As it gets closer to Christmas and it’s more tricky to shop in-store due to Covid-19, many consumers are turning to the internet to do most of their gift shopping.

This is great news for online retailers but it also means that everything is much more saturated and it’s more difficult to compete and cut through the noise. Here are some creative ideas and tips to help maximise your e-commerce sales.

Before you do anything, know your audience

The first piece of advice for maximising your sales is to know who your audience is and how you should target them. While you’ll already have an idea, primary and secondary research will really help you to understand what it is they want from you.

Audience profiling tools such as Global Web Index are a great place to start to understand digital behaviours and attitudes so you can understand what they’re really interested in. Focus groups work well for qualitative research to solidify and reaffirm any findings from the quantitative research phase.

Social Media

Social media gives your brand a voice and speaks to your potential customers in a social space. From your research, find the most appropriate social channels for your audience and provide useful and interesting content that appeals to their interests and lifestyle while using your products. Social videos work particularly well for promoting products and encourages sales.

Influencers

Closely linked to social media, influencers are a popular and creative way to help encourage e-commerce sales. There are thousands of influencers out there who cover a range of niches and have a varying follower size which usually reflects the cost it is to work with them. Content which shows an influencer using your products or reviewing it can be picked up by thousands if not millions of potential customers.

Email and retention

Don’t forget about your past customers. They have already bought from you, so providing they had a good experience, it should be easier to encourage a repeat purchase. Using an eCRM system to automate emails to send promotions, products and useful content to your existing customers is an efficient way to help maximise your e-commerce sales with little effort. Creating a design template that is attractive and creative will help to keep your reader engaged and interested.

Don’t forget about print!

Just because you’re trying to increase your e-commerce sales, you shouldn’t forget about more traditional methods for selling and advertising. Even if you don’t have a large print budget you can create beautiful designs on design platforms such as Canva, set your print quality to 300 dpi and use high-quality printing ink, such as Canon printer ink, for your home printer to create leaflets, posters or even brochures to help to drive your online sales.

There are so many creative options to explore to help increase your sales online and these are some to get you started. Remember to always have your audience at your forefront and ensure your creativity is aligned to their interests and personalities to reap the most rewards.