Every eCommerce website wants to increase sales. It is one of the main objectives for any online business.

Changes in web design technology have made it very easy to set up an eCommerce website today. However, simply having a website is not enough. The overall success and competitiveness of your eCommerce website depends on your ability to increase online sales.

There are many ways to achieve this. The design of you website, the features it offers as well as methods used to promote your website can all have an affect on product sales on your website.

In this article we discuss 15 Ways you can improve sales on your eCommerce website. The article focuses on design and functionality of your website.

1. Good Navigation

Good user-friendly navigation is one of the most important parts of any website. If customers find your navigation confusing or difficult to use, they are likely to leave your website and never return again.

Although basic navigation will work in most cases, simple techniques can make your navigation more innovative and stand out. Take a look at an example below.

2. Innovative Product Search

No matter how well your products are organised, many customers will rely on the search feature on your website to find the product they are looking for.

Evolution in web design technologies such as Ajax offers innovative ways to provide search. Features such as auto suggest are common on websites today and can help improve usability and sales. Advanced search techniques can help improve sales.

3. Product Filters

Advanced search and additional search filters for products can improve the usability of your e-commerce site manifold. This is especially important if you have a large product range or if you have multiple categories or sub categories. See image below:

4. Wishlist

Wishlist feature on your website can help improve conversions by allowing customers to save products for future purchases or share their shopping list with others. It also makes it easier for them to buy again without having to search for the products again.

5. Single Step Checkout

Studies have shown that simple one-page checkouts increase conversions. On the other hand, long forms and tedious check-out process with multiple steps and page loads act as deterrents to the shopping process of customers. You can run a simple A/B split test using Google Website Optimiser to see the results for yourself.

6. Live Help or Chat

Offering live help or chat feature on your eCommerce website is another effective way to improve sales. It can help in more than one way. It can encourage shoppers to complete their order.  It allows you to address issues and concerns of customers in real-time, which could have otherwise resulted in missed sales. A study by BoldChat found that 76% of shoppers want to have instant access to a customer service rep during the checkout process.

7. Social Login

Asking a customer to register or login on your website can be a deterrent to the shopping process on your website. Studies have shown that social login can boost ecommerce sales i.e. allowing users to login on your website using their favourite social network account can improve sales by reducing cart abandonment rate.

Leading social networks including Facebook and Twitter let you do this with the help of their API or social plugins.

8. Special Offers (Sale)

Everyone likes a discount. Offering discount and sales is one of the most common and successful features of eCommerce websites. methods for increasing sales. Shoppers always respond to deals and promotions.

Most e-commerce websites offer sales or discounts on some of their products. But not all of them do a good job of promoting it effectively on the website. Simply having a ‘Sale’ section accessible via a menu item is not sufficient. It is important to clearly display and highlight discounted products throughout the website for improved visibility. Displaying banners on the homepage or use of ‘Special offers’ or ‘Discounted Products’ widgets in your side-bar is a great way to do this.

This is part one of the post. For the remaining 7 points, please read the 2nd part of the post How to increase sales on your eCommerce website .