Ecommerce merchants need to make sales in order to keep their website alive. Having a well designed online shopping cart is only one piece of the puzzle. There are multiple factors that go into ecommerce sales.

Below are 8 ways improve sales on your website:

1. Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for sales. If your consumer can't find you on the first page or first couple of search results, then you are losing sales! Your goal should be to get a higher ranking on Google, Bing, Yahoo! or other Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) than your competitors.

2. Consider Online Advertising

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a common advertising practice in which companies pay to have their ads appear at the top of search engine pages. This ensures your website is at the top of your consumer's search feed and can increase the likelihood of them buying.

3. Utilize Social Media

Your customers are using social media, so you need to have a presence there too. However, like all other marketing tools, it is important to use social media in a way that supports your business’ core objectives. Try offering special promotions that are only available through your social media channels. You can also offer your shopping cart directly on Facebook (F-commerce) to catch impulse buys.

4. Learn from Attribution Modeling

Attribution modeling is the practice of carefully studying who visits your website and makes purchases based on items such as marketing channel, message and medium. It can answer such questions as whether a visitor who enters the site via Facebook will have a larger chance of making a purchase than one who gets there through paid search. Use this information to better set up your ecommerce website, playing up what converts people to buy and maybe getting rid of things that don't encourage sales.

5. Integrate Marketing Channels

All of these ideas are great on their own, but work even better when integrated. Combining your e-commerce acquisition and retention strategies is the best way to move people toward purchasing and increasing sales.