These days, online is everything. This might be stressful for some who aren’t used to social media or digital marketing. If you’re new to the eCommerce realm, you can read this guide to starting your first online store. But now, let’s talk about getting more traffic to your online store and converting that traffic into sales! Here are 5 fool-proof tips to boost online sales!
Whether you sell digital products like pre-recorded courses or physical goods like fancy watches, these tips will work for you! Here are 5 fool-proof tips to boost online sales.
You want your online store to be visually appealing and easy to navigate. You can learn more tips to improve your site here. The key points are:
-Make sure it looks decent–clean and modern and easy on the eyes. Look at your favourite online stores for inspiration.
-Make sure it looks good on mobile devices–more and more people shop on their phones and tablets!
-Make it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. Have a search bar, have a comprehensive menu that leaves nothing to the imagination. Make sure there are no broken links.
Having an online store that’s easy to use and easy on the eyes will encourage visitors to stay. Online stores that are chaotic, confusing, too bright, or too heavy (they take too long to load) will drive visitors away and they’ll never look back! If you’d like to learn more about perfecting your online store, you can read our tips on how to improve your online store.
Don’t be scared of SEO–it’s actually much simpler than people make it out to be! The SEO basics simply involve using the right words on your site so search engines (and your site visitors) understand what your website is all about. Pick some keywords that potential customers might search for to find your online store, and implement them on your site.
Key points for SEO:
-Make sure your site name and page titles are all relevant to your content.
-Include keywords in the headings and texts of your page.
-Add some alt text to your images, so search engines know what the images are
-Install an SEO tool to boost your scores on search engines like Google. All website builders will have this option. If you use WooCommerce, Yoast is a good option. These tools will provide valuable insights into your site and help you enhance its performance.
Keep your friends close, and your customers closer! Now is the time to fully engage with your customers, so an active social media presence is essential. Post engaging content, such as photos of customers using your products or a visually appealing display of items. Videos are even better, especially if they’re live! Instagram or Facebook stories have proven to be extremely popular, considering they’re exclusive and vanish within twenty-four hours. Posts that encourage your followers to interact with you, such as polls, or encouraging them to respond to a question in the comments, are optimal for your social media pages.
You need to grab people’s attention and get them focused on your brand and your product. Find creative ways to market yourself and break through the jumble of other brands on your followers’ feeds.
Some ideas for creative marketing:
-Giveaways. Ask visitors to like your page and share, or tag a friend who might be interested in the giveaway. This is a great way to spread brand awareness, and find new potential customers.
-Similarly, contests are another fun way to engage your followers. The possibilities are endless–for example, if you sell knitting supplies, host a contest for the most unique homemade item made with your wool. You get the idea. Get others posting about you too!
-Put together kits or bundles. Select a few products that go hand-in-hand, or perhaps some popular items with some unpopular items you’d like to get rid of, and sell them together in a bundle at a lower price than their total worth. Not only are your customers getting a great deal, but you’re still boosting revenue by selling multiple products. Additionally, because you’ve put all these great products together, you’re eliminating the work of searching and decision-making for your shopper. It might not seem like much–but without having to browse themselves and decide on products they should purchase, it becomes easier for your shoppers to make the decision to buy from you.
-Have an auction. Make another one of those bundles, and post a photo of it on your social media page. Let your followers make an offer! It’s a fun way to get followers engaged.
Shoppers are much more likely to purchase online if they get free shipping–even if they’re getting a discount or a deal, free shipping trumps all. Advertise your free shipping as an exclusive deal for a limited time only, and shoppers will jump to order before the deal is over! For your local followers, offer a delivery service for their purchases or pick up. The easier it is for potential customers to buy from you, the more likely they will become customers.
Evaluate your business, decide what will work best for you and what you have the resources to accomplish. It is a strange time to be in retail, so thinking outside the box is more important than ever. Good luck out there!