Whether you have an eCommerce only website, or an eCommerce arm to your existing high-street retail outlet, there’s a number of ways that you can drive more sales to your online store.
1. Choose an eCommerce platform that can handle high order volumes
The most popular eCommerce platforms is WooCommerce. This flexible and easy to use eCommerce platform works on open-source technology and is simple to customise to fit your own branding. It supports consistently high order volumes, so when your online sales increase, your website will be able to handle the volume – keeping your existing and new customers happy.
2. Get your online store discovered
You’ve got a great looking website, your eCommerce platform is fully integrated, but how do you get traffic to your website?
When potential customers search for a product you sell, your website needs to be high on the list of search results. To do this you need effective SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which, by using popular keywords and phrases in your website text, will help increase your chances of climbing those rankings. The keywords need to be used in titles, descriptions, paragraph headings and throughout the text.
Another trick is to keep your content fresh. If you don’t regularly update your website with new content, it’s likely to stay lower in search results.
3. Develop a sales plan
Take time to really think about a targeted sales campaign. What do you want to achieve? How will you achieve it? What budget do you have? Who is your target market? How will you handle any extra orders? Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to go.
4. Add a blog to your website
Producing regular blogs can drive more people to your website and therefore land you more sales.
Blogs should be more about general aspects surrounding your products. For example, if you sell items for the home you could write a blog about the latest decorating trends, or if you sell gardening products your blog could be about hints and tips surrounding pruning rose bushes. Not only does uploading regular content help your website get up the rankings of search engines by keeping your content fresh and new, it also creates the impression that you are an ‘expert’ in your field.
5. Embrace social media
Social media is about much more than showing your friends what you did on your last night out, it’s a valuable marketing tool for your online business. In fact, according to the website platform Wix, 75% of consumers turn to Facebook before making a purchase.
However, if you are going to have a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc., don’t pay it lip service. You need to be fully engaged with your social media activity to drive up followers and ensure that you post updates on a regular basis.
6. Use a social media influencer
Contact a social media ‘influencer’ that fits with your company’s philosophy/identity and who is viewed as a ‘trend-setter’. Send free products for that person to try out and review online. For example, internet cleaning queen, Mrs Hinch, now has close to 3 million followers thanks to her love of cleaning, and is often ‘gifted’ products for her to use in her Insta stories. When using a gifted product on her Insta stories, it often sells out in hours (in November 2019 she used a company that had 49 followers on their Instagram account, within 2 days that company had gained 37,000 followers!)
7. Promotions, discounts and giveaways
There’s nothing a shopper likes more than a great bargain. There’s a number of ways that you can drive sales though promotions, discounts and free stuff:
- Use your chosen social media influencer and offer their followers a special discount code for a percentage off their first order. Just be ready for the influx of orders.
- Choose a day when you will provide free shipping on orders over a certain amount.
- Provide customers with a money-off coupon with their order.
- Provide a discount code to customers ordering from your site for the first time.
- Everyone loves a BOGOF deal. Give customers a buy one, get one free deal on low-cost products.
8. Don’t rule out email marketing
Many companies use e-shots via email to drive up sales. But beware, your email subject line needs to be engaging so that yours stands out from all of the other sales emails your target audience are receiving.
You can obtain emails when customers visit your site to purchase, or you can even buy lists of emails addresses However, make sure you comply with GDPR requirements and that you have permission to send emails to those addresses, and also that you give the recipient the opportunity to opt out.
9. Advertise
If you have the budget, there are a number of ways to advertise your business:
- Paid social media ad campaigns
- Advertise on search engines such as Google Ads or PPC (Paid Per Click) adverts.
- Take out an advertisement in a trade or lifestyle magazine
- Direct mail campaign
Although all of these methods cost money, they can reap rewards when done properly.
10. Keep your customers satisfied
You’ve done some or all of the above, so are you ready for the influx of orders? Do you have the staff to cope with the extra volume of work?
If the answer is no, there is a cost-effective way of dealing with your orders that will save you time and the cost of having to hire new members of staff. The answer is to outsource all of your order fulfilment to a specialist third party. Order fulfilment companies can handle everything for you, from storing your stock to despatching, and everything in between, ensuring that your customers receive their orders on time, keeping them happy.
Click here to find out more about Adstral’s WooCommerce online sales order fulfilment service.