When you own an e-commerce store, there comes a time when you have to start marketing it.
And you know one of the most popular ways to get fast traffic? Ads. Google, Bing, and social media networks all have them, and they’re a tried-and-tested way of getting targeted traffic to your website.
But what if you don’t have the budget for ads? Then, you’ll have to learn other ways to drive traffic to your online store, and there are plenty of available options.
Today, I’ll share 25 e-commerce tips to get more visitors to your site without spending a dime on paid ads.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding organic SEO and optimizing your site for user experience can play a crucial role in driving more visitors to your online store.
- Draw up your customer personas to tailor your marketing efforts and meet customers’ needs and preferences. When you understand your audience, you can create personalized, engaging content that resonates with potential customers.
- By leveraging analytics, you can optimize your organic SEO efforts and enhance the overall user experience to attract and retain visitors more effectively.
- High-quality content creation, including blog posts, buying guides, and product reviews, add value to your audience and improve your store’s online performance.
- By using strategic internal linking, you can establish authority, build consumer confidence, and add credibility to your brand.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- 1. Optimize for Organic SEO
- 2. Understand Your Customer Personas
- 3. Improve the On-Page Experience
- 4. Leverage Email Marketing Strategically
- 5. Optimize Your CTAs
- 6. Improve Your Checkout Process
- 7. Add Internal Links to Your Site
- 8. Improve Your Product Pages
- 9. Upsell the Customers You Have
- 10. Optimize for Mobile Shoppers
- 11. Build Out Your Social Profiles
- 12. Create Shareable Social Content
- 13. Use Digital Public Relations Tactics
- 14. Build Out Your Blog
- 15. Create a Sense of Urgency
- 16. Use Influencer Marketing
- 17. Add User-Generated Content
- 18. Develop Rewards and Referral Programs
- 19. Offer Free Shipping
- 20. Develop an Affiliate Program
- 21. Use Trust Signals
- 22. Implement Video
- 23. Incorporate Chat on Your Website
- 24. Test Out a Flash Sale
- 25. Research, Test, and Pivot
- FAQs
- Conclusion
1. Optimize for Organic SEO
To begin driving traffic to your online store, use keyword research to identify relevant terms for your products. Use these keywords in your product titles and descriptions, meta titles and descriptions, and alt tags. These will help you attract organic traffic from the consumers most interested in your products.
Here’s an example of a product description from Beautybay.com. It uses keywords in its description, like organic sunscreen,” for added visibility.
Remember these pointers, too:
- Optimize your site for user experience. A well-structured site that’s easy to navigate can make a big difference in attracting visitors and keeping them there.
- Regularly posting high-quality content, such as blog posts, buying guides, and product roundup posts, is crucial for attracting and engaging visitors. Quality content gives value to consumers and helps with SEO.
- Building strategic, high-quality backlinks aids website visibility by giving your content authority, which is a ranking factor.
- Lastly, monitor your site traffic and analyze data so you can make data-driven decisions and continuously improve your organic SEO.
2. Understand Your Customer Personas
If you don’t know who you’re marketing to, you’ll have a tough time reaching them effectively. That’s where a buyer persona, or a customer persona, comes into play.
What is a customer persona?
It’s essentially a representation of your customer that helps you get inside their minds, understand their motivations, and connect with your audience in a meaningful, relevant way.
It also answers questions like:
- What do they do?
- How do they act?
- How do they think?
- What are their motivations as a customer?
- What search terms do they use?
Stats show that:
- A well-crafted persona can generate businesses 56 percent more higher-quality leads.
- Thirty-six percent of businesses say a persona contributes to a shorter sales cycle.
- Twenty-four percent of companies say customer personas generate more leads.
By keeping a persona in mind, you can develop your digital strategy to better resonate with your audience. For example, you can tailor your marketing messages, product offerings, and customer services to meet your customers’ needs.
3. Improve the On-Page Experience
Google makes it crystal clear that the on-page experience is one of the most important factors they look at when determining whether a site should rank.
On-page experience includes:
- Core web vitals, including page loading speeds.
- User-friendliness.
- Intuitive navigation so your customers can find their way around easily without getting lost in a maze of links.
- Carefully formatted content (headers, logical order, varied sentence length, and bullets) and high-quality images.
- Clear calls to action to guide your visitors through the site and get them to take action, like signing up for a newsletter or buying a product.
- Accessibility, so your site is suitable for a broader range of users.
- Personalization, according to customers’ buying and browsing habits.
Target scores the highest on the Baynard Institute for UX benchmarks. As you can see, its page is clutter-free, with clear navigation and categories, so it’s easy for shoppers to find what they want.
Easy-to-use options like chat are also helpful if a problem arises or a visitor has a question before buying.
4. Leverage Email Marketing Strategically
According to Omnisend, the ROI for email marketing is $40 for each $1 spent, and there are several reasons why it’s so successful.
Email marketing allows personalization and increases customer engagement, effectively driving traffic to your online store.
It also promotes customer loyalty. By building an email list, you can keep customers in the loop with the latest news and offers, making them more likely to return.
How?
You’ve already established trust with them, and they know what you have to offer. This customer loyalty and trust also puts your business in a position to promote other products.
Take a look at this example from Spotify offering courses:
It offers two free lessons to get existing customers to click through, sells the advantages with enticing headings, and uses a simple “Start Learning” CTA, and a “Learn anything, be anything” tagline for a promotion that is sure to get hits and sign-ups.
To build an email list, try these strategies:
- Offer a small discount (10 to 15 percent) for users who sign up for your email list.
- Make your list feel exclusive by promoting new products only in your email list.
- Post teasers about an upcoming email announcement on social media to encourage followers to sign up.
5. Optimize Your CTAs
Recent studies show the average conversion rate for web traffic across all industries is 2.9%. As such, capturing email addresses through your CTAs is crucial because only around two percent of web traffic converts on the first visit. How do these two factors connect? Capturing email addresses is a key way to help you reach out to these users again, giving you a better chance of conversion.
You need to experiment a bit to see what works. Even something as simple as the color of your CTA button can make a difference.
For example, Performable found that switching their CTA button from green to red boosted their conversion rate by 21 percent.
Try different CTA buttons and phrasing to see what works and test them side-by-side using A/B testing.
Don’t stop at colors, though. You can also test your CTA’s:
- Copy
- Placement
- Font type or size
- Including images
- Landing page
- Offers
6. Improve Your Checkout Process
The average cart abandonment rate is 70.19 percent. This can be due to hidden fees, shipping costs, too many steps, and a poor overall experience. The best e-commerce tips build on what you’re already doing, and the checkout process is a great place to start.
While people are more comfortable than ever shopping online, they also have high expectations for the process. How do you improve the process? Here are a few tips:
- Get rid of hidden fees and be upfront about pricing.
- Share shipping fees early in the process.
- Limit the number of clicks to convert.
Scandiweb did a great case study of the steps to improve their checkout experience. You don’t need to go nearly this far, but it’s a smart e-commerce strategy to implement, no matter how big or small you decide to make it.
7. Add Internal Links to Your Site
I’ve mentioned SEO already, but this step focuses on internal linking within your e-commerce website. How can this help in driving traffic to your online store?
Sites without proper internal linking don’t rank as high as those with a solid link-building strategy.
By creating a web of links on your site, you’re telling Google that you are an excellent resource for what people want to buy and you’re a wealth of knowledge in whatever niche you sell in. That will improve the user experience while also improving your worth to Google.
Here are a few tips for adding internal links:
- Identify hub pages—these are important pages you know your users want to see. Add links where it makes sense to point to these pages.
- Your product pages should include links to related products. If you sell tents, for example, you could link to other camping gear.
- Use “breadcrumbs” in the navigation to help users quickly navigate back to core pages, like this example from Walmart:
- Use easy-to-understand anchor text like this example: “Here’s more information about internal linking best practices. It’s clear what you’ll get if you click the highlighted text.”
8. Improve Your Product Pages
You could be losing a lot of money due to making common mistakes in your product descriptions.
Want to know an easy fix?
Don’t just list the features, such as the materials used, the dimensions, and the colorways. Shoppers want to know how these features benefit them. Consider how your offerings benefit customers and make those the focus of your product description.
For instance, say you have project management software with a cool chart feature. Instead of just listing the feature, highlight how it helps users easily plan and visualize project timelines and even identify areas where they could enhance productivity.
Look at this example from Boosted, with its detailed item description, bulleted features, and its bolded final paragraph to complete the sales pitch. There are also multiple photos of the product, so shoppers can see it from all angles.
To create similar product page descriptions:
- Cut the clutter so users can easily focus on what matters.
- Use clear, concise calls to action to tell visitors what to do next.
- Check your page speed.
- Use high-quality product photos.
- Add social proof to build customer confidence.
9. Upsell the Customers You Have
Many smaller e-commerce stores ignore one of their arsenal’s most accessible selling weapons: upselling.
There is a false impression that it isn’t worth the effort, but that’s not true.
Upselling can increase average order value, which adds up over time.
In the very first year that Amazon tested upselling on its platform, it increased sales by 35 percent.
Here are a few ways to increase upsells:
- Offer related product sections on product pages.
- Suggest products on the checkout page.
- Offer free shipping for orders over a specific amount, say $25 or $50
10. Optimize for Mobile Shoppers
60.67 percent of web traffic comes from mobile devices; in the U.S., 85.38 percent of internet users access the internet on their mobile devices.
You can optimize for mobile by:
- Choosing a responsive design so visitors can view your site properly, regardless of their device.
- Offering mobile payment options like Apple or Google Pay.
- Streamlining your checkout processes to ensure they are suitable for smaller screens by minimizing steps or offering guest checkouts.
- Focusing on faster loader times.
- Optimizing product images: Use compression tools to improve loading speeds.
11. Build Out Your Social Profiles
Hubspot research shows that 84 percent of consumers are more likely to buy products directly from social apps, more often than from a brand’s website.
It’s not just about sales, though.
Social media also simplifies the process and helps consumers discover you.
Additionally, social media platforms are a fantastic way for you to engage with your audience through compelling content.
Plus, social media is your space to showcase products, encourage influencer collaborations, and share user-generated content.
Social storefronts could be a game changer, too.
These let users purchase without leaving the platform they’re on; It’s about giving buyers a hassle-free experience and taps into impulsive buying.
Want an example? Just look at how Prada uses it on Instagram:
You can do something similar by setting up your own Instagram shop. Instagram has a step-by-step guide explaining how.
12. Create Shareable Social Content
Let’s go back to customer personas for a minute.
Understanding your target audience is the first step in creating social content your buyers want to share.
Next, focus on creating social content that offers real value and is consumer-centric. Think of educational, entertaining, inspiring, and trending topics that matter to your audience. Pair that with captivating visuals and storytelling that speaks directly to them.
It’s worth knowing that certain types of content are more likely to create a buzz on social, like Universal’s sweepstakes. This could include contests, giveaways (especially during seasonal peaks), working with relevant influencers, and creative challenges that you could add to your feed as user-generated content. Video also works well for social media marketing, so vary your formats.
Last, use consistent branding, communicate your brand values on your profile, and hashtag your content with your brand name for greater brand visibility.
13. Use Digital Public Relations Tactics
Leveraging backlinks boosts your reputation and your store’s credibility; anyone can do it.
All you’ve got to do is create high-quality, legitimate links. If you have a hybrid online and brick-and-mortart business, you can set up your Google Business Profile page and add your site to other online directories, like Yelp.com and Local Pages.
Even if you are online-only, though, you can build some online PR. Local and niche publications are great ways to raise your profile. You can easily find editorial contacts and guest post links just by checking websites in your niche/local area.
You can also:
- Use press release sites when you have something newsworthy to share.
- Start niche guest blogging.
- Sign up to Connectively as an expert to get your name out there. Journalists on the platform are looking for subject matter experts. By providing quotes, you can get media coverage.
Adding legitimacy to your brand never hurts, either. You can do that by joining organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce, completing certifications in your niche, and listing on coupon sites where shoppers go to look for deals.
14. Build Out Your Blog
When consumers want information about a product or a brand, their first step is usually Google. Creating blog content is a simple way to get online visibility, but don’t use it as one long sales pitch.
You want helpful content that speaks to what the audience cares about. Remember those customer personas I mentioned earlier? Well, they’re key here, too. Once you know your target buyers inside out, you can build your blog around content that matters to your ideal audience.
I’m definitive proof that this strategy works:
If your website doesn’t have a blog, no worries. Most e-commerce platforms have a built-in option.
15. Create a Sense of Urgency
Visitors who leave your site without purchasing rarely complete the sale later.
Urgency offers a compelling reason to complete the purchase now.
Maybe it’s “Act now! Quantities are low!” or “Buy now for free shipping!” or “This is a limited-time offer!”
You can approach it from various angles, as long as you create the feeling of “don’t miss out on this” with your visitor.
Look at this example from Amazon:
Right there in red font, they warn shoppers that they are about to run out of this item.
There are so many ways to create urgency through exclusivity and FOMO, including:
- Use popups to show other users who have made purchases.
- Send “last chance” emails.
- Add a shopping cart timer.
- Display limited stock (like Amazon).
16. Use Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing involves partnering with another brand or influencer to help promote your products. This is a highly effective method for driving traffic to your online store, even if you’re a smaller brand.
For example, Luke Foods teamed up with fellow Instagrammer How Kev Eats in a strategic partnership to give Boo’s Philly (and especially its cheesesteaks) a boost.
By working with influencers, you get your brand out in front of a fresh audience. Most importantly, 69 percent of consumers trust family, friends, and influencers, especially when they publish relatable, original content or have niche expertise.
This is something that you can do on other platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook, or wherever your target audience hangs out.
17. Add User-Generated Content
Eighty-six percent of consumers are more likely to trust brands that publish user-generated content.
Beauty brand Sephora nails this method.
Sephora has a Beauty Insider Community Forum with millions of members. It’s a valuable space where members can post questions, share tips and tricks, and suggest products for an authentic marketing approach.
Don’t have Sephora’s money? You don’t need it. User-generated content can be as simple as taking an image of a product in use that a reviewer left and putting it on your website.
Here are a few other ways to leverage UGC:
- Add reviews to product pages.
- Create a branded hashtag and ask users to share their favorite products.
- Embed product pictures from users at the bottom of your website.
18. Develop Rewards and Referral Programs
What’s one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your online store and keep them coming back? Loyalty programs!
You’ve got a 60-70 percent possibility of selling to an existing customer and a 5-15 percent chance of selling to a new prospect. If it’s customer retention you’re looking for, a loyalty program makes sense.
Rewarding customers for returning and doing business with you again is a brilliant and timeless strategy.
To set up an effective rewards program, you’ll want to:
- See what your most profitable customers have in common (location, products, interests, etc.)
- Look at data to see what drives purchases. This will help you set up a reward program. Do they like free shipping? Discounts? Access to new product lines early? Use a survey to ask customers if you aren’t sure.
- Look for e-commerce reward and loyalty tools and plugins to implement your program.
Plus, you can add a referral program. This is where your existing customers recommend your company to others and usually receive rewards for doing so.
If you don’t have a referral program for your e-commerce store, it’s never too late to get started.
Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be elaborate.
Take GetResponse, for example. Referrers get a $30 account credit for every person they refer that buys the software, and a free digital marketing certification course when they introduce three people.
Offer something of value to existing customers for every customer they bring to you; it’s as simple as that!
To get started, find a referral program platform, then use these tips to drive sign-ups
19. Offer Free Shipping
Still trying to figure out how to drive traffic to your online store? Flagging free shipping in your marketing might be all it takes. Sixty-two percent of consumers say they won’t consider buying from an e-commerce business that doesn’t offer free shipping.
These people expect you to pay the cost of shipping their products no matter how much they spend. You can thank Amazon for that.
That said, offering free shipping isn’t the revenue buster you think. As an added bonus, if you do everything else right on this list, you’ve likely secured yourself that customer.
There are a few ways to make free shipping work for you:
- Up your prices to cover the shipping cost, then make it “free.”
- Offer free shipping as a loyalty program reward.
- Ask for an email address in exchange for free shipping.
- Offer free shipping only for purchases over a certain amount.
20. Develop an Affiliate Program
An affiliate program gives marketers a unique link they can promote, and they earn a commission when someone buys through their links.
Affiliates drive traffic to your online store because they have their own audience that your business might not usually reach. This approach can also aid brand visibility and generate more leads.
Big names like Amazon, Fiverr, Shopify, eBay, and cashback site Rakuten offer affiliate schemes that work great for e-commerce stores and pay commissions ranging from 1 to 20 percent.
You can also sign up to affiliate platforms like Awin, where you can choose which brands you’d like to include on your website, blog, or newsletter.
21. Use Trust Signals
It’s getting harder to earn trust, and the trust gap is widening, according to research from PwC.
And 19 percent of shoppers will abandon their carts if they don’t trust the site with their credit card details.
If you want to earn your customer’s trust, there is a lot you can do, like:
- Displaying trust badges such as security seals and recognized payment logos.
- Using e-commerce address validation to improve the delivery experience.
- Adding social proof, including customer reviews and testimonials from happy buyers.
- Staying active on social and responding to queries quickly.
- Implementing HTTP certificates.
Adding a video of yourself or someone in the business is another great way to show customers you’re a real business.
22. Implement Video
Eighty-seven percent of video marketers say that video helped increase e-commerce traffic to their websites.
If you’re not embedding videos into your product pages, you should start right now. You can make product videos, demos, how-tos, and walkthroughs to help consumers feel confident about their purchase before they buy.
But don’t stop there.
Other ideas include behind-the-scenes videos, a day in the life of, and staff interviews so customers really get to know you.
Don’t just leave videos on your website, though. They make great social content, and you can record shorts for TikTok and YouTube.
I have an entire guide on video e-commerce tips if you want to learn more.
23. Incorporate Chat on Your Website
You need to be there for your customers. Seventy percent of people prefer to connect with a salesperson if unsure about purchasing.
As people turn to e-commerce, they expect to have the same customer service experience they get in person. That means you need to be available to answer questions and assist throughout the sales process.
There are plenty of live chat software to make this process simple. Leveraging chatbot automation, which answers common questions before connecting users to a live person, can also make it more affordable.
24. Test Out a Flash Sale
A flash sale is a limited-time promotion that offers a significant discount on a product or service. It’s a fear of missing out (FOMO) marketing that gives a short sales window, usually for specific products. This type of marketing creates a sense of urgency, drives traffic to your online store, and can spur instant sales.
Take Amazon as an example. Last year’s Prime Day increased its e-commerce sales by 6.1 percent, and consumers spent $13 billion worldwide.
Flash promotions also make great shareable social and email content, so spread the word!
Other ways to enhance your flash sale’s success include:
- Segmenting to your email list.
- Offer guest checkouts and multiple payment options.
- Create buzz ahead of your sale.
- Follow up with customer service emails.
25. Research, Test, and Pivot
At this point, you’ve read through 24 e-commerce tips; all of which will help you understand how to drive traffic to your online store and convert at a higher rate.
If you want to succeed, you need to implement these strategies. However, not all strategies will work for every brand. Or they might work but with a different approach.
For example, an e-commerce fashion website might get better results using influencers than a B2B manufacturing e-commerce company.
The only way to know is to research, test, and pivot. If something doesn’t work for your audience, try something new. It’s the only way to keep growing.
FAQs
How can I use analytics to track and improve traffic to my online store?
You can use analytics to track conversion goals and other key performance indicators (KPIs) such as bounce rate, time on page, and page views.
Your analytics will also help you understand your top traffic sources, such as organic search, paid advertisements, social media, and referral links.
You can learn more about the e-commerce KPIs you should measure on my blog.
What role does SEO play in increasing online store traffic?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) increases online store traffic by helping your website rank higher in search engine results and giving you greater visibility.
Additionally, when you introduce SEO strategies like optimizing website content, using relevant keywords, link building, improving website speed, and enhancing user experience, you can attract more organic traffic to your online store.
Conclusion
As you read through these 25 e-commerce tips about how to drive traffic to your online store, which ones resonated with you the most? I hope you feel more equipped to drive traffic to your site now.
The most important thing to understand is that you don’t have to do all these things perfectly, you just need to gradually implement them to see results.
Figure out what is currently wrong in your e-commerce store and identify the low-hanging fruit. Perhaps you simply need to ramp up blog content or update your checkout process. You can get started on most of these practices right away, though they may take longer to see results.
The possibilities are endless with all of these tips and tricks available to you.
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