Boosting your sales online can often be a headache, with so many competitions to be found on the internet, sometimes it takes a little more than just competitive pricings and quality service to stand out. Here are 12 ways entrepreneurs and businesses use to increase sales.
Brand awareness is an umbrella term that refers to the act of advertising and promoting a business. One simple way to create brand awareness is to create an online presence, which in this case involves email marketing, utilizing hashtags to popularize products and services or investing in paid ads.
These days, many businesses take to the internet to market themselves. In fact, online presence is considered the building block to any infant businesses to succeed. From SEOs to social media presence to paid influencership, no business is ever exempted from the game.
A long time ago, flairful ad copies with huge words were the go-to for many businesses. Today, consumers prefer a more grounded and personalized approach. One simple way to achieve that is to be truthful about your product features. Take pride with what you have, get to the point and don’t make over-the-top claims. After all, honesty is the best policy.
Another way to ensure your ad copies are up to quality is to stick to a standard format. Have a template ready to go, and tweak it according to the product information. Having a standardized product template will add to the authenticity of your product.
Ad extensions are crucial to every business as they make it easier for consumers to navigate around your website.
An example. The store (Shein) pictured above allows users to click directly into their “New Women’s Clothing” and “New Clothing Arrivals” sections with the search of the word “clothings.” Not only has Shein saved customers the hassle of an additional click, they also drive further traffic to their website, which means likelier sales.
Ad extensions are very technical, but there are many plugins that help you simplify the process. See GoogleAd for an example.
Most consumers are afraid of making any online purchases because of the risks that come with it, i.e.: financial losses, damaged goods, or knockoff items among many others. By implementing an MBG scheme into your business and minimizing such risks, customers are more attracted to spend.
User data is one of the ways online businesses reach out to a bigger crowd to garner sales. By collecting relevant information such as your age and product interests, businesses are able to locate similar individuals of your age to promote their products and services. For example, Facebook allows businesses to track down users with similar demographics to their customers through its lookalike audience function. Ditto with GoogleAds too.
Pictures speak a thousand words. Going the extra mile to snap a great-looking photo of your products will make the difference between passing or spending on an item, which affects your sales.
Many consumers today tend to shop from the comfort of their mobile devices due to the convenience it affords but most online businesses do not have their websites optimized for mobile users. In fact, mobile devices have overtaken computers as the go-to shopping method in recent years.
It may cost a lot to give your existing e-store a visual overhaul, or to develop an entirely separate layout for mobile alone, but doing so greatly enhances your shopper’s experience, which results in likelier sales. If you have the budget to optimize your website for mobile users, consider doing so.
Opt-in offers are basically freebies for customers in exchange for their email. For example, “Insert your email below and get 10% off on your first purchase!” Or “Subscribe to our newsletter and get free shipment on your first purchase!” Opt-in offers are a great way to stay in touch with your customers without being a hardsell. You get to keep them posted on your latest products and services and they get to walk away feeling like they’ve earned something in the process. It’s a win-win.
No one likes an overcomplicated payment process. The last thing any buyers expect to put up with are pages upon pages of forms to fill. In fact, most interested parties tend to abandon their shopping carts when the checkout process gets a little too complicated (or a little too personal…) Skip the unnecessary fields, and stick to the basics.
Alternative payment options are all the rave today. GrabPay, TnG E-Wallet, Alipay, M2U are some of the common names that dominate the e-payment scenes. Providing your customers with alternative ways to make payment is a great way to increase online sales, especially with the mobile devices crowd.
The sales experience doesn’t stop when a purchase is made. It is a continuous process that involves retaining your customers and maintaining a drawback crowd. Interacting with your buyers pre and post-purchase often creates a favorable impression of the business and allows buyers to draw a positive association to the brand. From replying to social media posts to live chat functions, these little touches will keep your customers coming back for more, and build to the brand’s name.
Remarketing is a great way to ensure that your business or brand stays on your customers’ mind even after the tab is closed. From reaching out to your buyers through email to showing your customers the product they viewed on the internet 5 minutes ago, remarketing is the little friendly reminder to your customers to make that purchase.
When it comes to boosting sales, the techniques are aplenty and it’s ultimately a series of trial and error until you get it right. In fact there are many other ways to increase online sales apart from the ones we’ve discussed above. As such, we encourage you to try out some of these tactics and discover what works before finetuning them for your business.
