It’s the (digital) age-old question for online businesses. How do I sell more products? A quick search online will usually yield one primary answer “Give us X amount of money and we’ll show you all the secrets to increase your sales!” Well, that isn’t the answer you’ll get here. In fact, there are several things you can do that are absolutely free to increase engagement and sales on your stunning eCommerce website. Without further ado, here is how to sell more products online.
01. Create a page for every product
Creating a dedicated page for every product, so that a site visitor can see detailed information about it, is not only good practice – it’s essential. Think of the difference between a nicely presented and comprehensive page with multiple photos, additional variations, and a clear description of the product, as opposed to a single photo with a PayPal “Buy Now” button below it. It’s a stark difference.
With all the eCommerce sites I design on the Wix Platform, Each product that is entered into the store manager automatically receive its own page! You can then use this page to showcase the different variations (like color, size, fabric, etc.) of the same product with corresponding photos. Offering these options front and center on your product page makes it easier for your potential buyer to imagine what the product will actually look like.
02. Use your customers’ voice with reviews
They say never to trust a stranger, but in reality, we do it constantly. When making purchases online, customers can be hesitant to to buy from a store they have never shopped at before, because, well, you’re a stranger. Oddly (but thankfully), the same customers find trust in other strangers, such as past customers of your shop that have added reviews for your products. As a matter of fact, studies show that 85% of consumers say that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This means you should offer a place to let your customers sound off and leave reviews.
When we design eCommerce websites, we add a comments app to our product page, giving your customers the ability to leave reviews on every single product your store has to offer. Not only do customer reviews give some insight to other customers looking at the same products, but it’s also a platform for you to respond, showing that you value customer feedback, further establishing trust to the otherwise hesitant. Asking and listening to feedback is also a great way to actually improve your products and implement new upgrades.
03. Incentivize with coupons and sales
Everyone likes a deal. There’s no better way to have one than by running a sales campaign on your eCommerce website. Whether it’s a percentage off, dollar amount, or even a “buy x, get x free” deal, receiving a discount like this can make the world of a difference to a potential customer. How you distribute coupons is up to you. The coupon code could be prominently placed on the front page or header of your website for all to use, sent in a newsletter, or even manually created after a loyal customer asks for one specifically.
04. Offer a streamlined (but flexible) checkout process
You’ve been staring at something on a website to buy for a while, add it to your cart and then… completely abandon the purchase. Whatever the reason, we’ve all been there and it happens often. For the online store owner, this is a real bummer, but one thing you can do to help the “second-guess” shoppers that abandon their carts is to make the checkout process as simple as possible for them. For example, ask for only the information that is absolutely required from them. This will also help to keep the design and layout as simple and and clean looking as possible.
While it’s paramount to streamline the checkout process, customers expect to enjoy a certain level of flexibility and adaptation. For example, offering multiple payment options is a must. If your customer is accustomed to using a payment processor like PayPal and it’s not offered on your store, it can seem jarring. The same goes if you don’t offer a way to pay with debit or credit cards. Your customers will appreciate the extra mile of convenience you’ve provided.
05. Take fantastic product photos
It’s 2018 and no one has time for sub-par product photos when it’s incredibly easy to make them look great. During the process, don’t be satisfied with one photo and take multiple shots so you have more choices to work with when uploading them later. When taking photos, make sure they are in high resolution. Again, it’s 2018. The photos should more than likely be taken with a professional camera and not your smartphone’s camera, unless it’s a highly sophisticated one. People want to see sharp photos of your products and want the option to zoom in.
06. Optimize your product pages
It’s more than obvious that getting more product sales is the primary goal of this article. But sometimes, taking a step back is essential to make a step forward. At the very core level, your website, and in turn, your products, need to be easily discoverable online. Luckily, this can be achieved by working on the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your product pages themselves.
For your website as a whole, we take the guesswork out of SEO and give your products some extra TLC. We pay special attention to your Page Title and Description. We customize your page URL and add some alt text. We help you be very specific in the way you describe your product, choosing the right keywords and implementing them into your text. The more precise we are, the more search engines will like your page.
After successfully optimizing the SEO settings of your products, you’ll be more discoverable than ever!
07. Start a blog
Following the SEO train, starting a blog presents you with a handful of opportunities. First, a consistently topped-up blog with fresh content really gets the attention of search engines, so not only will you have more links out in the Internet-world, your overall ranking can also receive a boost. Secondly, blog articles can help you put your website into SEO overdrive.
Another great thing about having a blog? You basically have a loudspeaker and podium to talk about your products. It gives you a chance to get playful, and write more about your products that would rightfully go into their descriptions on your store. A blog article like “How to Design Your Room Around a Vintage Club Chair” (with gorgeous pictures) can get your site’s visitors into the mindset of seeing your products in their own home. Not only does this take them out of the primary consumer headspace (buy buy buy!), but you’re also providing value to them with your tips, insights, and perspective – which they will surely appreciate.
08. Don’t forget your existing customers
Many small businesses tend to get caught up on acquiring new customers and not the retention of existing customers, but it’s important. Think of it this way: your past customers already know you’re amazing, so you just need to remind them that they love your stuff and you have more of it that they need to check out.
One of the best ways to cater to past customers is to follow up with them after they make their first purchase, like checking to see how they like their item or ask for their feedback about their shopping experience. You can also continue to send them emails via your mailing list to offer either items that have higher mark downs for returning customers, or a general “secret sale” with a coupon just for them.
09. Cause a (good) stir on social media
As a part of owning your own business, you’ll need to market it, and social media is one of the easiest ways to do it. In theory, at least. Just making your biz present on social channels both opens you up to an untapped audience, and offers your existing one the ability to find you in yet another place. Treat social media as a professional tool and not a place to share pictures of your food. Leave that to your personal accounts.
Make your business accounts embody your brand wholly and speak in its tone when posting. Of course, it’s important to have a bit of fun, too. Engage with your audience, get their opinions, and reward them with a coupon that only Twitter (or Facebook, etc.) followers will receive. Make it a playground for you to communicate with your followers and hear their feedback.
Note: Social media is also great for customer service, allowing you to fix any issues a client may have right then and there.
10. Be “there” and provide the info your customers are looking for
Let’s get one thing clear. Basically anyone can have an online store. With enough time and effort, a crook could make a very convincing store that looks just like yours. However, the differences that allow you to tell them apart are the communication available between seller and customer, and the information provided on the website itself. This is why it’s imperative that you remain transparent and make sure your customers know that you are available to them for questions or customer service of any kind.
If you flesh out a very complete FAQ page, most customers won’t really need to talk to you directly because you’ve already answered all of their questions. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should shirk your responsibility of availability to them, but it should provide a little relief knowing that you’ve done your part to help your customers help themselves.
If the FAQ doesn’t answer all of a customer’s questions, you should provide an easy way for them to get in touch with you. Of course, you should already have some sort of contact information on your website, but if you really want to be “there” for your customers, live chat is where it’s at. We can help you setup an online chat service through Wix, that not only lets you know when you have visitors on your site, but you can preemptively message the visitor if they’re in need of any assistance or wait for them to reach out to you. Clients that installed this intuitive app on their website increased store orders by 39%.
11. Make sure you look trustworthy
In this day and age, it’s actually a good thing to be paranoid, especially when it comes to cyber security and shopping online. Of course, this also makes it harder for a newcomer online store with few reviews to make more sales, but there are ways to ensure that you appear trustworthy outside of just “being” trustworthy. Some ways to establish trust have already been discussed above, like:
Make it easy to get ahold of you by adding your full contact information (location, phone, social media accounts, etc.) on your website.
Provide necessary information via a comprehensive FAQ page.
Add customer reviews to your products.
Make yourself accessible on-the-go with a live chat.
Another way get people to trust giving you money is to humanize your brand. You are, in fact, a human who created this business. We hope. Remind people of that with an honest and warm "About Us" page on your website. Tell a story of how your business came to be, your values, your working process, your team members, and the way you commit to great customer service.
12. Neuro-market your products
If you want to increase the appeal of your products, it may be time to tap into some neuromarketing. The idea behind neuromarketing is that, by knowing how the human brain works and responds to certain situations, it’s possible to use this to your advantage when it comes to marketing your products. Here are a couple of tricks you should know (and use) as an eCommerce website owner:
Create a sense of urgency: There’s FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and then there’s FOMOOASD (Fear Of Missing Out On A Sweet Deal). As mentioned above, everyone loves a deal – but just as much as they hate missing out on one. The idea that you may never get this product for what it’s currently selling at is a dreadful thought, but marketers use this to their advantage constantly with “Lowest price ever” and “You can’t miss this sale!”. Creating a sense of urgency always works. Just make sure to use it carefully and occasionally, and spread the word in a dedicated newsletter and on your social media accounts.
Make it seem scarce: Scarcity works. Whether it’s real or manufactured scarcity, when people know there isn’t a lot of something available, they lose all sense of, well, sense. Scarcity triggers the urgency factor mentioned above, but on a greater scale. “If I don’t buy this right now, who knows how long I’ll have to wait until I’ll be able to buy it?” This tactic also taps into our desire for instant gratification. You’ve personally seen these before when shopping: “Low stock!”, “Only 3 left – Order soon!”, “Secure yours before stock is gone!” All scarcity tactics.
13. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
With more and more traffic coming from mobile, there is absolutely no reason your online store should not be primed to offer a quality experience for smaller devices. You want your products to be available anywhere and everywhere, so it would be wise to make sure that they’re perfectly accessible on the billion plus smartphone screens that can potentially access your website.
Luckily, when we design an eCommerice store on the Wix Platform, we make sure your new site is fully supported by mobile and is already set up before Launch Day. All your product pages are automatically optimized for mobile, making it easier for your customers to buy at work or during their commute. Not to mention that having a website optimized for smartphones is an SEO must, after Google's recent mobile-first revolution. And there you have it. A couple of surefire ways to ensure that your awesome products are sold online.
Brought to you by Jessica Grajeda Designs and the Wix Blog.