5 Unusual Insights for Growing Your BigCommerce Sales

BigCommerce Sales | The 80/20 Rule known as the Pareto Principle or the Law of the Vital Few, but whichever name you prefer, here at Blackbelt Commerce we believe that this economic theory, first espoused by Pareto, can be used as a firm basis for creating the best strategy for growing your e-commerce sales.

Pareto’s theory was born after he discovered that 80% of Italy’s land was in the hands of just 20% of the country’s population. He also noticed that 80% of the peas growing in his garden were being produced by only 20% of the pods. Further research found that the same ratio exists in many walks of life. For example:

• 20% of drivers cause 80% of all traffic accidents.
• 20% of product defects create 80% of all product problems.
• 20% of a company’s products represent 80% of sales.
• 20% of your customers will create 80% of your revenue.

Using the Pareto principle along with the enhancements Blackbelt Commerce can provide for your BigCommerce e-commercestore, you can provide a dramatic boost to revenues and improve efficiencies throughout your business.

Although this might require you to implement some major changes in the way you operate or call for you to adjust your BigCommerce themes, failure to do so could lead to your business becoming stagnated.

As the world-renowned motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins said:

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

With that in mind, here are 5 insights you can use to grow your sales.

1. Suggest Products and Services to Your Site Users!

Studies show that around one-third of all e-commerce revenues are generated by personalized product recommendations. There are clear reasons why making suggestions to visitors on your BigCommerce website can boost sales. While some of those who visit your site may know exactly what products or services they are after, it’s not always the case!

• Some visitors may simply be browsing so they can compare products and services from several suppliers.
• Visitors might have an idea about the type of product they want to purchase but be unclear about which brand best suits their needs.

Effective use of product recommendations can help to convert such users by guiding them towards the most relevant solutions.

2. Sell More to Your Existing Customers

If 80% of your sales are being generated by 20% of your customers, it makes sense to focus your attention on them by suggesting other items they might want to purchase.

Target them with complementary products and services that they might not have thought of themselves. You can optimize your BigCommerce store to make sure you never miss an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell to every customer.

3. Utilize Affiliate Marketing to Grow Your Business

Setting up an affiliate program means allowing others to promote your products of services in return for a commission. Affiliates sign up to refer people to your website, and when someone they refer makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a proportion of the sale as their reward.

Affiliate marketing has some advantages, and there is plenty of BigCommerce support available for introducing such a program. Therefore, there’s no reason not to incorporate affiliate marketing into your current campaigns! Other reasons include:

• Cost effective. You only pay when sales have been made.
• Good for page rankings. Traffic from other sites boosts your search engine ranking.
• Easy to track. You can easily monitor the number of sales created by affiliates.

Blackbelt Commerce is a BigCommerce partner and makes setting up an affiliate program as easy as pie. Remember that 80% of your affiliate sales will come from 20% of your affiliates, so be sure to identify them and focus on helping them boost sales further still.

4. Issue Attractive Automated Discounts

Using coupons and discount vouchers is a fantastic way to turn mere visitors to your BigCommerce website into satisfied customers. You can also use coupons to reward shoppers who have signed up for a newsletter, filled in surveys or left useful feedback or comments on your contact or community pages.

You can also use coupons to increase conversion rates in your email marketing campaigns by targeting birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions – adding that extra bit of personalization!

BigCommerce makes it easy to create and manage a wide range of discounts, which can then be used to target the 20% of your customers responsible for the vast majority of your revenue, providing just the incentive they need to return to your site and make further purchases.

Why reward those who have already shown interest in your company? To prove that they represent something more than just a figure on a balance sheet. As Pittsburgh retail queen Katherine Barchetti once said:

“Make a customer, not a sale.”

Focus on developing long-term relationships with your customers, and they will return to your store time and again.

5. With BigCommerce, Abandoned Shopping Carts – a Thing of the Past!

A significant number of the visitors to your website will end up abandoning their shopping carts before they make a purchase. Fine tune your BigCommerce e-commerce store to reduce the amount of business lost in this way.

Using the Abandoned Cart Saver function you can:

• Send an email to customers to remind them what was in their cart.
• Send a discount code to entice them to complete their order.
• Inform them that popular products may be going out of stock.

A BigCommerce e-commerce store is highly beneficial to many businesses who are looking to upgrade their online shops. However, for the above to happen, you need to implement the ideal structure, correct functions, and craft a truly personalized experience for your customers. After all, as Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby once said:

“Customer service is the new marketing.”

Without your customers, and without the perfect BigCommerce store, your customer experience will be sorely lacking.

Pareto’s theory was born after he discovered that 80% of Italy’s land was in the hands of just 20% of the country’s population. He also noticed that 80% of the peas growing in his garden were being produced by only 20% of the pods. Further research found that the same ratio exists in many walks of life. For example:

• 20% of drivers cause 80% of all traffic accidents.
• 20% of product defects create 80% of all product problems.
• 20% of a company’s products represent 80% of sales.
• 20% of your customers will create 80% of your revenue.

Using the Pareto principle along with the enhancements Blackbelt Commerce can provide for your BigCommerce e-commerce store, you can provide a dramatic boost to revenues and improve efficiencies throughout your business.

Although this might require you to implement some major changes in the way you operate or call for you to adjust your BigCommerce themes, failure to do so could lead to your business becoming stagnated.

As the world-renowned motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins said:

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

With that in mind, here are 5 insights you can use to grow your sales.

1. Suggest Products and Services to Your Site Users!

Studies show that around one-third of all e-commerce revenues are generated by personalized product recommendations. There are clear reasons why making suggestions to visitors on your BigCommerce website can boost sales. While some of those who visit your site may know exactly what products or services they are after, it’s not always the case!

• Some visitors may simply be browsing so they can compare products and services from several suppliers.
• Visitors might have an idea about the type of product they want to purchase but be unclear about which brand best suits their needs.

Effective use of product recommendations can help to convert such users by guiding them towards the most relevant solutions.

2. Sell More to Your Existing Customers

If 80% of your sales are being generated by 20% of your customers, it makes sense to focus your attention on them by suggesting other items they might want to purchase.

Target them with complementary products and services that they might not have thought of themselves. You can optimize your BigCommerce store to make sure you never miss an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell to every customer.

3. Utilize Affiliate Marketing to Grow Your Business

Setting up an affiliate program means allowing others to promote your products of services in return for a commission. Affiliates sign up to refer people to your website, and when someone they refer makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a proportion of the sale as their reward.

Affiliate marketing has some advantages, and there is plenty of BigCommerce support available for introducing such a program. Therefore, there’s no reason not to incorporate affiliate marketing into your current campaigns! Other reasons include:

• Cost effective. You only pay when sales have been made.
• Good for page rankings. Traffic from other sites boosts your search engine ranking.
• Easy to track. You can easily monitor the number of sales created by affiliates.

Blackbelt Commerce is a BigCommerce partner and makes setting up an affiliate program as easy as pie. Remember that 80% of your affiliate sales will come from 20% of your affiliates, so be sure to identify them and focus on helping them boost sales further still.

4. Issue Attractive Automated Discounts

Using coupons and discount vouchers is a fantastic way to turn mere visitors to your BigCommerce website into satisfied customers. You can also use coupons to reward shoppers who have signed up for a newsletter, filled in surveys or left useful feedback or comments on your contact or community pages.

You can also use coupons to increase conversion rates in your email marketing campaigns by targeting birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions – adding that extra bit of personalization!

BigCommerce makes it easy to create and manage a wide range of discounts, which can then be used to target the 20% of your customers responsible for the vast majority of your revenue, providing just the incentive they need to return to your site and make further purchases.

Why reward those who have already shown interest in your company? To prove that they represent something more than just a figure on a balance sheet. As Pittsburgh retail queen Katherine Barchetti once said:

“Make a customer, not a sale.”

Focus on developing long-term relationships with your customers, and they will return to your store time and again.

5. With BigCommerce, Abandoned Shopping Carts – a Thing of the Past!

A significant number of the visitors to your website will end up abandoning their shopping carts before they make a purchase. Fine tune your BigCommerce e-commerce store to reduce the amount of business lost in this way.

Using the Abandoned Cart Saver function you can:

• Send an email to customers to remind them what was in their cart.
• Send a discount code to entice them to complete their order.
• Inform them that popular products may be going out of stock.

A BigCommerce e-commerce store is highly beneficial to many businesses who are looking to upgrade their online shops. However, for the above to happen, you need to implement the ideal structure, correct functions, and craft a truly personalized experience for your customers. After all, as Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby once said:

“Customer service is the new marketing.”

Without your customers, and without the perfect BigCommerce store, your customer experience will be sorely lacking.