Boosting Magento Sales - Challenges, Tips, and Tools

Ask any eCommerce store owner and they’ll agree that boosting sales is one of the biggest challenges right now. In this article, we will first list the most common reasons why increasing Magento sales has become a challenge even for the well-established online stores. Secondly, we will share tried and tested tips to improve a store’s sales. These tips will be based on our experienced and industry-wide best practices. Lastly, we will mention top 10 Magento 2 extensions to boost sales.

Magento Sales – Top Challenges

Site Performance

Of course, site performance is a very generic term and does not elaborate much on the issue. However, the most important aspect within site performance is the loading time. If your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, more than 50% of the users will bounce to another website. It is pertinent to mention that the 3 second statistic is a bit old now. Internet speeds have improved worldwide. Therefore, we expect this number to be closer to 2 seconds.

2. Poor Navigation

Naturally, if users have trouble finding the desired product or information, they have little reason to continue shopping at your store. Instead, they’ll simply move to another website that offers the desired product or information without any hassle.

3. Mobile Optimisation

More than 50% of the global internet traffic comes from mobile devices as the below statistic confirms.

One of the top reasons online store owners are facing declining or stagnant sales is the lack of mobile optimisation. When users cannot browse your store properly on their smartphones, they will have trouble completing the purchase. It wouldn’t be wrong to conclude that lack of mobile responsiveness means you are effectively losing more than 50% of potential users. In other words, if there are 100 users, you are competing for less than 50. In turn, this will lead to a noticeable decline in the store’s financial performance.

4. Poor Marketing Strategies

The first step after setting up your Magento 2 store is to market it to the audience. Most people assume that strategies like search engine optimisation (SEO), social media marketing, and influencer marketing will work wonders for them. What they fail to realise is that these strategies are only effective as long as they are tailored to suit your brand’s unique requirements. For example, when developing an SEO strategy, it is imperative to have a dedicated blog section based on the marketing funnel. Likewise, when selecting influencers, they must be relevant to your brand’s niche.

As you can see, most of the issues are related to the checkout process. Therefore, by simply streamlining the checkout process, Magento 2 store owners can boost their store’s sales. For example, they must remove unnecessary fields to improve the time it takes to complete the purchase. Similarly, offering more payment options can help cater to varied preferences. Also, ensuring there are no hidden costs can increase transparency in the process.

Magento 2 Tips and Tricks for Boosting Sales

1. Optimise the Website’s Performance

Enable Cache

First of all, we recommend enabling caching. This will reduce the load on the server, as user request can be fulfilled by retrieving the information from the store cache rather than the server itself. This goes a long way in boosting a website’s loading speed. Faster loading times boost the user experience and can increase your Magento 2 store’s sales. For more information, refer to our article on ‘Magento 2 Store Cache and Management ’.

Optimise the Images

Another way you can improve a Magento 2 store’s performance is by optimising the images. Simply serving images in the next gen format such as WebP can improve loading speeds significantly. Compared to last-gen format, WebP is 30% less in size. Interestingly, despite the noticeable size reduction, the quality remains unchanged.

Reduce HTTPS Requests

By combining CSS and JavaScript files, loading times will increase. Also, users will require less bandwidth to open the website. For mobile users, this is a major benefit since they are mostly on limited data plans.

Use a Content Delivery Network

This recommendation is only for stores that serve audiences across different geographical locations. A CDN ensures that the user is served content from a server closest to their location. It helps improve the loading times and is quite effective in dealing with sudden increase in traffic.

2. Improve the Site Navigation

Another way to boost Magento 2 store sales is by improving the website’s navigation. For starters, keep the layout simple. Don’t burden the user with too much information. Instead, having only the required items can help the user find the relevant information without any hassle.

Since the majority traffic is from mobile devices, it is important to keep them in mind when designing the menu. Based on our experience and industry-wide best practices, the ideal course of action is to use hamburger or toggle menu. Another way to improve site navigation is through internal linking.

While most merchants consider internal linking as part of SEO only, it serves dual purposes. By adding relevant internal links, merchants can divert users from one page to the other. This is a great way to improve website engagement which can prove beneficial in increasing the sales.

3. Improve the Experience for Mobile Users

It is absolutely imperative for merchants to use a responsive theme. It ensures that the website loads seamlessly across all types of devices, including smartphones. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, use hamburger or toggle menu for mobile devices. Thirdly, make sure that there is ample space between different elements. Remember, smartphone screens are much smaller.

The last thing you want is a user finding it frustrating to tap the right button because the buttons are too small. Trust us when we say that a user is unlikely to return if they kept tapping the wrong button. Also, it is imperative that the font size be large enough to read without the user needing to zoom in. It is better to stick to common fonts for enhanced user experience.

4. Streamline the Checkout Process

When we talk about the checkout process, it encompasses a variety of things. However, it is impossible to discuss each in detail. Therefore, let us focus on the most important ones.

Offer Guest Checkout

Not every online shopper prefers to register with a store. Some prefer to complete a purchase as a guest user. Unfortunately, most online stores don’t have this option. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is enable guest checkout in Magento 2. It will help you target users who don’t feel comfortable in signing up.

One-Page Checkout

Usually, users mut navigate through 3 different forms just to buy a product. This is quite frustrating, especially if the item is low value. Even for high value items, 3 different pages seems like too much. Thus, it is better to offer one-page checkout to the users.

More Payment Options

You need to offer the maximum number of payment options as possible. Of course, you need to balance this with your store’s requirements and budget. After all, certain payment methods charge a monthly or yearly fee. By offering more payment options, you are adding to the audience’s convenience.

5. Greater Personalisation

A tried and tested way to boost your Magento 2 store’s sales is through greater personalisation. There are countless Magento 2 extensions available that can help with this aspect. For example, based on a user’s preferences and past purchases, the extensions can help recommend relevant products. Similarly, merchants should explore the possibility of dynamic content. Each customer group will be shown different content, thereby leading to even more personalisation.

6. Strengthen Your Marketing Efforts

SEO

There’s no doubt that SEO is a great way to increase organic traffic. However, most people believe that SEO is just about writing blogs and getting backlinks. What they need to realise is that SEO is a lot more. Sure, writing blogs and getting backlinks is a part of SEO, but there’s more it. For example, if a blog does not contain relevant keywords, it will have no discernible impact on the site’s ranking.

Similarly, if the backlink is from an irrelevant website or one marked as spam, it will do more harm than good. When developing an SEO strategy, it is imperative to focus on all three aspects – on page, off page, and technical. Add primary and secondary keywords throughout the website. Ensure that the keywords are inserted naturally. Add canonical URLs for webpages with duplicate content.

Moreover, make sure that all images have alt text. When getting a backlink, make sure that the website is relevant to your niche. There’s no point in getting a backlink from a tech website when your store offers beauty products. Remember, the focus must be on quality and not quantity. Over the years, we have seen websites rank on 1st with as few as 20, 30 backlinks.

SMM

There’s no doubt that social media platforms are quite effective in engaging the audience. However, you need to decide which platform serves your needs the best. If you are targeting youngsters, they are more active on TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram. Likewise, older generations mostly prefer Facebook. Therefore, research which platform is most popular among your audience and create personalised content for it.

We highly recommend offering users an opportunity to share user generated content. This acts as a form of social proof and is an effective way to boost store sales. Naturally, users rely on the opinions of their peers before completing a purchase. What better way to influence their purchase intention than by showcasing them content created by others.

Top Tools to Boost Magento Sales

When it comes to tools, there are countless options. Let’s discuss them briefly:

1. SEO Ultimate Pack

This extension is a pack of 8 different extensions, supercharging your SEO efforts. Key features include:

• Add Canonical Tags
• Auto Generate Meta Titles and Description
• Add Image Alt Text
• Auto Generate Internal Links

2. Cache Warmer

This a must-have Magento 2 extension for enabling cache in Magento 2. Most notable features include:

• Running Automatic Crawls
• Prioritising Pages for Cache
• Exclude Pages from Caching
• View Detailed Reports About Cache

3. Product Reviews Import Export

Use this extension to import or export reviews from one platform to another. By combining reviews from different platforms, you can enhance your store’s reputation. Key features include:

• Quick Export/Import of Product Reviews
• Define Time Period for Import or Export
• Merge or Replace Reviews
• Get Customer Details

4. Magento 2 Form Builder

To personalise the shopping experience, you may need to obtain specific information from a user or customer groups. This is where the Magento 2 form builder extension comes into play. The most noticeable features include:

• Pre-Built Templates for Faster Form Creation
• Enable reCAPTCHA
• Drag and Drop Feature
• Display Form Anywhere

5. WebP Images

Serve images in the next-gen format by automatically converting them to WebP format. This extension offers:

• Reduce Image Size by Almost Half
• Define Folders for Conversion
• Set the Image Quality Level
• Enable Lazy Loading

6. Custom Checkout Fields

As mentioned earlier, a frustrating checkout experience is one of the leading causes behind cart abandonment. To streamline the checkout process, merchants can offer custom checkout fields. It reduces the time it takes to complete the checkout and allows merchants to obtain only required information. Key features of this extension are:

• 12 Different Fields
• Add the Field to Any Step of the Checkout Process
• Add Tooltip to Enhance User Experience
• Restrict the Custom Fields to Specific Customer Groups or Store View

7. SEO Friendly Blog

Magento 2 does not have built-in blog feature. To set up a blog and boost your store’s online rankings, you need this extension. Standout features include:

• Add Unlimited Blog Categories
• Easily Create Author Profiles/li>
• Configure SEO Details/li>
• Assign Related Posts and Products/li>

8. Pre Order

A great way to boost Magento 2 store sales is by offering pre order facility. Usually, this involves offering a discount to users to incentivise them to pre order. This extension offers:

• Display Countdown Timer
• Display Availability Date
• Enable Cancel Pre Order Feature
• Add Minimum and Maximum Order Quantity

9. Social Feed

Give your website visitors a glimpse of everything that is going on across your social media platforms. This extension allows merchants to:

• Display Real-Time Content from Social Media Profiles
• Configure Number of Posts Which are Viewable
• Display the Social Media Feed on Any Page
• Disable Captions

10. Custom Registration Fields

Just like the checkout experience, it is imperative to streamline the registration process. This extension helps add custom fields to the registration page, thereby ensuring users only need to enter information relevant to the store’s strategy. This extension offers:

• 13 Different Fields
• Customise the Positioning of Each Field
• Make a Field Mandatory or Optional
• Add Multi-Level Dependable Fields

Final Thoughts on Boosting Magento 2 Sales

This concludes our article on the challenges, tips, and tools for boosting Magento sales. Contact us if you have any queries or face never-ending troubles with your store’s sales. Our experts will identify underlying issues and develop strategies tailored to your requirements.