10 Actionable Ways to Increase Your E-Commerce Revenue

Last update: February 9, 2021.

Ecwid is full of features that can help you increase your store’s revenue and save you time. Are you using them to their full potential?

You may have enjoyed these Five Awesome Ecwid Ecwid Hacks or (five others). Today we’ll look into 10 other ways to earn additional money in your store.

1. Setup Cross-Sales

Invite customers to purchase complementary or similar items.

This is a well-known marketing tactic to increase revenue. Suggesting complementary or similar items or services when selling a product is an easy way to increase your revenue.

In real life, an example of this would be a salesperson suggesting you purchase a complimentary item or service with the product you are about to purchase. For example, if you sell skateboards, you may cross-sell better quality bearings, stickers, decals, new wheels, a repair service, guarantees etc.

In your Ecwid store, you can configure suggested products within the product page and at checkout. You could also:

• Bundle products
• Offer accessories
• Define and offer products that are often purchased together

How To

For products individually:

1. Go to your Control Panel → Catalog → Products
2. Create or select the product you would like to associate with cross-sales
3. Assign related products to the item individually or by category
4. Save your changes

At checkout:

1. Go to your Control Panel → Settings → General → Cart
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page
3. Enable Related Products Cart Page

Note: make sure Related Products are activated for both your cart and your product pages.

2. Offer Bulk or Volume Discounts

Discounts for purchasing items in bulk incentivises clients to buy more, and can, therefore, increase your average transaction size, and your revenue. You may also want to offer bulk discounts to liquidate older stock or reduce inventory. Bulk discounts can also help you offer your clients better shipping costs.

The feature is unique in Ecwid as it uses their algorithm to suggest users add more items to get higher discounts. If a client adds a bulk discounted item to their cart, a message will appear informing them that they can save more by adding one or two more items.

How To

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel → Promotions → Discounts
2. Configure your discounts based on the subtotal (Venture Plan) or customer groups (Business Plan) or both
3. Save the changes

Note: You will need a Venture Plan or a Business Plan to set up Bulk Discounts.

3. Run a Contest

A contest can increase your revenue by increasing engagement on social media, brand awareness, subscribers, and data, as well as by lowering marketing costs as customers take part in your marketing efforts to attract new customers.

Depending on your goals and niche, contest examples could include:

• Photo caption contest
• Sweepstakes
• Video contest
• Essay contest
• Selfie contest
• Best tips contest, etc

How To

Make sure you have a clear target goal and clear contest rules. Be sure the process to select the winner is well defined: it should be straightforward and raise no additional questions.

Use partnerships with influencers and local businesses to promote your contest and run social media ads.

Listen to the Podcast for 25 proven contest ideas to promote your online store!

4. Sell on the Go

Take and sell your entire inventory with you thanks to your online store, on desktop, tablet or mobile — increase your revenue by selling from anywhere, online or in person.

With a stable internet connexion and a tablet, you can sell on the go at:

• Trade-shows
• Sidewalk sales
• Demo and sampling events
• Pop-up shops
• Roadshows

Further ideas:

• Bring samples and show variations in your online store (color for example)
• Accept deposits on your client’s orders

How To

All you need is:

• A stable internet connexion
• A tablet or a laptop with your online store

You could take the most popular (physical) version of your product with you and sell variants (different colors, sizes, etc.) to potential clients by showing them high-resolution photos of your product in your online store. Take pre-orders with deposits and offer discounts on future purchases when selling in person.

Check out this free Ecwid Guide on Making Your Business Omnichannel Ready.

5. Sell Using Youtube

Use Youtube to promote and sell your products online.

Product videos can improve your conversion rates because:

• Viewers are 64 to 85% more likely to buy after watching a product video
• Product videos can increase social shares and recommendations

Our brains process video content 60,000 times faster than text according to Hubspot.

How To

1. Create your own videos
2. Partner with Youtubers to have them promote your products
3. Embed already made videos about the products you sell

Make sure to deactivate controls, ads, and related video suggestions if you embed other videos. You want your traffic to focus on your product, not to get distracted and head over to Youtube.

Listen to the Podcast for more ideas on how to sell using Youtube.

6. Create a Sense of Urgency

Urgency is a form of persuasion that causes people to want to act quickly. This can improve conversion rates by:

• Increasing impulse purchases
• Decreasing abandoned orders
• Decreasing friction in your client’s purchase decision process

How To

Display a sense of urgency in your online store using product labels, and marketing tools provided by Zotabox.

Add visible indicators such as a:

• Sidebar
• Promotion bar
• Low stock indicators on products
• Clock or countdown

Add content to these visible blocks such as:

• Time-sensitive shipping rates
• Limited-time deals
• Scarcity indications

Use words such as:

• Now
• Today
• Fast
• Quick
• Rush
• Hurry
• Approaching
• Seconds
• Deadline
• Over
• Instant

Use expressions such as:

• Don’t Miss Out
• One Day Only
• Last Chance
• Once in a Lifetime
• Now or Never

7. Setup FOMO Alerts

FOMO means Fear of missing out and the FOMO app adds popups to your online store that appear regularly while your client is on site. This can increase your revenue in many ways, for example by:

• Making your store look very busy
• Creating a sense of urgency
• Inspiring action
• Building trust

Examples

• "Someone from Pennsylvania just bought handmade glasses"
• "Someone in Australia just signed up to our newsletter"

How To

This is not built into Ecwid, however, there’s an app in the Ecwid App Market called Social Proof that shows order notifications just like the examples above to your visitors.

8. Monetize your Expertise

Creating timeless downloadable products can increase your revenue by cross-selling your physical goods, or by reinforcing your brand’s image. When you take the time to demonstrate that you are the expert in your domain, in a shareable format, you will be able to reach a broader audience interested in you and your services.

You can demonstrate your knowledge in various formats and with various content:

• Tutorials
• Instruction manuals
• eBooks
• Infographics
• Templates
• Photos
• Code
• Video

Note: You will need a Venture Plan to sell downloadable products in Ecwid.

How To

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel
2. Create a new downloadable product
3. Your client will automatically receive their product once their payment is sent to you

Listen to the Podcast below for more 11 awesome digital product ideas that fit almost every storefront!

9. Cross-Promote with Other Businesses

Reach new markets and expand your customer base by marketing to another business’s audience. For example, partner with:

• Influencers
• Local businesses
• Businesses outside your niche
• Nonprofit organizations

How To

Reach out to companies that are non-competing and that have a relevant market.

Establish how you will work together. You could:

• Run a contest
• Cross-promote via email newsletters
• Promote each other on social media
• Shared content marketing
• Co-create a downloadable product and share the profits

Make sure your audiences are of a similar size or that the trade would be fair before contacting a company to ask for a partnership.

Listen to the Podcast for more ideas on how to promote your business outside of social media.

10. Include a Gift Category

Include a gifting section in your online store, especially around holidays:

• Bring in new traffic around the Holiday season
• Help people decide on what to buy
• Promote your products and services

According to Google Trends, ”Holiday Gift Guide” is a very popular search phrase around November and December. You could create a category called Holiday Gift Guide with subcategories divided by:

Price

• Gifts under $5
• Gifts under $10
• Gifts under $20

Gender

• For him
• For her
• For them

Age

• Gifts for teenagers
• Gifts for adults
• Gifts for millennials

Relation

• Gifts for moms
• Gifts for dads
• Gifts for grandparents

How To

1. Go to your Ecwid Control Panel
2. Catalog → Categories
3. Create a new category and subcategories depending on your needs
4. Add your products to your categories

Read more about how to promote your e-commerce store around the holiday season.

If you liked this article please check out Daniella’s eBook that contains 40 other actionable ways to increase your Ecwid store’s revenue! More tutorials, examples, and tips are all included. Enjoy!