Did you know that roughly 1.66 billion people shopped online in 2017? In fact, global ecommerce sales amounted to $2.3 trillion last year and are expected to reach $4.48 trillion by 2021. However, with the immense competition in the ecommerce industry, every ecommerce business is on the lookout for smart ways to drive more traffic to their stores. If you are one of them, check out these 10 simple yet smart ways to drive more traffic to your ecommerce store.

1. GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM PRESENCE

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users right now. So, you can strengthen your Instagram presence to drive more ecommerce traffic to your online store. Post high-quality photos and videos, combined with engaging captions that aren’t overly-promotional. Share exclusive offers or provide sneak-peeks into your upcoming product launches in order to keep your followers engaged.

For example, Tentsile features user-generated images on their account and credits the content owners for them. This is a great way to increase engagement and visibility on Instagram. They also share news about their latest offers and discounts in their captions.

2. CREATE A REFERRAL PROGRAM

You can also create a referral program to grow your ecommerce traffic. Around 14% of consumers who visit a referral page end up taking an action. So, craft an interesting program that provides lucrative rewards to referrers as well as incentives to referral customers when they make their first purchase.

For example, W Concept, a luxury fashion brand, launched their referral program by collaborating with relevant influencers and promoted it on their website and social accounts. The referral program offered a 10% discount to both the referrer and referee on their next purchases. As a result, in their first month, the brand generated additional sales worth $20K.

3. LEVERAGE PINTEREST

Buyable Pins allow 200 million monthly active users on Pinterest to make purchases directly from the site or the app. 93% of people said that they use Pinterest to plan their purchases. And 87% of them have made purchases after seeing a product on Pinterest.

San Francisco-based ecommerce brand, Modern Citizen, saw their sales from Pinterest increase by 73% with the use of Rich Pins and Buyable Pins.

4. CONVEY YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION

Create content that helps you convey your value proposition to your audience. This can help you stand out among your competitors in the market. So, make sure to highlight the benefits of your products to your potential customers.

Mailchimp makes their value proposition pretty clear and easy-to-understand. You can read about all of the benefits of using Mailchimp on their website.

5. REDUCE PAGE LOADING TIME

The speed at which your website loads has a big impact on your ecommerce traffic. 53% of visitors are likely to abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. It can even deter them from visiting again.

Keep a close watch on your site loading time with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. These tools also provide useful suggestions on how you can increase your site loading speed.

6. OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE

Over 51% of the total web traffic originates from mobile devices today. And among other things, people use these devices for online shopping too. In a survey by Statista, 11% of respondents reported that they shopped online from mobile devices on a weekly basis. The corresponding percentage of people who shopped from desktops was 16%.

So, you need to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and has a responsive design in order to boost your traffic.

7. FOCUS ON SEO

SEO is one of the most effective strategies to drive traffic to a website. Improving SEO and growing their organic traffic is a top priority for 61% of marketers. Don’t consider SEO to be a “nice-to-have” strategy if you want to grow your website traffic. SEO needs to be one of the key pillars of your marketing strategy.

Optimize your product pages and blog posts with relevant long-tail keywords that have high search volumes and low competition. Write appropriate meta descriptions, alt texts, and titles. You need to optimize for on-page SEO factors as well as off-page factors.

8. LEVERAGE EMAIL MARKETING

In a study, 61% of marketers reported that email marketing is their most effective digital marketing strategy. It’s also one of the proven tactics to drive more website traffic. So, create an email marketing strategy that focuses on motivating your audience to visit your website and take an action.

Old Navy does a great job at email marketing. They showcase their latest offerings along with limited time offers and discounts that can encourage people to visit their website and make a purchase.

9. SIMPLIFY YOUR CHECKOUT PROCESS

A lengthy, time-consuming checkout process can frustrate visitors and make them abandon their shopping carts without completing their purchase. So, keep this process easy and simple. Allow them to check out as a guest (without having to register). Use short, intuitive forms that don’t ask for too much information and provide multiple payment options.

For example, Beauty Bridge has a user-friendly checkout page. You can see all of the products you have added to your cart, their prices, discounts, and shipping charges (if any) on the same page. They also provide the option of completing your purchase as a guest, making it immensely convenient for shoppers.

CONCLUSION

Remember that different strategies vary in their effectiveness for different brands. So, if you feel that a particular strategy isn’t bringing in the results you want, try another. The strategies mentioned above are all tried-and-tested, so use them to grow your ecommerce business effectively.

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This article was submitted by Shane Barker of Shanebarker.com and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork. Find out how you can publish your content on the Hiring Headquarters.