Increase online store sales: nine lessons the big stores measured

To increase online store sales, most shops reach for more followers. The cheaper lever is getting more of the people who already message you to finish a purchase, and to come back. Here are nine of their lessons, each with its source and its number, translated for a shop that sells through Instagram DMs.

One caveat first: most of this research was run on US and European websites, not in DMs. Use the numbers for direction, not as a forecast.

To increase online store sales, move three numbers

Weekly sales are the people who ask, times the share who buy, times how often and how much each customer comes back. A worked example: 200 buying conversations a week at a 10 percent conversion rate is 20 orders. Lift conversion to 12 percent and you have 24 orders with no new follower and no extra ad spend.

Shoppers look at photos before they read

In Baymard's product page testing, 56 percent of participants started by exploring the images and 42 percent tried to judge size from them, yet 28 percent of 60 large stores had no in-scale shot. Google's rules for a main product image ban prices, promo text, borders and watermarks. The full shot list is in product photography with a phone.

Write the description that answers the DM

Baymard saw every single participant rely on the description at some point, but only 22 percent of sites structure it around two to six core features. Nielsen Norman Group adds two rules: front-load the key facts, and keep details consistent across every size and colour. A line-by-line template is in writing a product description.

Show the full cost in the first answer

Baymard averages 50 studies to a 70.22 percent cart abandonment rate. Excluding people just browsing, 40 percent quit over extra costs and 12 percent because they could not see the total up front. Quote delivery next to the price. See shipping costs for an online shop and the full abandoned cart breakdown.

Make paying feel safe

Among Baymard's abandoners, 19 percent did not trust the site with their card. The Spiegel Research Center found that a product with five reviews is 270 percent more likely to be bought than one with none, and that purchase likelihood peaks at 4.0 to 4.7 stars, not a perfect 5. More in customer trust on Instagram and payment links for Instagram sales.

Cut every extra step

Baymard reports that 18 percent left over forced account creation and 17 percent over a long checkout, and estimates a large site can gain 35.26 percent in conversion from checkout design alone. In a DM, a long checkout is an address collected over five messages. Compare the options in taking orders from Instagram DMs.

Answer before they ask the next shop

Meta lets a business message someone only within 24 hours of that person's last message, so a slow reply can close the conversation for good. What to automate and when to step in is in Instagram DM auto-replies.

Sell to people who already bought

Harvard Business Review notes that acquiring a customer costs five to 25 times more than keeping one, and cites Bain research in which a 5 percent lift in retention raised profits by 25 to 95 percent. The range spans many industries, so read it as direction. Grouping buyers is covered in customer loyalty for an online shop.

Plan the peak season early

Big retailers plan their peak weeks well ahead: stock the best sellers, publish a last order day, message past buyers first. A four week version is in the holiday sales plan.

Measure one change at a time

Hold one change for two weeks and compare it with the same weekdays before. The numbers worth watching are in online shop sales reports.

Tomorrow morning

1. 1Add the delivery cost to your saved price reply.
2. 2Replace the card number in DMs with a payment link.
3. 3Shoot one in-scale photo for each of your five best sellers.
4. 4Complete those five descriptions: material, size, care.
5. 5Message everyone who bought in the last three months.
6. 6Compare two weeks of sales before and after.

If orders and stock are not in one place yet, start with online shop management.