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How to increase your website sales in 8 steps

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How to increase your website sales

If you want to increase your website sales, you need to avoid following a hundred paths that will take you the long way round.

Why? Because sales development is long enough without you wasting your time.

There are plenty of quick wins and deep value conversion rate optimization techniques where a return on investment can be realized with minimal effort. How would you like to increase sales easily?

In this article, I’ll show you the 8 steps you need to take to increase website sales instantly! Read on and enjoy.

1. Install 3 types of web analytics so you have more data to make better business decisions

Before you go ahead and make changes to your website, you need to understand the who, what, why and how of your website traffic.

This can only be achieved by collecting three types of data set:

  • Web analytics (e.g. Google Analytics)-visitor and session data
  • Google Search Console-search engine and site performance data
  • Heatmap analytics (e.g. Microsoft Clarity)-user-behavior data

You need to use all 3 types of analytics software because they offer complementary data sets that fill in each other’s gaps.

For example, you can combine sales data collected in web analytics with recorded session data from heatmaps to improve your CTA buttons.

How to fix it

Installing web analytics is easy. Here are some useful links:

With regards to heatmaps, there are several options.

Microsoft Clarity is free and well-regarded. Another option is Hotjar.

We recommend Microsoft Clarity because you can sync data in the Google Analytics dashboard. Check out the Clarity guide for doing this.

2. Make your website lightning fast to create an optimal user experience

Website speed has a significant effect on conversion rates.

47% of consumers expect websites to load in under 2 seconds and 40% will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Ouch.

We did the math. It means if your e-commerce store makes $5,000 per day a loading time of 3 seconds could cost you over $700k in sales per year.

Site speed is also a Google ranking factor. Google now demands a minimum load time based on Core Web Vitals (real-world usage data).

How to fix it

Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights to measure your website’s speed.

You should also plug your website into Google Search Console so you can run a Core Web Vitals report within the dashboard.

Here are 10 ways to increase website speed:

  • Fast web hosting
  • HTTP/2
  • CDN (content delivery network)
  • Reduce media size
  • Reduce server requests
  • Pre-load resources
  • Minify code
  • Remove unused code
  • Defer offscreen images
  • Eliminate render-blocking resources

You will find more ideas after running a PageSpeed Insights report.

3. Provide more social proof to convince customers to take action

Research conducted by Deloitte, commissioned by Bazaarvoice, found a 128% increase in conversion rates when shoppers interact with reviews.

A separate study by Podium found that 93% of consumers are influenced by reviews. That same study found 68% of consumers are willing to pay 15% more for the same product for a better customer experience.

You can use this to your advantage by posting social proof on your website to build trust and make your business appear reputable.

If you have reviews, testimonials, customer success stories, case studies, awards, and memberships, these should be prominent on your website.

4. Create more ways to capture email addresses to power your email marketing

High conversion rates in email marketing depend on targeted email lists-and the best lists are always created organically.

You can capture more email addresses by increasing the number of opportunities customers have to enter their email address.

Another way to capture more email addresses is to increase the value your customers get from handing over their information, such as a discount on their next purchase, or a VIP membership with access to exclusive monthly deals and offers.

Once you have a targeted email list, make use of an email marketing tool to make reaching your customers easier. These tools can automate and schedule emails and track engagement and conversion rates.

5. Upsell to increase sales and revenue per customer

Upselling is the simplest sales growth trick in the book-all you need to do is sell your customer a superior product to the cheaper option.

A great example of this can be found at Gillette. They offer a shaving subscription with cheaper prices for more shaves per week or a longer subscription time. Gillette earns more money because you buy blades directly from them.

Another example is any pizza joint that offers extra toppings for a few cents.

Upselling is all about enhancing the product your customer is already buying in return for increased revenue and profit.

Identify upselling opportunities across your product/service range and give them a go. HubSpot has some decent ideas to get you started.

6. Install an SSL certificate to instill trust and confidence in your website

If you collect or process payment card information online, you need an SSL certificate by law. It is not an optional extra you can ignore.

SSL certificates are necessary for website sales because they encrypt user-submitted data and provide a visual indicator (padlock symbol) that your website is secure.

HTTPS is also a ranking factor with Google. Google made this change in 2014 and all search results are now dominated by websites with an SSL certificate.

How to fix it

You can get an SSL certificate from your web host. Most web hosts enable SSL certificate installation within cPanel. If not, you should ask them for help. Some web hosts provide a free SSL certificate, or you may have to purchase one.

7. Offer a solid money-back guarantee to de-risk your customer’s purchase

People like to be assured of quality. One way to do this is to offer a solid money-back guarantee. This de-risks your customer’s purchase.

If you sell products that don’t have any defects or you provide a service that has no realistic opportunity for failure, a money-back guarantee won’t put you out of business and could increase sales several times over.

Just remember to have clear limitations to protect your business. For example, you may need to include an accidental damage waiver.

8. Overlay an exit pop up to recapture your customer’s attention

Exit pop-ups are a great way to turn something negative (someone leaving your site) into something positive (buying, subscribing, etc.).

In one use case, Popupsmart gained 4.5% in sales conversions with an exit pop up. This is proof that an exit pop-up could benefit your bottom line.

The way they work is simple: when a user attempts to navigate away from a page a pop up appears with a reason not to leave.

The key to successful exit pop ups is relevance. Your pop-up needs to lift the biggest barrier in the way of your user taking action.

Sometimes, exit pop-ups can also collect data or attempt to form a relationship with the visitor without pushing a sale (e.g. follow us on Twitter).

A few exit pop up ideas

  • Offer a discount-e.g. 10% off a first order
  • Offer a time-limited discount-e.g. offer 10% off for 48-hours
  • Show a case study-e.g. how you helped X save Y
  • Ask for an email address in return for free shipping
  • Label an email subscription ‘VIP’ to create the illusion of exclusivity
  • Ask a question to collect feedback
  • Ask your visitor to follow you on social media to create a relationship

Wrapping up

These are the 8 most effective steps to increase website sales:

  • Use several web analytics tools to collect multiple data sets
  • Make your website fast (aim for a load time under 2 seconds)
  • Increase social proof across your website
  • Create more ways to capture email addresses
  • Upsell your products/services
  • Install an SSL certificate
  • Offer a solid money-back guarantee
  • Use an exit pop-up to recapture lost customers

Increasing website sales always requires an understanding of how people use your website and why they are there.

The most important thing to remember is you offer a solution to your customer’s problem, but they have no idea without your help. You need to reinforce the real value your solution offers to boost conversion rates.

Further reading

Good website design can also increase website sales, so here are 21 ways to improve your website design in 2021. Looking for more ways to boost e-commerce sales? Be sure to read the 27 best ways to increase e-commerce sales instantly!

 

Jean-Pierre is a polyglot communication specialist, freelance journalist, and writer for startup.info with over two decades of experience in media and public relations. He creates engaging content, manages communication campaigns, and attends conferences to stay up-to-date with the latest trends. He brings his wealth of experience and expertise to provide insightful analysis and engaging content for startup.info's audience.

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