Every online store owner wants to boost their sales. 

Thousands of online stores pop up every year. Web marketplaces are developing, and users are becoming more picky about product quality, prices, and shopping convenience.

Delivery methods and terms, guaranteed quality, and options to exchange and return products are all important for users. Users opt for the most convenient websites with a rich range, favorable prices, and purchase terms. 

In this article, we’ll analyze ways to boost online store sales in a highly competitive environment.

Broaden the product range

You must constantly expand the product range to bring in new customers, increase the cart size, and, accordingly, boost the average check. 

You can expand the product range both naturally, through enriching your catalog with new products, and artificially. If you want to artificially expand the range, you can use the following tricks:

• Create separate product cards for each color, size, and other feature of your products. 
• Create more catalog categories, segregating products by certain features.
• Create tag pages.
• Create themed and seasonal product collections/look books.

Such pages will not only make your product range appear visually broader, but also attract additional traffic from low-frequency search queries. 

Improve the purchase conditions, costs, and delivery time 

Product delivery is an important factor for a customer to make a decision to purchase from your online store. 

You should also bear in mind that users prefer online stores with the most convenient and favorable delivery terms. 

A considerable advantage would be free delivery. If it is unviable to deliver for free, you should try to cut the delivery cost as much as possible. 

Users will also appreciate a selection of delivery methods. It is convenient for some to receive goods at home, while others prefer pick-up points. 

No less important is the delivery time. Everyone wants to get their purchase as soon as possible, or on a certain prearranged day of their choice.

Lower the product prices

This is one of the biggest factor when deciding on the purchase. In many areas, users tend to compare prices and choose websites with the cheapest offers. With the advent of marketplaces, the situation has become even trickier, as prices there are usually lower than in most standalone online stores. 

If you want to retain your customers and attract new ones, you must offer products at favorable prices, or offer other incentives such as gifts, bonuses, or cashback.

You’ll find competing with marketplaces and other online stores harder if you sell premium goods, luxury brands, or just expensive products. In this case, we recommend focusing on the quality of goods and on the brands, positioning yourself not as a regular online store, but as a distributor of a certain elite brand, or a premium goods boutique. This will help you attract the right audience and boost your sales.

Address website usability

Some studies show that most users leave websites if unable to find the information they want in 8 seconds. Therefore, you have to think through the page structure and content. Users should be able to find the necessary information right on the first screen of the page they open. 

You should pay special attention to the catalog structure so that users can get to the desired category or product in just 2-3 clicks. 

Prior to that, you should work out the filtering, place links to all important categories on the main menu, and address linking between catalog pages.

Since most customers use mobile devices to make online purchases, you should pay special attention to the mobile, or adaptive version of your website.

Another crucial thing is to ensure that the website works quickly and users don’t have to sit around waiting for pages or content to load.

Add smart search to your website

To save time, many users prefer to skip browsing the catalog and go straight for website search. The website search feature is especially important for users who are already set on a certain product and know exactly what they want to add to the cart. 

That’s why just about every online store has website search. 

However, the search doesn’t work correctly everywhere, and users can’t always find the right product. If your website search is faulty, this may cause users to leave for another website. 

It is important to set up your website search in such a way that it can recognize the intent of queries, correct misspelled words and typos, and use synonyms. Special features such as search by image or voice search will be an advantage.

Having smart search on your website can greatly simplify the users’ interaction with it. This will have a positive effect on behavioral factors, customer loyalty, and conversions.

Keep track of how market leaders and your competitors develop their businesses

If a business is at the top, this means it must be doing things right. Follow both market leaders in your area and rival websites with a similar business model. Scour them for new ideas and tips to help you develop your own business. Learn to identify the advantages of leaders and quickly augment your business with new developments. 

Analyze your competitors:

• Keep track of how the competitors’ websites are developing. Track what pages and features they add to their websites.
• Track the channels your competitors use for promotion. 
• Keep an eye on trends in your competitors’ advertising campaigns.
• Compare prices/delivery terms/return and exchange policies

This will help you understand where you are lagging behind competitors, or, conversely, what your advantages are. You’ll also find new growth points for your business.

Use different promotion channels

Don’t stop at one channel when promoting your online store and business in general. You shouldn’t limit yourself to contextual advertising or search engine promotion only. A successfully developing business means a comprehensive approach to promotion.

• Set up contextual and social media advertising
• Run a blog to let your clients know you are an expert
• Write guest posts on social media and on third-party websites 
• Promote your social media accounts
• Don’t overlook search engine promotion of your website
• Offer a selection of loyalty systems
• Launch an email newsletter 
• Improve the design and usability of your website

If you want to boost sales, you’ll need a comprehensive approach to developing your online store. Don’t stick to standard promotion tools. You must monitor the development of your competitors, track new trends, stay on top of user behavior, and continuously improve your online store, making it more convenient to use and offering customers better purchase conditions.