Creating your online store today is easier than ever before. Platforms like Magento 2 make it easy to get it up and running in just a few hours. However, the ease of market entry has brought with it new challenges. The main one is unprecedentedly high competition.
According to statistics, in 2023 alone, the share of the online market on a global scale will reach 15.3%. This is a huge piece of the pie, for which hundreds of thousands of online businesses around the world are competing. With hundreds of new businesses opening every day, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out and attract an audience.
You may have already created a beautiful and functional online store. But this alone is not enough for success. The most urgent question that all marketplace owners ask is how to raise sales of an online store on Magento and convert visitors into full-fledged customers? Well, let’s figure it out!
5 ways to increase sales of online store on Magento
To stand out among thousands of monotonous online stores and start generating stable profits, you need to constantly work on optimization and marketing strategy. Fortunately, there are many ways to increase sales on Magento.
Simplify ordering
One of the key factors affecting conversion is the convenience and ease of checkout. According to the Baymard Institute, 17% of U.S. online shoppers abandon purchases because the checkout process is too long or complicated.
To reduce the number of abandoned baskets and improve performance, you need to simplify the process of this checkout as much as possible. For this purpose, you can use special modules, for example, FireCheckout.
Even though it is a paid plugin (and it costs $189), with it you can personalize checkout, add or remove fields, set up address autocomplete and select delivery date/time. It offers 5 ready-made checkout templates that you can quickly implement and edit based on your preferences.
Connect cross-selling
Another effective way to increase your average check and overall profits is to use cross-selling. The essence of this technique is to offer visitors related or complementary products at different stages of the sales funnel.
Magento already has built-in tools for adding blocks with recommended products, but for a large catalog, adding similar products manually can be time-consuming. The Automatic Related Products extension can help automate this process.
This module uses smart algorithms to select and show relevant products to each potential customer. You can set selection rules for the entire catalog or individual categories. In addition, the plugin collects analytics on impressions, clicks and completed purchases of recommended products.
Work with abandoned carts
According to statistics, the abandoned cart rate can be as high as 80%, as people often find it difficult to checkout. About 66% of visitors who add something to the cart leave and do not return to the site to complete the transaction.
To get “runaways” back, use the Abandoned Cart Coupons extension. This plugin gives you the ability to automatically send personalized discount coupons to people who haven’t finished purchasing an item.
You can specify the time of email sending and the amount of discount depending on the amount of abandoned cart. In addition, the plugin provides automatic deletion of unused coupons after a certain period of time.
Collect product reviews
Unlike regular offline shopping, when ordering online, customers do not have the opportunity to physically evaluate the item they are ordering. Therefore, they rely heavily on reviews from others before making a decision.
To improve visitor trust and conversion rate, create a separate block with testimonials and reviews of your products. Place there screenshots of reviews from social networks and other services. Another option is to integrate Google Reviews directly to automatically collect and display them. You can use the Google Reviews app for Magento to do this.
By providing easy access to real reviews, you will build audience trust and make the purchase on your platform more reliable and comfortable. This will have a direct impact on revenue growth and brand reputation.
Connect the stickers
Not all visitors initially know exactly what they want to buy. Many simply browse through the options and look for the best deals. Your job is to direct their attention to what will maximize your profits.
One of the most effective ways to do this is to use colorful stickers. For example, product cards with the words “Best Seller”, “Maximum Discount”, “New” or “Free Shipping” will instantly attract attention.
A well-thought-out sticker strategy can help you effectively manage attention, increase conversion rates and sell more at high margins. Remember to regularly update and test different sticker variations to find the ones that work best for your audience.
How to increase sales on Magento with ads?
Properly optimized advertising campaigns will help you reach potential customers, interest them in your products and encourage them to take a targeted action. Majento provides extensive integration with various advertising systems and tools, so you can effectively promote yourself on the global network.
Plug in SEO
To attract organic traffic from search, to improve the visibility of your internet site in Google, Bing and other search engines, you need to pay more attention to SEO optimization. Let’s look at a few key things to do when starting a project.
Customize the robots.txt file
It provides information to search engine robots, which pages should be visited for crawling and indexing, and which pages should be excluded from the index. Excluding technical pages and duplicates from robots.txt will help to reduce the load on hosting and improve the quality of indexing.
You can make basic robots.txt settings in the Magento admin area. To do this, go to Stores > Configuration > Design > Search Engine Robots. Here you can specify which pages with content should be indexed and which should not.
However, to edit the file more thoroughly, you can upload it via an FTP client to your computer. In this way you can set more complex rules, for example, to block access to the website for certain bots (Ahrefs, Semrush) or allow them to index only the necessary sections.
Customize Sitemap.xml
A sitemap provides a comprehensive list of all URLs on a website that are available for indexing by search engines. It makes it easier for search engine robots to crawl your website and helps you find new and updated sections faster.
In order for the system to automatically generate this file, open Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap in the admin panel and enable the corresponding option. Here you can set what types of pages should be included in the sitemap, specify the update frequency and other options. After activating this function, the sitemap.xml file will be generated and updated automatically at the address “site.com/sitemap.xml”.
Customize templates for generating meta tags
Title and description meta tags are an important element of optimization, which directly affects both the resource ranking and CTR in search engine results. For similar pages (product cards or categories), in Magento you can select templates for the formation of meta tags in automatic mode with the use of variables.
This is also done in the admin area, in the Content > Design > Configuration section. With the help of the variable system you will be able to form meta tags based on product characteristics, brand names, popular search queries, commercial words, etc.
For example, you can use the following template for the product title meta tag: “Buy {{name}} – {{current_store_name}}”. Then the final product page title could look something like this:
“Buy Google Pixel 9 Pro 16/256GB smartphone | Name of your store”.
Remove index.php from the page address
“Out of the box, the platform adds “index.php/” to the URL, which is bad for search ranking. We recommend removing this part from URLs to make links more readable and understandable for users.
To do this, activate the “Use Web Server Rewrites” function in the platform settings (Stores > Settings > Configuration). In addition, you will need to make the necessary changes to the .htaccess file and Apache or Nginx web server configuration.
Be active on social media
Every day, millions of people spend a significant amount of time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. Ignoring these channels for promotion is a big mistake.
Active social networking will allow you to unlock brand awareness, attract additional traffic, build audience trust and, of course, increase sales on Magento. Publish high-quality photos and videos, communicate with subscribers in comments, hold contests and polls.
Be sure to share links to relevant sections of your web resource in your posts. It is important to specify the correct Open Graph markup to make the link previews look attractive and informative:
Set up contextual advertising
Contextual advertising for Magento is one of the most effective tools for attracting targeted traffic and increasing sales. The Google Ads platform offers several ad formats that work particularly well for e-commerce projects.
Google Shopping campaigns
A contextual advertising format that gives you the opportunity to show your products in search results and on partner resources. Google Shopping ads contain a product image, name, price and other important information, which makes them much more attractive compared to text ads.
To launch such a shopping campaign, you need to create a feed with data about your products and upload it to Merchant Center. After that, you will be able to set up targeting, assign bids and start showing ads.
These campaigns are highly effective for online retailers because they attract an audience with a clear intention to order products. People who click on these ads are already interested in a particular product and are ready to place an order.
Google Performance Max
This is a new type of campaign that uses machine learning to automatically optimize and place ads across multiple platforms and formats. It shows ads in search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and other services.
To run Performance Max, you need to provide initial data on campaign goals, target audience, budget and creatives. The system will then independently select the optimal combination of platforms and ad formats to maximize effectiveness.
Remarketing
Remarketing is designed to show ads to those who have already interacted with your web platform or mobile app. You can select for a remarketing campaign an audience that has browsed certain items, added them to a cart, but has not completed a targeted action.
To collect remarketing audiences, you need to install a special tracking code on your website. After that, you will be able to create remarketing lists based on different visitor actions and show them personalized ads.
Remarketing campaigns are effective for bringing back potential customers who for some reason refused to complete the checkout. By reminding them about you and the products they viewed, you will significantly increase the likelihood of conversion.
How to boost sales with plugins for Magento?
The Magento extension store offers hundreds of useful plugins that can improve the functionality and usability of the site. Let’s take a closer look at a few of these add-ons.
Softcube
A free extension that uses machine learning to personalize content. The plugin analyzes user behavior, product characteristics and store operation principles to select and show suitable products and promotions in real time, maximally relevant to a particular customer.
After 2-3 user clicks, the plugin adapts category pages to the user’s preferences. Other factors are also taken into account, such as the visitor’s location (so as not to offer something that is not available for delivery in a particular region), availability of the item in stock, and links between categories.
This way you can show each user only what they are most interested in. This increases clickability, depth of view, average check and conversion rate. As a result, it is possible to raise sales on Magento up to 20% without increasing traffic volume.
Magento 2 Facebook Shop Integration
Helps you connect your Facebook product showcase to your web resource and synchronize data between them. You will be able to upload a product feed to Facebook in the required format. In the future, any changes in prices, descriptions, etc. will be automatically pulled to Facebook when you make changes in the Magento admin. This will eliminate the need to make edits in two places and save a lot of time.
And Facebook users will be able to order directly on the platform. When they click the “Buy” button on the Facebook storefront, they will be redirected to the appropriate section of your store to complete the purchase.
Magento Power BI
A powerful solution for comprehensive analysis of online store statistics. In a highly competitive environment, it is critical to have a comprehensive view of key business metrics in order to quickly find growth points.
Magento Power BI application provides over 60 ready-to-use reports that visualize and structure your business data. You will be able to track total revenue, number of transactions, average check, traffic sources, customer base growth dynamics for a selected period and much more.
Especially useful are reports on the effectiveness of marketing tools. For example, you will be able to see what impact the use of discount coupons had or which coupons were the most popular. This data will help you optimize your promotion strategy and focus on the most effective mechanics.
In addition to current data, the extension allows you to analyze historical statistics. You will be able to compare key indicators with the same period last year, track long-term trends and seasonal fluctuations in demand. Based on this information, you can make accurate forecasts and plan purchases, marketing campaigns and other business processes in advance.
Magento 2 Success Page
With this tool, instead of the standard “Thank you for your purchase” text, you can show a personalized coupon with a discount for the next order, a block with recommended or related products, an offer to subscribe to an email newsletter or the brand’s community in social networks.
This is a great opportunity to stimulate additional orders, increase the average check and conversion to subscribers. The store will automatically select relevant products and offers based on the purchase history and preferences of visitors, which will ensure high clickability of blocks.
Ultimate Sales Boost
Another effective tool for increasing conversions by creating a sense of scarcity and urgency. Here, you can add various elements to product pages that encourage you to buy here and now.
Such elements are:
Countdown timers that show how much time is left until the end of a promotion or sale. When a visitor sees that an offer is about to expire, they are more likely to make a purchase decision without delay.
Pop-up notifications of recent purchases of the product by other customers. This social proof builds trust and creates a sense of popularity and demand for the product. People are more willing to buy what others choose.
Indicators of low stock levels. If a visitor sees that the model he likes is almost sold out, he will hurry to place an order before it runs out. The fear of missing out on a great deal is a strong trigger and encourages them to act as quickly as possible.
Ultimate Sales Boost offers ready-made templates to design these sales triggers, which can be customized to fit the design of your store. You can also set additional rules and conditions for displaying the elements on the site pages.
Magento 2 Coupon Code Link
Usually, to get a coupon discount, you have to manually enter the coupon code into a special field. Many people ignore or forget to do this and end up buying the product at full price or abandon the purchase altogether.
With Magento 2 Coupon Code Link you will be able to send customers a link to checkout where the coupon discount will be applied automatically. This will save customers time and effort, increase the percentage of coupon usage and overall conversion rate. You can send such links in email newsletters, social networks, SMS.
The application also supports the creation of gift certificates for a certain amount. A person can buy a certificate and give it to a friend or family member, who then uses it to pay for it.
Spin To Win
People are more willing to interact with interactive elements than with conventional advertising, and are more motivated to take a targeted action if they are rewarded for it.
With the Spin To Win module, you can offer visitors to spin the “wheel of fortune” and try their luck. The prizes are usually discount coupons for different amounts, but you can also give away free shipping, gifts for orders and other bonuses.
For buyers, this is a great chance to save money on the purchase and get additional benefits. In the end, the store wins by bringing in new customers, increasing average conversion rates and motivating customers to come back again.
The Spin To Win module provides tools for flexible customization of drawing conditions, “Wheel of Fortune” appearance, prize types and denominations. You can set the rules for displaying the widget (in all sections, only for new visitors, after performing certain actions) and the frequency of winning.
