It’s an exciting adventure to build your store. You will likely be juggling many priorities, including sourcing and developing products, creating a user-friendly website, and reaching the right customers. Although these tasks can be difficult, the rewards are so worth it.

After you have done your research and made your decisions, the hard work of implementing your vision is not over. To inspire returning and new customers to buy more, you’ll need to market, provide customer support, create new products and keep your systems and software up-to-date, as well as test and refine your audience outreach.

You might want to look at some tried-and-true ways to get customers to buy if you are struggling to determine the next steps in customer acquisition, retention, and average order value. These are 10 effective ways to get your customers to buy.

1. Offer flexible payment terms and methods

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to buy something online and finding your credit card somewhere else. The tab is open in your browser. You might leave it open and decide to return later. If you have an existing account, it is easy to access a previously saved payment method and checkout will be a breeze.

WooCommerce payments allow store owners to allow customers to save their payment details so that they won’t need to remember them when making future purchases. This makes checkout quicker and more simple.

For new customers, however, finding their credit cards can be a problem. They may be motivated to place their order by offering them digital wallets such as ApplePay, Paypal, and AmazonPay.

You might offer financing or deposits for high-ticket items. WooCommerce Deposits allows customers to pay an initial payment, and then continue with installments. People are more comfortable buying large quantities of goods when they can pay in installments. This may be the incentive buyers are looking for.

PayPal offers to buy Now, Pay Later options. Customers can choose to split their purchases into four interest-free installments or to take advantage of PayPal Credit for larger purchases.

The store owners are paid upfront, and PayPal takes care of the rest. This is a convenient way for you to add financing options without extra work. All of this is included with the PayPalCheckout extension.

2. Promos: Buy one, Get One (BOGO)

Customers are almost too excited by the idea of receiving something for free. Instead of offering a discount or lowering the price, your customers might prefer a BOGO deal.

It’s quite simple. The customer will receive a second item free of charge if they purchase one product. You can either offer two products or a lesser-value product as an add-on. You could offer a shirt and a blouse, or if you have fewer than one, a pair of pants and shirts, whichever suits your needs best.

You can offer gift products to customers based on the items they have in their cart with the Buy One, Get One extension. Shop managers have three options to choose from: Buy products and get another product, Buy two or more products and get the lowest price, or Buy one product and get the same product free.

3. Get coupons

To set up discounts such as:

First purchase discounts. These discounts are often used in conjunction with on-site popups to encourage customers to sign up for your email list and receive a certain amount off their first purchase. This technique not only compels the customer to buy but also allows you to reach them via email marketing in the future.

Special occasion deals. These are great to celebrate birthdays, customer milestones, purchases, holidays, and customer anniversaries. It shows your customers that you are paying attention to their lives and that they appreciate the decision to spend their hard-earned cash with your company.

Minimum purchase discounts. These can be used to encourage customers who have already made a purchase to pay a little more for a better deal. You can get free shipping if you spend more than a certain amount, or you can receive a discount if you buy multiple products at once.

4. Email abandoned cart emails

Send automated emails to remind your customers about items they haven’t yet purchased. Send them an automated email with a link to their cart. They can then check out right away and you will offer different deals to get them back to your shop.

The first email could be a reminder, while the second may contain a 10% discount and the third may include a gift. You can try different combinations to find the best combination for your visitors.

The AutomateWoo extension can handle both simple and complicated abandoned cart workflows with rules, triggers, and actions. Are you concerned about tracking? AutomateWoo tracks your clicks, opens, and conversions, and integrates with most CRM and marketing platforms.

5. Initiate a referral program

Incentivize word-of-mouth marketing by turning your most loyal customers into your greatest advocates. AutomateWoo Refer a Friend Add-on lets customers sign up to receive referral codes and discount codes that can be shared with other people. Referring parties can get store credit or subscription renewals if they use these codes or their referral links to make purchases.

Relying on customers and rewarding them for bringing in new customers to your store can not only be a great way of increasing sales but it can also be very cost-effective when compared to other marketing methods.

6. Express shipping is available and free shipping

Customers expect free shipping. If you charge shipping and handling fees, customers may feel that they are being overcharged. They may be limiting their spending and have not planned on paying additional fees.

Some customers may be willing to pay more if they need their product fast. For an additional cost, you might consider expedited shipping in addition to the standard free shipping option. Customers can choose between expedited or free shipping options to best suit their needs.

Note: If you offer free shipping, consider shipping costs when pricing your products. You might lose sales if you don’t. 

7. Create scarcity

Low stock announcements and limited-time offers are good ways to persuade shoppers to purchase now, rather than wait. The creation of scarcity, the belief that the product or deal is only available for a limited time, can increase the pressure on the customer to purchase now or risk missing out. 

Stock-sensitive and time-sensitive nudges include announcements of holiday flash sales (think Black Friday or Cyber Monday), discounted items on discontinued items, premium-priced limited editions, and simple reminders about the remaining stock.

8. Social proof and product reviews can be displayed

A staggering 93% percent of consumers said they read reviews before purchasing a product. If you want to convince people to buy, adding reviews to product pages or highlighting them in marketing campaigns can help.

You might consider using the Storefront template to display product reviews in a customizable format on your homepage.

Reviewers can attach photos and videos to give shoppers a better experience. Your customers will be more informed and more likely to purchase if they provide more information. These capabilities and more are available in the WooCommerce Product Reviews Pro extension for a fraction of a separate managed review platform.

9. Customers can create wishlists

Both guests and registered users can add items to a WooCommerce Wishlist, and then send targeted emails to customers who are interested in those items. Send an email to AutomateWoo if someone has a product that is on sale or almost out of stock. You can give them a discount or make the product temporarily available to only those who have that product on their wishlist.

10. Guarantees of money back and list warranties

Guarantees and warranties set expectations and help build trust among consumers. This could make it more difficult for you to sell the same product as your competitor but offer a warranty that they don’t.

Customers will also feel more confident buying if they have a 30-, 60, or 90-day trial. This holds especially for products people might try on or test in a shop, such as clothing, electronics, and exercise equipment.

It can seem daunting to set up warranty policies, manage return merchandise authorizations (RMAs), and handle return requests. However, tools such as Jetpack CRM and the returns and warranty requests extension make it much simpler. 

There are many other ways to increase website sales, but these examples offer a balanced approach for improving the shopping experience, building trust, and testing offers to help you grow your business.