Effective Ways to Increase Online Sales for Your Small Business.

With the number of online sellers ever-increasing, the competition to sell online is stifling. As a small business, it is even more gruelling because not only are you competing with other small businesses, you and all the other small businesses have to also compete with the bigger companies. However, despite the odds stacked against you, you have to make sure to increase online sales or you might as well pack up shop. But what do you do to achieve this? It is simple; find below 7 effective ways to increase online sales for your small business.

Create a Buyers’ Persona

A common mistake with many online sellers is targeting everybody. Everybody is not your customer because not everybody is interested in what you are selling. For instance, if you are selling makeup products, your target audience will be women of a particular age group because little girls don’t use makeup and cannot afford it even if they do. On the other hand, if you sell premium products, you will also have to identify the income bracket of your target audience. All this information; including interest, location, are what make up your buyers’ persona. A buyers’ persona, in simple terms, is the persona of your target audience. You can read more on how to create a buyer’s persona here. After creating your buyers’ persona, then you can identify the best way to advertise to them.

Pay Attention to Your Visuals

Using the right visuals is particularly very important in online shopping. People cannot see or touch the product, so they are only left with the visuals to make a decision. Your responsibility, therefore, will be to make sure to provide them with adequate information to ease their decision-making process. In essence, you should provide quality and clear pictures of your products from different angles. And if you can provide videos, you should definitely do that. 

Ease the Process

One of the easiest ways to drive customers away from you as an online seller is to complicate the process of purchasing your products. People buy online because they want to shop at their convenience, so you can imagine why they don’t want complicated processes. The onus, therefore, is on you to make sure to provide them with easy purchasing processes. From the first step of seeing and identifying the product to the payment process and shipping, make sure to simplify the process as much as possible. 

Add Reviews

Customers trust other customers much more than they trust you and I believe you understand why. Positive reviews will convince a potential customer much more than your best copy because your advert might be met with cynicism. So, take advantage of your reviews and testimonials. Let your potential customers know what you are doing right.

Create a Sense of Urgency

You can also take advantage of many people’s FOMO (fear of missing out) to increase your online sales. If you make a product, it is likely that some people will respond to the sense of urgency. Remember this is not giving false information on your product as that’s counterproductive. Instead, you can create a sense of urgency and this will depend on the structure of your business. For instance, you can let them know if you have a limited number of a certain product, or include an incentive for those who buy early such as a discount or free delivery. 

Be Easily Accessible

When people shop offline and run into an issue, they can immediately get help by calling the shop attender or manager. So, if you want loyal/returning customers, you have to give them a sense of what they get offline. Make sure your contact information is clearly visible and try to keep the line of information open. It will be advantageous to you if customers know they can reach you when they need you. If you won’t be available 24/7, clearly state the hours you will be available to attend to customers and make sure to be available when you say you are. 

Be Honest

There is a temptation to present a false image online but this is very injurious to your brand. You might get one or two customers - or even a hundred but in the long run, it will hurt your brand if those 100 people give you bad reviews and tell everybody willing to listen to them that you don’t offer what you promised. This might be an uncommon truth but customers are so tired of being lied to - they respect brands that tell them the truth. There is no need to make a claim you cannot substantiate; keep it simple and you will get more loyal customers through that. 

If you apply all of these tips, it will be sure to increase online sales for your small business. Also, you can be a seller on our platform and key into our marketing strategies to increase your online sales.