One thing all e-commerce retailers have in common is the desire to drive traffic to their online store and increase conversions on-site. The challenge is determining which marketing tactics and strategies can accomplish both.

Shopify compiled a list of effective marketing tactics and ecommerce tools, along with ideas to help you implement each approach. Their strategies encompass both straightforward acquisition tactics to ways e-commerce retailers can generate more repeat purchases from existing customer bases.

We share them below!

But what are marketing tactics? According to the article, “Marketing tactics are the specific actions a company takes to implement its marketing strategy. For example, a common marketing tactic is running ads in newspapers or on TV.”

A variety of different marketing tactics are available, and the best tactics for often depend upon a retailers’ products/product category, target market, and marketing budget.

Tactics differ from marketing strategies in that a marketing strategy relates to a company’s overreaching plan to achieve their marketing objectives. Marketing strategies account for a company’s strengths, weaknesses, target market, competition, and goals. Marketing tactics are actionable efforts a company employs to execute their marketing strategy. If increasing brand awareness is part of an e-commerce retailer’s marketing strategy, their tactics would likely include engaging in paid ad campaigns on social media. If their strategy includes decreasing cart abandonment, their tactics will likely include email marketing campaigns centered on reminders and/or offering a discount for completing a purchase.

It is imperative overall strategy is considered before implementing marketing tactics. Otherwise, retailers are leaving their success to pure chance. As the strategy offers e-commerce retailers a clear direction, the tactics provide a means to achieve their marketing goals. Implementing tactics without first developing a sound strategy not only wastes time and money but also yields less than favorable real results. 

As such, to be successful, both marketing strategy and tactics must work together. The strategy provides the overall direction, while the tactics are the specific actions taken to reach the desired goal.

Here are Shopify’s 32 best marketing tactics to increase online sales:

1. Upsell your products
2. Integrate Instagram
3. Reduce abandoned carts
4. Launch a Facebook store
5. Capture more email subscribers
6. Improve your email campaigns
7. Send wishlist reminder emails
8. Make it easy for customers to get what they want
9. Engage store visitors with live chat
10. Anticipate future sales
11. Start a content marketing program
12. Embrace personalization
13. Leverage user-generated content
14. Think local
15. Optimize your product pages
16. Optimize for mobile
17. Reward your loyal customers
18. Run pay-per-click ads
19. Get sponsorships
20. Make influencer partnerships
21. Start TikTok marketing
22. Get customer testimonials
23. Go to events
24. Start livestreaming
25. Run guerrilla marketing campaigns
26. Get press coverage
27. Start SEO marketing
28. Repurpose your content
29. Sell on marketplaces
30. Run webinars
31. Get referrals
32. Promote Instagram giveaways