Marketing
How to Sell More Products Online
Every entrepreneur worth his salt understands the importance of an online presence. However, creating an attractive website and gathering a steady stream of social media followers doesn’t guarantee better sales. In fact, even the world’s most successful selling sites have an estimated conversion rate of 13%, proving that making sales is not as easy as it seems.
Getting Internet users to visit your site is just one part of the process; next, you have to convince them to spend their hard-earned money on your products. To help you reap the rewards of productive e-commerce, here are four helpful tips for making more sales online.
Choose Where to Sell Your Products
There is no shortage of online selling solutions, whatever your field of business. You can use a marketplace like Amazon or eBay or opt for a hosted or self-hosted eCommerce solution. Platforms like Shopify, for example, enable you to sell products on their servers quickly and easily, but you have to abide by their terms. In contrast, a self-hosted platform like Magento allows you to run the software on your own machine, giving you more scope for customization. Choosing the right platform for your business will determine how successful you are, so be sure to do your research before you commit.
Make Sure Your Site is Secure
You want to make sure your customers feel comfortable buying from your website, so use software that’s certified PCI compliant, so your customers don’t need to worry about their data being hacked. If your site’s address currently starts with “HTTP,” you should convert to an “HTTPS” browser to let users know your site is safe and to improve your SEO rankings. To do this, you will need to obtain an SSL certificate.
Maximize Branding
The advertising industry clearly demonstrates that customers judge a book by its cover, so don’t underestimate the importance of marketing if you want to increase your sales. Include branding on your website, as well as the packaging of the products themselves. When you deliver a product, add a business card and leaflet to the package, so customers are more likely to remember you and return to your site. You should also include branding on your packaging wherever possible:
Pay Attention to Detail
When it comes to your product listings, detail is everything. To maximize sales, you want to make sure that each product you’re selling has its own page and features its own unique description. Including customer reviews will also encourage your customers to buy your products (assuming they’re good reviews, of course). Finally, you need to make sure that your website is fast and simple to use, as if your pages take too long to load or your site is confusing, your customers will decide to shop elsewhere.
Whether you sell a single product online or you sell thousands, there are many things you can do to increase your sales, but this is not a one-time process. As your business grows and expands, you will need to make efforts to review and update your offering. The best way to do this is by installing analytics software to see how many users are visiting your site and how many of those visits are converted into sales.