We’ve all been through the phase of being stuck in a 9 to 5 office job, with the boss pressuring us to deliver before the deadline, with a commute that increases our daydreaming skills and hate for crowded places. If you had to wait for a bus or train while going to the dreaded job, you must’ve thought: “What if I can start my own business, work from home and be my own boss?”.
Many online shops started this way: with an avid desire for making our lives easier while doing something satisfactory that can help us support ourselves.
If you already have an eCommerce website, you know what I’m talking about. But now that you have it, how do you keep it and increase its sales? There are a few things you can do in order to ensure you develop your small shop into a flourishing business.
So here are 7 eCommerce tips to boost your sales.
Let’s imagine you started selling personalized T-Shirts online. You have the products, you have a few ideas in mind regarding the designs, and you have your website up and running. Yet nobody is ordering. Why? How can you start selling, and how can you sell more? Let’s scan the situation and see if there’s something you missed.
- Firstly, make sure you are visible. Your website has higher chances of being found, followed and used if it has the “.com” domain, or at least your country’s domain (e.g. “.co.uk” or “.us”). This attracts credibility from your clients.
- Secondly, you need a healthy internet presence. Use all the social media channels you can in order to make your business known to the public. Make a Facebook page, an Instagram account, a Twitter feed. Post every two or three days. Once a week is not enough for any kind of business, no matter how new or how established. Posting every day can become slightly spamming-y, and may alienate potential customers. Remember, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
- Thirdly, advertise. Nowadays you can buy ad space on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, you name it. Although some people always skip those kinds of ads (you’ve done it too, admit it), most of them will get stuck with the image in their head which will give you higher visibility on the market and better chances of attracting buyers.
- Fourthly, know your audience. Who are you selling the t-shirts to? What kind of demographic are you looking at? Adding products for males, females, and children will make your website more appealing. More than that, are you able to ship internationally as well? Not only would that increase your clientele significantly, but it would also allow you to increase the prices, as shipping to other countries is costlier.
- Fifthly, increase the product range. You may only sell personalized t-shirts, but have you considered coming up with your own unique designs? Sure, letting the customer design his own t-shirt can be easier, but you must also come up with your own brand and start being known for “that design”. You can either discuss with your friends and see who has a knack in drawing, hire an artist, or just come up with funny slogans that you know would look awesome on a t-shirt. Why not think outside the box and combine slogans with explicit drawings? (eg. write the “Hold your horses” idiom and have a small print of a human literally holding tiny horses below the writing on the t-shirt). Nerds will love it! Trust me, I am one.
- Sixthly, add discounts or package deals from time to time. What if a stag party wants to buy personalized t-shirts from you with the “Groom to be” and “Bachelors” on them? This would mean that you would sell at least five t-shirts in one go. Attract bulk orders by offering incentives, such as 10% off if they order ten or more t-shirts.
- Seventhly, but not lastly, design and spell-check! Impeccable grammar stands for professionalism, and you can’t attract a serious audience if your grammar is desirable. Grammarly will help you with your grammar. Same goes for the website design. The more representative the ad pictures, the better. How many hours have you spent on them?
- Other Important Tips – You need to focus on your online store more. Make your website mobile-friendly because nowadays a lot of people use the internet on mobile. Make sure your website is visible on various search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, etc. And lastly and most important to focus on your product images, for that you can hire some photo retouching company like Clipping Path House.
Instagram gawking at the beautifully arranged shops and their products? That’s how your website must look, language and design-wise.
Now if you already checked all these boxes, all you need is patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and customers come and go. But your dream of becoming your own boss is the dream of so many who already made it. And so will you.
