This is a guest post by Bill Widmer 

The eCommerce market is insanely saturated. But think about it this way:

The less competitive industries are probably lagging in terms of growth, or are less profitable. Which means that, with a little innovation, there is a lot of money to be made.

In fact, there are plenty of simple tweaks you can implement to give your eCommerce revenue a nice boost – today!  Read on to find out the 5 tweaks you should make on your store to increase your sales.

#1: Create An Awesome “About Us” Page

People are always surprised when I tell them a great “About Us” page is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.  Why are About Us pages so dang important?  Chew on this:

52% of website visitors head over to About Us pages before doing anything else.

This means your About Us page is prime real estate, and you’ll want to milk it for all its worth.  Here’s what your About Us page should do:

• Tell your visitors who you are, and what you do
• Explain to your visitors why your product or service is preferable over your competitors’
• Include a Call To Action (subscribe to a newsletter, check out your New Arrivals… it’s your call!)

Here are two things to consider when creating your “About Us” page:

1. Clarity over cleverness.

You wouldn’t want to pack your page full of obscure references and puns – unless you’re selling to a super niche target audience who you know will get your jokes.

2. Be authentic.

Your About Us page, ideally, should build trust with your visitors. Don’t mislead, don’t misrepresent, and make sure you’re honest and authentic.  

To get a template that you can use to write a kickass About Us page for your eCommerce store, check out this guide.

#2: Redesign Your Product Page

Your Product Page is another place where the magic happens.  This page needs to convince your visitor to make a purchase…

…so don’t hold back.  We’re talking search engine optimization.  We’re talking amazing product photos (and if you can feature videos too, that’s a huge bonus).  We’re talking clear Call To Action buttons, placed above the fold.  We’re talking price anchoring and countdown timers.  To learn more about redesigning your Product Page, hop on over to this guide.

Pro Tip: Don’t go crazy and implement ten different changes at once. Change only one element at a time, so you can run A/B tests and figure out what’s working for you and what isn’t.

#3: Launch A Facebook Store

You’re probably already running Facebook ads, but how about actually selling your products on Facebook?  Here’s the good news:

It’s super easy to get started.

Most online store builders offer a handy feature or plugin which allows you to connect your existing eCommerce store to a new Facebook store.  All you need to do is to select the products that you want to sell on Facebook, and your product details, images, and inventory will automatically start syncing.  Once your store is fully set up, here’s the next step:

Start running ads for your Facebook store, like how you’d do for your eCommerce store.  After seeing your ads, consumers can purchase your products in-app, which is a lot more convenient than leaving Facebook and being redirected to separate website.  This reduces the friction associated with a purchase, which means that your conversion rates and sales should go up!

#4: Accumulate Product Reviews

If you didn’t already know, product reviews have a direct impact on your sales figures.

Image from Vendasta.com.

63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews…  

And 88% of online shoppers incorporate reviews into their purchase decision.  There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to product reviews for eCommerce stores, though.  I know of some eCommerce store owners who will run intensive, month-long campaigns to accumulate 50 reviews per product, then call it a day once they hit their quota.  But that’s not the best strategy, and here’s why:

Given that 44% of consumers say that reviews have to be written within one month to be relevant, it’s important to ensure that your reviews are coming in consistently.  Also, don’t even think about buying reviews.  Shoppers these days are pretty savvy, and statistics show that 30% of consumers assume online reviews are fake if there are zero negative reviews.   For tips on how to get more product reviews, read this guide to user-generated content!

#5: Spend More Budget On Retargeting Customers

For many eCommerce store owners, this will seem counter-intuitive.   I want to reach out to new customers so that more people can learn about my brand. How does it makes sense to retarget my existing customers?  This is why:

Image from QuickSprout.com.

It’s not just cheaper to retarget your existing customers, it’s also more profitable.  Talk about a win-win!  Of course, in most situations, it’s not feasible to put 100% of your budget into retargeting and not spend a single cent on acquiring new customers.  But here’s what I’m saying:

Acquiring new customers is more expensive, and in terms of sales generation, it might be hit or miss.  You’ll still want to focus some of your efforts on customer acquisition (regardless of whether you do it via Facebook ads, influencer marketing, or content marketing campaigns)…

…but if your immediate goal is to get those sales figures up, then retargeting is definitely the way to go!

A Final Word On Increasing eCommerce Sales

At the start of this article, we were talking about eCommerce being a highly saturated industry.  Yup, it sucks that there are about a million businesses vying (with you!) for a share of the pie…  

…but this also means there are tons of resources you can use to give your sales figures a nice boost.  Once you’re done implementing the tweaks I’ve mentioned in this article, go ahead and Google for more best practices.  There are a lot of awesome case studies written by entrepreneurs who have valuable insights about the eCommerce industry…

…all you have to do is to test each suggestion, measure your results, fine-tune your strategy, and rinse and repeat.

That’s all there is to it!

If you found this article useful, please take a second to share it so we can spread the wealth!

Bill Widmer is a content marketing and SEO expert who specializes in eCommerce and digital marketing.”