Congratulations on launching your online store!
The next step on the road to passive income and financial freedom: learning to increase sales. Which takes more than the occasional Instagram post or Facebook comment to build a customer base and start getting regular clients.
Below are four actionable tips you can start doing today to grow your online retail store:
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Leverage Social Media Targeting Capabilities
One of the best ways to increase online sales is to leverage social media advertising. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can get your business in front of paying customers. Your marketing efforts have a greater chance of success and you can make money while you sleep if you know how to take advantage of the various targeting capabilities available.
Check out the Facebook Blueprint, Twitter Flight School, and Instagram Ads for a crash course on advertising on the platforms. And use Google Analytics to track which social media channel your customers use the most.
Here are a few actionable tips:
- Use Lookalike Audiences on Facebook and Instagram to find customers who share buying preferences with customers in your uploaded database.
- Execute a Direct Message campaign on Twitter- business accounts are allowed to send up to 1000 DM’s daily.
- Facebook has a pixel you can place on your website. Use it to track visitor behaviour for ad targeting.
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Invest in High-Quality Images
Humans process visual data in one millisecond, with 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain being visual. With this natural tendency towards images, having clear and high-resolution photos quickly attracts buyers.
A high-quality image has little grain, fine detail, and a white background- to keep the primary focus on the product being sold. Take photos from different angles of the product. It gives customers a “product-in-hand” experience.
Provide buyers with a complete visual understanding of your product. Making customers feel more secure about making an online purchase from your store.
Here are a few actionable tips:
- Allow a zoom feature on product images to let buyers examine specific features on items.
- Give a 360-degree view of products to give the “product-in-hand” experience.
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Create a Sense of Urgency
One great thing about selling online is that you don’t have to worry about marketplace rules. Store owners aren’t limited on what to include in product landing pages or in communication with buyers. Sellers can actively reach out to customers and create a sense of urgency to persuade shoppers to buy right away.
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From time-sensitive special offers and free shipping to limited edition product offers and discount sales. Retail owners who create urgency in their promotions have found customers to respond positively to campaigns. Leading to increased sales and higher revenue.
Here are a few actionable tips:
- Leverage targeting capabilities to segment customers and target incentives to different buyer groups.
- Limit pop-up discount boxes on your site so as not to irritate buyers and drive them away.
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Show Off Customer Reviews
Contrary to popular opinion, only 12% of buyers trust influencer product recommendations. While 47% place more trust in testimonials from friends or relatives. And 33% of online shoppers buy a product based on the reviews on the website.
Making it clear that online shoppers rely on regular buyers’ feedback when weighing the trustworthiness of an online store. Customers will only buy from your store if they trust you. Showing off customer reviews on your website goes a long way in building buyer trust.
When a customer buys an item from your store, encourage them to either leave a review on your site. Or write about their experience shopping from your store on review sites like Google Local and Yahoo Local. The more reviews your e-commerce store has the more trustworthy your business appears and the more sales you’ll make.
Here are a few actionable tips:
- Offer customers a small discount if they choose to leave a review.
- At the top of each product page indicate the number of reviews and the average rating to increase visibility.
- Put professional accreditations front and centre on your site to pre-emptively overcome potential buyer hesitation.
Whether you sell t-shirts or high-end tech products in your online store, the four actionable tips in this article can help you increase sales.
Hello Shelly,
Starting and Growing an eCommerce store needs a lot of market research and proper strategies. You have mentioned some great and helpful tips here to grow an online store. Thanks for sharing this helpful post.
Regards,
Vishwajeet Kumar
Hey Shelly ,
Excellent and well-written post. I truly appreciate your hard-work.
You have done a fantastic work here and suggested helpful tips to grow an online retail store. You have explained the topic very nicely and provided all the crucial information that is well enough to educate the readers.
I completely agree with your each and every tips that you have mentioned. Investing in high quality image is really a good decision, whereas images also holds a great potential to engage more customers. Creating a sense of urgency will be helpful. Showing customer reviews are also essential and will provide better understanding. Your every actionable tips are great. Adopting and implementing these tips will be a great helping hand and will undoubtedly grow an online retail store.
Eventually thanks for sharing your knowledge and such a helpful post.
Hello Shelly,
Great post. Thanks For sharing this post with us.
Yes, I too agree, for passive income and financial freedom increasing sales and focus on how to increase sales is very important. Thanks for sharing the various tips to increase online sales.
The various points you shared are very important to increase the online sells especially these three- “support of social media targeting capabilities, investment in high quality images, and most important showing off customer reviews. ” Even whenever I go for online shopping, I too focus on images and customer reviews as it gives me some clear idea about the product or service.
Thanks!
-Rijhu
This is great info, I have been thinking about creating a small e-com store within my blog but the idea of promoting it on top of all the other parts of my blog sounds a bit ominous right now. Thanks for sharing the Social Media courses too, I had never heard of Twitter Flight School. It looks very interesting/
Hi Shelly,
Excellent post.Info was very informative
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