E-commerce Marketing: Strategies to Boost Your Online Sales

As with most e-commerce businesses, finding and adapting your marketing strategy isn’t an easy task, is it? Don’t worry, you’re in the right place!

With the constant evolution of algorithms—from search engines like Google to social media platforms—the emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), and updates to operating systems like Apple and Android, it’s easy to lose track! Beyond best practices in areas such as SEO or content personalization, it’s more essential than ever to establish a clear and comprehensive strategy for your e-commerce business.

From web marketing and customer acquisition and retention systems to market analysis and content marketing, there are many elements to consider and optimize to boost your visibility and, consequently, your results. That’s why it’s so important to use an effective e-commerce marketing tool!

Ready to become an e-commerce marketing expert? Let’s go! Here’s a complete article with all our tips and tricks to help you get started.


E-commerce Marketing: What Exactly Are We Talking About?

Before anything else, and before revealing all our tips and best practices, let’s quickly review what e-commerce marketing really is.

Simply put, e-commerce marketing refers to all the strategies and actions implemented to increase and accelerate your visibility, enhance your brand image, and, ultimately, boost your sales. The goal? To attract more visitors to your landing page or specific product/service pages and to increase the actions they take (click-through rates, newsletter sign-ups, conversion rates after adding items to the cart, etc.).

Unlike traditional marketing, e-commerce marketing relies on the use of digital tools such as search engines, social media, email marketing, and online advertising. Whether through organic search (SEO) or paid advertising (SEA), there are many methods to develop an effective e-commerce marketing strategy.

Finally, e-commerce marketing isn’t limited to generating traffic on your site. That’s right! It also includes optimizing the user experience (UX), analyzing behavioral data, and automating processes (retargeting, email follow-ups, etc.) to maximize conversions and sales.

Now, let’s dive into the best tips and tricks to implement your e-commerce marketing strategy and finally improve your results!


E-commerce Marketing: What Are We Really Talking About?

Before diving into our tips and best practices, let’s take a moment to quickly define what e-commerce marketing is.

Simply put, e-commerce marketing encompasses all the strategies and actions implemented to increase and accelerate your visibility, enhance your brand image, and ultimately boost your sales. The goal? To attract more visitors to your landing page or specific product/service pages and increase the actions they take (click-through rates, newsletter sign-ups, conversion rates after adding items to the cart, etc.).

Unlike traditional marketing, e-commerce marketing relies on the use of digital tools such as search engines, social media, email marketing, and online advertising. From organic search (SEO) to paid advertising (SEA), there are numerous methods you can use to build an effective e-commerce marketing strategy.

Finally, e-commerce marketing isn’t just about driving traffic to your site. That’s right! It also includes optimizing the user experience (UX), analyzing behavioral data, and automating processes (retargeting, email follow-ups, etc.) to maximize conversions and sales.

Now let’s explore the best tips and tricks to implement your e-commerce marketing strategy and improve your results!

marketing ecommerce

1. The Importance of Data Marketing and Email Marketing

Data: The cornerstone of e-commerce marketing

Data marketing is undoubtedly one of the most critical components when establishing your e-commerce marketing strategy. Without precise and detailed data (both qualitative and quantitative), it’s impossible to succeed online and grow your business!

By leveraging data collected on customer and visitor behaviors, preferences, actions, and purchase histories, you can personalize your campaigns and significantly increase their ROI.

Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most profitable channels for most e-commerce websites. Whether it’s newsletters or personalized emails for follow-ups (abandoned carts, discovery emails, etc.), email marketing should be a cornerstone of your strategy.

2. Optimizing the User Experience (UX)

Prioritize seamless navigation

A poorly designed, slow, or non-user-friendly website—no matter how good your products and services are—can quickly discourage visitors. This often translates into a high bounce rate, i.e., the percentage of visitors who leave your page or website after just a few seconds.

Tips to improve UX:

  • Loading time: According to Google, a one-second delay in page loading can reduce conversions by 7%! Take the time to optimize your page loading speed (image sizes, videos, pop-ups, and heavy content).
  • Responsive design: Over 50% of online purchases are made on mobile devices, yet many websites are still designed primarily for desktop. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site’s performance.

3. The Importance of Effective Customer Segmentation

Why segment?

Generic communication is unlikely to capture the attention of potential customers or visitors to your site. By segmenting your audience and properly identifying your buyer persona, you can deliver messages that resonate with their specific needs. Sounds simple, right? Let’s look at how to do it effectively.

How to segment effectively:

To achieve good customer segmentation, you need to analyze and gather various types of data:

  • Demographic data: age, gender, geographic location.
  • Online behavior: pages visited, time spent on the site, products added to the cart.
  • Psychographic values: personal preferences (lifestyle, personality, values, and beliefs).

With effective segmentation, you can better target and personalize your approaches, boosting campaigns like email marketing.

4. Marketing Automation: A Time and Efficiency Booster

Often overlooked, marketing automation is also essential for e-commerce. It enables you to manage all customer interactions without manual intervention while increasing conversions. This includes actions like email campaigns for specific triggers (abandoned carts, time-sensitive promotions, personalized messages, retargeting…).

Example: Recovering abandoned carts
According to a Baymard Institute study, 69.57% of shopping carts are abandoned! That sounds like a lot, right? But it’s the reality! A good marketing automation strategy, such as a sequence of reminder emails, can help recover 10–15% of those lost sales.

Action to implement: In your email follow-up sequence, consider two steps:

  • The first email can be general (“Are you sure you didn’t forget something?”).
  • A few days later, offer a 10% discount code with a clear call-to-action.

Another example: Automating loyalty campaigns
Repeat customers typically represent 40% of an e-commerce site’s revenue. Automating thank-you emails or personalized offers helps reinforce loyalty and maintain strong customer relationships. Take the time to develop a marketing automation strategy tailored to each customer category (What defines “repeat customers”? What is their average cart size? How often should you contact them? What offers should you provide?).

Platforms like ActiveTrail allow you to create automated workflows to interact with your customers in a personalized way.

5. Investing in Content and SEO

Create a blog to educate your customers and increase content volume

According to an Extencia study, websites with blogs generate 67% more visitors than those without. Since most visitors begin their searches directly on search engines, it’s essential to have a blog with plenty of content and to publish frequently using specific keywords.

Similarly, optimizing your product descriptions and pages for industry-specific keywords can significantly improve your Google search rankings (and it’s free, unlike paid ads!).

Our advice: Use long-tail keywords like “best sports equipment for beginners” or “best e-commerce strategies for 2025” to target more specific potential customers.

Tools like Bold Upsell or ReConvert on Shopify can help automate recommendations during the purchase process.

6. Upselling and Cross-Selling: Increasing Average Order Value

Upselling: Offer better (and more expensive) products

Upselling involves encouraging your customers to purchase a higher-end or more expensive version of a product (e.g., recommending a computer or smartphone with more features).

Recommended tools: Platforms like Shopify and Magento make it easy to configure upselling options during the customer’s purchase process.

Cross-Selling: Expanding purchases with related products

With cross-selling, you recommend complementary products related to the customer’s initial purchase, before checkout. For example, if they buy a computer or smartphone, you could suggest a protective case or cover.

Although upselling and cross-selling are often overlooked, these strategies are simple to implement and can significantly boost sales!

7. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Wisely

In 2025, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly one of the top tools to prioritize for optimizing your e-commerce marketing strategy. AI can help in several areas:

Predicting trends

AI can analyze massive volumes of data to identify emerging trends in your industry or niche, enabling you to adjust your strategy ahead of competitors.

Example: If AI-processed data shows a rise in searches for sportswear, you can adjust your inventory, email campaigns, and promotions accordingly.

Product recommendations

Tools like those used by Amazon demonstrate how effective AI-driven recommendations can be, particularly for cross-selling and upselling strategies.

Ad optimization

Some AI algorithms can also adjust your advertising campaigns in real-time, maximizing their effectiveness based on trends and updates to algorithms and operating systems.

Other uses of AI can include implementing chatbots for customer service or product searches.

AI

8. Connecting Your Physical Store’s Cash Register to a Digital Marketing System to Automate Campaigns

If you also have one or more physical stores, integrating a connected cash register with your e-commerce platform is essential for real-time tracking and optimizing your marketing strategy. This is particularly useful for:

Synchronizing customer data

By combining data from in-store and online sales, you get a comprehensive view of your customers, enabling you to personalize your marketing campaigns across all channels.

Automating campaigns

After an in-store purchase, you can automatically send recommendations or online promotions. For example, a customer who buys a dress could receive an email a few hours later asking, “What did you think of your purchase?” along with suggestions for matching shoes.

Solutions like SumUp allow you to connect your in-store payment system to your online platform.

Want to learn more about e-commerce marketing and the tools and solutions to choose for implementing your marketing automation or email marketing strategy?
Try ActiveTrail’s software free for 30 days!