E-commerce Marketing Strategies to Increase Website Traffic

E-commerce has skyrocketed in popularity over the last two years, primarily due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures. Despite that, once governments worldwide decided to ease their lockdown restrictions, the demand and usage of eCommerce remained the same.

With the industry gaining immense traction every year, more businesses are keen to leap into the online world and take advantage of this rapidly growing market. Despite its potential, however, transitioning from physical to online has its own pros and cons, with one glaring con being the stark difference in platforms and how each operates.

Your website traffic is a core determinant of your success as an eCommerce store. This article discusses why you need to optimize your site and strategies to help you boost your website traffic to help you succeed in the competitive online landscape.

E-Commerce: Why Should You Consider Optimizing It?

Many opportunities and obstacles will meet you once you take your business online. An optimized eCommerce site means that you have an online address that anyone can visit your store at any time, wherever they are. This benefit can also be why eCommerce overwhelms you when starting.

Additionally, the internet is full of different businesses, so it can take a lot of work to stand out against the competition. This is where eCommerce optimization comes in. This is the detailed approach to improving a site’s conversion rate and encouraging more customers to buy from your website.

So, what else does eCommerce optimization bring to the table? Bringing in more people to your site increases your sales and revenue. Moreover, it expands your reach, making your site accessible to more customers. In short, regularly optimizing your pages can help you maximize reach, sales, and revenue generation.

Unlike a physical store where you can only reach a set number of shoppers, eCommerce optimization makes it so customers can equally browse your store and transact with your business regardless of where and how many they are.

Before considering eCommerce marketing tactics, you must ensure that your site is optimized for the best shopping experience. For example, this means having an organized website that is well-designed, includes keywords your ideal customers would search for, has a clear structure, and a call to action.

E-commerce Marketing Tactics: How Can They Help Increase Website Traffic?

After optimizing your site, you’re ready to receive visitors and potential customers. While you’re headed in the right direction because there are visitors to your website, how you maintain and keep them engaged is another challenge entirely.

Below is a short list of marketing tactics that have proven effective for increasing site traffic among businesses in the eCommerce industry. With more people now doing their shopping online, it’s vital that you follow the tips below to help boost your site’s performance.

Experiment with the following strategies to find the most effective way your business can maximize its online reach and improve your website traffic.

1. Use social media to your marketing advantage

It’s easy to consider social media as a part of life at this point. In 2021, there were over 4.3 billion social media users worldwide, and experts predict it to reach 6 billion by 2027. The sheer number of users is why social media can be your best friend if you want to drive up site traffic. Additionally, it can help you strengthen your online presence.

You can target the right customers—those most likely to buy your products—when you run social media ad campaigns. Compared to just promoting your brand anywhere and everywhere, using paid social media ads are results-driven, time-efficient, and a good investment of your money.

2. Create referral programs

One of the reasons why brands continue to use referral programs today is because it’s a low-maintenance tactic that’s effective and can reap good results. Leads that come from referrals have a 30% higher conversion rate than those generated from other marketing channels. Additionally, referrals were shown to have a 16% higher lifetime value.

If your brand doesn’t have a referral program, it might be the opportune time to create one since it can give you leads easily and passively; it’s a win-win agreement with your existing customers.

In exchange for new customers who have a higher chance of staying loyal to your brand, you incentivize the customers who brought in new buyers through dollar credit, gift cards, or percent discounts on their future purchases.

3. Have contests and giveaways

Hosting contests and giveaways is an excellent way to keep your brand relevant and your customers engaged. Contests and giveaways are fast and short-term ways to gain traffic on your site compared to other tactics on this list.

Giveaways have a conversion rate of 34%, making them one of the highest conversion-rate marketing tools out there. Examples of giveaways can include offering a selection of your products as prizes or randomly choosing a winner who can get coupons, discounts, and even limited-edition merchandise.

4. Offer limited-time discounts

When you put a time limit on a product or service being sold, your customers might end up buying due to an increased sense of urgency or a fear of missing out. This is one of the reasons why limited offers work so well as a marketing tactic in eCommerce since it encourages buyers to act quickly and make a purchase.

Limited-time offers can also extend to services outside the products you sell. For instance, you can offer free shipping for a specific period. Moreover, you can use free shipping as a welcome gift to people purchasing for the first time. You can also provide a free limited-time gift and free samples to help with customer retention rates.

5. Collaborate with influencers in your industry

If you’re able to do so, collaborating with industry influencers can lead to a significant increase in site traffic, customers, and brand awareness. As their name suggests, influencers influence the market they’re in, meaning the people who subscribe to them can be swayed to take interest or buy from your brand if promoted.

Once you’ve partnered with an influencer, you can offer their subscribers content ranging from contests to freebies and exclusive deals. If the collaboration continues for a long time, their followers will gain trust in your brand and might even be converted to loyal or lifetime customers.

E-commerce: New Platform, Improved Marketing Tools

With the right research and tools, any business can make a name for itself in the eCommerce industry. Regularly optimizing your website can help make a difference in how often people visit your site. Additionally, using different marketing strategies or combining at least two that best suit your needs can help you differentiate your business and move you toward success.