How to Optimize Your Websites to Increase Website Sales [10 Easy Tips]

Want to increase sales on your website? Of course you do.

Well, here’s the good news – a few small tweaks to your eCommerce website will go a long way. Forget about complicated marketing strategies or product changes, you just need to implement a few essential tools and tactics that can help your existing website generate a lot more revenue.

When you start an online store, so much of your attention will be on attracting customers to your store. However, if you don’t optimize your site for sales, then the traffic you get will be pretty useless.

To help you out, here are 10 simple tips that you can use to help you increase online sales.

Use Popups (Without Being Annoying)
Make the Right Suggestions to Your Visitors
Test headlines and CTAs
Make Your Value Proposition Clear
Add Social Proof to Your Website
Optimize Your Shopping Cart
Optimize Your Checkout Page
Add Enough Details to Your Product Pages
Minimize Friction
Optimize Product pages for SEO

1. Use Popups (Without Being Annoying)

One of the most effective ways to increase sales on your site is through the smart use of popups. Yes, popups can be incredibly annoying, but if you know how to use them they can add great value to your customers.

Some popups are essential (like privacy compliance popups), and the rest are purely promotional. When setting up your promotional popups, make sure that they add value to the user. You want your popup to trigger a response from the user – in this case, making a purchase.

Some of the best ways to do this on your eCommerce site are:

Offer a discount coupon (for first-time purchases)
Promote a special offer (like a freebie with a purchase)
Promote free shipping
Promote related products or product bundles

You can trigger exit-intent popups on your checkout pages which is a great way to reduce cart abandonment and catch your shoppers at the right moment.

Just don’t be too pushy with popups – like asking for emails or mobile app downloads straight away. Instead, try to offer the user something of value (like a discount coupon). This will help you increase online sales, instead of increase page bounces.

2. Make the Right Suggestions to Your Visitors

Instead of only focusing on making new sales to potential customers don’t forget about your existing customers. It’s actually a lot easier to increase the purchase value of existing customers than it is to convince a new customer to make a purchase.

One of the best ways to do this is to cross-sell to your customers by making a relevant suggestion based on their shopping history, or what’s in their cart.

You can add suggested items at the bottom of the screen or in a sidebar. Offer suggestions like:

You may also like
Customers also bought
Recommended for you
Related items
Products that go well with (item in cart)

This is an excellent way to promote impulse buys and increase your average order value. It’s a lot easier than new customer acquisition, helping you boost online sales without much effort.

3. Test Headlines and CTAs

An essential part of increasing sales comes down to your headlines and calls to action. These are what motivates a user to click on your product and complete a purchase.

Finding the “perfect headline” can be tricky, as there is no clear answer to what is best. The only way you’ll figure this out is by testing different options and continually optimizing them.

Run an A/B test on your headlines and CTAs, with a slight variation of each. Select the winning variation, and run a new test. You can continue testing and optimizing until you think these elements are perfect.

Some general tips for CTAs and headlines that boost sales are:

Make sure they stand out and are easy to read
Make them highly actionable
Highlight your value
Keep it short and snappy

The right copy on your website and product pages can make an enormous difference to your online sales.

4. Make Your Value Proposition Clear

Try to make your unique value proposition (UVP) clear to potential customers as soon as they visit your site. Your value proposition should let them know why they should trust your business and do business with you. This is especially important in highly competitive niches.

For example, there may be many different companies that sell the same type of product as yours. So, why is yours the best? Some value proposition ideas could be that your is the:

Most affordable
Original
Highest quality
Most unique – offers different features

And so on. Make your value proposition clear, and potential customers will have more reason to choose your product over the competition.

Of course, you also need to make sure that customers understand exactly what you sell and why it’s useful. This is essential for a smooth customer experience and for boosting eCommerce sales. It may sound obvious, but many online stores confuse their visitors on arrival.

5. Add Social Proof to Your Website

Social proof is an essential part of any eCommerce marketing strategy. The idea is that people trust other people that they relate to. If your online store shows zero social proof, you’ll have a hard time developing trust with potential customers.

Some of the best ways to add social proof to your site include adding reviews to your product pages and adding customer testimonials to your web pages. This shows visitors that your brand has been trusted and it provides a real-world glimpse into what other customers thought about your brand. You can also display social proof on your social media accounts.

Positive social proof is critical for building trust and boosting online sales.

6. Optimize Your Shopping Cart

The shopping cart is one of the most important moments in your customer’s journey. The moment they review their cart is when they decide whether they will go ahead with the purchase or not.

There are a few tactics you can use to make your shopping cart more appealing to help boost online sales. These include:

Offer clear fulfillment options. Try to make these flexible
Make your returns policy clearly available
Provide an easy path back to the product page so that shoppers can check back on product details
Offer cross-sells
Set up a cart abandonment program. You can follow our guide to reducing cart abandonment for a complete set of strategies

7. Optimize Your Checkout Page

Your checkout page is the final step in your customer’s journey before they complete their purchase. Make sure that your checkout page offers a seamless experience that does not chase customers away.

Here are some of the best strategies you can apply to optimize your checkout page:

Try to offer free shipping or low-cost shipping. Make sure your shipping cost is not an unpleasant surprise to the customer. You can also offer free shipping for orders above a certain value.
Offer as many different payment options as possible
Offer by now, pay later options. Even for low-value orders, this is a very popular payment option
Have the option to do a guest checkout
Ensure the checkout steps are clear so that the customer does not get overwhelmed

8. Add Enough Details to Your Product Pages

This may sound obvious, but your product pages need to tell your visitors enough if they’re going to help you boost online sales. Far too many brands don’t provide enough context and information on their product pages. This can easily chase potential customers away.

Ensure your products include a detailed description. Explain everything you can think of about the product – what it looks like, how much it weighs, what it’s made out of, how it works, and so on. The more details the better.

Also, be sure to include images of the product from all angles, as well as images of the product in use. Product shots in real-life scenarios are a lot more effective than product shots with a blank background.

You can also include product videos, reviews, and a Q&A section to make sure no details are missing.

Another great strategy is to include an inventory update on your product pages. When this starts running low, it’s a great way to add a sense of urgency and push more impulse buys.

The most important thing is that you understand your customers, their desires, and their questions. As long as you cover everything your customers want to know, you’ll have far better chances of making more online sales.

9. Minimize Friction

The fewer steps a customer has to take to make a purchase, the greater your chances of boosting online sales. It’s critical to reduce friction on your site if you’re going to make more sales.

Friction refers to any unnecessary step that could chase a customer away. This could include asking for too much information, asking them for information they don’t want to share, requiring a profile to make a purchase, and so on.

Try to eliminate any possible steps that could cause friction. Make form entry requirements minimal, and only ask for the essentials. The shorter the customer journey is, the greater their chances of making a purchase.

10. Optimize Product Pages for SEO

Effective search engine optimization means a lot more potential customers will be able to find your products and make purchases. If your pages aren’t optimized for SEO, then you’re missing out on a lot of online sales.

SEO is easier than you think. All you really need to focus on for your product pages is to ensure you target the right keywords on your products. This should be what your product is.

Include the keyword in your title, product description, and meta title and meta description of your page. Going into detail in your product description will also help search engines understand more about what your product is about, which helps for SEO.

If you sell wine glasses, make sure to use “wine glasses” in your product title. This may sound silly, but many brands will label their wine glasses as something like “thin stemmed pack of 6” if all they sell is wine glasses. This could prevent search engines from understanding that you’re actually selling wine glasses.

Check out these top small business SEO tips for more information on how to optimize your product pages.

Use the Right eCommerce Marketing Tools

These strategies to help you increase online sales are easy to apply, but you’ll need to make sure you’re set up with the right marketing tools to put them into action. This includes tools for popups and online forms, social promotions, email marketing and automation, and more.

Wishpond is an all-in-one solution that gives eCommerce store owners everything they need to attract more customers and boost revenue. Try it out for your business to see just how easy it can be to increase online sales.

Summary

If you want to increase online sales, then you need to make sure you’re doing enough to attract and engage each potential customer. A popular and busy online store is no good if customers are leaving before making a purchase.

These 10 simple tips are easy to apply, and they can make a big difference to your revenue. Try them out, and see which ones help to boost your revenue the most.

How to Optimize Your Websites to Increase Website Sales