In 2018, people made over 586 billion sales online in the UK alone.

Although this is impressive, it also means you have a lot of competition to beat. Plus, even though the numbers are large, that doesn’t mean you always get your share of the pie.

There’s no doubt that the consumers are there, but trying to make them choose your site over the competition can seem difficult. If you feel like you’ve tried everything to boost sales, don’t lose hope yet.

Chances are there are plenty of strategies for your eCommerce business that you haven’t implemented yet. Some of these strategies may be harder than others, but they should make a difference no matter what.

And lucky for you, this article will tell you how to start driving scales with these strategies.

Read on to learn more!

1. Create a Sense of Urgency

When people are considering buying a product, they often take time to think about it. They’ll do their research, read reviews, and maybe even talk to someone else.

But sometimes, people buy an item without thinking about it for very long. This is called an impulse buy, and over 80 percent of all buyers have made an impulse purchase.

Although you can’t rely on impulse buys alone, you prepare your site for people that are impulse buying. How do you do this? Create a sense of urgency.

For deals and sales, include a timer on your site for how long the sale has left. This will let customers know that they don’t have long to buy the purchase.

Keep in mind that the countdown shouldn’t be two or three weeks! instead, start the countdown when the deal has just a few days left.

For items you don’t have a lot of, you could also include a quantity number. If you do, customers will feel like they need to beat others to buying the product.

These strategies won’t help with impulse buyers alone. Even those who aren’t buying on impulse may quicken their research or choose you over their competitor.

2. Make It Easy to Check Out

When you’re going online to make a purchase, nothing is more frustrating than seeing that you have to create an account. For some people, this means they might shop on sites that they have an account on alone.

As an eCommerce site owner, you should make it easier for your customers to check out. Don’t require them to make an account or give unnecessary details. This will push them to visit a site like Amazon or Ebay.

You should also accept as many cards as you can. Imagine how annoying it would be to a customer to find the item they want and not be able to pay for it.

Don’t focus your efforts on getting payment methods no one uses though. Make sure you have big names like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Android Pay, etc. Maybe look at Bitcoin too to get ahead of the curve.

None of this means you shouldn’t allow your customers to make an account. This could be a great way to retain their business, but as long as you have their email, it should be enough to contact them again.

3. Install a Real Loyalty Program

Okay, okay. Loyalty programs are not a new idea. In fact, one of the first loyalty programs started in the 1700s.

But, here’s the thing: too many people skip out on loyalty programs because they don’t actually give you anything. You might even be in a useless loyalty program right now.

To make sure your loyalty program is worth having, you need to offer real incentives to join it. It’s one of the best ways to bring customers back, but if they don’t feel that it’s worth it, they won’t join in on the fun.

Loyalty programs do, in some sense, cost you a bit of money. But, you should be able to structure your program to make sure that they won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

A 5% on an item that nobody wants won’t do the trick. Give people what they want, and make the loyalty program feel like an honour to join. Soon, you’ll see more people joining and more people buying from you more often.

4. Don’t Forget about Charm Pricing

Do you know what charm pricing is?

Chances are you do, even if you’ve never heard the term. You might have even wondered what it’s all about. It’s when a product gets priced at $2.99 instead of $3.

This type of pricing creates more conversions on your site. That’s right — spending just one penny on your sales may give you a huge increase in your sales.

People prefer seeing this number when shopping. And even though they know it isn’t much cheaper, it looks like it is to them.

Before changing every item’s price to .99, try some A/B testing with the pricing to see which works better. Some items may do better than others with this strategy.

5. Improve Your Site Speed

Let’s say a user goes on to your site. They’re looking around, and then — all of a sudden — the worst happens: they have to wait more than three seconds for a page to load. They immediately leave your site and see your competitors.

Sound crazy? It’s not.

In fact, almost 50 percent of people will leave a site if they have to wait longer than 3 seconds. Not so patient, huh?

To keep your users, you need to make sure your site runs with ease. Doing this isn’t too difficult, and it may not take much time.

Check your images to see if they are optimised for the internet. Make sure they are in RGB.

Also, get rid of any clunky sidebars you may have on your site. Social links are good, but you don’t need a feed of all your business’s Facebook posts.

Another perk about site speed is that it will help your SEO. Google ranks sites higher if they run quickly, so you may even see a boost in traffic.

6. Use Quality Images

There’s no doubt that it’s easy to snap a photo with your phone and upload it to your site. It will get the job done, but it’s not the best option for your eCommerce site.

Instead, you should find ways to use quality images. These will give your customer a better idea of the product you’re selling.

Plus, customers will prefer to see a nice a polished shot over a grainy photo. It might even make the product look like a better buy.

While you’re at it, consider making videos to show what your product can do. If you sell a service, consider hiring a talking head to discuss why your service is effective.

To get high-quality images, you could use a better camera. But what may work better is hiring a professional photographer.

7. Get Ready for Mobile

Did you know that more people use mobile rather than desktop when searching on the internet?

This means that the majority of your visitors will be on their mobile phones. To cater to them, make sure that your website is mobile friendly. It’s doubtful that people will take the time to find your site again if they have to open a desktop or laptop.

To do this, you may want to speak to a professional. Or if you designed your own site, you might want to get some help optimizing for mobile.

If you’re running with a site like WordPress, the software may make your site mobile friendly without you having to do anything. Don’t rely on this, though; make sure to check.

Like site speed, this has benefits for SEO as well. Google knows most people use mobile, so the algorithm may boost your ranking if you optimize for mobile.

8. Start an Email List

Even if you decide not to require users to make an account when buying, you should still start an email list. Most people are used to having to enter their email when making an online purchase, so you can take advantage of this.

After you make a list, you can start sending special deals, sale reminders, and general marketing information to your users. While many may toss it in the trash before reading, you still an opportunity to remind people of your business.

Remember that people hate receiving too many emails. If you do, they will unsubscribe in no time.

9. Do Lots of Testing

No matter what changes you make to boost sales, you should do lots of testing. Every business is different, so what works for one might not work for you.

Keep this in mind when making changes to your eCommerce business. There are plenty of awesome tools to help you keep track of what you do.

Looking for More Ways to Boost Sales?

Now that you know more ways to boost sales, you should take some of these ideas and use them for your eCommerce business. If you do them right, you should see more profit for your business.

If you’re looking for professional help, I’m your guy. Get in touch and let’s see what we can do together.