The eCommerce industry is growing fast. According to one estimate, 2,685 eCommerce websites were started daily between 2023 and 2024. That’s 980,025 stores a year.

Finding ways to stand out and attract customers has become even more important with so many businesses in the market. However, the best eCommerce growth strategies for new and established store owners remain the same despite the competition. 

This article will cover eight eCommerce growth strategies. We’ll dive deep into what’s working right now to boost earnings and get your cash register singing. Let’s start by looking at how to do paid ads right. 

1. Use targeted paid ads

There’s no better way to reach your target audience than paid ads. An offer that converts is the starting point for a paid campaign. Once you’ve zeroed that in you pump cash into your offer to boost your income.

You’ll get awesome results for a while. That never lasts, though.

Conversion rates decrease over time as you run out of people interested in the offer. That’s the S-curve you see below.

Sometimes you might get a concave curve. This tends to happen to people dropshipping.

As your campaign tails off, you need to rework the offer. That might mean running different creatives, or it could be putting together a new offer.

PPC success depends on knowing your stats. Tracking conversion rates and customer acquisition costs helps you fine-tune campaigns.

That’s the basics.

Going top level again…

Successful marketers jump in on emerging markets. TikTok is a logical channel to target because it offers huge reach and has competitive advertising costs. You’ll pay around $3.20 to $10 per thousand impressions.

That’s because it’s a new social media channel.

Focusing on TikTok over something established like Instagram with a higher CPC and lower organic reach makes sense. You’ll get better returns.

Tabs Chocolate is a nice example of an eCommerce company that grew fast off TikTok.

Tabs make “sex chocolate”. That’s not chocolate you have sex in.

Here’s how they grew on TikTok.

They have 30 creators on retainer, each making 1-3 videos a day across different accounts. They repost this content as Shorts, Pins, and Reels.

Every day, 100 new Tabs videos hit the web from these channels. Some of these videos get traction and generate millions of views. Great videos generate sales.

You then pump ad spend behind these engaging videos to maximize reach and sales.

Successful videos are shared with all the content creators.

They’ve got hundreds of such videos with over a million views.

It’s a great integrated marketing campaign.

Rinse and repeat until it stops working [this strategy is still working].

Successful eCommerce growth strategies rely on you maximizing results from an approach that works. That’s not sexy, but it’s the reality behind how to scale an online business.

Onto the next one.

2. Email is still King

Your email list is a database of repeat customers you can contact whenever with a great offer. That’s why email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels. 

A great way to grow your list fast is through online competitions.

Take Birch + Fog as an example.

They’re a cannabis wellness brand. Cannabis is a difficult niche because you can’t use paid ads to generate reach. They decided to focus on growing their list.

A great competition relies on cool prizes your audience wants [you need to incentivize engagement]. Birch + Fog offered valuable prizes that aligned with their audience’s interests. Once they had an offer worth a few thousand dollars they were ready to roll.

They launched the competition to their existing audience. To maximize reach they collaborated with influencers across multiple social platforms. Plus they ran paid ads.

The contest used an online competition platform that encouraged shares and referrals.

It was a success.

The giveaway resulted in a 35% increase in traffic and significant social media growth. Plus all those email leads. That turned into a 45% month-over-month revenue jump.

You can turn these into annual competitions, assuming there’s an ROI. Just set up a new domain for your competition. You can use a tool like Domain-Name-Generator to find and purchase your domain. Then, host the competition from this custom URL.

So that covers a growth strategy.

Next up, you have list management. This covers what you do to boost engagement and reduce churn once people are on your list.

Focus on the easy wins. For example, do an email audit of critical email sequences.

Your cart abandonment email sequence is a good one to start with. People were almost ready to buy from you, but they bailed. You know that the right sequence gets them to whip out a credit card and head to check out.

Small changes here translate to revenue. The bigger your company, the bigger the impact.

For example, a 1% jump in conversions for a cart abandonment sequence sent to 5,000 people is an additional 50 sales. If you’re doing that monthly, it equates to 600 additional sales a year.

Now image tweaking the copy for upsell emails, welcome emails, and the rest. Incremental improvements quickly add up.

It doesn’t take that long to run these tests too, which is a bonus.

Focus on the more complex stuff once you’ve done the low-hanging fruit.

That covers issues like segmentation and advanced automation.

You can segment your email list based on customer behavior, such as purchase history, browsing activity, and even the time of day they shop.

Figure out what variables make sense for you. Craft personalized email campaigns accordingly.

For example, if a customer recently purchased a product, offer an exclusive discount for their next purchase. You could also use dynamic content like personalized product recommendations, countdown timers for flash sales, etc.

Meanwhile, automation takes your email strategy to the next level. Set up workflows for triggered emails, like post-purchase thank yous, product restock alerts, etc.

Don’t just use emails to sell. That’s a classic email marketing mistake. Email is also a great channel for engaging customers and building brand loyalty. Create campaigns that focus on educating and entertaining your customer base. 

Think of “Happy Holidays,” “Happy Birthday,” “Happy Anniversary,” and similar campaigns. Instead of pushing a hard sell, send a heartfelt message with a discount code.

These campaigns will be instrumental in building a loyal customer base.

3. Take advantage of social commerce

Social media used to be a tool for finding prospects and advertising products.

That’s no longer the case. Many social media platforms cover the entire customer journey.

You can now discover, browse, add to your cart, and checkout without leaving social media platforms. That’s because the major social channels have introduced features like TikTok Shop and Facebook Shops that integrate with your product catalog. 

But how can you jump onto this trend to drive sales?

Here are a few ideas that work right now:

• Create an affiliate platform — Encourage your audience to create short-form videos sharing their experiences with your products.
• Partner with content creators — Content creators rule social channels. Partner with them through influencer marketing campaigns to co-create content or host giveaways and contests. This helps spread the word and capture more prospects. 
• Create engaging content — Create short, engaging videos to hook social media users. You can leverage storytelling to make your content more engaging.

Growing an affiliate network on TikTok is a great way to grow your business fast. Many successful companies are leaning into this trend to grow multi-million dollar brands.

4. Leverage referral marketing

No one can market your brand better than a satisfied customer!

Customers trust recommendations from friends and family more than advertising from brands. In fact, people have 93% more trust in personal recommendations.

And that’s why your eCommerce brand can benefit from a referral program.

Referral marketing taps into the power of word-of-mouth by encouraging existing customers to bring in new buyers.

Set up an easy-to-use referral program that rewards the referrer and the referred customer. This is crucial to ensure your existing customers are incentivized to share your products with friends and family.

The incentives can be discounts, store credit, or even free products for each successful referral. The rewards should be valuable enough to motivate your customers but not too high to hurt your margins. 

It’s vital to make the process as seamless as possible. Referral marketing tools like ReferralCandy, Yotpo, or Referral Rock should help you with this. These tools will automate everything from tracking referrals to distributing rewards.

How do you squeeze maximum value from your referral program? 

Promote the program through email campaigns and social media posts at the end of the checkout process.

You can also sweeten the deal by offering time-sensitive bonuses to create urgency and encourage customers to refer their friends immediately. A short, catchy domain name can encourage more shares and referrals. 

5. Consider subscription services

This eCommerce growth strategy might not be right for your business, but…

Subscription services are among the best ways to generate recurring and predictable revenue. But, with so many services adopting this model, an argument could be made that customers are experiencing subscription fatigue.

A subscription service can help your eCommerce business grow, but it has to be done well. Customers need to understand and benefit from the service.

Start with the simple stuff. Ensure the product selection for the service makes sense. 

Items customers repeatedly purchase make the best subscription offers. For example, beauty products, supplements, or pet supplies.

Design a subscription experience that stands out if you have a suitable offering. Make the process simple and convenient for customers, ensuring they see the value in subscribing. Highlight benefits like savings, ease of use, or regular delivery to keep them engaged and satisfied.

Offer flexible subscription tiers too. For instance, provide options for monthly, quarterly, or biannual deliveries. You can increase the value perceived value through subscriber-only perks, like discounts, early access to new products, and free shipping.

Communicate the value of your subscription services clearly and make it easy for customers to modify, pause, or cancel their subscriptions. This will reduce churn and keep subscribers engaged.

6. Create a customer loyalty program

Getting a new customer is harder than getting an existing customer to make another purchase. That’s assuming you’re selling quality products and providing an excellent customer experience.

And what better way to keep customers coming back than through a loyalty program?

Start by defining the rewards that resonate most with your target audience. Options can include points for purchases that can be redeemed for discounts, free shipping, exclusive access to new products, or even personalized gifts for top-tier members. 

You can also create exclusive benefits for customers who join the program like early access to new product collections or special discounts.

Tools like Smile.io or LoyaltyLion can help manage your program seamlessly.

You can also create a tiered system that rewards customers for different levels of engagement with your brand. For example, customers could earn extra points for sharing your products on social media or creating UGC.

This can incentivize customers to engage your brands even more. 

Remember to promote your loyalty program on your website. Write a blog showcasing the program’s value and exclusivity. You can also use an article summarizer to highlight the key benefits and share them with your email newsletter subscribers and social media followers.

A customer loyalty program is one of the best ways to increase customer lifetime value (CLV). Remember, a great program is backed by quality products and great customer service.

7. Use upsells and cross-sells

Upselling and cross-selling are powerful strategies that can significantly increase your average order value and drive revenue growth. You can encourage customers to spend more per purchase by strategically offering premium or complementary products.

Use data analytics to offer personalized upsell suggestions based on each customer’s purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics. You can find some great upsell apps to help with this task.

You can also use algorithms to identify products that are frequently purchased together and suggest them as cross-sells.

Now, the only thing more important than knowing what product to upsell or cross-sell is knowing when to do it. Recommend the upsell or cross-sell bundle at the wrong time, and the customer might abandon the purchase altogether.

You can recommend premium alternatives or complementary products at different points in the buying process. It can be on the product page, after adding a product to the cart, during checkout, or after the purchase. 

For example, Casper recommends complementary products with a popup after adding one product to the cart.

Check what works best with your audience through A/B tests. Test the upsells and cross-sells at different points of the buying process to determine what works for you.

8. Use AI chatbots

AI chatbots are an excellent eCommerce growth strategy that can significantly boost sales by tailoring the shopping experience to each customer. These chatbots analyze browsing history, previous purchases, and even customer preferences to make smart product recommendations. 

For example, if a customer is looking at sneakers, the chatbot might suggest a popular style or recommend complementary items like socks or shoe care kits. 

Additionally, AI chatbots can handle cross-sells and upsells seamlessly during customer interactions. They can suggest higher-end versions of a product or related items based on what the customer is already purchasing, all without interrupting the shopping flow. 

These suggestions ensure the shopping experience feels more intuitive and personalized.

Beyond sales, AI chatbots from tools like Tidio and Chatbot can improve customer satisfaction by providing fast and effective service. Chatbots can instantly address common customer queries, such as questions about shipping, returns, or product availability. 

Unlike human support agents, chatbots are available 24/7, ensuring customers can always access help, no matter the time zone or hour.

Advanced chatbots can also proactively engage customers who may be struggling with a particular part of the shopping journey. 

For instance, if a customer hesitates at checkout, the chatbot can offer assistance, answer questions about return policies, or even provide an extra incentive to complete the purchase. 

This kind of timely intervention can help reduce cart abandonment rates while improving the overall customer experience. The best part is that you can deploy these chatbots across several platforms, including your website and social profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

In Closing

To grow your eCommerce business, focus on proven strategies: paid ads, email marketing, social commerce, and referral programs. Engage customers through personalized emails, loyalty programs, and AI chatbots.

Start small with easy wins like refining email sequences and social campaigns. Then, scale using advanced tactics like chatbots and subscription models.

Test, optimize, and scale what works to drive growth and boost sales.