Sales Planning for E-Commerce = Marketing Planning?

Creating a sales plan for e-commerce also involves a solid marketing strategy.

In fact, many people even consider that this sales planning is actually a marketing plan.

And it makes sense. Marketing is the application of techniques to bring a product to market and generate profit from its sales.

The distinction between sales planning and marketing planning is closely tied to the stages of the Marketing and Sales Funnel.

When we think in a limited way, sales planning only applies to the later stages of the funnel.

However, when we view sales growth as a result of a more expansive marketing strategy, it becomes clear that all funnel stages contribute to bringing more customers to e-commerce.

That’s today’s topic. To what extent is sales planning just about sales? What other influences does it have? And how exactly do you create a sales plan?

We have a lot to cover. Let’s dive in!

Understanding the E-commerce Funnel

First of all, we need to understand how the Marketing and Sales Funnel works in e-commerce.

We’ve already covered this topic extensively on the blog. Throughout this article, we’ll provide several links to help you explore these concepts in more depth.

To properly integrate sales and marketing planning, it’s important to analyze the E-commerce Funnel first.

This will show us exactly what impacts sales but is not directly related to them.

It’s important to understand that not all marketing actions are directly linked to sales planning.

However, in e-commerce, all departments, teams, and individual professionals are fully focused on sales.

In other words: in e-commerce, every marketing action is related to sales and aims to measure its results based on customer growth.

By analyzing the three main funnel stages (Top, Middle, and Bottom), we’ll better understand how this relationship between sales and marketing actually works in e-commerce.

In the articles below, you can explore all the funnel stages in detail:

➡️ Everything and More About the Digital Marketing Funnel [Complete Guide]

➡️ What Are the Types of Sales and Marketing Funnels? See 5 Examples

➡️ What is a Sales Funnel? Stages, Methods, and 9 Tools

Top of the Funnel

The Top of the Funnel is associated with lead generation strategies.

Many e-commerce businesses fail to invest in this stage because they don’t see a direct return in sales. This is precisely why integrating sales and marketing planning is so important.

In Inbound Mark e ting and Digital Marketing, the Top of the Funnel aligns with the Discovery stage of the Customer Journey.

At this stage, consumers begin to recognize a problem they have or discover a new product that presents an opportunity, regardless of its nature.

E-commerce businesses typically generate leads in this stage through various strategies, such as:

Newsletter subscriptions;
Offering a discount coupon in exchange for registration;
Downloading informational materials (in the case of complex sales);
Unboxing and review videos;
Informative blog content;
Ads focused on converting users into leads—without directly pushing for sales yet!

Inbound Marketing helps generate and catalog these leads based on their level of qualification.

Then, in the next stage, they go through Lead Nurturing. More on that in the next section.

If you want to dive deeper into Top of Funnel strategies, I recommend reading the article below:

➡️ Top of the Funnel: Strategies and Content for This Sales Stage

Middle of the Funnel

The Middle of the Funnel is commonly associated with processing, qualifying, and nurturing leads.

Here, leads generated at the Top of the Funnel are nurtured so they move closer to making a purchase with every new interaction with the brand.

This can be done through:

Email marketing;
SMS;
WhatsApp;
Newsletters;
In-depth content;
Brand and product-related content;
And any other relevant engagement strategies.

It’s important to understand that the Middle of the Funnel is a strategy, not just a set of media channels.

For example, a newsletter can serve the Top, Middle, or Bottom of the Funnel. What matters is its content and objectives.

To explore this topic further, check out our dedicated article on the Middle of the Funnel:

➡️ Middle of the Funnel: What It Is and How to Create This Type of Content

Bottom of the Funnel

The Bottom of the Funnel is 100% focused on sales. At this stage, Inbound and Outbound strategies are usually combined in most e-commerce businesses.

This is also the most commonly used stage in e-commerce. Most businesses focus on Bottom of Funnel strategies, particularly Google Ads and Social Ads.

At this stage, strategies are aimed at driving purchases, targeting an audience that is ready to buy.

All e-commerce businesses work with the Bottom of the Funnel—whether they implement the full Marketing and Sales Funnel or not.

Those who apply all three funnel stages use the Bottom of the Funnel as the conclusion of previous efforts. Leads have been generated, qualified, and nurtured. Now it’s time to sell.

Those who don’t apply the full funnel often skip the first two stages, either generating leads directly at the Bottom of the Funnel or simply maximizing product exposure without lead generation.

We have an in-depth article on the Bottom of the Funnel. Check it out below:

➡️ Bottom of the Funnel: How to Create Content for This Stage

As we’ve seen, e-commerce businesses always work with the Bottom of the Funnel, but they don’t always implement the entire Marketing and Sales Funnel.

Before we move forward and discuss sales planning more directly, let’s clarify one question: is it necessary to apply the Marketing Funnel in e-commerce?

How the Funnel is Applied in E-commerce (in Practice)

The reality is that these three stages are heavily associated with Inbound Marketing, and Inbound itself is not as widely used in e-commerce.

However, much of the Inbound concept is applied through the Marketing Funnel and the understanding of the Customer Journey.

When you create a personalized shopping experience that attracts consumers, that’s an Inbound strategy.

And if you’re aiming to acquire new customers and visitors through this personalized experience, you’re applying Inbound Marketing in e-commerce—specifically at the Top of the Funnel.

The fact is that most e-commerce businesses primarily use digital Outbound tactics, especially ads that directly showcase products.

Even while focusing on Bottom of Funnel tactics, many e-commerce businesses unknowingly implement Top and Middle of Funnel strategies.

In this section, I want to shed light on these “hidden” applications of the Funnel, taking a more realistic approach to how sales and marketing planning truly works in e-commerce.

Let’s dive in:

Social Commerce as a Top and Middle of Funnel Strategy

Many e-commerce businesses, lacking specific Inbound strategies, use social media as their main content hub and lead generation engine.

However, “leads” in this case have a different definition.

Formally, leads are people who:

Have shown interest in the brand;
Have provided their contact information;
Have allowed the brand to send communications.

Brands use social media to produce content about their products and promotions, as well as to share discount coupons, free shipping offers, and new collections.

In this way, social media serves as a major content aggregator in general—covering the Top, Middle, and Bottom of the Funnel.

The idea is that the marketing ecosystem of an e-commerce business, especially content production, is built around social media.

This creates a different dynamic for e-commerce:

Followers are the target audience;
Leads are people who interact with the posted content;
Funnel stages are divided into posts;
Strategies in other channels are reduced;
The focus is on Bottom of Funnel content;
Sales start on social media and end on the website.

This strategy is very popular because it eliminates the need to hire specialists in specific marketing areas and because Inbound Marketing is quite unpredictable for e-commerce.

More on this in the next section. Oh, and don’t forget to read our article on Social Commerce below:

➡️ How to Do Social Commerce, or: Leadster’s SC Manual

Inbound Marketing Applied to E-commerce is Unpredictable

Ensuring the success of an Inbound Marketing strategy in e-commerce is much more challenging.

This is because Inbound Marketing is generally tied to an informational limitation.

Implementing Inbound when you offer five main services is much simpler. You need to define and develop highly specific strategies related to the service you provide.

For example, a roofing construction company using Inbound Marketing will target people who need to replace their roofs (Middle and Bottom of the Funnel) or those interested in home structure and frequent renovations (Top of the Funnel).

This, of course, is just an example. But even from this, we can see the difference. Now, imagine an e-commerce business with 50 products. The volume of information is much greater. These 50 products may have completely different audiences.

A more traditional e-commerce business with a specialized product line benefits greatly from Inbound Marketing.

However, a diverse e-commerce business with multiple product lines faces high investment costs in Inbound specialists (strategists, analysts, content producers, etc.) and has fewer guarantees of a good return.

➡️ Read also: ROI in Marketing—What It Is and How to Maximize Yours

E-commerce Businesses Usually Require Quick Turnover

Inbound Marketing is a long-term strategy. E-commerce businesses that require quick turnover often prefer more direct approaches, such as Outbound.

With Inbound, you can assume that investments made in 2025 will yield results in 2026 and beyond.

Of course, this depends on investment levels, the team, and the brand’s commitment. But it is still safe to expect returns in the future.

Many e-commerce businesses prefer to apply digital Outbound strategies, especially ads, because they are constantly investing in purchasing and developing products.

This creates the need to have available capital at all times. As a result, strategies that generate short-term sales are usually preferred by retailers.

And digital Outbound strategies, particularly ads, are excellent for generating these quick sales.

If you invest wisely in Google Ads, for example, you will see a fast return. Of course, there are exceptions, but while Inbound is based on long-term results, Outbound is exactly the opposite.

So yes, Inbound is viable for e-commerce, but its implementation time, uncertain investment, and long-term return make it less popular compared to other industries.

However, as we have seen, tactics, strategies, and actions commonly associated with Inbound are still applied. And the Funnel, despite being used in different contexts, is not completely abandoned and remains the most popular way to sell.

Now, we need to take all of this into account to create our e-commerce sales plan.

Shall we?

Creating a Sales Plan for E-commerce: Step by Step

The main steps we will discuss in this article are:

Defining the main action fronts and operating channels;
Developing a detailed Funnel with channels and conversion opportunities;
Establishing promotional strategies and seasonal sales dates;
Monitoring real-time indicators.

Each topic here will address one of these points. But note that we are leaving out some more basic information.

We won’t cover fundamental marketing actions.

For example, we don’t need to state that audience research, ICP, and persona development are crucial.

You already know that!

We also won’t discuss the necessity of creating an SEO-driven content strategy. That is one of the channels you may choose to use in e-commerce, if you wish.

Our goal is to be more specific and realistic, considering what actually happens in e-commerce operations.

Shall we?

1 – Defining the Main Action Fronts and Operating Channels

The first point should be “defining overall objectives and KPIs,” but your e-commerce business likely already has these formalized, or you have a general overview.

If you are an analyst at an established e-commerce business, it’s not difficult to find a document detailing OKRs and KPIs. If one doesn’t exist, you can get a good idea by talking to senior team members and directors.

With objectives determined and measurement methods defined, it’s essential to view marketing and sales as a single subject.

In other words, to start planning sales, you need to think about marketing actions.

Action fronts refer to what you plan to do. Operating channels refer to where you will act.

For example, consider an e-commerce business that operates on organic and paid channels, using SEO, content production, videos, and influencer partnerships. Their action fronts might include:

Ads on Meta Ads and Google Ads: Focus on Bottom of the Funnel—direct product presentation, campaigns aimed at maximizing conversions and remarketing. Metrics related to sales growth, increased average ticket size, and overall revenue growth through surpassing monthly order numbers. ROI vs. ROAS as the primary metric for this front.
Organic traffic: Focus on Top of the Funnel—blogs about the market niche of the products sold. Partnerships with niche influencers on social media. YouTube video production. Searching for TikTok influencers for product unboxing.
Lead Generation: Focus on advancing Top of Funnel stages—capturing leads across all marketing channels. Qualifying these leads and inserting them into nurturing flows.
Internal relationship workflows: Creating communication workflows and email marketing for various scenarios—organic conversion, Bottom of the Funnel conversion, abandoned cart, new customer, inactive customer, etc.

This is just an example of five action fronts, already describing the associated operating channels since the two concepts are inseparable.

This is the kind of definition you will need for your e-commerce business. This way, you can start considering the reality of content production, offers, team structure, and more.

2 – Developing a Detailed Funnel with Channels and Conversion Opportunities

Notice how the list of action fronts and channels is somewhat disorganized. That’s because, in the first step, you only need to think about what to do.

In the second step, you need to place each of these action fronts within the Funnel you are building.

And as we’ve discussed, the more digital marketing evolves, the less rigid the Funnel becomes.

It is possible to create complete customer journeys across all your channels—journeys that start with unawareness and end in a sale.

And it is also possible to connect content experiences with ads and multidisciplinary tactics—one channel leads to another, which leads to another, ultimately leading to a sale.

The key, however, is to define specific actions and well-structured strategies for engaging potential customers at each stage of the Journey.

In other words, in your social media strategy, what are the Top, Middle, and Bottom actions?

Ask yourself the same question for each of your strategies, considering content, the expected outcome of the action, and return on investment.

3 – Defining Promotional Strategies: Partnerships, Content, etc.

The work we’ve discussed so far is not necessarily difficult or a groundbreaking innovation.

In reality, it’s the standard approach for high-volume e-commerce businesses with strong marketing efforts.

Implementing these strategies in full is challenging in two main ways. The first relates to strategization—you need specialists and skilled managers to arrive at the conclusions from these first two steps.

The second relates to the production scope you are planning.

Everything we’ve mentioned requires content production, even if your sales plan only includes banners and ad creatives.

And producing these materials requires a structured routine. We have an article that covers this topic in more detail and provides calendar examples to help organize your production. Check it out below:

➡️ How to Create an Editorial Calendar? + Free Template

4 – Creating Promotional Strategies and Seasonal Sales Dates

Establishing a promotional calendar is crucial for your sales planning.

This calendar formalizes a study that primarily identifies opportunities for campaigns aimed at generating sharp increases in sales.

In other words, you define which consumer holidays and seasonal periods bring greater visibility to your e-commerce based on the products you sell.

From there, you determine which actions you will take on each of these dates to drive significant sales growth.

We have an article that dives deeper into this topic—it’s definitely worth reading. Access it below:

➡️ Seasonal Sales in E-commerce: The Best Dates to Sell More

5 – Real-Time Performance Tracking

The final step, but just as important, because it is tied to both the future and the past.

Sounds mystical? Nothing supernatural! To reach even half of the conclusions we’ve discussed in this article, you’ll need data.

How can you set sales targets without knowing how much you sold last year?

That’s why it’s so valuable to have a platform that provides clear insights into e-commerce sales.

There are CRMs designed specifically for e-commerce that solve this need and even bring additional opportunities.

We’ve already put together a list of the best CRMs on our blog, which you can check out at the link below:

➡️ 19 Best Sales CRM Systems in 2025 – Updated List!

What a journey! But it was great to take a more practical look at everything that goes into e-commerce sales planning.

A lot of what we read online about this topic covers only general points that are typically addressed in the initial planning stages of any business.

Market research, revenue goal-setting, persona development—these are all fundamentals, and if you didn’t already know them, chances are you wouldn’t even be selling online.

One other essential and practical point that we can’t overlook is the customer experience.

Sales planning can sometimes feel cold and detached if we’re not careful. The customer can become just a number—a number long before they even become a customer!

The best way to ensure an exceptional customer experience without sacrificing performance and advanced analytics is with Leadster AI —our AI-powered lead generation chatbot.

Start a free trial today by clicking the link below:

Sales Planning for E-Commerce = Marketing Planning?