“Growth hacking” is a term that’s been growing in popularity in recent years, as the eCommerce space becomes increasingly competitive. It is simply the idea of using unorthodox tactics to achieve rapid growth.
In this post, we’ll discuss 9 practical eCommerce growth hacks that will help you grow your business effectively.
Let’s get started!
9 Growth Hacking Strategies for Ecommerce Stores
1. Highlight customer reviews and testimonials
Word-of-mouth messaging in the form of ratings and testimonials is powerful since most buyers today rely on social proof before making their purchase decisions.
People love hearing feedback from other buyers about their experience with the product before making a purchase. It lets them feel confident about their shopping decisions since they can’t touch or examine the product whether it’s good or not in person.
2. Personalize your homepage
Personalizing the homepage of your eCommerce store is a fantastic way to provide buyers with a specialized shopping experience. Track user behavior, and tailor your content to every customer.
For instance, you can set up your homepage to promote a specific product the buyer viewed but didn’t purchase on their last visit to your store.
At Sytian Productions, we always tell clients that by showing buyers precisely what they’re interested in, it’s easier for your homepage to drive more customers and make purchases.
3. Do A/B tests on your product pages
It is important to test your product pages since that is where sales happen.
Test small changes in the design, text, and images on your pages to see which necessary adjustments you can take to enhance the user experience. An exceptional user experience will ultimately lead to more sales.
4. Create a rewards program
While this is an older growth hack, setting up a rewards system is still a very powerful marketing tool. Some of its advantages include:
- You’re able to collect leads
- You give returning customers rewards such as discounts and encourage them to make additional purchases
5. Segment your email marketing campaigns
Email segmentation divides your email list based on a set of criteria. One of the most significant benefits of email segmentation is focus. The more focused your message is, the more you can increase conversions.
There are four categories of email segmentation:
- Demographic: This is about the “who”. Examples include traits such as age, gender, education, and ethnicity.
- Geographic: This is about the “where”; your customers’ physical location, such as their country or city.
- Psychographic: This is about the “why”. This segmentation is about your audience’s interests and personality. What are their values and beliefs? What are their goals?
6. Be generous with giveaways in contests
Running contests and giveaways are perhaps one of the most cost-effective ways to increase brand and product awareness.
Offer customers the chance to win something that they want while you use this as an opportunity to build awareness and build more followers. For example, you can create a contest on social media where people can win different prizes for simply sharing your content with their followers.
7. Guest posting
By writing guest posts targeting a specific audience, you can easily reach a new set of prospects who are likely interested in engaging with your brand and what you have to offer. It’s also a great way to build backlinks, which is key for SEO.
Create blogs that align with your products, and reach out to blog managers to ask them about guest posting.
Here are tips on writing the perfect guest posts that help you win new customers:
- Don’t make the blog post too salesy: Writing simply to sell your product won’t work. Focus on a topic related to your niche and valuable to your reader
- Link back to your blog: Gain traffic on your own blog so that you can check whether these backlinks lead people to your site
8. Cross-selling and up-selling
When a prospect visits your online store, they could be looking for a single item, but it doesn’t mean you can’t convince them to purchase more.
Rather than setting up for a single item order, boost sales using these two sales strategies:
- Cross-selling: Encouraging customers to buy additional complementary products
- Upselling: Encouraging customers to make an upgrade on their current purchase.
By using cross-selling and upselling strategies, you offer customers more value in their purchases while enhancing your sales.
9. Create a sense of urgency
When it comes to buyer psychology, a great way to encourage sales is to invoke FOMO, also known as the fear of missing out. Playing with your customers’ desires encourages them to buy more.
An easy way to take advantage of this strategy is to create a sense of urgency in product pages. Make buyers feel like they have to complete the purchase.
You can do this by highlighting on your product page:
- How much is left in the inventory
- The time left on a temporary deal or promotion
- The time left to avail of free shipping
Placing urgent statements like these makes the buyer feel they’re about to miss an opportunity if they don’t push through with the purchase.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it. Growth hacking is all about searching for new and innovative ways that you can market your brand and sell your products to drive growth.
Although growth hacking may involve a lot of things, in eCommerce, it’s focused on the overall journey of the customer. Hopefully, these growth hacks will let you gain, convert, and retain your customers effectively. Good luck!
