In this guide, we will walk you through on what you need to do to boost your online sales via your website. These are five things that you can go away and start implementing into your website or your marketing strategy right away to fully maximise your return on advertisement. Now, it’s a no-brainer that stores trying to increase their sales and their revenue invest thousands in trying to acquire new customers or traffic by way of advertisement, and one thing that we’ve seen across the board is a lot of people fall short.

Effective Strategies for Growing and Sustaining Online Business

So what we’re doing in this guide is going back to basics, and we’re just going to outline a few things you absolutely need to be thinking about and implementing into your website or your marketing strategy to ensure the growth and sustainability of your online business in Dubai.

Average Order Value

Average order value is the amount that people are spending with you at one given time, so the average value a customer is spending when they are placing an order. Now, there’s a few things here that you can definitely do on your website to try and increase the average order value that a customer is spending.

The first thing is to implement a free shipping option: have them spend a minimum amount, whether it is $50 or $100, and then they qualify for free shipping. This gives the customer an incentive to spend more money with you because they feel like they’re getting something of value back for free. It’s something so simple, and you’ll see a lot of brands doing it already. If you are, great; but if you’re not, definitely do consider having a free shipping option with a minimum spend amount.

Another thing that you can look to do to increase average order value is looking at bundling your products together. Now let’s say, for example, you sell coffee. You might have multiple items of coffee sold individually on your website, but if you look to bundle packages together at a slightly reduced cost than it would cost them to buy them all individually, that again gives a customer an incentive to buy that product, and they’ve spent more money with you than what they would have done if they’d only maybe bought one or even two of those items individually.

Leveraging Existing Customers

Moving on to the second point, that is leveraging your existing customer base, which is essential for sustaining online business in Dubai. Essentially, there’s two ways that you can leverage your customers that we find works really, really well. One of them is emails. Sure, you can send an email out to your audience pool and maybe share with them new products or bestsellers or whatever it might be, but that isn’t going to be enough. What you need to do is think about what the consumer potentially wants. What is going to attract them back to your store? What’s going to give them an incentive to buy? Often a small discount or a limited-time offer or something like that will be enough to bring them back.

Now, leveraging email is great because it’s easy and very cost-effective. The second way that you can also do this is via text message. We love text messages because it goes directly to the consumer, and the chances are they are going to see it and they’re going to read it. Often emails end up in a promotions folder or they just don’t get read at all. Leveraging both of these together is awesome, and it’s what we call a database reactivation service within our business, and if you can leverage that, honestly you are going to have some huge success.

Abandoned Cart Notifications

Point number three is abandoned cart notifications, a vital tool in sustaining online business in Dubai. When consumers are browsing online and they’re looking at purchasing items, they might be adding to the basket with the intention to buy; they might get distracted, pull away, and then forget to come back to finish that order. One thing that you can do is set up an abandoned cart notification. This notification could be either via email or text message, just prompting and reminding the consumer to come back and finish their purchase. That’s assuming that they are ready to buy. They might be at the exploration stage, where they’re just trying to figure out more about your brand or your products.

They may add it to the basket because you haven’t done something as simple as sharing with them what the shipping cart price is. Ultimately, there are a lot of stores out there, especially if you’re relying on Shopify, where the shipping costs are calculated in the basket or at the checkout. This requires a consumer or the potential customer to add to their basket to be able to see what the shipping costs are. If you’re open and honest and upfront with what your shipping costs are, then maybe they don’t reach that stage.

If you can create a minimum order value to get free shipping, then that might not necessarily be a problem. So how do you fix this? It’s quite simple: just install an abandoned cart plug-in. You can do this if you’re on WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, or even Magento. They’ve all got apps that allow you to just plug and play, and anyone that adds to the basket where you have their email address already, you can send them a push notification to say come back and finish your order. It’s honestly a great way to increase sales and revenue on your site and one of the top strategies for growing online business in Dubai.

User Generated Content

Point number four to increase sales on your website, and this is more of a marketing strategy piece rather than a website critique or tweak, is utilising user-generated content. Now, the single most challenging, expensive component of advertising is generating new and authentic content. User-generated content (UGC) allows brands to access this type of content without the high costs associated with traditional marketing campaigns.

UGC includes anything that your customers create, like photos, videos, or reviews, showcasing your product or service in a genuine way. When potential customers see real people using your products, it builds trust and adds social proof, making them more likely to purchase. Brands can encourage customers to share their experiences on social media and tag the brand or use a unique hashtag, creating a community of loyal customers who amplify your message.

By featuring these posts on your website or sharing them on your social channels, you give your brand authenticity and credibility. This form of content is relatable, as potential buyers can see themselves in those scenarios and are more inclined to believe in your product’s value. Moreover, UGC is cost-effective, as you don’t have to create the content yourself; instead, you’re amplifying the voices of real users who are satisfied with your offerings.

Social Proof and Reviews

Lastly, integrating social proof, such as reviews and ratings, onto your product pages can make a significant difference in sustaining online business in Dubai. People tend to trust the experiences of other consumers, especially when they are on the fence about purchasing. Including reviews right next to the product can provide reassurance and persuade potential buyers to make a decision. Even if all reviews aren’t 100% positive, displaying a range of feedback can improve trustworthiness, as people will see your brand as transparent and responsive.