Every company needs an expansion strategy, especially online ones.
After successfully navigating the challenges of the initial launch phase, there is no time to sit back and relax. Now is the time to get even more involved to help your business grow.
Building a thriving online business from the ground up is no easy feat, but this article is here to guide you on the journey.
Below are the top 10 ways to help your e-commerce business reach new heights:
10 Realistic Ways to Expand Your Online Business
1. Make the Checkout Process Easier
The checkout process is a vital part of the equation for all e-commerce businesses. To increase sales and decrease the number of lost orders, brands must optimize their checkout process.
How to improve it:
- Allow guest checkouts: Forcing new users to create an account before purchasing adds friction. Let them check out first, then invite them to sign up afterward.
- Offer multiple payment methods: Go beyond credit/debit cards. Include digital wallets (like Apple Pay, Google Pay), PayPal, and BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) services like Klarna or Afterpay.
- Show progress: Use a progress bar or clear steps to reduce anxiety and help customers know what’s coming next.
💡Pro Tip
Test your checkout experience regularly. Use tools like BrowserStack or UserTesting to simulate real scenarios across devices.
2. Partner with Industry Influencers
Influencer marketing is a hot topic in many marketing strategy meetings, but it is essential to note that influencers might not yield favorable results for every brand, particularly if they are not industry-suited.
Forget follower count and focus on relevance and engagement:
- Partner with micro-influencers (10K-100K followers) who have niche communities.
- Track metrics like engagement rate, conversion impact, and click-throughs: not just likes.
- Create long-term relationships, not just one-off posts.
3. Invest in Paid Advertising
Advertising is a crucial part of building brand awareness and promoting your products or services to help stand out from your competitors.
The primary goal of advertising, apart from building brand awareness, is to retain current customers, re-engage former ones, and attract new ones.
- Start with platforms where your target audience lives: Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, or LinkedIn.
- Use retargeting campaigns to re-engage people who visited your site but didn’t convert.
- Continuously test creatives, headlines, and offers to improve performance.
Set a daily or weekly budget and treat it as an investment, track ROI religiously using tools like Google Analytics and Meta Business Suite.
For Example
A growing consulting business targeted HR professionals through LinkedIn Ads using a downloadable PDF as a lead magnet. It helped them book 10 new discovery calls in one week.
4. Perfect Your Fulfillment Strategy
The goal here is to achieve scalable, seamless order fulfillment.
That requires transparent order tracking, meticulous inventory management, and a nationwide supply chain to help give your brand the streamlined coverage it needs.
- Use a reputable brand such as Kase e-commerce fulfillment to implement an omnichannel end-to-end logistics service that integrates with online shopping carts, improves customer satisfaction, and takes 3PL to the next level.
- Look for a fulfillment partner that prioritizes transparency, is technology-driven, and always puts the customer first.
The goal? A seamless experience from “add to cart” to “package at the door.”
This is especially crucial for growing e-commerce industries like CBD businesses, where consistent delivery and discreet packaging build long-term trust.
5. Listen to Your Audience
Social media sentiment analysis is a frequently overlooked element of digital marketing analysis. Many marketing teams focus on other aspects, which, while important, do not provide enough context.
For example, having a high bounce rate is never ideal, but simply knowing it is high doesn’t help much.
- Monitor social media sentiment using business tools like Brandwatch, Mention, or Sprout Social.
- Set up feedback loops: post-purchase surveys, reviews, or NPS (Net Promoter Score).
- Look beyond basic analytics, ask why users are bouncing or abandoning carts.
As you continue scaling your online business, gathering thoughtful feedback from real users can uncover unexpected friction points in your interface. Consider using the best UX survey tool to find insights that let you fine-tune your customer experience sustainably. The same thing applies if you are in a saturated industry; you will need to invest more heavily in advertising and spend more time on content creation to differentiate your brand from the competition.
6. Improve Website User Experience (UX)
Your website and social media pages are the most crucial aspects of your brand, and can make or break your online business. A sleek, fast, and intuitive website doesn’t just look good, it builds trust.
Here are some ways to improve UX:
- Make navigation easy. Keep menus simple and prioritize important content.
- Optimize for mobile. Over 60% of users shop from their phones.
- Increase page speed. Use Google PageSpeed Insights and compress heavy images.
Improve your brand’s website user experience by auditing each page and making sure that it is functioning optimally and serves a purpose.
No one wants to have to click multiple times to get to what they want to see, so streamline your site and make sure the flow is organic.
Even visually-driven industries like clothing brands and home decor retailers can benefit from UX upgrades by showing off their aesthetics in faster, mobile-friendly formats.
7. Create Engaging Content
If you want your readers to respond to your content, you should ensure that it is engaging. Content drives traffic, builds trust, and turns visitors into buyers. But it should be engaging and valuable.
- Use storytelling. People connect with emotions more than features.
- Highlight benefits over features. Instead of “10-hour battery,” say “get through your workday without charging.”
- Use visuals: images, short videos, GIFs, and infographics make content skimmable and memorable.
Idea:
💡Pro Tip
Start a blog or knowledge base answering common customer questions: it boosts SEO and trust.
8. Build an Email Marketing Funnel
Email isn’t dead! it’s one of the most profitable marketing channels. Here’s how to make it work:
- Offer a lead magnet: free shipping, discount codes, or valuable guides to grow your list.
- Segment users: new subscribers, repeat customers, inactive users, etc.
- Create automated flows: welcome emails, cart recovery, upsells, post-purchase follow-ups.
Platforms like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and ActiveCampaign make automation easy, even for beginners.
9. Expand to New Marketplaces
Relying solely on one channel like your website, can limit your visibility. You should broaden your reach by tapping into high-traffic online marketplaces.
- Amazon – Great for physical products.
- Etsy – Ideal for handmade, creative, or digital products.
- Walmart Marketplace, eBay, Shopee – Offer different traffic sources and customer demographics.
💡Pro Tip
Each marketplace brings its own built-in audience, so you’re not dependent on one source of traffic or revenue.
10. Utilize Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Customers trust real people more than any marketing claim. Reviews and testimonials are social proof that builds credibility and helps overcome hesitation.
- Ask customers to leave reviews after purchase (automate the process via email).
- Showcase testimonials on your homepage and product pages.
- Use UGC (User-Generated Content), like Instagram stories or YouTube unboxings to add authenticity.
Final Summary
Growing an online business isn’t about doing everything at once, it’s about prioritizing smart, sustainable actions that move the needle.
The 10 strategies that range in streamlining your checkout experience to the power of influencer marketing and scale cross-platform are tested and confirmed strategies to scale.
Pick 2-3 to focus on this month, track the results, and keep iterating. Consistency, agility, and understanding your customer will separate you from competitors.
With the right combination of technology, creativity, and human connection, your online business can not only grow it can thrive.
