You may have happened upon this blog because your sales are fantastic and you want to keep it up, or your sales are looking a little glum and you want to give them a kickstart. Learning how to increase sales can seem like a never-ending library of expert advice so we've put together an easily applicable guide to improving revenue on some of the most popular eCommerce sites.
So let's not waste a moment and get right into how you can boost your online sales online today...
How to increase online sales
Now is a fantastic time to be an online business. With many people spending hours online and screentime rapidly growing, becoming an online brand allows you to benefit from a larger customer pool, flexible working hours and low running costs.
Online stores have never been so popular, with over 48% of UK consumers intent on increasing the amount they use digital shopping channels; eCommerce platforms have never been so vital to improving sales.
Whether you're an established online seller or a local business just starting in the e-market, creating a sales strategy can become overwhelming. With thousands of sales tips and marketing campaigns out there, you can easily lose sight of what you set out to do. But that's where we come in, we've done the research for you so you can put sit back and read our handy guide on how best to boost your sales.
Here are some easy, actionable tips on various eCommerce platforms, so you can learn how to improve your business' sales volume fast no matter where your customers are.
How to increase sales on eBay
eBay is a huge online retailer, and with over 1.3 billion listings currently active, competition is fierce. eBay itself has cleaned up its act, grouping items into categories and making cleaner listing compulsory for professional sellers to improve customer experience. In doing so, they made it easier for customers to find what they're looking for and changed the way users know how to sell on eBay.
If you're setting up shop with eBay, try to:
Use keywords to attract customers
Most of the time shoppers on eBay will search for specific items they're looking for. Have a think about what words you would search to find your product - what are it's defining features, it's material and it's colour.
A great example would be if you were searching for a 'modern minimalistic oak wicker lampshade' this wouldn't bring up many results. But if you simplified this to 'wooden wicker lampshade' your online store will be far more likely to come up when searched.
Make sure to have three to five keywords and use these in your product title, product description, tags, image alt tag, literally everywhere you can fit them. But try not to spam, using randomly repeated words that don't relate to your product is against eBay policies!
Take advantage of promotions
Everyone loves a bargain don't they! Take advantage of eBay Promotions Manager, where you can create discount codes and special offers to improve your listing visibility and maximise sales opportunities.
Plus why not use your discount promotions as a useful marketing strategy? Advertising your deals to your Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook followers is a tried and true method of increasing online sales conversion rates. You can offer a buy 1 get 1 free promotion, or 10% off for new customers - this way you can collect customer email addresses for future marketing opportunities!
Keep your seller reviews unscathed
On eBay seller reviews are king. Customer feedback influences potential purchases and a consistently positive seller rating presents you as a store that manages sales well and cares about their reputation.
You can receive and maintain excellent customer reviews to encourage online sales in one of two ways:
- Ask satisfied customers to leave a review of your services
- Simply provide the best customer service possible and wait for the positive feedback
To generate more positive feedback for your store, using a review helper like xSellco Feedback allows you to use smart targeting to reach out to satisfied customers to get their feedback rating. Getting positive eBay feedback doesn't happen overnight, but with each new positive rating, you're that bit closer to gaining sales.
How to increase sales on Amazon
Amazon is an eCommerce giant. To give you a scale of how big it really is, if Amazon Prime members were a country, it would have 8 million more citizens than Spain. To stand out from the 54 million other sellers and counting, you've got to have a sound strategy and a positive, enthusiastic attitude to marketing your product!
To improve sales on Amazon, you should try to:
Take high-quality professional product pictures
Literally stand out from the crowd! Customers will want to see great pictures of the products you offer. On Amazon high-quality product photographs attract customer attention and encourage sales to improve.
With eight spaces available on any Amazon product listing, you have ample opportunity to showcase your product from every angle, highlighting its benefits, uses, or when appropriate show an image of the product in use. Amazon has some photo guidelines to be sure to follow them, they are:
- The background must be pure white
- Additional graphics are not allowed
- The product must fit 85% of the frame (books/DVDs must fit 100%)
- Images shouldn't contain unrelated objects
Invest in advertising
Another way to encourage sales Amazon is by investing in advertising. By advertising your store you can improve your store's visibility. Amazon offers Sponsored Product ads that promote your products to the top of your customer's search results.
These Sponsored Products are like cost-per-click ads, so you will pay approximately £0.65 per click. Often consumers online will ignore paid adverts and favour organic search results. Amazon's Sponsored Products neutralises this concern by making their paid ads almost indecipherable from unpaid listings.
This gets you all the attention and none of the sponsored stigma!
Be unique
Okay, this might be a little vague but it's worth noting - finding a niche in your chosen market can be invaluable in maintaining a steady sales stream. In spotting recession-proof products you'll naturally see a steady improvement in sales, as your products are evergreen and consistently useful.
If however you already have a range of products in mind and these aren't an evergreen market you can take advantage of, try creating bundles or hampers. By creating unique deals and limited-time offers, you'll set yourself apart from the crowd and customers will notice the difference!
How to increase sales on Etsy
For all the crafty people out there, Etsy has dominated the handmade marketplace since 2005. With over 60 million items listed by 2.1 million sellers as well as 39.4 million active buyers, Etsy is a great eCommerce platform to sell your hand-crafted products.
Etsy is very easy to use. Accompanied by a wealth of how to sell on Etsy for beginners tutorials, hobbyists and non-professional sellers have found solace here. These sellers use Etsy to earn some extra money on the side, garnering a small profit aside from their day-job. Others use Etsy's marketplace as a platform to start a profitable business. In both instances knowing tricks of the trade to sell well on Etsy is important to improve your strategy with minimal effort!
Keep listings fresh
Etsy is known to have an 'Ooo shiny' approach to brands that keep listings new and fresh, giving these sellers priority in their search results. But, this extra boost isn't permanent, to keep extending this promotion you need to update your Etsy shop often, to do so you can:
- Optimise keywords in titles, descriptions, tags, categories
- Update pictures to improve quality and/or range
- Adding more items when you can
- Create new product bundles as an up-sale trick
Lots of 'how to increase sales on Etsy' guides online will tell you that you need to have 50 minimum listings to generate daily sales, but some sellers just don't have the time or the products for this!
As long as you're updating the listings you do have often, you can keep your Etsy store fresh and keep attracting customer interest!
Do competitor research
For the painters, knitters, moulders, and sculptors Etsy is home to just about any niche you can think of. That's why doing your competitor research is super important to know what your chosen market looks like and how much others are pricing similar items at.
Have a look at your competitor's listings:
- Do they offer a wider range of colours or sizes?
- Have they created special sets of their products?
- Are they offering a discounted selection of items?
- Do they offer a range of shipping services?
It can be cost a lot of time and money to produce handmade items to sell online, so choosing a delivery service that saves you both of these can be vital. By integrating your Etsy shop with Interparcel you benefit from quick and easy bulk shipping, organised order management, and the cheapest shipping rates to put you ahead of the competition!
Be active on social media
Using Etsy alongside social media platforms that favour visual content can be a huge sales booster. Sellers in a niche market often use social media as their sole marketing strategy because it works!
We all know and love those therapeutic pottery videos on Instagram or the before and after craft process posts, so by simply posting frequently, you can increase online sales conversions by driving interest through social media.
You could even run short competitions online to entice followers to view your Etsy store and try your products, which is a great way to learn how to increase sales conversion rates!
How to increase sales on Shopify
Shopify is a globally recognised eCommerce solution with over 800,000 merchants in 175 countries. It offers subscriptions to sellers so they can know how to increase sales revenue through their specialist shopping cart solutions.
Lots of brands ask 'how does Shopify work?' Well, it works like all the other e-marketplaces, but gives you the tools to create and run a store that is entirely your own! Starting just over ten years ago when Shopify's founder was looking to sell snowboards; the eCommerce platform was born out his need for an all-inclusive online platform that can process orders, take payments and manage shipping services.
Shopify is home to sellers of all kinds, so no matter your product, surveying strategies to increase sales here can set your brand on the path to success!
If you're interested in using Shopify for business, try to:
Market your brand
As more businesses move online to reach a broader expanse of customers, businesses will encounter a higher level of competition with similar brands. Getting your customer's attention is not easy and your online marketing strategy needs to be a priority when getting started.
There are lots of marketing strategies out there, but one that is often mistakenly overlooked is email marketing. Shopify will collect the emails of every customer that buys from your store, plus, you can collect emails via customer feedback or newsletter interest - but once you have a decent email list, try:
- Offering these customers exclusive free shipping deals
- Promote new products or preview fresh services
- Include brand news to keep customers interested in your businesses story
- Advertise the competitions you're running on your social media and link them
Email marketing campaigns are not one to be overlooked and can be a vital resource in learning how to increase sales on Shopify - so don't ignore it!
Boost sales by blogging
Blogging can be an excellent tool to improve brand awareness and encourage sales - plus it's free! All you need to do is create useful content your customers will enjoy in order to improve conversion rates and make sales!
Saying that is all well and good we know, but just have a think about:
- What is it about your product that makes it unique? Showcase it!
- What processes does your product go through before the sale? Explain these to them!
- When can your product be used? Give examples or testimonials!
Keep your headlines catchy and try to create content your customers will use to get to know your brand and products. Blogging has helped lots of small businesses to drive product interest, develop brand persona, and get seen!
We hope these tips and tricks have been helpful to enlighten brands to the benefits of eCommerce and how it can be integral in improving sales online! At Interparcel we want all businesses to thrive and sell the best they can with every tool at their disposal - so we'll stop waffling now and let you start selling!
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