By Erin Rodrigue

Admittedly, when I opened my Etsy shop last year, I half-expected the sales to pour in naturally. In reality, opening an online store is half the battle — you also need a solid strategy for generating ecommerce sales.

The same is true for ecommerce veterans. If you’ve been in the game for a while, you’ve likely weathered periods of slumps or plateaus. When this happens, it’s essential to refresh your strategy with more effective ways to sell.

Here, we’ll cover six tactics to build awareness, entice buyers, and boost sales.

1. A/B Testing

Absolutely every aspect of your site could be tested for improvement — including images, headlines, product descriptions, and even the overall design.

Specifically, look out for these two areas:

• Mobile optimization: Sales on mobile devices exceeded 360 billion in 2021, a 15% increase YOY. To entice mobile shoppers, having a website that’s responsive and quick to load is a must.
• UX experience: Have you ever visited a website with too many popups? Or one with a messy checkout process? A great user experience is frictionless — one where the user can arrive at your website, browse around, and complete a purchase with ease.

Even if you think you’re already doing well with your current website collateral, there’s always room to A/B test your content.

Pro Tip

Before you start changing everything on your website to see what works, stop and create a battle plan. If you change everything at once, you won’t know what’s effective and what’s not. Plan two weeks for each change so you can gather enough data to make a decision.

Then, start with one component at a time. You could test something every two weeks and still find room for improvement years down the road.

2. Build an Email List

Did you know email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% ROI?

Email can help you achieve a number of things — promote sales, keep in touch with customers, market your products, and ultimately generate more sales.

The problem? You need people to email.

An email list is a group of users who have given you permission to send them relevant content. To build that list, you need several ways for people to opt in. For example, you could create a website popup, or add an opt-in button at checkout.

Don’t be discouraged if you only have a few people on your list to start. It can take some time to build.

Pro Tip

Only 3% of marketing emails have an open rate above 50%. While this stat is jarring, it also shines a spotlight on subject lines — and how to craft compelling, clickable ones.

According to a 2022 HubSpot Blog survey, subject lines that pique readers’ curiosity receive …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog