9 Sales Promotion Ideas for Your E-Commerce Business

If you’re new to the world of e-commerce, welcome to some of the fiercest competition in the business world today. The good news is that there are resources to assist with sales outreach and promotions so that you’re not completely on your own. Even the most creative of minds will only be able to come up with so many sales promotion ideas of their own. Plus, these days, it’s hard to find things that haven’t been overdone but still provide results. 

Sales promotion can include everything from offering discounts to marketing to a specific niche based on your industry, highlighting a specific product or service, etc. It’s what you do with your promotional efforts that matter. When it comes to e-commerce, you can find plenty of ways to boost your bottom line and most of them aren’t going to cost much at all. Here’s what you need to know. 

1. Leverage customer feedback 

You’ve probably seen this one before. Companies will offer discounts and other incentives for customer feedback, reviews, and surveys. You can do this, too, if you want to get more feedback and encourage people to communicate with you. It doesn’t have to be anything big—even the smallest tokens of appreciation can make a big impression. Instead of just asking for feedback, offer something in return and see how it changes. 

2. Celebrate customer relationships 

A lot of businesses have already embraced this idea and it works quite effectively. By celebrating milestones and big events like customer anniversaries, birthdays, and even their first communication with your business, you can offer promos and discounts to build loyalty and give your audience that special feeling that everyone deserves. Whether it’s the anniversary of their first purchase or their birthday, there are several ways that you can celebrate and offer them something at the same time. 

3. Social media promos

Today, you can’t succeed in e-commerce unless you’re on social media. But, who says it stops at merely having a social media presence? You can create exclusive promotions and deals for social media audiences, allowing them to feel special and appreciated. Make sure that these are deals they won’t get elsewhere—if everyone gets a deal, does anyone really get one?

Consider offering first customer exclusives or even special discounts for social media follows or shares. It’s a great way to incentivize your social following. 

4. Promote with pre-orders

Pre-orders are another great way to promote your e-commerce shop. Not only can you use this to create a sense of exclusivity, but you can use it to drive sales when things are typically slower. If an item is desirable enough, people will want to pre-order it to ensure that they secure theirs. Then, there are the people who might pre-order, but will definitely do it if you offer an incentive, such as a limited edition gift or a special discount for presales. 

5. Free shipping

Today’s audience doesn’t just like free shipping—they practically expect it. Of course, consumers also understand that smaller businesses or niche brands may not have the means to give away shipping costs like giant corporate stores and brands. Still, you can use this to incentivize your audience, such as offering free shipping with a purchase of a certain dollar amount. Or, you could offer free shipping exclusively during a typical “downtime” for your e-commerce shop, promoting the business in an otherwise slow period. 

6 Contests and competitions to build followers 

Competitions and contests can do a lot for any business that’s trying to build awareness, grow their customer base, or even promote their products and services. You could hold a competition or contest for your followers and invite them to sign up to participate, with the winner receiving something of significant value, such as a free item or membership. Not only does this bolster sales, but it can boost your reputation, too. 

7. Offer installment plans for high-dollar merchandise

This is an age-old payment solution that’s been modernized for the 21st century. If you sell items that have a high retail price, you can often create a partnership with a third-party provider and offer installment plans to customers rather than making them pay all at once. This increases sales for several reasons, but primarily because it offers people a flexible solution so they can afford whatever you are selling. It, again, will also help boost your reputation because it shows you care about your customers and want to help them. 

8. Paid and free SEO marketing strategies 

This might seem like a given to some people, but there’s something to be said for taking advantage of SEO marketing. E-commerce brands of all kinds are utilizing blogs, SEO optimization, and keyword research to ensure that their store ranks well in search results and gets the attention that it deserves. With search engine optimization, you’ll guarantee that your e-commerce store shows up in the right search results and gets the best rankings possible. 

There are several options for free and paid tools and strategies here, so be sure to consider them all and create a dynamic campaign that delivers results. 

9. Outsourced outreach campaigns and sales support 

Our final idea is perhaps our most valuable tip yet. While you’re busy trying to promote and build your e-commerce business, why not take advantage of outsourced assistance from teams like the dedicated virtual receptionists at Smith.ai? With our outreach campaigns and scalable solutions for outbound sales and support, we can help improve the sales cycle, handle lead intake and qualification, and so much more. 

All this can take place while you’re working on other areas of your business, leaving us to handle appointment scheduling, after-hours call answering, and even payment collection. Plus, we’ll help you craft the perfect strategy so that we can manage all of it and help you streamline your e-commerce operations. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss what the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can do for your e-commerce business. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.