeing who bites.

Use your historical data to A/B test the timing and duration of the flash sale – in general, most eCommerce stores run 3 to 36-hour flash sales, before and after the holiday season, and once every few months.

Keep these eCommerce marketing best practices in mind:

Add a countdown timer to indicate the days/hours left for the sale to end
Extensively promote the flash sale at least 10 days in advance

10. Exclusive coupons for special occasions

An extension to surprise and delight – exclusive coupons for birthdays and anniversaries make your shoppers choose you time and again.

Here’s how this eCommerce marketing tactic works: Share these coupons in emails and SMS at least 2-3 weeks prior to the occasion.

Do not forget to add the link to your store.

You might also like: How To Increase eCommerce Sales: 23 Immediately Actionable Ideas

11. Tempt them with freebies

An extra something – always delightful.

Offer a free gift above a threshold or free samples with every purchase.

The gift should be exclusive, limited-edition, or high-value – which the shoppers don’t want to miss out on.

ON-SITE OPTIMIZATION ECOMMERCE STRATEGIES

12. Offer no-brainer deals with subtle upsells

Shoppers rarely go for the highest-paid option. But they’ll go for the best deal.

And it doesn’t always mean discounting.

To use upsells for your eCommerce marketing strategy, all you have to do is make your higher-priced variant seem more desirable (and achievable). Here’s how Samsung clubs together upgraded models on the product page:

13. Curate cross-sells with bundles

Marshmallow and Pop-Tarts go together – and so does mozzarella.

So, much like this suggestion, most shoppers won’t know what goes together unless you tell them. How? Either you show them as cross-sells or as bundles.

How does this help your store’s marketing strategy? For starters: boost your average order values. Here are some more eCommerce marketing tips for cross-sells and bundles:

Ensure that the products are at least 60% cheaper than the product in the cart (this’ll act as a trigger to drive impulse buys)
Go for products that are easily missed out: filters for lenses, earphones for mobile phones, lighters for a gas stove, etc (but don’t bombard them with too many choices)
If you have customer personas in place, use those to make relevant suggestions, with context: “Why should I buy that instead of this?” – or for bundles show “frequently bought together”

14. Make your eCommerce marketing strategy conversational

Whether you deploy a human or a bot in your live chat – you must answer questions before they become hesitations – in real-time.

Here’s how to use your live chat to create a successful eCommerce strategy:

Offer tailored recommendations – automatically based on site searches and past browsing history
‍Greet your shoppers based on behaviors. For example, if your shoppers are browsing through shoes – your chatbot can initiate a dialogue – “Welcome to [your site]. I’m [name of representative]. Can I help you select a pair?”
You can continue your live chat on your checkout page – which gives the opportunity to ask any questions shoppers might have that could prevent them from completing their purchase like – shipping, pricing, returns, and more

Pro Tip: Make sure the popup doesn't pop up on its own on the checkout page. Shoppers who know what they want to buy, where to find it, and how to check out should never be interrupted.

15. Add reviews – build trust

Customers like to see a lot of reviews. A single review with a few positive words sways, but a few dozen that say the same thing – make a concrete opinion.

The best places to display your reviews and market your eCommerce store?

Homepage – create a section for reviews and testimonials
Product pages – write reviews for the product under the buy section
Pop-ups and overlays – tell visitors what your happy shoppers feel about you

16. Make your wishlist drive sales

What good is a wishlist feature in your marketing strategy if you never use it to drive sales?

How? Send notifications.

Ask shoppers on exit intent to save their cart to the wishlist
Send alerts to shoppers when the products they have added to the wishlist are running low on stock
Send notifications when products in the wishlist are back in stock (if they had run out)
Inform shoppers if the prices of the products in the wishlist have dropped

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Also read: The 6 Most Significant eCommerce Trends (2025)

17. Use pop-ups that capture attention

Popups are the second chance to convert your website visitors.

All it takes is just one timely, relevant, and really valuable offer – here are some kinds of popups that you can choose for your eCommerce marketing strategy:

Gamified entry popups: Show welcome offers to first-time visitors in exchange for their email in a gamified way (spin-the-wheel, pick a card, etc.)
Cart abandonment: Pop a reminder to complete the purchase before the items in the cart run out of stock
Quizzes: Promote a quiz that makes personalized recommendations based on each person's answers
Product recommendations: Push new lines and recommend products to subscribers and customers returning to your store
Exit intent: Give an incentive to prospects leaving your website to stay back and make a purchase

18. Make it easy to discover new products

Complex mazes are only fun in real life, not in eCommerce stores. This is exactly why a good navigation system is the most criminally underrated eCommerce marketing tactic. Here’s how you use it:

For example, instead of a 3 layer nested navigation menu, show only the categories that get traffic first.

Or, plug in a site search engine that remembers shoppers and recommends popular products (that you push) as suggestions.

Also read: eCommerce site search: 18 improvements that prevent drop-offs (+ actual examples)

ECOMMERCE EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGY

19. Build your email list

Email lists can help you with micro-conversions – here’s how it works:

You create an offer → Exchange it for visitors’ email IDs → Nurture these leads with routine newsletters → Build a relationship with them through content → Convert them.

Here’s how you can build your email list to craft your marketing plan:

Collect the email IDs of the shoppers by offering a discount or coupon on your popups
Get your users to subscribe to your content through your content efforts (blogs, etc.) or the footer of your website

20. Craft compelling welcome emails

After you have added someone to your email list, the next most intuitive step is to welcome them.

Make sure to send the welcome email immediately after they subscribe – establish the connection fast.

Pro tip: Make your emails more visual than text-heavy.

21. Share personalized offers and discounts

Let your subscribers know about the offers you are launching. Ask your shoppers to visit your website and take a look.

Clearly mention the coupons, freebies, offer period, and other enticing deals in your email, and add pictures and a CTA button.

You must read: How to Scale Your eCommerce Business: 13 Proven Strategies (+ A Case Study)

22. Announce new product launches (and pre-orders)

New additions to your catalog – announce it to all.

Get your subscribers excited about your new products or upcoming pre-orders.

Write to your subscribers – talk about new products, prices, and other details.

Offer free samples (if possible), and give early exclusive access only to your subscribers or an exclusive discount.

You might also like: 20 Experts Share Proven eCommerce Growth Strategies (2024)

23. Tell them what’s back-in-stock

Something running out of stock indicates high demand for that product.

And when it's back – there's always a fear of missing it again.

Emails talking about what’s back in stock drive audiences to the website to get the product that might run out again.

Capitalize on this FOMO and send back-in-stock emails every once in a while.

Check how Aritzia has added this to their eCommerce marketing strategy.

Also read: 29 Best Back-In-Stock Email Examples (+Templates)

24. Seasons and holidays – stay ahead on promotions

Holidays scream shopping. This is the time when shoppers start hunting for the best deals.

Instead of waiting, here’s how to plan your eCommerce promotion strategy for the holidays:

Shoot an email that reminds them of the holidays or event, including your discount offer or any service that you’re offering, show your products, and ask them to start shopping right away.

25. Recover abandoned carts

The challenge of cart abandonment is not new to us – nor are the efforts to recover them.

What can you do differently to have a slightly better chance of recovering them?

Offer something extra.

Throw in a free sample or bundle it with a related product and offer it at a discount.

Basically, boost the perceived value of the cart with this eCommerce marketing tactic – shoot an email to the ones who abandoned the cart.

26. Post-purchase follow-up – recommend related products

Once you have got your subscribers to buy from you – do not forget to take feedback from them. Make them feel heard and valued.

This also opens the opportunity to recommend related products for their next purchase.

This way, you stay in their minds and in their lives 🙂

‍Pro tip: This marketing tactic helps you ask for UGC, which you can include in various other elements of your eCommerce marketing strategy.

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PAID MARKETING CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES ECOMMERCE

27. Run pay-per-click advertising campaigns

As opposed to ads that charge for every impression, pay-per-click only charges when someone clicks on your ad.

You can use several platforms to serve your ads, and the two largest and most well-known are Google and Facebook.

If you are well versed in running PPC campaigns, you can go ahead and set them up, else you can hire a freelancer to help you with them.

Sponsored google ads for ecommerce website

You might also like to check out: How to Increase Email Marketing ROI (Updated 2024)

28. Run retargeting campaigns

The rule of 7 says that if you look at an ad 7 times, you take action.

This is what we capitalize on through eCommerce remarketing strategies.

Let’s say that someone engages with your website. This eCommerce strategy will ensure that your ads follow him around until he comes back and makes a purchase.

Sponsored ads on Instagram for ecommerce websites

Pro Tip: You can retarget on emails and on-site as well, once a shopper re-engages from your remarketing ads.

29. Partner with influencers

Influencers are aspirational for their followers. And when they recommend something – their followers listen.

What we recommend doing is: either a paid collaboration or a barter partnership.

The simplest way to do this – search for your category – fashion, electronics, beauty, apparel etc. – shortlist influencers that have a follower count above 1k (the greater the number of followers, the greater the budget) – or pick product reviewers with a follower count above 100K

Note: To estimate how many eyeballs you might reach with your influencer marketing campaign, check the engagement metric of your target influencer: (Average views on their last 5 posts or videos/ 5) *100

Read further: Influencer Marketing 101: Step-by-Step Strategy For eCommerce Store Owners

30. Reach out to shoppers via text message campaigns (SMS)

Our advice: Begin with a one-off eCommerce campaign strategy. If you’re sending an email about a promotion, differentiate the message on SMS. Once you start gaining traction, integrate it with other channels.

Some of the eCommerce marketing campaigns that you can consider for SMS as a channel are:

Welcome messages
Purchase confirmations
Limited time promos
Cart abandonment updates
Post-purchase feedbacks

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR ECOMMERCE

31. Include TikTok eCommerce marketing plan

Entertainment spaces are becoming shopping inspirations – and TikTok is emerging fast.

Use memes, short videos, trending audio, and UGC to drive sales for your eCommerce store.

Here are a few TikTok hacks to foolproof your eCommerce growth strategy:

Use the ‘Yellow Basket’ feature: Companies can redirect viewers directly to the checkout page instead of having numerous steps before purchasing

TikTok ads and challenges: This shift from product-centric campaigns to customer-centric ones makes customers feel appreciated and involved, increasing loyalty and conversions

You might also like to read:‍

i. 36 Powerful Instagram Strategies to Drive eCommerce Sales (+Tips & Trends)

ii. Selling on FB Marketplace - 15 Key Considerations for Higher Conversions

32. Set up your shop on Instagram

Instagram is increasingly becoming business-friendly.

There are a plethora of features that will help you not just increase brand awareness but also drive sales.

Utilize reels, live streams, posts, stories, and story highlights to build a brand online. Get yourself a blue tick to look authentic.

To drive sales, list your products on the platform. Include links to product pages and redirect them to your website.

33. Get personal – connect with shoppers on WhatsApp

After Instagram, WhatsApp is where people are at and WhatsApp campaigns are where the revenue is.

For example, you can nurture a shopper post-purchase by segmenting your target audience based on their purchase history.

Or recover abandoned carts:

Also read: 10 WhatsApp Marketing Ideas For eCommerce Stores & Some Great Examples

Final Word

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

Reason: User experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And Convertcart solves for exactly that.

We help eCommerce brands optimize their websites to boost their conversions.

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

How do we do this?

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to turn more of your visitors into customers.

eCommerce Marketing Strategy: 33 Immediately-Actionable Ideas for 2025

33 Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies (2025)

ORGANIC ECOMMERCE MARKETING STRATEGIES

1. Work on strengthening your SEO