5 Ways to get customers to your E-Commerce site

There are hundreds of tips, hints, tidbits and rules when it comes to selling your stuff online. If you are thinking of moving into the world of e-commerce with your product, the biggest trap you can fall into, is assuming that when your site goes live, you will start to make sales.

It’s like a physical store, people need to know you exist. If you have a little shop in the back alley of some forgotten town, chances are, passing trade is going to be hard to come by – and unless people know about you, you won’t make any sales at all. Likewise, if you have a glorious shopfront in the heart of Oxford Street, London – then you are most likely to see plenty of sales on a daily basis.

An online store is just the same, and your physical location is really your digital marketing strategy.

Here are 5 simple tips to help you drive traffic to your e-commerce website today.

1. Get Social.
This is a simple one. Start to use social media. It is that simple. You don’t need a fancy degree, you don’t need any qualifications, just get on your laptop and start chatting about your product. I find the best way to do this, is to be yourself. Don’t try to sell to people, just tweet about the everyday stuff. Chat to people. Engage with your audience. If you sell sunglasses for instance, then start to follow brands that you aspire to be like. Don’t try to ram your product down people’s throats, but use social media as a tool to get some dialog going.

2. Make the most of your SEO.
SEO is a whole other subject, but make sure you are doing the sensible things. If you don’t know much about SEO, hire someone like me (or one of my friends in the industry) to give your site an SEO M.O.T. – we’ll be able to advise you on a whole host of things that may be keeping your site from the first page of Google.

3. Share for Discounts.
This is a great thing to do. Get your users to share their cart on social media for a discount at checkout. It is that simple. For every sale you get, you’ll end up with a few social likes and shares to encourage others to come see your site. It’s just simple.

4. Offer coupons.
Coupons are a great way to entice people to come to your store. If you are just launching, then an introductory 10% off coupon could be just the incentive people need to come to your site and see your collection.

5. Go Offline.
This is another simple one. Yes, it costs some money to do – but advertise in an offline medium. Find a niche magazine that would fit with what you do, and get yourself a small advert with a QR Code in there. Mix it in with a coupon to entice people in, and you will see a quick upturn in viewers on your site.