Increase Online Sales: 10 Practical Methods to Boost Your Sales

Plenty of people set up a website, throw a few products on it, and then sit back waiting for customers to find them on their own. A few months later, they conclude that “online selling just doesn’t work.” The truth is, online selling does work — just not on its own. In this article, we’re going to look at what actually makes an online store sell and keep its customers coming back.

Content Production

Before anything else, you need to know this: without content, your online business has almost zero chance of success. The good news is that getting started doesn’t have to cost you much. You can begin with the very phone in your pocket, as long as it can shoot video. Of course, if you have more to work with and want higher-quality results, you can go for more professional cameras — but that’s not a prerequisite for getting started at all.

What matters far more than equipment is consistency and persistence. Try to set aside around two hours a day to put together a solid piece of content for your site. If you keep this up for a few months without a break, rest assured you’ll see the results. And here’s an important point: content production isn’t tied to one specific line of work — anyone, in any profession, can make content. Even a carpenter can turn the process of building something into a video, show it to people active in that same field, and gradually become known for their work.

Content Quality

It’s true that producing content helps your business grow, but content with no purpose is basically worthless. What separates content that makes an impact from ordinary content is whether it’s actually aimed at something. Before you turn the camera on, ask yourself: what question in the audience’s mind is this content meant to answer, or what problem of theirs will it solve?

When you create content with this mindset, your output naturally comes out cleaner and more useful. So instead of thinking only about numbers, think about whether every video or piece you publish genuinely holds value for your audience.

The Best Way to Produce Content

The best way to create high-quality content is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Speaking as them, ask yourself: “Why should I buy this product from you?” The answer usually revolves around a handful of things — price, quality, trust, and so on.

From there, all you have to do is make a separate piece of content for each of these reasons. For example, one video about your product’s quality, one piece about your after-sales service, and one about why your pricing is fair. This way, step by step, you win the audience over and show them the quality of what you do.

Building Trust Through Content

At the end of the road, it all comes down to trust. Once a customer trusts you, selling happens far more easily. There are a few simple ways to earn that trust: showing the satisfaction of past customers, surveying your audience, and offering after-sales service.

One important note: when your audience sees you in person, they come to trust you faster. For instance, when you make a tutorial video and speak face-to-face with your audience, they feel a stronger sense of closeness to you — and that makes it much easier for them to turn into buyers.

Setting Up a Website

Before you head off to social media, it’s better to put most of your energy into setting up a website. Why? Because social media platforms aren’t yours — their rules can change at any moment, or your page can get restricted. A website, on the other hand, is your own home, and its control is entirely in your hands.

On top of that, having a website raises your professional credibility in front of customers and gives them a certain sense of assurance. And if you can work on your site’s SEO, you’ll land in the top spots on Google, which is exactly what gets you noticed. So first, lay a solid foundation for your work with a proper website.

Once the site is up and running, you can move on to the next stage and think about building an online store, and after that, focus your attention on managing and growing the site. If you carry these tasks out in an orderly, consistent way, you’ll reach the results you’re after in the shortest time possible.

Social Media

Once your foundation is solid on your website, now it’s time to add social media to the mix. A common mistake is that many people think Instagram is the only thing out there. In reality, platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter can still help your business and become a source of income for you.

Another option worth considering is YouTube. Having a YouTube channel can — alongside boosting your regular sales — serve as an additional income stream through ad revenue and a wider audience. All in all, the more platforms you have a presence on, the greater your chances of being seen.

Reducing the Customer’s Risk

One of the most important things you can do is put your customer’s mind at ease. When people feel that a purchase is risky, they hesitate. So on your store’s main page, use things like free shipping, a 100% money-back guarantee, transaction security, and the option to return items. Just those few simple lines give the customer a peace of mind that makes them far more comfortable hitting the buy button.

Displaying Trust Badges

If a customer sees that your site doesn’t have trust badges, they might back out of the purchase. Things like an SSL certificate (the little padlock in the address bar), a McAfee Secure or Norton Secured seal, and the logos of the payment providers you work with — such as Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal — all give the customer the sense that they’re dealing with a legitimate business. This might seem like a small detail, but in the long run it’s one of the important factors in your growth.

Sending Emails

Many times a customer puts a product in their cart but doesn’t finalize the purchase. There are services that help you send reminder emails to exactly these people. To make these emails effective, keep a few points in mind: send more than one email, keep the time gap between cart abandonment and the first email short, and be sure to include personal details like the recipient’s name in the body of the email so it feels more personal.

Supporting Charity Campaigns

Every purchase can have a purpose behind it. You can dedicate part of your sales profit to underprivileged areas or charitable organizations, or get your products into their hands to help out. This is both a lovely humanitarian gesture and something that raises your store’s credibility and reputation — because customers learn about the purpose behind your work and support you with greater peace of mind.

Advertising on Special Occasions

Throughout the year there are plenty of occasions that can make for great advertising opportunities. Depending on the product or service you offer, New Year’s, Black Friday, Christmas, and various holidays can be excellent excuses to showcase your products and launch sales campaigns. All you have to do is plan ahead for what offer you’ll have for customers on each occasion.

Turn Your Customers Into a Sales Force

When you give customers a good product and good service, they’ll bring you customers themselves through word-of-mouth. Now you can take this one step further and set up an affiliate program on your site. This way, customers promote your product because of the profit they stand to make — your profit multiplies, and a new income stream opens up for them too.

Expanding Shipping Options

Nobody likes waiting weeks for their product or having no idea where their order is. So as much as you can, offer varied shipping options and make it possible to track orders with a tracking code. When a customer knows the details of the shipment and when their product will arrive, their mind is more at ease and they get a better buying experience too.

Creating a Challenge

Launching a challenge on your site or page can both boost your sales and get your brand’s name on everyone’s lips. A challenge gets your audience sharing your content with one another, and that sharing expands your reach even further. If you can create engaging, so-called viral content that users are quick to send to each other, your brand’s name will catch on very fast. (We recommend reading the article on producing viral content.)

Running a Contest

A contest is another good way to attract an audience, especially on social media. To pull your contest off well, keep a few points in mind: create an eye-catching image or video to announce it, stick to the rules of that particular social network, make a dedicated hashtag for the contest, and regularly feature the related posts across your channels.

Offering Discounts

Don’t underestimate the power of a discount. On various occasions and for all sorts of reasons, you can hand your audience discount codes. These codes both raise the motivation to buy and — if you combine them with email marketing — can turn an ordinary customer into a loyal one. So treat discounts as a serious tool in your work.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we saw just how important online commerce is today and how you can boost online sales with a well-organized plan. From purposeful content production and building trust, to setting up a website, having a presence on social media, and those ten practical methods — all of these are pieces of one puzzle.

The key point is that none of these work miracles on their own; what delivers results is continuity and order in how you carry them out. If you move these tips forward together and in an organized way, you can launch a successful online business and reach a good income. I hope this article has been useful to you. Good luck. 🙂

Editorial Staff

This content is produced by the Ertano editorial team. The quality and accuracy of the content have been reviewed and approved by Reza Rad.

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