By Nicolas Fincher, PR and Community Manager at CS-Cart.com
One of the key business rules working invariably for virtually all market fields (both brick-and-mortar and online) is that the monthly income amount is in direct correlation with the volume of products sold during this time interval. That's why, every online venture is aimed to boost online sales in a quick and cost-efficient manner. For online merchants just starting out, however, the road is paved with uncertainty and no clear starting point. The article below is focused on sharing some basic, yet smart and effective ways to achieve the extreme rise of your online sales all year round.
There are numerous smart techniques and strategies to accomplish this crucial business task, but first of all, it's imperative to run highly efficient marketing and promotional campaigns. As many people you tell about your business, as much revenue you may expect to derive. And here it's not worth to rely on your exclusive and attractive Web design only. While an eye-catchy storefront may work well for traditional retail shops, the online market requires a somewhat different approach and substantial efforts to drive targeted traffic to your Web store. Rest assured, your prospective clients are not to appear on your website occasionally or automatically.
One of the most effective marketing and promotional methods for an ecommerce project are considered to be search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media optimization (SMO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising.
Sales! Discounts!
If you are not a newbie in the ecommerce field, then you certainly know that pricing is one of the most crucial factors influencing final purchasing decisions. Any shopper is highly interested in saving his/her hard-earned money, irrespective of the budget limits. When going online, people also cross-shop by visiting several Web stores and comparing their prices in order to find the most profitable deals. 'Sales' and 'discounts' are really magic words that have an enormous attraction power!
Special Offers
Another smart promotional solution that really works for boosting online sales is value-added incentives. These can be holiday, seasonal or some other time-bound programs that typically imply offering shoppers substantial discounts with the second, third, etc. items in their online shopping carts. In such a way, they may help you sell dramatically more during some specified period. Loyalty programs, gift certificates and coupon codes have also proved their efficiency for increasing sales. While rewarding your repeat customers in such a pleasant way, they make a great job of encouraging them to purchase more and convincing to remain your loyal clients.
Note! However, when offering discounts, coupon codes, loyalty programs and various other related special promotions, it is very important to remain moderate and sensible, so that your clients don't feel bombarded and pressed with these offerings. Besides, this may also create an impression that you are trying to mask poor-quality or dead-stockproducts.
Pleasant Online Shopping Experience
Creating a seamless and convenient Web shopping experience for your customers will also make significant contribution to your overall online sales increase. How actually do youcommunicate with your existing clients and website visitors? When thinking over your Web store design and navigation, website content and online support services, you should perfectly understand that you are appealing to a very large group of people with completely different interests, habits, expectations, demands and experience.
While it is almost impossible to address interests and needs of every single client personally, why don't you let your website visitors create their own custom experience? You may wonder now how this can be achieved. Well, various applications for smartphones, tablet PC and other portable devices with their interactive, task-accommodating and still rather simple design may serve as an excellent model to take.
By providing large, full-color photos, detailed descriptions, quality guarantees, along with some competitive advantages under each item, you will let your products do the perfect job of convincing your clients in their purchasing decisions.
100% Honesty and Transparency
When it comes to pricing, shipping services, quality guarantees and any other specific conditions, it's more than imperative to be absolutely honest, transparent, clear and fair avoiding any hidden fees and terms. This will surely help you improve your credibility level - the more your customers trust you, the more eager they would be to purchase from you.
Do you have any other ideas to ensure intensive growth of online sales that you would like to share? Feel free to leave your comments below.
About the Author
Post by Nicolas Fincher - a PR and community manager at CS-Cart.com an established company specializing in development of shopping cart solutions for businesses of any size with its primary product CS-Cart program.