BusinessHABOnline Treat Sales: Sites like Etsy allow you to sell cookies and other specialty baked goods from an online shop.
Then you can ship those items directly to your customers.
The popularity of the Internet has dramatically changed the way people shop.
Online shopping is a convenient way for your company to connect with a much larger consumer base.
It’s also a convenient way for a customer to order their product from the comfort of their own home.
However, increasing your online sales can be a difficult task if you’re not sure how to go about doing it.
A few minor tweaks to your business website’s layout, copy, and sales items can lead to a significant increase in sales.
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1. Establish measurable goals.
If you don’t have an exact goal in mind it will be much harder to track improvement.
Determine exactly how much you want to increase your sales by.
And over what time period you want to accomplish this goal.
The more nebulous your target is, the more difficult it will be to increase your sales.
- It’s okay to pick an aggressive goal, but don’t choose something that is impossibly out of reach.
- You should also take steps to track your goals. Install some kind of web analytic software on your site in order to keep track of how much sales have increased.
2. Focus on the evidence.
Oftentimes, people let personal experiences or opinions dictate how they run their own website.
For example, if you’re annoyed by subscription pop-ops or ads, you may assume everyone shares this opinion.
This can lead to ignoring hard, empirical evidence regarding what has work in the past.
Try to leave your own prejudice and preferences behind as you begin working at increasing sales.
Base your decisions primarily on statistics and studies rather than your own opinions.
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3. Offer fewer sales items.
People often go into selling with a “more is better” mentality.
However, research indicates that buyers are more likely to make purchases when their options are limited.
This is because buying a product or service can be mentally draining.
You need to evaluate the available options and weigh their pros and cons.
With too many options to chose from, people may feel frustrated.
And move on to something else instead of making a decision.
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Try cutting back on how many products or services you’re offering on your website.
Instead of selling, say, 30 different hat designs limit it to 15.
You should notice an increase in sales in a relatively short period of time.
Your buyers will feel less overwhelmed by their options.
And linger long enough on your site to make a purchasing decision.
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5. Add an opt-in offer.
An opt-in offer is a tool used to gather your customer’s e-mail address and other information.
This can lead to an increase in sales as you’ll be able to send customers e-mails about new products, sales, promotions, and more.
This also helps you build positive relationships with your customers over time.
If you want to increase online sales, it’s important to add an opt-in offer on your website.
- Your opt-in offer should be on your home page in an easy-to-see place.
- Visitors’ eyes are often drawn to the top lefthand corner of a page.
- This would be a good place to post an opt-in offer.
- Make sure your opt-in offer appears on every page of your site.
- That way, customers always have an opportunity to provide you with their contact information.
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6. Invest in hover ads.
As pop-up ads are disliked by many internet users, sites like Google and AOL have developed pop-up blockers.
While your visitors should be able to block pop-ups if they dislike them, ads often provide valuable information for consumers.
For example, if you’re trying to alert someone about a sale or promotion a pop-ad can be an effective means to do so.
Hover ads are a type of ad that behave more or less like a pop-ups.
However, as they’re not technically pop-ups they evade pop-up blockers.
Online sales tend to increase when you use relevant hover ads to alert buyers to sales, promotions, and other special offers.
- Make sure you only use hover ads to inform visitors about information that benefits them in some way.
- A 20% off sale until Sunday, for example, is great information to include in a hover ad.
- If you’re including information re-directing visitors to a friend’s website, however, some may find this annoying.
- This could lead to a decrease in traffic to your site, resulting in less overall sales.
7. Post content daily.
Studies indicate the absolute minimum you should post is once a day on Facebook and 4-6 times a day on Twitter.
However, pay attention to your specific customers’ needs.
Launching a poll that asks your customers what the optimal amount of content is for them can be a good idea.
You don’t want to overwhelm your customers with content, but you do want to periodically remind them of your presence.
- Timing is also important. Studies indicate Twitter posts are most often clicked on after 6PM. Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays tend to get the most traffic on Twitter. Saturday is the most traffic-heavy day for Facebook. On weekdays, people tend to check Facebook most often between noon and 7PM.
- If you want to minimize your time posting content, the app Buffer can be integrated with your browser. It allows you to schedule posts to your social media outlets and access all your accounts at the same time.
8. Make it easy for customers to share your content.
Embed social media buttons into you’re the header of your website, your email signature, and your newsletter.
The easier it is for people to share your content and your products, the more likely they are to do it.
- Social media buttons are images of various social media logos that link to your social media pages. Display the buttons prominently. If someone wants to share something on Facebook, for example, all they need to do is to click on the Facebook logo. Then, a window will pop up allowing them to write a quick post and share the article.
- You need to be posting content if you’re advertising your social media.
- Make sure you do not add social media buttons until you’re established enough that you’re adding content on a regular basis.
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9. Create buyer personas.
You need to identify main customers groups within your customer base.
One simple example would be if you were selling running shoes.
There might be one group of fit young folks running 60 + miles a week, and another group of casual weekend runners.
There are also trail runners versus road runners, endurance runners versus sprinters.
You need to cater different parts of your website to these different buyer personas.
- To accomplish this, interview existing customers.
- Design questions to determine what the customer’s needs and wants are.
- Once you’ve received a decent number of responses you can start to organize them into groups.
- In many ways the groups will define themselves. Once you’ve figured out what the groups are, you can start organizing your site around them.
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10. Be cautious about video content.
Videos can be a fun way to engage with your customers.
However, long videos tend to bore consumers.
On average, anything over 90 seconds is unlikely to hold people’s attention.
If you choose to upload videos advertising your company or product, keep them short.
Online Treat Sales
11. Use images when posting on Facebook.
One simple way to increase attention for your product is through the use of images.
Image-based posts generate over 50% more likes than regular posts.
When announcing a new sale, product, or anything else related to your company, attach some kind of image.
This can lead to more traffic going to your website, eventually resulting in more sales.
12. Enhance your purchasing buttons.
There are a couple of simple ways to entice buyers to click your purchasing button.
First, use orange. No one is quite sure why, but orange buttons boost online sales.
Second, use active, specific phrases. For example, if you’re selling an online video, don’t have your purchase button say, “Complete Sale.” Instead, make it say something like, “Gain Instant Access.”
13. Personalize your website.
You need to make the customer feel like this is their personal page, not a website directed at hundreds of anonymous buyers.
A quick switch in language can do wonders for accomplishing this.
Instead of writing “Your shopping cart,” write “My shopping cart”. Instead of writing “Your Wish List,” write “My Wish List.” The more first person writing on your site, the better.
- You should also personalize recommendations.
- This will attract the customer to different products and make them feel valued.
- After they complete a purchase, use words like, “You also might like these products!” and redirect customers to similar products.
14. Focus on consistency.
The language and look of your website needs to be the same on every page.
Once people see one page they expect the rest of the website to look and sound the same.
If your site has an inconsistent design, you risk looking unprofessional.
This could deter customers. Also, if a site changes suddenly with a click visitors will have trouble adapting to the new layout. They may feel inclined to leave.
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15. Prove you are trustworthy.
Show your customers that you do care about their safety and privacy online.
Use your web copy to ensure safety and security for your customers.
You’re less likely to make online sales if customers are unsure if providing their financial information is safe.
- Customer testimonials are one of the quickest, most effective means to make visitors feel secure.
- Only use genuine e-mails or comments in testimonials and ask past customers for their permission first.
- Go for specifics. Look for e-mails in which a customer specifically outlines how a product benefited them and what they enjoyed about making purchases on your website.
- Talk a bit about yourself. Have a section of your website outlining your own credentials, experience, and your background. This makes you look qualified to your audience.
- Customers are more likely to buy from someone they feel they know.
16. Display a trust seal.
The easiest, fastest, and most cost-effective way to increase your website sales is to display 3rd party seal of approval, also known as a trust seal.
Trust seals are usually small graphics that say that a website is trusted/validated/verified/secure.
If people have doubts about your reliability they won’t buy anything from your website.
- There are different types of trust seals: a standard trust seals, a security seal.
- A privacy seal, a business seal, but are all generally referred to as trust seals.
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17. Research and purchase an appropriate trust seal.
There are many trust seal providers available and prices vary from tens of dollars monthly to thousands of dollars.
18. Do your research before you buy.
Many low cost trust seals perform as well as or better than the expensive ones.
It’s generally a good idea to use similar trust seals to your competitors.
- Some providers limit the number of monthly seal impressions and will charge you for excess impressions. Trust seals come in many styles, colors, sizes, etc., and display different messages.
- Choose the one that suits your website best.
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