All e-commerce business owners want to “drive more sales” to their e-commerce retail store. There are multiple ways to do this. I list the few of those as below:
Have firm believe in your product. Most business owners do not use the product they are selling. They keep promoting a product without having a personal connection just because it is being sold by other business owners and there is a market for it. It is always a good practice to use the product you are selling by yourself. This makes you feel a personal connection with the thing you are selling. You cannot recommend others something if you have not used it by yourself.
Make sure there is a demand for the product you sell. You do not want to sell something which people do not want to use. Identify the product you want to promote. Your idea should be to target a solution to a problem people have. It is better to first create a video for your product and check what the feedback is. Are people liking your product?. Get the market feedback before marketing the product. If no one wants it, there is no point in selling that product.
Once you have a product which you believe in as you have used it and have also analysed its demand, the next step is to “Get Distribution”. One of the best ways to get the distribution list is to collaborate. Find people who are already selling a similar or same product and collaborate with them. If they can talk positive about your product on their platform, they can influence their market to get your mass distribution and this way you can hit thousands of people in one shot.
Having beautiful pictures is another way of attracting customers to your site. Product picture should be beautifully stunning. A good product picture will sell on its own and contributes a lot in purchase decisions. A beautifully looking picture makes a huge difference. Get someone who can do it for you or consider it as another skill you would want to develop in yourself. You need a product picture and make sure it’s a beautiful one.
Writing a detailed description is another very important aspect of selling. Just one paragraph or a few lines about the product is just not enough. You must tell a complete story around your experience with the product so that people can relate with it. You must tell your personal experience that how you love that product. Sharing all the benefits, side effects, cost, manufacturing and expiry dates if applicable, usability and reader’s perspective is a good way to gain the trust of the customers. So, pick products you really care about.
It is impractical to expect someone to buy products on the first visit to your site. Better is to take that one extra step of providing them some bonus so you can put them on your email list. It is a good way to follow up with them. You can have them come to your website over again. Once people get some extra value from your website, you can set them on your email campaign and later start including other products you want to sell. In this way they are more likely to get converted.
Another aspect is to look at the technical values of your website for example, having a fast load time, shopping cart optimization, reducing the number of steps to buy the products, having a payment gateway so that people do not have to leave your website for payment are the few of the important aspects to consider.
Find products categories which are not present in physical stores or are less common and are easy to send through mail. Hire people or freelancers who can help you do that. Search for products with high demand and which are easy to source and ship. These less known, strange or unexpected products can help you build your business and a better life.
Jeff Bezos once said, “We don’t make money when we sell things, we make money when we help the customer make purchase decisions.” This is a deep-rooted core value at Amazon which contributes to a huge amount of their success. It is important to keep an eye on competitions, but your focus should be customers. While selecting products, getting, manufacturers, creating a product listing or seeking reviews ask yourself, have you put yourself in the customer’s shoes, are you offering them something that they would want to purchase?
Finally, having an eCommerce business is a challenge in such a competitive digital world. Small businesses owners get disheartened when they cannot sell. In such a situation, there should be no exit strategy when you are in an eCommerce business. Build something for the long term. Having a long-term thinking helps you to stick to it as selling online takes a lot of perseverance and consistent efforts. There could be setbacks with the supplier or the product might not work as expected. But, you don’t have to kill your dreams of building your own business.
The challenges you face now help you prepare yourself for future. Breaking through the early challenges can be hard but don’t let this take your eye off the long-term vision. Challenges help you develop the skill set to handle the complex situations and prepare you for the reward you get.
Apply the above to your online business or an eCommerce website and share your experience with us. We are interested in knowing if you are doing well.
Also, share any other ways which you would have used to make your business grow.