Ecommerce Growth

21 (Really Specific) Ways to Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost in eCommerce

June 19, 2025

21 (Really Specific) Ways to Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost in eCommerce

In a matter of two years between 2023 and 2025, eCommerce CAC has risen by 40%.

And at Convertcart, we’ve noticed how this metric suffers amongst clients' businesses, because strategies don’t cover the entire conversion funnel.

Which is why in this post, we’ll be covering the most relevant advice that’ll help you spend less on getting new customers and retain them better.

How eCommerce Customer Acquisition Cost is Shaping eCommerce

Given that eCommerce CAC has been rising, there are some trends you’ve got to stay on top of to keep your brand profitable:

✔ Between 2017 and 2022, eCommerce acquisition costs went up by 60%—and brands kept losing $29 upfront per new customer acquired

✔ Across niches, the average CAC in eCommerce can go up to about $130

✔ In terms of eCommerce CAC strategy, a healthy ecommerce business aims for a Customer Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost ratio of about 3:1 or higher, meaning customers generate at least three times what it costs to acquire them

✔ Customer acquisition cost in eCommerce is critically linked to certain metrics—industry benchmarks for 2025 show average ecommerce conversion rates around 1.58%, AOV about $121, and retention rates averaging 38%

✔ In recent years, brands have found the combination of influencer marketing and understanding shopper psyche to be more effective for reducing eCommerce customer acquisition cost

21 Tested Strategies to Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

1. Create geo-targeted landing pages

2. Spend more ad money on high margin products

3. Improve your CLV:CAC ratio

4. Create compelling post-browse emails

5. Use a smart exit-intent strategy

6. Show the loyalty program in prominent ways

7. Use a nanoinfluencer program to create convincing hype

8. Target cart abandoners who didn’t open recovery emails

9. Make quantity pricing the hook

10. Come up with strategic bundles

11. Improve the entry points for drip emails

12. Optimize pre-purchase and post-purchase upsell paths

13. Set up shopper support nudges for high intent customers

14. Target “warm” shoppers through live chat recommendations

15. Finetune personalized offers to reduce average cost of acquisition

16. Optimize with BoFu keywords

17. Double down on UGC to lower CAC

18. A/B test the most critical elements to bring down CAC

19. Go with fast-yielding retargeting campaigns

20. Use CRO to improve UX

21. Leverage AI to show high-margin products as results

1. Create geo-targeted landing pages

The thing is when it comes to eCommerce CAC reduction, you’ve got to go after audiences that are already buying from you.

And to convert your top buying locations even better, creating geo-targeted landing pages is a great idea.

Open GA4 and find locations that consistently show low bounce rates, high AOV and high conversions.

Create a custom report where you add country & region, as well as the key metrics (bounce rate, AOV and conversion rate).

Set up a visualization table to see location dimensions in comparison to metrics — and set up necessary filters like minimum number of users & sessions per user.

And don’t forget to set up minimum thresholds around sessions (like “> 100 sessions”) to avoid locations that have very little traffic.

On-site hacks to improve geo-targeted landing pages:

👉 Create copy + recommendations + shipping options based on local specificity (like “Bestsellers in New York - Ships Today!”)

👉 Show location-specific reviews on the landing page

Superegg, a vegan skincare brand, for example, ensures shoppers see a landing page that clearly denote their NYC-specific targeting—additionally they show customer stories that are from in and around that place:

geo targeted landing page to bring down customer acquisition cost

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Further Reading: Boost eCommerce landing page conversions: 18 scientific strategies

2. Spend more ad money on high margin products

Many businesses we audit end up spending ad budgets on products that don’t sell.

Instead: Tag, track and focus on your top 20% highest-margin products.

To reduce customer acquisition spending, here are the top to-dos:

👉 Identify the top profit products - specifically check on metrics like profit per unit, conversion rate and return rate

👉 Tag these products in your ad account - fix a new “high profit” product asset group on both Google and Meta (for the former, group SKUs in a custom Performance Max asset group or Standard Shopping campaign and for the latter, use a Product Set in your catalog)

👉 Run dedicated and optimized campaigns - focus on creatives that bring out bundling options, distinctive product badges and higher quantity discounts

Further Reading: Convert More Paid Traffic—9 Strategies That Always Work (eCommerce)

3. Improve your CLV:CAC ratio

In eCommerce, most brands look at 3:1 or 4:1 as a healthy CLV:CAC ratio. In a way it’s to say, if you’re spending $1, getting back $3 for it will maintain a healthy profit margin.

To make this happen within a shorter time, the key is to focus on some targeted tasks:

👉 Reallocate budgets to the most high-yielding channels

But for that, first look at channels that are bringing you the highest ratios, knowing that over-pumping budgets towards the most successful channels may not also be a great answer.

The reason is simple: the CLV:CAC ratio shows just one aspect of performance.

Take the example of email, which often has a high ratio, but triggering more volume through spends may actually not reap much.

Instead, monitor regularly and increase budgets by 50%-100% across the most successful channels.

👉 Optimize the landing pages performing best across paid channels

Run quick A/B tests across the most defining elements like CTAs, headlines and copy on value prop.

We’ve noticed that even a 10% to 15% improvement in conversion rates can improve the CLV:CAC ration within weeks.

Further Reading: 30 Underutilized Strategies For Increasing Customer Lifetime Value In eCommerce

4. Create compelling post-browse emails

Though the cart abandonment phenomenon gets a lot of public attention, it’s browse abandonment that’s more common - because most shoppers don’t add to cart on their first visit to an online store.

And that means what you send as post-browse emails can decide how quickly these people will decide to buy.

👉 Make the first email about ONE product - the one the shopper spent the maximum time browsing / scrolling through

👉 If they showed similar interest in multiple emails - send an email with the hook "Want help picking the right one?"

👉 If they looked through low-stock items, feature a headline hook like “X pieces sold - almost gone!”

Saatchi Art, for example, sends price increase notifications on browsed items, creating immediate urgency:

post browse email from Saatchi Art to reduce eCommerce CAC through a price increase urgency nudge

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5. Use a smart exit-intent strategy

One of the things your store immediately needs is to reverse the high eCommerce CAC situation is to have an exit-intent strategy.

With the right tool, this is one of the fastest ways to capture leads before they drop off forever - to do this in a shorter turnaround time:

👉 Make it clearly benefit-driven (& not just “take 15% off”)

To reduce customer acquisition costs, it’s necessary for exit-intent pop-ups to appear helpful to people, no matter where they are in the funnel - here are a few ideas:

Address an unmet need (and drive it through social proof: “Tap to benefit like 20, 000 others like you”)
Link to gated content (“93% said they’d never go back → See why in 30 seconds”)

👉 Show offers based on intent (& customer journey)

For example, if you’re dealing with discovery stage drop-offs, showing them a quiz discount to take has higher chances of success - similarly, for those with purchase intent, would love a bundle offer if you show it when they’re repeatedly coming back to a specific page featuring one of the products.

Female personal wellness brand Foria shows the following when they detect higher intent for product discovery:

Further Reading: Exit-Intent Pop-Ups: overcoming common mistakes + 20 brilliant examples

6. Show the loyalty program in prominent ways

90% of customers are likely to buy from brands that engage and personalize.

So, using a loyalty program to reduce eCommerce CAC is great - as long as you know how to get different kinds of shoppers to sign up and use it.

👉 Use a pre-checked option to highlight the rewards within the cart (this works as long as the benefits to the current purchase are really clear)

👉 Push account creation through immediate loyalty points (with messaging like “when you sign up and sign in, you can redeem 200 points towards the current purchase”)

eCommerce home decor brand West Elm embeds their brand-specific credit card in their cart → checkout flow to reduce spends on customer acquisition

Further Reading: 14 eCommerce Loyalty Programs Backed By Science (Examples)

7. Use a nanoinfluencer program to create convincing hype

One great way to reduce the cost of acquiring new customers is to keep a firm focus on higher ROI, no matter what the marketing approach.

And that brings us to leveraging a nanoinfluencer strategy - something that can be implemented even faster (usually 1 to 2 weeks) than a typical micro-influencer campaign (which can take more than 4 weeks).

Round up 15 to 20 of them from your followers, and make sure they have 1K-10K followers.

Opt for a product-for-post partnership, where you aim to promote your bestsellers through those who have a higher following.

What to do: Give each rep a custom URL and discount code - what also helps is to feature these creators in the form of UGC across your socials, with information on the discount code in the description.

This is what Glossier does, along with offering low commissions plus free products to their nanoinfluencers:

Glossier nanoinfluencer posts make customer acquisition easier

Further Reading: Influencer Marketing 101: Step-by-Step Strategy For eCommerce Store Owners

8. Target cart abandoners who didn’t open recovery emails

Retaining existing customers costs 6 to 7X less than acquiring new customers—but almost 70% of all carts are abandoned.

And while all cart abandonment strategies are important, what you do with non-openers decides how much you have to spend on other segments.

Launch coordinated retargeting ads on Facebook/Google targeting cart abandoners who didn't open your emails. Show the exact products they abandoned with the same progressive offers.

Since this audience is still warm, triggering these ads at peak emotional moments (like scrolling fatigue looking through static content or feeling more financially secure right after payday)can recover up to 30% of carts.

Bottle brand LARQ retargets using the above approach, and declares a customer-specific discount on the spot:

LARQ cart abandonment ad to reduce eCommerce CAC

Further Reading: 27 Powerful Ways To Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment (w/ Examples)

9. Make quantity pricing the hook

It’s important to convey the pricing advantage in one of these ways:

In terms of purely the discount
In terms of the discount + the value
In terms of what’s “most loved” or “most popular”

Check out how Bonafide drives “best value” by highlighting the highest quantity, thus naturally reducing the need for subsequent reacquisition of new customers:

Bonafide uses quantity pricing hooks to attract more customers without spending on them

10. Come up with strategic bundles

One of the most organic ways to reduce CAC in eCommerce is to come up with strategic bundles.

Shoppers anyway love value sets - they love it more when enough back-end work goes into personalizing them.

Here’s how you can create strategic bundles to drive CAC goals faster:

👉 Combine high profit margin products and high-traffic products - this is the best of both worlds because one brings the revenue and the other, the interest & intent

For best results: Create up to 10 such product sets (can go up to 15 during the peak season) and price them up to 20% lower than if the individual items’ price were added up

👉 Create ads with these bundles - and make sure shoppers find their way into bundle-specific landing pages

Whether they’re independent product pages or category pages, these bundle-specific pages have to speak to customer intent - think “Vegan Skincare Summer Sets” or “Travel-Friendly Stain-Free Lip Color”.

Additionally, create unique landing pages for the best performing bundles, and bring in bundle-specific URLs for better discoverability and search rankings

Skincare & makeup brand aggregator Sephora picks value bundles with the most traction and positions them into separate category pages mapped to high-intent keywords. We found the following page from an ad when we were looking for “skincare sets for travel”:

Sephora sets up strategic bundling landing pages to reduce cost of acquiring new customers

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Further Reading: 15 Product Bundling Examples That Convert (& 9 Proven Ideas)

11. Improve the entry points for drip emails

As far as reducing eCommerce CAC goes, getting your drip emails right is non-negotiable. But before that comes the points through which shoppers sign up.

And to fix the sign-up points:

👉 Show different pop-ups on every page based on intent - it’s a bit like thinking ahead of what the shopper wants to see to sign-up and then showing it - so if it’s “Take our 30-second finder and get personalized picks — plus a deal” on the product page, “Want early access to our best bundles? Join the insiders list” will get more engagement on the category page

👉 Segment at the entry point itself - questions like “What are you shopping for today?” (ToFu shoppers are just beginning to explore products & categories), “Pick your biggest need” (MoFu shoppers are aware & considering what to buy) and “What’s your size?” (BoFu shoppers know what they want & are navigating the last few buying objections) with up to 5 multi-choice answers can make it precise

One eCommerce brand that runs a highly optimized drip email strategy with sharp entry points is Thrive Market - most of their drip sequences cover their membership program, which they even cover through FAQ-like emails:

Thrive Market drip email focusing on membership information to attract new customers

Further Reading: 15 amazing drip email campaigns that actually drive sales

12. Optimize pre-purchase and post-purchase upsell paths

To get your customer acquisition costs low, it’s important to optimize your pre-purchase and post-purchase upsell nudges.

For pre-purchase upsells:

👉 Feature up to 3 easy-click add ons either within the mini cart, full cart page or the first section of the checkout page

The caveat here is to keep the recommendations priced low ($50 being the maximum) for people to consider them while knowing they’ll add on to the final price.

For post-purchase upsells:

👉 A single super relevant upsell highlighted here is way better than multiple upsell recommendations.

Here’s an example:

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Further Reading: How to Cross-sell on Product Pages—Without Being Pushy (+ Examples)

13. Set up shopper support nudges for high intent customers

If you’re really pushing customer acquisition without increasing spending on it, you’ll have to be smarter with customer support.

Just a live chat function will definitely not cut it - what you need is for the shopper to see a link between their buying decision and getting the help when they need it.

👉 Set a “Need Help Deciding?” nudge on product pages near the primary CTA / size guide / variant display which links to your live chat

👉 Set a “Need Help Comparing?” nudge across category pages that open up to a comparison tool, where products can be added side by side - within the modal, link to live chat just in case!

14. Target “warm” shoppers through live chat recommendations

When you’re trying to reduce eCommerce CAC in 2025, it’s not enough to recommend products over live chat.

How you do it + Who you show it to, decides how successful this CAC lowering strategy will be.

To target “warm” shoppers (those who’re on the brink of buying) through this tactic:

👉 Trigger the chat to open and ask “Want some recommendations suited to your tastes?” when you see hesitation signals like prolonged time on product page or multiple clicks on sizing / fit / ingredient charts

👉 Initiate this UX fix with a combination of your bestselling products, mapped clearly to past and in-session behaviors

Further Reading: Finding The Right Target Audience In eCommerce: 16 Proven Strategies

15. Finetune personalized offers to reduce average cost of acquisition

Shoppers love discounts and even more so, when you personalize them based on their customer journey.

This is actually when existing customers buy more and even new shoppers see the point of spending on their very first visit.

However, to implement this well and within a short time, you’ve got to:

👉 Start with the most potent 3 or 4 segments, including first-time visitors, returning browsers who haven't purchased, cart abandoners, and past purchasers.

👉 Combine first-time discounts with quality urgency nudges like “Only 3 left in your size—avail 20% off only today ‘coz it’s your first time!”

👉 Offer different incentives on mobile—include offers like free shipping and discounts on certain payment methods.

16. Optimize content with BoFu keywords

SEO optimization for lowering acquisition costs can be long-winded.

But to get quicker results, you’d want to take a bottom-up approach.

Here’s how to get the BoFu keyword ball rolling:

👉 Create up to 3 fast content pieces that are also super relevant—make sure you research and embed BoFu keywords into these pieces that can include a separate product comparison page, a blog that rounds up your bestsellers and a separate reviews page that has all the reviews your products have received plus plugs from third-party sites

👉 Edit your title tags + meta descriptions + H1s to include the most relevant long-tail keywords (look at Google autocomplete for clear hints)

This is the way eCommerce shop The Harper Clinic optimizes their BoFu content, leading to less spending and more high intent visits:

The Harper Clinic blog features BoFu keywords to attract high intent shoppers and lower CAC

17. Double down on UGC

For stores that are on a mission to bring down customer acquisition costs, getting the UGC strategy right within the content marketing context is super important.

To get faster results from this, focus on:

👉 Getting reviews from the most recent customers - launch a week-long campaign and be prepared to get reviews mostly from those who’ve bought from you within the past 30 days

👉 Coming up with a weekly UGC campaign - where each week there’s a prize, it’s not huge but can be substantial store credits, which can be particularly attractive for first-time visitors & shoppers

Further Reading: 14 eCommerce content marketing mistakes (+ their fixes)

18. A/B test the most critical elements to bring down CAC

One of the key ways of reducing eCommerce customer acquisition costs within a short time is to do A/B testing.

But testing the most critical elements here become more important, in this order:

👉 Product page CTA buttons: These are high-intent elements and also serve to track micro-conversions, and what’s best, need only 3-5 days of traffic to show significance

👉 Checkout flow: Test between one page & multi-page checkout and test between highlighting account creation with rewards call-outs and guest checkout - run for a week to see significant data

👉 Email subject lines: Test abandoned cart email subject lines - "You forgot something" vs "Complete your order" vs "Still interested in [product name]?" - this test can reveal impactful data within 48 hours

Further Reading: 153 A/B Testing Ideas for eCommerce (Homepage, PDP, Cart, Checkout)

19. Go with fast-yielding retargeting campaigns

eCommerce retargeting is really a long-term project, but when you’re trying to get results around customer acquisition costs faster, you’ve got to narrow down the reach.

Here are a few to-dos:

👉 Limit ad frequency to 3-5 impressions per person per week—over-exposure is the ultimate turn-off for people who may be considering your brand but haven’t bought yet

👉 Create audiences by recency: 1-3 days (highest bids), 4-7 days (medium bids), 8-30 days (lowest bids)—the more recently someone has shown interest in your products, the quicker they’ll likely to buy

👉 Hit cart abandoners first on Facebook (where CPMs are often lower), then retarget non-converters on Google Display (stick to spending less first)

Further Reading: Brilliant eCommerce Retargeting (and Remarketing) Examples

20. Use CRO to improve UX

We’d agree if you said “but CRO’s so vast! How does one reduce CAC with it?”

And that’s why we’re going to tell you about the 3 top actions that have worked for clients:

👉 Optimize above-the fold across ad landing pages - specifically test between 3 different headlines, one that focuses on “price”, one on “quality” and one on the “value proposition”

👉 Optimize trust signals across your main store - test placing testimonials right above the purchase button on product pages. Social proof at the point of decision increases conversion by 10-20%.

👉 Focus speed optimization on your highest-traffic landing pages and checkout pages - even 1-second improvements can boost conversion rates by 7-10%.