5  growth hack tips for e-commerce stores

Building an online business is no easy task; yet smart, creative and newer marketing strategies can bring in more customers, greater visibility and help attain sustainable growth. Growth hacking is the new mantra for every marketer but with so much advice out there it is a dizzying task to choose the best one for your e-commerce store.

Here are five e-commerce growth hacks every e-retailer should be using to scale up and stay competitive:

• Site speed – The simplest growth hack to increase conversions by 15-20 per cent a year is by minimizing the loading time and keeping it under two seconds. This simple trick obtained at a reasonable cost definitely helps. Moreover, Google prefers to place websites with faster loading time on higher ranks. More than half of your users expect the pages to load the website in less than two seconds and failing to do so will make them flock to your competitor’s site.
• A great landing page – A minimal landing page with a clear tagline - with the value proposition, images or videos which explain the benefits of the product and suggest action with incentives - is the best way to capture leads.

The best example is GiftRocket.com; on their landing page they have a clear tagline that conveys what they do, a call to action, websites and publications where they’re featured, along with samples and client testimonials.

• Email signups – The best way to connect with your users, announce sales, discounts, offers and new products is by emails. Place the sign-up boxes on the pages which receive the maximum traffic and offer users a discount in return for their emails hence prompting them to make their first purchase. You can even send a discount coupon to users who abandoned the cart at any of the stages. H&M.com, a lifestyle brand has a simple email signup with a discount coupon on signing up for their newsletter.
• Social proof – Visual proof such as logos of your biggest clients, the major media houses who covered your product, the number of fans on your social media profiles, testimonials from industry influencers and user reviews improve conversion rates. fab.com, that sells online home products, has customer reviews and ratings about their products right below. Another brand, Inkefx.com, selling online T shirts, has their social proof in the form of social plug-ins with the number of followers right on top of every page.
• Content – Based on your e-commerce category (B2B or B2C), find out the network where majority of the target audience hangs out, and try creating and pushing content there. Dollar Shave Club, a company which delivers men’s blades and personal grooming products, posts funny and sassy videos on YouTube to cut the edge and create their mark in this highly competitive online space. Remember, your goal should be to share information and not just selling.

Applying growth hacks to your e-commerce store revolves around being innovative and grabbing the attention of users. To start with, mine out the existing data, try the above mentioned strategies, monitor the new analytics and see which works best to “hack” the e-commerce growth.