The online world is full of opportunities and there are startups that have made millions of dollars in just a couple of years simply by creating an e-store with a large number of shoppers. With millions of ecommerce startups popping up on the World Wide Web, getting buyers on a startup e-commerce website can be a challenge. However, with the right strategies and planning, increasing your sales in an exponential way does not look that difficult either.
If you are one of those budding entrepreneurs who are dreaming of making it big on the internet, here are a few things that will help you realize your dreams by increasing your sales exponentially.
Search Engine Optimization:
Creating a list of keywords
As you might already know, the success of any e-commerce store largely depends on its placement on search engine results on highly competitive keywords. You have to have complete information about the exact query your customers’ type in search engine boxes to find products and services that you provide. One of the ways to figure out what people are searching is to analyze Google Suggest’s data, for which you just have to start typing the name of the product or type of service you offer and wait for Google to complete the sentence. However, the drawback with the Google Suggest tool is that it is quite limited in displaying the results and hence, you will not be able to find all competing keywords. Hence, if you are looking for comprehensive data, you can use a tool, called “Suggester”, which can provide you with a comprehensive list of keywords, from which you can create a list of the most relevant ones according to the type of products and services you want to market.
Promotion Strategy
After you have a list of competitive keywords, you have two options to promote your product or service. The first option is to create unique landing pages on your website catering to one keyword at a time. With a user-friendly content management system, such as WordPress, creating keyword-centric landing pages will not be a difficult task.
The second option is to take help from professional bloggers in creating landing pages on their websites that revolve around the keyword you want to target. For this, you can get in touch with bloggers with a text-link advertisement deal, where you will pay them for an article that focuses on a keyword and a nofollow link to your website on a targeted anchor text. Other than this, you can even request them to host a competition on their website where the winning reader will get your product or service free. In both these cases, you will get the option to control the results for a specific keyword, which is exactly what you want.
Design your website to sell, not just attract:
Once you have captured a prospective client, make sure that they land on a page designed to sell your products, quickly and efficiently. The keyword-specific landing pages on your website should convert a visitor into a customer by answering all the queries they might have in their minds. One of the best ways to achieve this is to think about your product from a customer’s point of view. Customers always have queries in their mind, which can be anything regarding the quality of the product, its price, or how is it better than other competing products. Hence, having a simple “Buy Now” button on this page will not convince them to buy your product.
Instead, a good option here is to create a comparison matrix, which gives your visitors an idea of why your product is better than other competing products, while clearly answering all the questions. Additionally, discount offers, product warranties, or service guarantees can also be included on this page to encourage your visitors to purchase your product.
Moreover, your landing page should carry complete text description about your product, which you should optimize with the right keywords. Additionally, another good way to end skepticism in your visitors is to add testimonials of your past customers. It is a well-known fact that internet users are more likely to purchase products from a page where other users have shared their experience. By removing all skepticism from the prospective buyer’s mind, testimonials can easily convert your prospective customer into a confirmed buyer.
One of the best ways to get your past customers to share their experience with the product on your website is by making a humble request or giving them an additional benefit for the review they will make. There have been instances in the past when startups have awarded reviewers by giving them discounts on their next purchase or offering them store credit.
Obviously, the reward strategy will affect your bottom line initially; nevertheless, you should remember that this is something that you do not have to continue for a long time.
Discounts, deals and offers:
There is no better way to promote your product or service, than by offering it at discounted prices. The reason behind the enormous growth of the internet, especially in the developing part of the world, is that the internet is full of businesses that are ready to offer their products on cheaper than market prices. Obviously, since e-businesses do not have to maintain attractive physical stores and usually source their offerings directly from manufacturers, their cost of acquisition of product is less than that for a physical store, where the owner cannot skip intermediaries, such as distributors and wholesalers, in the acquisition process. This reduced cost of acquisition means that online businesses can attract customers by offering them products at affordable rates.
Moreover, to further increase sales over a short time, you can even promote time-sensitive discount codes, which you can either email or text directly to your email subscribers or place it on your website’s homepage. Additionally, your website should also have a sale category as a dedicated part of your main menu. Also, remember that customers are less likely to purchase a product from an online store if they have to pay an additional shipping fee.
Obviously, you have to pay for shipping, but you do not necessarily have to share all that information with your customers. Rather, you can simply add the shipping charges to the cost of the product and mention it as an item that ships free. If done the right way, you will definitely receive far more orders than you were when the shipping charges were additional.
Sell products on renowned marketplaces:
One of the best ways to boost your ecommerce sales instantly is by selling your products on renowned online marketplaces that already are buzzing with customers, rather than waiting for your customers to land on your own website. There are a large number of online stores operating in all parts of the world which have converted into marketplaces and hence allow sellers to sell their products simply by giving a small percentage of the sale amount to the marketplace. In India, some of the most renowned marketplaces include names like Flipkart.com, Tradus.com, Shopclues.com and eBay.in.
On the product description pages of the marketplace you choose for selling your products, you can obviously add discount coupons and share deals, which are only applicable when a customer purchases the product through your website. This way, you will not just be increasing your sales exponentially, but will also be generating enough leads and promoting your brand to a highly targeted audience.
Keep an eye on abandoned shopping carts:
Firstly, you have to ensure that only a registered user can add products to his/her cart. This way you will have the cart owner’s email or phone number, which you can use if your potential customer abandons the cart. Keep an eye on customers who added products to their shopping carts but left without checking out. Once you have a complete list of customers who changed their mind before they purchased your product, you will have to reach out to them and try to discover the reason behind this.
Communicate with them either by email or by calling them directly and get to know the reason why they abandoned their shopping cart. If there is a problem in the way your website processes orders, try to fix the issue and get back to the customer again. Be ready to apologize for the problem, and convince them to visit their shopping cart again, simply by giving them an exclusive discount as a token of appreciation for bringing the issue to your notice.
This way you will not just sell your products, but will also solve problems that buyers face with your ecommerce website, which would further make it much better for all new customers.
Clearly, the internet is full of opportunities for entrepreneurs to create a successful online venture. However, you, as a budding entrepreneur, have to make sure that you target the right set of customers, with the right products, and in the right way to reach your goals.
Author: Sarvesh Bagla
Courtesy: www.techmagnate.com