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Skyrocket Your E Commerce Sales

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There’s no denying that e commerce sales is on a steady rise in the recent years. With more and more customers opting to do their shopping online, we can only expect this to grow even more…are you in to ride the wave?

Online shopping is fast, easy, and convenient. The customer doesn’t have to spend hours in traffic or waiting in line. There’s also the added benefit that you can easily find exactly what you’re looking for, instead of having to visit several brick & mortar stores searching for a specific product.

The share of ecommerce sales in retail trade from 2014 – 2017. Image source: Statista 

During the holiday season, these numbers go up by another 12%. In the U.S. is almost double the number of customers an e commerce store gets on average.

This is partially due to the fact that people are prepared to spend more money during the holidays. The besides convenience is also that online stores usually offer great deals and more products to choose from than your local retailer.

Let’s take a look at some numbers to put things into perspective. This will give you a better idea of exactly how much money is up for grabs during the holidays.

Amount of money spent in the U.S. on Cyber Monday (in Millions of U.S. Dollars). Image source: Statista

That’s $3.3 Million spent last year, during Cyber Monday alone! There are a lot more opportunities to grow the revenue of your ecommerce store, like:

  • Thanksgiving
  • Black Friday
  • Easter
  • Christmas
  • Valentine’s Day

I’m sure I don’t need to convince you that running special campaigns during the holiday season is a MUST.

Instead, what I’m going to do in this post is show you how you can use this to your advantage.

Here are a few tips and tricks, guaranteed to help you shoot your sales through the roof during the holiday season:

  1. Plan Ahead

When it comes to running special holiday-themed promotions, it pays off to start early.

Don’t wait until it’s “2 minutes to midnight” to get your special offers in front of your customers. By then, they would have probably already picked up on a promotion from one of your competitors.

You want to prepare them for an upcoming promotion at least 2 weeks ahead. This will give them enough time to figure out their budget and which products they want to purchase.

Announcing a special holiday sale also builds hype and sparks their interest, making them more susceptible to impulse buying.

There are a lot of other things you need to think about when running a special promotion, that take time.

For example, you want to make sure that you have enough items in stock. It’s also a good idea to put a banner up on your website featuring the promotion, write and schedule new emails, and promote the offers on social media.

If you wait until the very last second, even if you manage to pull it off, the campaign will feel rushed, and will almost certainly not produce the results you’re hoping for.

  1. Give Them A Reason To Choose You

In order to maximize sales, you need to give customers an incentive to purchase from your online store, instead of turning to one of your competitors.

One of the most effective ways to win a customer over is by offering free shipping, but that’s not the only thing that can draw people’s attention.

In fact, a lot of people will turn to the Internet in hopes of finding that last-minute gift, and if possible, you should offer them an opportunity to have their order shipped the same day or overnight.

In case you can’t afford free shipping, make sure that the shipping prices are clearly visible for every single product. Most customers abandon their carts due to unexpected expenses like shipping and taxes.

  1. Reach Out To Your Existing Customers

Retargeting the people that have already interacted with your business should be your number one priority during the holiday season.

Of course, you want to attract as many new customers as possible, and offering a special holiday deal is a great way to introduce new people to your business.

However, during the holiday season, you want to avoid experimenting with new customer acquisition strategies.

Sure, you can and very well should run a few ads featuring your 20% off sale for Valentine’s Day, for example…

But you want to focus your energy on advertising to people who are already familiar with your brand and your products.

The reason is simple – you’ll have a much easier time getting these people to convert, than you would with a brand-new lead that hasn’t heard of your business before, and doesn’t know whether they can trust you or not.

 

 

Create retargeting ads for people that have already visit your website before, and send out a couple of promotional emails to your subscribers.

If you can get some new shoppers on board, that’s awesome. Still, I highly recommend focusing on retaining your existing customers, rather than acquiring new ones, during the holiday season, to maximize your return on investment.

  1. Create a Sense of Urgency

Urgency can be used to boost sales and conversions regardless of when you’re launching a campaign, but during the holiday season, it’s especially easy to pull off.

Naturally, the special sale will be limited by the holiday itself. Just make sure to remind the audience that this is indeed a limited sale for the holidays, and that if they miss out on it now, they’ll have to pay the full price later.

There are a couple of interesting strategies you can utilize here. You can choose to extend the sale for another day or two, and give the customers “a second shot” at taking advantage of the discounted prices.

You can also tell the customers that there’s a limited number of products available in stock, and that they need to purchase now if they don’t want to see the “sold out” button.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Even huge companies like Amazon are using this strategy to create a “fake” sense of urgency:

Another thing you can do is offer free shipping if they purchase the same day, giving them another incentive to go through with the purchase instead of waiting for a few days.

That way, you’re giving them a limited time-frame for a certain deal, reducing the chances that they’ll browse through your competitors’ stores, in fear of missing out on a great deal.

  1. Optimize for Mobile

I often stress out the importance of optimizing your website for mobile devices, not just for ecommerce stores, but for any online business.

So, this is something you should do regardless of whether it’s holiday season or not. During the holidays, however, if your store isn’t optimized for anything other than desktop, you’re losing a large portion of your potential customers.

Here’s an example of a optimized website for mobile use:

 

This isn’t something you can afford to ignore. If your store isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Keep in mind that loading times have a significant impact on sales as well. On average, a customer will wait about 3 seconds for the page to lead, before they close it and continue their search elsewhere.

  1. Spread Your Message Across Multiple Marketing Channels

When creating a marketing strategy for the holidays, think about how you’re going to deliver your message.

Emails are the obvious answer, but they shouldn’t be the only marketing channel you employ. Don’t forget to reach out to your customers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all other active marketing channels.

Average number of active monthly users, as of January 2018. Source: Statista (Note: again, if you can find a better image, please replace this one)

You want to target your audience on the platforms that they’re most active on.

Also, don’t do a single Facebook post and call it a day, either.

Advertise your holiday promotion on each of your active social media accounts. If the marketing budget allows, run a few ads on these platforms as well.

Conclusion

As you can see…

The holiday season provides e commerce stores with an excellent opportunity to generate tons of additional sales. This will allow them double their average monthly profit on every holiday season that is around the corner. 

During the holidays, people are more inclined to spend a lot of money on gifts. They also take advantage of great deals to indulge themselves. Not to forget to grab their hands on a product they’ve been eyeing for a while.

In order to maximize your sales during the holiday season, it’s important to start planning on time. You want to come up with a good strategy for promoting your offers. This also includes giving people incentive to shop in your store.

If you follow these simple tips, you can expect an avalanche of orders during the holidays. Just make sure you have enough staff and plenty of products in your inventory to actually meet the demand!

Are you looking to create an e commerce store, optimize the existing one to acquire more customers?

Or are you looking to increase your conversions or scale your profits?

Join the Ecom Academy and learn how to properly set up an e commerce store.

Our team will teach you how to drive tons of qualified traffic to your store and optimize it for sales & conversions. We will also help you leverage the top-performing marketing strategies to maximize your profits.

Wealth Academy provides comprehensive e commerce training. That also comes with support and guidance on your journey to becoming a highly successful online retailer.

Click here to get instant access and learn how you to create and run a hugely successful, wildly profitable e commerce store and start increasing your e commerce sales today.

About The Author:

Shaqir Hussyin

Shaqir Hussyin is the founder and CEO of WealthAcademy.com & Funnels.com, nicknamed the “Backpack Millionaire”, he’s invested $350,000 into his own education and training. Whilst traveling to 100+ countries, Shaqir has built over 10+ million dollar brands and attracted over 500,000+ subscribers. His signature program is now available: Max Income System; 14 Simple Steps To Making Your First Income System

 

Shaqir is also a highly sought-after speaker and direct response “Sales Funnels” global leader. His work has impacted over 100,000 businesses in 65 different countries. Connect with Shaqir on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn & FB Group.

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