Have you ever heard the saying “If you build it, they will come?” It’s actually a quote from the movie Field of Dreams but this saying can be used in the world of business too. A lot of times will see a new building and have no clue what it’s about but they’ll go inside to see what it’s about. Unfortunately, that’s not the way business works with e-commerce businesses.

If you build an online store, people are not just going to come to it. It takes aggressive marketing of your store in order to beat out your competition and attract customers. Today, e-commerce has become the saving grace for many entrepreneurs, especially if you optimize your site to where customers have access through a mobile app! Mobile apps will benefit your business tremendously!

Building an e-commerce store may sound like you’d be biting off more than you can chew but if you have the right approach and aggressive marketing strategies, you can build streams of additional income that will allow you to live the life you’ve always wanted. So the question to ask yourself now is, are you willing to do what it takes to grow your business?

What Does It Take?

1. Be Willing to Partner With Other Companies

This is a strategy that some entrepreneurs shy away from because their mindsets are in “toddler mode.” What is toddler mode exactly? Well, you know how toddlers go through a phase where everything is theirs and they’re not willing to share? The words they love to use are “no” and “mine.” Some entrepreneurs, especially those just starting out, have this mindset because it’s their new business and they don’t want to share any profits they may receive with any other company.

Partnering with another business can actually help your business more than you may think. If you opt to do this, find an e-commerce business that is similar to yours. With the partnership, it’s like the saying “if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” A tactic you can do is for every customer that comes to your site from your partner’s site, you can offer them a discount on your products… if that isn’t a good partnership, what is?

2. Offer Complementary Products Through Cross-Selling

When it comes to your online store, you’ll be able to see what products customers are buying the most. Knowing that you want to highlight that particular item or items and once you do that, it gives you the potential to sell other items and accessories directly related to that high-selling product (that’s cross-selling).

Just like shopping in a physical store, customers typically go in with intentions of buying specific things on their list but actually come out with items that weren’t even on their list. This shopping faux pas also happens to customers with online shopping as well. A customer will come to your site looking for something in particular and they may find it but if you showcase products that complement the product they’re shopping for, that customer is more than likely going to make additional purchases.

Cross-selling products not only increases customer attraction for your site but it also exposes customers to a broader selection of your products. This aspect of growing your e-commerce store is especially appealing for customers who like stocking up on lines of products versus making single purchases from time to time.

A great example of this would be if you’re an artist and can draw custom animations and have them printed on coffee mugs. Customers might love the custom designs you print on the coffee mugs but maybe showcase that same custom design printed on a tote bag and on a phone case. Once that customer sees that you can print on multiple items, they’re definitely going to want to see what else they can get a customized print on.

See also: 6 Social Media Trends for E-commerce

3. Broaden Your Target Audience

When you were going through the planning process of opening your e-commerce store, you knew you needed to have a target audience. At the time, that was perfectly fine and it still is, especially if you have steady revenue coming in but if you’re wanting to grow your business, you may need to broaden your target audience. Tweakyourbiz.com talks about the many reasons why your business would eventually need to expand to a wider audience at some point.

Now, depending on what your product is, there probably is wiggle room for you to expand your products to a bigger audience. For example, if you sell gaming accessories, your target audience is more than likely going to be gamers, right? Yes, so if you want to broaden your target audience, try thinking outside the box.

There is no gamer who is too old or too young, right? Yes, gamers come in all ages, so have you considered expanding your target audience to mothers? Moms are always looking for gifts for their kids (of any age) whether it be for a birthday or Christmas… If a mom is a parent to a gamer, any type of gaming accessory would be the perfect gift.

4. Offer Perks to Current Customers

Finding ways to improve your sales to your current customer base is a great strategy! But how will you do it? You already know they love your products so how can you make them love them even more? Well, that’s not the approach you want to take. As mentioned previously, you already know they love your products… what you want to do now is get them to buy more of your products.

One way to increase your sales is to offer discounts to your customers. With offering customers discounts, the key is knowing how to use them effectively. Customer loyalty things like “BOGO” (buy one, get one free) and “Buy 10, get the 9th one free. Everyone loves a discount so if you appeal to the customers you already have, just in a different way, it will increase their loyalty even more.