Clever little tricks, tips, ideas and methods to help your ecommerce brand sell more and build a loyal fan base.
So, you’ve got your online store setup and your product is great. But how do you actually market your product? No matter how great your products might be,
So, you’ve got your online store setup and your product is great. But how do you actually market your product? No matter how great your products might be, unfortunately, they won’t sell themselves!
Too many entrepreneurs set up shop, thinking that the hard part is finding (or creating) great products and setting up an e-commerce shop. But did you ever stop to think just how many websites are out there competing for your prospects’ attention and purchases? Some studies show that there are 12-24 million e-commerce stores online! Even more interesting is that only a small proportion of these (650,000) manage to earn revenues of more than $1000 per annum! An even smaller segment of these would succeed in earning what we might consider as a reasonable income.This tells us that the vast majority of online stores fail. And most often, it’s due to a lack of customers, which of course is due to a lack of marketing. The founders never stopped to consider exactly how to market a product. Don’t let that happen to you!Setting up your store and getting all the back-end processes in place is really only the beginning. Now it’s time to start thinking about how to market a product and get it out into the world.In this article, you will learn;
Before diving into the marketing, it worthwhile making sure your house is in order so that those marketing efforts are not wasted. There are two areas where e-commerce stores typically fail...
Yes, you’ve got your online store up and running, but how well does it stack up from a potential customers’ perspective? Your website and online store is the home of your business and often it’s the only thing that customers know about your business. It’s important that your website projects the right image for your brand, and presents your business in the best light possible.Ask yourself;
Remember, selling online is about building trust. Anything that looks unprofessional or not-quite-right will start alarm bells ringing in your prospect’s mind and will often deter them from doing business with you.
When browsers are on your site, chances are they’ll have a few questions or doubts about ordering. How easy do you make it for them to get those queries answered? You might think all the information is right there on your site, but as consumers, we have all become very lazy. If something is not immediately obvious to us, we don’t spend much time hunting for answers. Instead, most people click away and you lose a customer.So again, ask yourself;
If customers can’t get answers quickly, they’ll soon click away.
Ok, so now that we’re sure the fundamentals are in place, let’s get into the strategies that will tell you how to market a product.
One great way to get people to know about your store is through social media. There are thousands of words written elsewhere about how to optimise your presence on various platforms, but the core idea is to get in front of people, create buzz, and build an audience.Choose one or two social media platforms to focus on - based on which ones that you think your target market would use most often. Set up accounts in each social media platform for your business and ensure they’re well branded. Then, seed this by asking your friends to start liking and sharing your content. Let your existing customers know about your social media accounts too. When you email them order confirmations or other messages, include some text to encourage them to engage with you on social media. Create an incentive for them to do so (e.g. maybe certain offers are only promoted through these channels).Then, start posting good content to these platforms regularly. The recommended frequency varies by platform, but usually it’s more than you’d think! (For most platforms, once a day is a good start.) Yes, this means you need to have a lot of content ready to post! But it doesn’t have to be too hard. Create a social media plan so that you have themes that you repeat each week. For instance;
Prepare your content ahead of time in batches - it’s much faster to do this way. If you like you can also use a scheduling tool to post this out (but this does tend to result in lower visibility of your post).Another great tactic is to ask your customers to post pictures of their purchases onto your pages. This gets you exposure to their social networks.Aim to spend around 30 minutes on social media each day to consistently build a following. It’s often slow to get traction in the beginning, but the investment is worthwhile.
Whatever product you sell, you need people to be able to find it when they search online. And unfortunately, this is not as easy as you might think!Search engine optimisation depends on many different factors including; the way your website is set up, the content on your site, and importantly, the number and quality of other sites that link to yours.
This is a whole field of specialisation in itself and at some point you might want to consider getting some expert advice to improve your SEO. However, there are some things you can do now that will help get you started and build a foundation for SEO.
By being clever about the content on your site, and doing some work to build links, you can start getting found for the phrases that relate to your product.
Did you realise that anything your customers say about your business carries a lot more weight than anything you might say about it yourself? That’s why social proof like customer reviews, customer testimonials, customer case studies, customer logos (for B2B products), and social media endorsements are so important. This stems from our herd mentality which says we have been hard-wired to go along with the pack. If one market-stall has a huge long line, we’re likely to think they have something we want and join the line as well! People like to buy from businesses that other people clearly endorse.
Think about how you can incorporate social proof into your online store. Could you;
It’s not that hard to start collecting positive feedback and the more leverage you can get from it, the better!
You’ve probably heard that word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of marketing? It’s true. And no, unfortunately, you can’t control word-of-mouth directly, but you can do a lot to influence it.
The first thing is obviously to make sure each of your customers has a fantastic experience with your business (see earlier section about delivering top-notch customer service). If your customer isn’t happy, go out of your way to make them happy - even if that means refunding them or sending a new product. This can seem like a big expense, but remember you’re building customer good-will - and that is extremely valuable.Next, you want to encourage your customers to talk about your business. You can either try to be or do something truly unique that makes them want to talk about you, or you can take a more direct approach and ask customers to talk about your business. For instance, could you;
Focusing on word-of-mouth is a great strategy to implement as it forces you to focus in on customer satisfaction - which is ultimately linked to long-term success.
Much as you might wish that organic types of marketing could be enough, there are very few successful online businesses that have done it without at least some paid advertising. When thinking about how to market a product, it’s vital that advertising is part of your marketing mix.You might want to consider;
Advertising spending can easily get out of hand if not kept in check. With all types of advertising, the important thing is to try it on a small scale, then keep running different versions and try to outperform your previous results (A/B testing). Keep experimenting until your cost of acquisition is low enough that you can leave it on auto-pilot for a while.
Even with all of these marketing strategies in place, the web is a big, fragmented place. Because of this, it pays to go where your customers are already shopping. Whether you like this or not, an online store on its own is usually not enough.Depending on your product and market, you might also want to consider selling on other marketplaces such as;
Each of these have their own nuances and ranking algorithms, so it pays to learn as much as you can so that your products will get maximum exposure.
When thinking of how to market a product, it’s easy to downplay this part of running your business and assume that it will happen by default. However, without proper investment into each of social media, SEO, social proof, word-of-mouth, paid advertising, and other platforms, it’s much less likely that your online store will succeed.Spend some time learning about each of these areas and you’ll soon find none of them are too complicated. It’s all part of running an online store!
Outbound sales strategies can teach inbound efforts many lessons and increase profitability. A well-structured strategy for both channels is a core way top brands protect their bottom line. Start with these three areas to maximisze inbound and outbound efforts.
Treating inbound and outbound sales as different campaigns is virtually guaranteed to leave money on the table. However, combining the two and utilising the information your outbound team generates on a daily basis is a simple way to be quids in.Outbound sales are dynamic, responding to every person and their needs as the sale happens. Traditional inbound sales are more passive, where you create a website or marketing material and hope people reach out to you. Both are useful, and both should be dynamic because sales inherently change with each customer.Has it been a while since you updated your website, emails, or the way you respond to inquiries? If so, you’ve landed on the right place to turn that around and pick up a few more inbound wins. Move away from the impersonal façade that is likely harming, or even failing, you.In this article you will learn three important how’s:
There’s no need to wait or waste time anymore, so let’s dive in right now.
First, we should set a clear distinction between inbound and outbound sales. The lines between the two may start to blur as we go on, so this is your refresher.Inbound sales are the ones where customers come to you. They find you on social or in search, including ads, and then pop on by your digital or brick-and-mortar store. The customer is doing the heavy lifting in terms of research and outreach.Outbound sales are the ones that engage your inner hunter. You reached out and did the work to show how you solve a problem or make life better. Many outbound sales start as cold calls or emails, and these can take many touches over weeks or months.You want a mix of these sales. Inbound can provide a nice boost when your team is struggling to land those outbound deals.
The important note here is that inbound and outbound sales often have the same educational needs. So, we want to build content and strategy that focus on this connection. This will leave you with a website and other materials that answer the questions your team gets during outbound interactions. For inbound, you’re making it easier for the customer to learn about you and decide to buy from you.
Great outbound sales teams research their targets before a call or email goes out. They’ll look up the company and even the individual’s LinkedIn or other social accounts. They get to know the person before ever making contact to make their pitch relevant.Bring that level of research to your inbound efforts too.
Inbound marketing should leverage as much customer data and personas as possible to reach your audience. Drive down into details around:
What’s important to remember is that these answers and data points can change from page to page. Your research-heavy pages might target direct managers while cost-savings pages speak to leadership. Study, ask questions, use outbound data to build profiles, and gather every bit of information you can.Doing your homework on buyers keeps your messaging relevant, which is an absolute must for inbound and outbound sales.Your focus: prove to visitors (just like you do to prospects) that their business is valuable to you and that your solution is valuable to them.
One of the best days for any outbound sales rep is when they talk to a customer who is a quality lead. Even better if they already know who your company is. Narrowing your lead list to these customers can boost your success rates. You also avoid nasty conversations with someone who views your sales techniques as hostile.Your sales team capitalises on these calls by discussing your biggest benefits and how they fit the customer. When you start the conversation knowing about their business and needs that you can address, the whole thing goes smoother.On the inbound side, you want to treat the people who are coming to your website like they already know a little bit about you – because they most likely do. Your SEO efforts should target service or product keywords, as should your social, ads, and other messaging.When people find you, they enter with a general understanding of you and your market. Capitalise on them by highlighting what’s unique about your business. Adapt your message to this by showing how you have addressed the concerns they’re most likely to have.
Learning who is your best customer can help you identify why they’re seeking you out and what search terms led them to you. Building your website and landing pages around this information helps them get right to the meat where they see you as a helping hand.Inbound is passive during the sales process. However, taking an active role in your messaging is key to having the right content ready for the people who need your offer and are looking for it right now.
The success of leads and visitor targeting is all about how much you know about these groups. Data is your lifeblood. Look for industry information you can leverage. Keep track of your existing customers and new opportunities. You may even consider buying industry research to learn more about your best target.Outbound sales can directly ask questions of any lead, making the call easy to adapt. Inbound is a little harder to get data on a specific target. Your best bet is to offer a little something to secure an email address and a first name — whether it’s a discount, newsletter, white paper, or something else.
The inbound trick is not to get greedy. Match your offer to your ask. So, if the content is independent of their industry, don’t ask for it.In many cases, you don’t need a last name as long as you get an email address, because we like to be greeted by just our first names. Small asks are more likely to be successful, giving you a larger data set to work with for targeting your visitors. Plus, you can always follow-up via email to flesh out these personas.As you learn more about people and see what appeals to them, you can adapt your content and your ads.
A hallmark of any good sale, whether it is inbound or outbound, is prompt service. This is especially true when customers have a question or need to make a major claim.Get to the point. Drop the fluff and filler. Cut the confusing graphics and 12-minute explainer videos on the landing page. Say what you can do, show it if possible, and then ask the customer to take the next step on your inbound channel.The faster you can get your point across, the easier it is for the customer to understand and the less time they have to navigate away. The modern online window shopper has the attention span of a goldfish.You need the right lure with a sharp hook to get them interested, taking the bait and the next step. Here are a few thoughts on how to optimise your chances for that.
Canned scripts that are full of fluff and fail to address the customer as an individual fall flat. Customers hate them, but companies love them. The big reasons outbound sales teams use scripts include:
When the script is made to be flexible and allow an agent to adapt to customer needs, they perform better. Your website can operate in much the same way.Build a script, get your answers to frequent questions ready, and then translate this into the journey a buyer should take on your site. We think of it like this:
The outbound sales call follows the sales process. Your inbound sales content should too. Stick to script best practices as well. They include making content easy to skim, training teams on how to respond to customers, customise areas where you can, make changes when things aren’t effective, and trust your sales team to help customers who need it.Above all else, you want customers to see you as valuable while also respecting their time. This means days’ worth of text are going to cause people to flee your site. Keep it short, simple, and honest.
If you want to buy something from a website, but it takes 13 pages and 2 phone calls, are you going to end up getting what you want from them or go elsewhere?Every outbound call is approached with the goal of a sale. For some reason, this is a chief difference between outbound and inbound. Few inbound efforts always keep the sale in mind. Instead, many inbound visits and calls are treated like slow fact-finding missions.Stop that.Visitors coming to your site want more than a brochure. When someone calls you, it isn’t just about answering that one question they ask. They’re looking for a reason to say “yes,” and you need to be ready to provide it. Work to be the solution they want.Your first step is creating a system that addresses every inbound lead, especially ones that ask a question or make a call. Always follow up. A Drift survey found that 55% of companies don’t even respond to inbound leads.
That’s a whole lot of missed opportunities. Your competitors can be in that 55%, but you never should be.
Outbound sales calls and emails are all about helping customers and answering questions before the pitch. You likely work on scripts and answers for hours or days to determine the best information to give that isn’t too complex or complicated. You hone a message that makes it easy for the customer to agree, instead of being overloaded.It is relatively simple to do for outbound, but inbound faces a big challenge: your website.The aim here is to give customers what they want by making it easy to find. Just like SEO makes your website discoverable through search, your content layout and page titles should make it easy for customers to find answers to their questions. Limit buttons and options so that they take the next step you envision.And for heaven’s sake, don’t spam them with pop-ups and takeover ads asking for an email address within the first 15 seconds on your site. Don’t disrupt the visual you worked so hard to create.
Keep things simple enough that your mum could find it before the morning cuppa.If you simply must have the data, use cookies to track page movement and visits to suggest content or pages next time. You can also use this to monitor your site’s funnel to see where it breaks down and prospects stop before they become buyers.
Our final outbound consideration is something that speaks more to the nature of sales philosophy.Likely the best lesson we ever learned about outbound sales is to pause. Close the mouth and open the ears. Ditch the long-winded pitches and hear what the customer has to say. Give them the opportunity to interact with you, instead of being bombarded with information.
It’s the best way to deliver true value to your customers and prospects.Inbound can accomplish this with “Contact” pages as well as chatbots that have programmed information. If you tie these to support agents who can answer more complicated questions, you’re in better shape than much of your competition. On your site, white space can give this feeling too.Outbound best practices tell us that we should approach everyone as a unique sale opportunity. Realising that requires we listen to the customer as an individual. For inbound, we have to do the same thing with different tools.Listen and be responsive, just like you’d want someone to be when you’re ready to buy.
The final piece of advice for applying outbound to inbound involves your pricing. Be open and honest with people whenever you discuss prices.Whenever possible, publish your prices and all the associated fees. If you provide custom pricing or require a conversation to build out your price, state that specifically. Tell us why you’re not providing details at a glance, and we’ll be forgiving.Having no pricing or explanation just looks like you’re hiding, and it makes us as the audience do a lot more work to see if you’re even worth it. In many cases, we won’t take those extra steps. Many people who are researching companies or services are looking at dozens of providers. At that volume, no price can easily mean no interest, and thus no outreach.Plus, you miss out on a customer being flexible if there’s a big delay from an information request to when your sales rep sends over pricing information.Also, for pricing, you don’t want hidden fees either. In the digital age, customers share that “surprise” and aren’t happy about it. Honesty in price for your inbound — just like your outbound sales reps provide information when they call a lead — will also create more trust for you when it comes to the customer’s decision-making process.
While we often keep the worlds of inbound and outbound sales separate, they’re actually like Venn diagram with 90% overlap. The person making an effort differs, but preparation, actions, and the end-goal for you are all the same.This article reviewed some of the more successful outbound sales techniques that you can implement for inbound efforts, from chatbots and websites to handling the calls and emails your team receives. Start with the same homework your teams take to identify targets and individuals, ensure that people fit your business needs, respect their time, and let customers guide the sales process so that they’re excited and trust you.Your team knows how to sell. Bring their expertise to your static and passive content when you can to maximise the knowledge they’ve gained from each won and lost lead. It could be your most valuable asset and the best way to keep that bottom line growing.With all that said, are there any inbound secrets or tactics that you think should be brought to outbound sales campaigns?
Are you looking for a way to get more out of your email marketing strategy? Have you come to find that your open rate is not up to par? There is no
Are you looking for a way to get more out of your email marketing strategy? Have you come to find that your open rate is not up to par?There is no denying the power of email marketing, with HubSpot noting “Three-quarters of companies agree that email offers "excellent" to "good" ROI.”While email is a great way to connect with your audience, there’s something to remember: it means nothing if your open rate is extremely low.MailChimp, a leading email marketing platform, reports an average open rate across all industries of 20.81 percent.So, if your rate is higher than this, you’re doing a good job. Conversely, if you’re hovering somewhere below this number, there’s room for improvement.There’s no way of knowing what adjustment will lead to the greatest improvement in your email open rate, but there are several tips you can follow to put yourself on the road to success. Let’s take a closer look!
If you want someone to open your email, you don’t have much time to attract their attention. That’s why your success starts (and sometimes ends) with your subject line.It should be concise, easy to understand, and enticing. The “quicker it hits” the better chance you have of boosting your open rate.There are several things you can experiment with to tip the scales in your favor, such as:
All of these things are worth experimenting with. Just the same as anything email marketing related, trial and error will give you a clear idea of what works and what doesn’t.
This doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it can have a huge impact on your open rate.If you were to receive an email, which address would you trust more?john.kelly@test.comOrcontact@test.comThere’s something about sending email from a real person’s email address that personalizes the experience. It gives the recipient reason to believe it’s important, as opposed to “just another” message.Furthermore, this is one of the better ways to keep your email out of the spam folder and in the inbox. If you’re not successful at doing this, you can assume that your open rate will take a huge hit. After all, most people aren’t in the habit of checking their spam folder. And even if they are, they don’t put much stock in the messages that end up there.It doesn’t matter if you use your own email address or create one specifically for email marketing, be sure that it includes a real name.
It’s easy to fall into the trap that you can send an email at any time and generate the same open, read, and response rate. However, nothing could be further from the truth.There are better days and times to send your emails, with CoSchedule—a leading marketing project management platform—backing this up with a review of 14 data- driven studies.Here are the best days to send an email:
So, if you’re only going to send one email a week, you’ll want to start on Tuesdays. It may not be the only day that works - in fact, it may not work at all for your company and industry - but it’s a good jumping off point.In regards to the best time to send an email, here’s what you need to know:
Experiment with all four of these times to start, making note of which one generates the best open rate. From there, send messages at a few other times throughout the day to see if you’re missing something.Yes, it takes some effort and analysis to compare different days and times, but doing so will definitely improve your email open rate.4. Remove Inactive SubscribersIn a perfect world, everyone on your email list would remain engaged with your brand. However, in the real world, you should never expect this to be the case.While you do your best to protect against inactive subscribers, such as by regularly sharing engaging content, there are sure to be people who simply ignore your messages.One of the best ways to keep your list fresh, all while improving your open rate, is to remove inactive subscribers. You don’t have to do this every week or month, but it’s good practice to periodically take action.It’s your job to define what an inactive subscriber looks like. For example, this could be anyone who hasn’t engaged with an email over the past three, six, or nine months. Tip: before you remove an inactive subscriber from your list, try one last time to bring your relationship back to life.Here’s an example from HubSpot of what to say in your final email:
If you’re new to email marketing or have a very small list, segmenting probably doesn’t make much sense.But, as your list grows, this is something to strongly consider. By segmenting your email list, it’s easier to ensure that every message is relevant to the recipient. This goes a long way in boosting your open rate.Constant Contact—a top email marketing service—shares the following statistics:“Did you know that 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates; 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates; and 24% experienced better deliverability and greater revenue?”Even if segmenting your email list doesn’t result in a higher open rate, it could still help by reducing your unsubscribe rate and boosting your deliverability.
To achieve success with email marketing, you must get into the habit of tracking everything. Remember, small improvements can have a big impact on your return on investment. For instance, boosting your open rate from 20 percent to 23 percent may not sound like a big deal, but when you look at the bigger picture you’ll see just how much of an impact it can have.What’s your average email open rate? Are you satisfied with this, or are you taking steps to reach the next level?
Learn everything you need to know about an Etsy SKU number. See real life SKU exmples and learn how to prepare an Etsy inventory spreadsheet. Start now.
An SKU (or Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique number that you create to help manage and keep track of your stock. Etsy SKU numbers can be given to each variant of a product. Some sellers even go so far as to give each single product they make a unique SKU.Another perk of using an Etsy SKU system with is if you're selling elsewhere online. If selling on your own website with an eCommerce provider like Shoplo or Wix, an SKU is needed to issue receipts and invoices. Advertising on Google Ads or Facebook requires a Product Feed, which in turn requires an SKU.Rather than explaining how to set up an Etsy SKU system, let's use our sample Etsy store and do it!
Let's start simple. You're selling rings. Gold and Silver. Take a 7 character number and put a letter that lets you clearly identify that item at the start. G or S for example.SKU for gold rings with Amethyst - GAxxxxxxSKU for silver rings with Amethyst - SAxxxxxxSKU for gold rings with Zirconia - GZxxxxxxSKU for silver rings with Zirconia - SZxxxxxxThese new versions are named variants. They are variations of a product.Before this gets more complicated, let's copy it into an excel spreadsheet to keep track of things easier.
We chose to use 7 characters as it gives us enough space to accurately describe the product without getting confusing. If you choose to use the number 1, don't use the letter L anywhere, as a small case l can easily be confused as a 1. The same goes with the letter O and the number 0 (zero). Avoid using both of these altogether. We've replaced the number 0 with the letter x.Chances are that whatever you're selling will probably come in sizes. Small, medium and large, so that's 3 variants of each 6 variants we already have!
It doesn't take long for you to have a wide range of SKU numbers! Be that as it may, each version of every product you sell now has a unique number attached to it. Hurrah for being organised!Now, you can go to your Etsy store and put the relevant SKU numbers to the relevant products.
Now that all your products have their SKU number, a good move would be to keep track of quantity. For this, make a second sheet in the same excel file and name it 'stock'.
Copy over the SKU numbers and then add columns to keep track of the quantities you have.
Now we have our SKUs and a spreadsheet telling us how many we have. The hardest part now is keeping it up to date! This is all on you and requires a proactive effort to do so. Yes, it takes time and can be frustrating to do. But good management is one of the key ingredients to operating a successful enterprise!
Selling at a craft fair or other offline event? Put your spreadsheet on a tablet or phone and update it on the go. Remember to deactivate the Etsy listing of any products you're selling at the market too. Not doing so may lead to you selling more than you have!
There is a lot of discussion amongst the Etsy community about the relationship of SKUs and order forms. Currently, when you receive an order on Etsy, the SKU doesn't show up on the order form.A lot of sellers (and external companies like us) are putting pressure on Etsy to put SKUs in order forms. This will mean that when an order is placed, it is simply a matter of looking for the specified SKU number, rather than reading the entire title. Titles are often optimised for SEO and can cause confusion.One workaround solution is to put each SKU in the listing title. This does affect SEO though. For the time being, Etsy's current version of SKU implementation is a good way for you to manage your inventory offline.
This is the way that 3rd party programs like to see and use SKU numbers and the relevant quantities. If you can get into the habit of identifying your product variants like this, you will soon excel at your stock management!Implementing a simple SKU system is a great way to get extra control over your Etsy inventory. Through regular updating, simple habits will form. When good management habits for, growing and scaling become safer and easier. All this from a little SKU number!
It can be difficult to keep the stock numbers of your online store up to date, especially when you sell retail and online. But there's a lot of small business inventory software that can help you save time and sell more. Click here to see the best small business inventory management system for your brand.
As a small business owner, you need to be psychic. You need to be able to predict when you will run out of a certain product, how long it will take to get back in stock and how much to reorder.You know that feeling, right?Controlling your inventory is one of the most important parts of knowing how to manage a small business.So what does your small business inventory management plan look like? How do you establish how many of what products to keep on the shelves?Today you’re going to learn all the answers to those questions. In this article, you’ll also learn:
But before you take a deep dive into inventory management for small business, what exactly does the phrase mean?
Inventory management is organising your products to ensure you have the right quantity on hand at most important times. It lets keep a close eye on numbers and know exactly how much cash you have sitting on the shelf. This is integral to the way your business operates. If you know how much stock you have on hand, you’re always aware of the strength of your business.Good inventory management allows you to:
Good inventory management promises that you’ll have the products on hand when they’re in demand.
You may be saying:“but I do know what products I have. I have my spreadsheets where all the data is accessible whenever I want it”.But have you ever put a wrong number into a spreadsheet? Or sold a product which you didn’t have in stock? I bet you have! And if you haven’t, there’s every chance that it’ll happen to you in the future.Why?Let’s take a look at some problems that spreadsheets cause:
It may seem efficient to manage your small business inventory using a spreadsheet. Having data in a spreadsheet is great for your small business.Managing your small business inventory in a spreadsheet is not. Let me explain.If you rely on spreadsheets too much, you leave yourself open to a wide range of mistakes:
...and that’s just to name a few.
There's a better way to manage your inventory than this...
Another massive downside of inventory management using a spreadsheet:Spreadsheets and handwriting also can’t talk to other systems, like your online store, invoicing methods or POS system.Good inventory management software for small business avoids these problems.
Some small business owners use the help of virtual assistants as they're cheap and good at repetitive tasks.A virtual assistant is essentially an employee that you pay to do online tasks.In the world of ecommerce, virtual assistants are regularly used to:
Sounds great, right? Just because a virtual assistant can help you out with your inventory management, doesn’t mean that you should use a virtual assistant.Virtual assistants can be convenient for saving you time but can cause some incredible headachesPutting another human into the process, (especially someone you don’t know) is a great way to increase the likelihood of messing up your numbers.Why pay someone to do that when there’s already software that can automate this process for you?
As you just saw, virtual assistants and spreadsheets can’t manage your data in an efficient way. Small, very small, medium and huge businesses base everything on numbers, statistics and data because that's a reliable way to grow.
The accuracy of this data is crucial, regardless of the size of your brand. Your small business needs reliable, accurate and up-to-date information.That’s exactly what inventory management software guarantees you.Here are 5 benefits of using inventory management software for your small business:
Once the addiction of being an online retailer bites you, you’ll soon want to increase your product range. For example, more variants of current products, new products and even new categories altogether. Before long, you’ll want to be selling in different currencies and languages. Reliable small business inventory software that works alongside your ecommerce platform will make all this a breeze.
Online sellers that sell in more than just 1 channel increase their sales by more than 33%. So it’s clear that offering your products on more than just one sales channel is a great way to sell more products. But this does present a few problems.
ButWhether you’re a multichannel seller or seller on just one channel, cloud-based inventory management software can help you enter a new market and sell more.I’ll explain.Consider this:An inventory management system that can automatically sync your inventory into a new sales channel.Would this make it easier for you to test and enter a new market?You wouldn't have to log into your eBay account and your online store each time you had a sale.
This means that you never have to think about syncing products yourself.Look at the example below:
Shoplo Multichannel inventory management - manage your inventory now
In the above example, you can see your inventory column shows the number of products you have in stock. When a sale is made in any channel, numbers update automatically in every other connected channel. For example:Imagine you sell laptops.If you sell 1 MacBook Pro on eBay and 2 in your own web store, the stock numbers are automatically updated - from 45 to 42.This change in stock numbers is reflected in both your eBay store and web store, immediately.In your eBay store, the number of available MacBooks will change from 45 to 42 even though you sold only 2 MacBooks via eBay, and 1 on your own store. How does this benefit you?
No more time lost doing data entry every time you get a sale or receive new stock. You’ve got more time for you to focus on growing your brand.This is just a taste of what small business inventory software can do for your brand.
Sending the wrong order to the wrong customer is a painful and expensive experience. Plus, it leaves your customer quite unhappy.
An inventory management system that integrates with a fulfilment service is very beneficial to your small business. How? When an order is placed in your store, the software will take your customers data and automatically create a shipping label for you.You can also book a courier to come pick up your delivers from within the software.No more mixed up orders, no more costly returns. You’ve now got an inventory management platform that helps you fulfil your orders.
The dashboard of your inventory management system gives you a quick overview of the performance of your sales.You’re able to see your total number of sales, as well as your revenue per sales channel. But let’s see this theory in practice. Look at the example below to see how an inventory management tool presents your data to you:
Shoplo Multichannel Inventory management - manage your inventory now
As you can see in the example above, you have instant information about your revenue from all sales channels in the “total” field.Looking at the trend curve, you can also see your current sales trend projected again the previous time period. You’re also able to see the sales of a certain channel expressed in a dollar value, or a percentage of your total revenue. How does this help you?It gives you a clear picture of:
All this data is presented to you in real time. This means that you stay constantly up-to-date about your inventory numbers, as well as your sales.
As a small business owner, you’re always on the go. But your productivity shouldn’t have to suffer because of that. Many cloud-based inventory management software solutions have dedicated mobile apps.As a seller, you can change order statuses, contact customers and even manage your online store. You certainly can’t do that managing your inventory in a spreadsheet!This means that your business doesn’t stop when you’re not in the office. For example, a customer completes a large first-time order while you’re stuck in traffic.Now you can contact them immediately and say thanks - don’t forget about the thank you note, either.
Shoplo Mobile App. Small business inventory software on the go
If you’re considering using software to manage your inventory (and if you’ve read this far, you probably want to), there are some things to keep an eye out for.The best small business inventory software should:
Let’s take a look at other ways you can get the most out of an organised inventory:
Using software to manage your inventory will free up time for you. In that time, use the following techniques to improve your inventory management processes:
This method, sometimes called a proportional value analysis can save you money.It allows you to tie up a minimal amount of money in your stock while still being able to keep up with demand. But what is an ABC inventory analysis? It is the process of dividing your products into 3 categories to keep up with demand, without tying money up in products that sell slowly. The method states that this is how you stock your inventory:A-type itemsProducts that make up 70-80% of sales take up 10-20% of space in your inventory.B-type itemsProducts that make up 15-25% of sales take up 3% of space in your inventory.C-type itemsProducts that make up 5% of sales take up 50% of space in your inventory.A-type items are products that you sell a lot of. They only take up a small amount and therefore must be reordered regularly. This allows you to predict future forecasts with more accuracyYou should keep very low numbers of C-type items on hand. These are products that rarely sell. Consider these items not as ‘how many should we have in stock’ but rather ‘should we have these items in stock at all?’B-type items benefit from being in the middle. Average amounts of orders and an average number of units on hand.
Many small business inventory software solutions can be used to arrange your stock in this way. This is a fine example of how online inventory management for small business can not only save you time but also help your cash flow.
A product feed is a file that contains all of your products’ information.As a small ecommerce business, product feeds are important to you because:
Inventory control software generates and exports product feeds to dozens of sales channels. By using small business inventory management software to manage your product feeds, you ensure that every sales channel is updated with the most recent price and stock numbers.
Having the right amount of stock ready to ship during busy times means you can pocket the maximum amount of money.Being able to predict how many products you will sell in the busy (and not so busy) times is a great asset to your small business. This is called forecasting and it allows you to make sure that you always have enough products in stock.Take a look at the following data to see trends and patterns of your sales:
A majority of these things are available at a glance within your inventory management software.This means you can base your predictions on facts and data, rather than raw speculation.
If a customer can see a product that they can’t actually buy, they’ll go buy it from your competitor's store.The solution?
Don’t show customers something if you can’t sell it to them then and there.
Inventory management software can be used to alert you when stock levels hit a minimum level. This means that you have plenty of notice to order new products - you never have to sell a product that you don’t have. So now you know the benefits of using inventory tracking software, it’s time to discuss how much a product like this will cost you.
Perhaps you’re interested in some inventory control software and want to give it a try. But you might be wondering:“Can I even afford it?”In the past, a lot of inventory management tools have been aimed at warehouses and big brands with hundreds of thousands of products to sell.Until now. You can find many inventory management solutions available at nearly any price point. Many are designed especially for a small business like yours. Some even have free plans for you to test before committing.Shoplo Multichannel is one solution that is completely free if you have less than 100 sales per month. See how Multichannel can help you save time and grow your sales (try now).
Today you learned:
Now that you know how to keep track of inventory in your online store, it’s time to start selling efficiently and saving time.What are some of your favourite inventory management tips? Let us know in the comments below!
Where did the idea to sell fudges come from? Hello Sweet! Good question! The idea appeared in my head a long time ago - about 4 years ago. But quite
Where did the idea to sell fudges come from?
Hello Sweet! Good question! The idea appeared in my head a long time ago - about 4 years ago. But quite recently I started implementing this idea. The product itself, which is a fudge, comes from my hometown, where for over a decade, traditional and hand-made fudge has been produced. When the idea came back two years ago, I started a rather tedious research process. It turned out that there are many companies selling fudge on the market via the Internet. I saw, however, the chance of success in the form of distinguishing themselves from the competition. That's how it started.Who is behind the Cukrówka store? How many shepherds are there? - as you might funnily call it - your herd?In our current sweets company, including customer service, sales and marketing, there are a total of 6 Shepherds However, the plans are to expand the herd with more cool and competent people like those I'm working with now!Since when has the store existed on the market? How did it start?As a brand, Cukrówka is in my opinion only a "baby crawling". We have been in the market for exactly 1 year and 5 months. When did you realize that Cukrówka would start to generate income and it would start to pay off?From the beginning, I assumed that it was a kind of "fun" and I wanted to check my knowledge and put some crazy ideas to practice. However, due to the fact that I have been working in sales and marketing since always, I emphasized that the fudges would earn their money from the first day. The first sales peak, which I had no idea about before, due to the lack of knowledge of the industry, took place after 2 months. Then I saw that we have a great chance to conquer the market.What distinguishes Cukrówka in the sweet market?Our main distinguishing marks would be our communication and sweets marketing. The products are very similar to each other. A real gourmet will notice and point out the advantages of each fudge. On the other hand, the "common" fudge eater does not have such extensive knowledge about the production or crystallization of the candy - I mean the fragility that many people love. Do you occasionally sell fudges - what occasion is the most popular in your store?The most popular categories are Cukrówki for weddings and the ones for businesses that want to offer their clients a traditional Polish specialty. In addition, we periodically sell fudges on christenings, holy communion and other holidays such as Valentine's Day Do you sell your products stationary?No. Our main and only sales channel is the Internet.What does the production process of Polish fudge look like?Fudges are prepared in a large vat, the the ingredients are added to it, and stirred constantly. The cooked fudge mass is then poured onto a special table and cooled down. When the mass freezes, the Shepherds cut a mass that resembles a long snake and then wraps them in personalized labels.Can you tell us who was your first customer?My friends. At the beginning, I informed all friends that could agree to such an offer. It was a good idea!How many fudges counted your largest order?The largest order placed was almost 2 tons of sweetness. 1 kg is about 72 fudges x 2000 kg = 144,000! All wrapped by hand.
What do you consider to be the greatest successes of Cukrówka?The real success has yet to come! The main long-term goal is export. When we mark on fudge maps of other countries, I will be very happy.And what was the worst thing that happened to the brand?Maybe not the worst, but sometimes it happens in every e-commerce: destroyed packages in transport that our customers receive. It is a traumatic experience every time. Fortunately, we do well in such situations, quickly responding to the problem.I wonder where the biggest costs are hidden in running a shop with fudges.The biggest cost, that I would more rather call a permanent investment, is marketing. We invest the most to in providing a high level of services.
Your Instagram profile @cukrowka.pl has almost 10.5 thousand people following you. This is really a good number for your sweetness! Please tell me how you did it?It's true we have a lot of followers. Mainly thanks to regularity, nice and tasty photos and cross-media actions.How important is running Social Media for you from a sales point of view?Very important! This is our second sales channel. That's why we're working all the time to make sales grow with MS.How do you get such huge customers like Play?Most often they reach us through agencies that mediate purchases for large brands.
Your brand has existed for 1.5 years. In retrospect, what do you think has influenced the brand's market success?As I mentioned above - a lot of work and communication distinguishes us.How does Shoplo help you in your day-to-day business?I chose Shoplo because it is intuitive to use and can really boast about what I value the most - great support. I have to admit, I often come across various ideas to improve the function of the store. I then send an inquiry and I always get the answer after a few hours. This is very important to me. In addition, the stability of the platform makes it trouble-free in the long run.Tell us one thing, do you have your favorite fudge project that you have done?YES! What I like the most is our Christmas version of Cukrówka with reindeer horns.
Do you sell abroad? If so, where do orders come from most often?We sell abroad, but at the moment our clients are Poles living abroad. Most often these are countries: Germany, England and Ireland. We also have a clients from Italy and Spain. Do you have regular customers?They are the apple of my eye - customers that trust our brand and products. We take care of them in every aspect, by trying to show how much we care about them.Your Cukrówki are beautifully packaged! What does the planning process look like - are you coming up with proposals to the client or are you doing a ready project?It depends on the category. Sometimes we rely on template patterns that were prepared by our Shepherd-Designers, but we also prepare an individual project based on customer ideas. With fudges for companies it is easier, because it is usually a logo + elements distinguishing the brand - brand book.In your offer, you also have fudge flavours: mint, chocolate, coconut, coffee and beer (shock), which of these fudges are most often chosen by customers?We have many interesting flavours. The most common are mint and beer. However, mint is typically the Summer choice.Can you tell us a bit about your future plans?The main goal is to increase the market share from month to month. In addition, extend with sales on foreign markets.Last question - are you tired of eating fudges?Absolutely not! It's true that I'm not a big gulp, but for Cukrówka, I reach far more often than the bitter chocolate which I am a fan of.
Social media marketing is one of the most difficult tasks to master for any business owner. It has the potential for huge returns and equally huge
Social media marketing is one of the most difficult tasks to master for any business owner. It has the potential for huge returns and equally huge exposure for your brand. There is a reason that one of the world’s biggest advertisers, Coca-Cola, went on record saying that they spend 20% of their $3.4 billion yearly ad budget on social media. And that number continues to grow every year.But for companies like yours and mine, we can’t commit hundreds of millions of dollars to a full-time social media team. Luckily, there are a few tried-and- true practices that we can borrow from the big guys to help us design better and more effective social media posts. As the founder of GoDesignerGo, a company that offers unlimited graphic design for a flat monthly fee, we use these exact same tactics when designing social media graphics for our ecommerce customers.
Before you begin posting on social media make sure your brand has a document that outlines your design language. This is commonly referred to as a Style Guide, but feel free to name it whatever you want. The main goal here is to give your posts an identity and consistency that people can instantly recognise as your brand.The format of this document varies from company to company, but a few general elements you want to include are items like font choices (size, weights etc.), how your logo is displayed and, for the sake of this post, basic guidelines that will garner the look of your social posts.
A company that does a really good job of keeping things consistent and effective on social media is Amazon (no surprise there, they are Amazon after all!). In this example, their Instagram posts are not only graphically consistent with a clean, bright look but their product selection is diverse and fun. If you were to click on each of the photos in the screenshot above you would see that some promote entire categories while some promote specific products.Amazon likely has the budget to shoot all of their social photos in-house, but some good alternatives are to look towards your suppliers (if you sell other people’s products) who will often have a selection of hi-res photos for you to use and modify if you’re looking to posts similar to Amazon’s.If you are selling your own product, you can either take photos with a green screen background (and then have a designer put in whatever backdrop you want) or do some inexpensive product photography using coloured paper, backdrops around your house or even at your local coffee shop.
A few other good examples of companies with consistent styles on social media include the ecommerce focused divisions of big retailers like Best Buy and Ikea.Keeping a consistent look across your social platforms is important, but only if you have content to put in those posts. So how do you design effective posts? Good question! Let’s get into it.For each network – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – I will give you advice on easily actionable best practices along with examples of companies that are using the networks effectively. It should give you a good starting point from which you can better understand how to design posts for your store.Before we begin, remember that none of these tips are steadfast rules. Rather, each is designed to offer a good starting point from which you can begin to test and see what works best for you and your goals.
The good news about Facebook is that it is still very much a visually-dominated network just like Instagram (which we will talk about next). Visual social media networks are great for ecommerce stores because their products, by the nature of being physical products, are best sold when shown to the customer.So, what is the best way to utilise Facebook to promote both your store and/or the individual products So, what is the best way to utilise Facebook to promote both your store and/or the individual products within it? Well, not to be a Debbie Downer, but there is no one best way. There are, however, a few best practices and tips that we have seen consistent results with for our customers.
Being a visually dominated network means that people are more likely to engage with posts that aren’t dominated by text. Numbers vary, but a recent study by BuzzSumo found that posts with images got 2.3x more engagement than those with just text. That’s a huge increase. The same principle applies to the text within your image.Another good reason to limit the amount of text is due to Facebook’s policies regarding text when you decide to use a post as an advertisement. They have become slightly more lenient regarding their 20% text rule, but just because you can use posts with more than 20% text doesn’t mean you should. Most posts with too much text will be flagged with a warning notification in Facebook’s Ad Center. This notification will alert you to the fact your ad is not being displayed to its full potential (or not at all). Not great at all.Because text is so taboo in Facebook images, make sure that when you do use it you do so with purpose. Our main recommendation when designing an image for Facebook is to add a very clear, compelling textual call-to- action. Generally speaking, this call-to-action should look like a button or plain text in a colour, font and position that makes it stand out from the rest of the image. Below is a good example of call-to- action text from DigitalMarketer.
The majority of small businesses and small ecommerce stores don’t add the call-to-action text to their social media image. This is a huge disadvantage due to the simple fact that users will likely make a decision about your ad without ever reading the ad copy you spent so much time carefully crafting. It sucks, but it’s the truth. That’s why we always try and include a CTA within the image itself.
People love stars, brands and images that are well-known or easily recognisable. Assuming you have legal permission and the use makes sense for your store, using a personality or popular meme can bring with it a huge boost in engagement.Let’s take a look at this example from Newegg’s Facebook page.Below we have two posts – one announcing a big semi-annual sale (the better offer) and one offering a free game with the purchase of another product (the lesser offer).Both are well-designed, easy to read and have good accompanying text. So why did the semi-annual sale receive only 232 likes while the other received over 830 likes?The 832 likes post used the graphic from a popular gaming franchise – specifically Halo Wars 2. For a site like Newegg that sells tech products, a gaming franchise tie-in is almost always going to elicit a positive response from their fans. Due to that fact, it is only natural that a post with a popular gaming franchise would do better than a post without some kind of tie-in.If you were a makeup brand, for example, designing a post that incorporates a popular makeup YouTuber or celebrity could be a good option (with permission of course). The options stretch far and wide as to how you piggyback on other brands or popular stories to promote your brand.
While Facebook may be the queen of visually-dominated networks, Instagram is the king. What started out as a purely photo-sharing app dominated by retro filters has now ballooned into the dominant social network for all things photographic and graphical.
It should be no surprise that Instagram posts that have vibrant, bold colour palettes get significantly better engagement than those that use drab, dreary palettes.In fact, colours are so dominating on Instagram that using bright, happy colours in your posts can be the reason a customer decides to purchase a product. According to an exhaustive study conducted by ColorCom, 93% of consumers said that colour and visual appearance was the single most important factor when deciding to buy a product. While that number will likely vary depending on industry and the type of products you are selling, the study offers a large enough percentage that all sellers should sit up and take notice.A brand that does an amazing job with using colour in their posts is StudioDIY – every single post is an explosion of colour. Think about how you can spice up your photos by adding a bit of colour. One of the easiest ways is to use the Amazon example mentioned above and put your product in front of a colourful background.
When the option to change the layout of your Instagram post first came out it quickly became the only kind of post you’d see on the platform. With the new ability to add multiple photos to one post, however, the use of Layouts has dropped off significantly. That means less saturation and a good opportunity to make your products stand out. Plus, using a creative layout is the easiest way to guarantee that users will see all the products featured in your post. With an album style post, there is no guarantee that a user will scroll through all of your photos.One of the most effective implementations of this that I have seen is Lime Crime Makeup. I don’t believe they are using the actual Layouts app for these posts, but rather having a designer make them up. You could choose either route and have a solid looking photo with a similar style.In these photos below, Lime Crime is using a creative 2x2 grid layout to showcase the colours of their lipstick. This design ticks many boxes – creative use of colour, the product is front and centre, bold text and a creative layout. All good design techniques for Instagram posts.
Another good design option is to create a post that has a collage of products on a solid background. The industry term for this varies somewhat – Scene Creator, Mockup Creator, Hero Image Creator – all are terms that work. The idea here is to use a bright solid colour background and place a selection of your products on top of it in an interesting, abstract layout. A good example of this is done by Herschel Supply Co in the post below.
Doing a layout post like this can be done one of two ways.The first is to physically place all of your items on a background or green screen and take a photo, edit it and post it. The second option is to take a selection of products, have a designer remove the backgrounds and organise them into a post. The second option is usually the easiest option for most owners, as it allows for infinite background customization and is much faster than doing a photoshoot.
The last of the “big three” networks is Twitter. All things considered, Twitter is a much less visually a focused network than Instagram and Facebook. However, that leads to some interesting opportunities for imagery. Because of the text-focused nature of Twitter, adding imagery to your tweet can generate up to 150% more retweets compared to a strict text post. If you'd like to get more out of your Twitter marketing, Monetize has this great post about exactly that.
For whatever reason, we have seen quotes do really well on Twitter compared to Instagram and Facebook. This is purely anecdotal from our customers’ experiences, but it could be worth testing with a post or two. One of the best ideas to implement here is to use quotes from people/blogs/companies that are relevant to your store or product.Unlike using an actual image or depiction of a person, there is much less legal legwork required when using a quote. Some companies that have used quotes to great success have been companies like Foundr. While not strictly an ecommerce website (although they do sell digital products) the style of the quotes they use can be adapted to help sell ecommerce goods on social media, too.Instead of using a solid colour background, we would suggest taking a similar design approach (big, bold and solid colour font) and overlay that on top of an image that is relevant to your store. If you were a fashion brand, for example, take a fashion quote and overlay it on top of your latest handbag. Just a word of caution, if you plan on using someone else’s quote to sell your product, consult with your lawyer first – I’m not a lawyer but the legalities of that will vary dramatically based on each use case.
GIFs are extremely popular on Twitter and are a huge opportunity for brands. We create them all the time for our customers and, for the most part, they have seen excellent interaction on Twitter. GIFs and Twitter are a match made in heaven – both are designed to provide bite-size pieces of information or content. One of the easiest designs to use for a GIF is a quick, snappy cut through a few of your products with bright, colourful visuals (notice how bright colours work on all networks). This is a specific product or even an overall store category.https://twitter.com/eBay/status/885558380848443392A really good example of this was done by eBay’s feed as you can see above. Lots of colours and quick cuts made for a really visually impressive and engaging post. Another option here is to reuse three or four of your ‘Layout Images’ from Instagram to form a GIF similar to the one shown in the eBay example.There are two really simple ways to make a GIF. First is to use a service like Giphy’s maker – it’s free and allows you download the source file and post it. The only drawback with free GIF makers like Giphy is the inability to choose a resolution – which in certain scenarios can make your GIF look weird or get cut off on Twitter. The second way is to have a designer create and optimise the GIF for you.=If you are looking for more GIF inspiration, also take a look at Nike’s feed – it is best-of- breed when it comes to GIFs in our opinion (it should be, Nike spends tonnes on creating the videos for those GIFs).https://twitter.com/Nike/status/885261006116716544
Whether you choose to focus on one social network or all three discussed here, there are a few universal rules to remember. No matter the network, visuals almost always trump text. And colourful, engaging, well-designed visuals almost always trump poorly designed visuals.If you are reading this and thinking that you can’t possibly afford the resources required to manage all three networks at such a level, there is a simple way to fix that. Re-purpose your graphics as much as possible. We do this all the time for our clients and, you know what? It works.Like I mentioned above, one of the most effective re-purposing methods is taking Instagram photos and using them on Twitter as a GIF and on Facebook as a plain ‘ol image (resized to fit properly).The biggest thing to remember when re-purposing graphics, however, is that each network has different resolution requirements. So before you start posting photos all over the place, remember to consult a social media resolution guide or make it clear to your designer that you are wanting to repurpose the graphics.I hope this post helped you get some ideas on how to better promote your ecommerce store on social media effectively. If you have any questions, email me at andrew@godesignergo.com.
There are many tools for DIY makers and crafters to boost their sales online. Find out about five alternatives to etsy!
There are never too many channels to list your products — especially when they really can generate sales for your business. Handmade at Amazon is a new store on Amazon.com for invited artisans to sell their unique, handcrafted goods. Amazon, as a general marketplace with enormous traffic, exists already for quite a long time, but it is just now that they create a special place dedicated for DIY products.Many merchants expect that Handmade at Amazon will become as powerful as Etsy is now (or even more). They hope that the platform will bring them thousands of new clients and will generate many purchases. It is difficult to predict now what will the impact of this new channel be, but it certainly has an enormous potential and is a thing that DIY makers are impatiently waiting for. So am I.
Statistics show that more than 300 million people use Instagram already (which is almost 30% of all people who access internet). What is more, Instagram seems to be a perfect place for DIY/fashion promotion. Its users just love browsing images of beautiful products. Letting them buy those they like directly from the app seems to be an obvious move. Sadly enough, it is not possible. Though Instagram has announced some advertising possibilities, they are still not accessible to everyone — they are being tested by the biggest brands and are not offered to small/medium sized businesses.The solution Instagram has invented is called Carousel Ad. It consists of a couple of images. Once a user is interested in a product, he can swipe through to see more photos and, at the end, click through the Learn More button to be directed to online store to buy the item.You can see it live here. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? I bet posts of this kind will soon become a huge traffic source for online stores/marketplaces with DIY and fashion products. That is why we are all looking forward to Instagram making them available for all the sellers — even the smallest ones.
Omnisale is a tool which aims to solve problems with multichannel selling that crafters and designers have. It is now available only for private beta-testers and then will be launched to general public. Basically, it is one place to sell everywhere — you can connect all the channels you use (i.e Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Dawanda, WooCommerce etc.) and manage them together. It means, you have all your inventory, orders and clients in one app. Consequently:
Seems like it will really help save a lot of time ;)
Omnisale will also analyse seller’s inventory and suggest him new channels with demand for his products. They will integrate with all of them, so you will also be able to list in new marketplaces easily and quickly. This feature seems like a big novelty that can actually revolutionise ecommerce, letting designers and crafters grow their sales, listing everywhere their customers are. Can’t wait to hear first feedback from merchants that used it!
With more than 1, 44 billion active users all around the world, Facebook is certainly one of the biggest sources of customer acquisition. More and more sellers use Facebook Ads to attract users to their stores and the possibilities seem to be really wide (especially in terms of targeting!).Nevertheless, there is still one thing that Facebook lacks — the possibility of purchasing a product directly from News Feed (while browsing), without having to leave the portal. But — no worries — Facebook is already working on it. They have introduced a “Buy” call-to-action button on ads and Page posts that will let users purchase a product immediately, still being on Facebook.
This really has a great potential and may increase Facebook’s conversion tremendously. The purchasing process will shorten significantly, as consumers will even be able to pay through Facebook. The feature is already tested by some of the Shopify store owners, but I hope it will become available to wider public very soon. I am really curious how will customers find this new way of shopping — will they consider it a great convenience or rather act distrustfully, being concerned with security issues. What do you think?
Last but not least — Pinterest buyable pins. Another thing being tested now, but not yet available to all sellers. Pinterest, again, is a huge traffic generator for ecommerce businesses, but still isn’t 100% adapted to online sellers (and buyers) needs. That is a big waste, as, according to statistics, 93% of portal’s users plan to purchase products they browse.But, happily enough, Pinterest recognises its own potential and they found a way to make the most of it — Buyable Pins. Scenario here is pretty similar to the one on Facebook. A user can buy things without ever leaving the Pinterest app (the feature is developed for iPhone and iPad right now). The payment goes through Apple Pay to make sure credit card info is secure. The good news is Pinterest doesn’t charge you any commission, so you get a new sales generator completely for free. It seems really exciting and may turn out to be one of the most effective channels in ecommerce. Hope Pinterest makes it accessible to everyone as soon as possible, so that we all can turn our followers to our… customers.
Ecommerce market is constantly evolving. There are hundreds of tools developed every year to make online shopping easier — both for selllers and buyers. Nevertheless, only some of them turn out be game changers — such as for instance Etsy (for DIY industry), Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest (for free marketing and branding opportunities) and Google (as a place where people look for products). The 5 novelties I mentioned above have, in my opinion, big chances to become next game changers. Which tools/business would you add to this list? Share your ideas in comments — I am really curious about other sellers predictions.
Your store's ecommerce conversion rate has a huge impact on your sales. Before spending money on marketing, optimise your website to achieve better results.
Testing conversion is about checking certain elements on your website in order to provide as high conversion index as possible (meaning that the % of visitors of your page who end up purchasing your products is as high as possible). Without testing, decisions you make are based solely on intuition. Therefore, it is advisable to focus on optimisation of your page before you start to invest in campaigns in search engines and advertisements. Otherwise, the money spent on promotion will not produce any results, since the website will not convert itself.So what can we do to improve ecommerce conversion rate? There are many factors that allow us to measure it. In this article we will introduce some of them and give you useful hints how to optimise your website.
The first impression has a great impact on consumers' choices. What can they see when they visit your store? Are they able to identify quickly what it is that you are selling? If you were a customer, would you trust yourself as a seller?Hint: If the answer to the two last questions is “no”, you definitely need to work on your store!
A home page is usually the first thing your customers see. Ask yourself the following questions:
Hint: There is no one right answer in this case – different solutions prove effective for different stores. You have to experiment, introduce small changes and observe what works best for you.
The links in the top of your website should reflect the actions your users are most likely to perform. You know your customers best, so it is your task to decide what they consider most important. In the majority of cases it would be reasonable to put the segmentation of customers according to their sex in the main navigation bar. On the other hand, some also find it essential to divide items by different parts of clothes (i.e. jacket, trousers, t-shirt etc), include contact information or emphasise bestsellers in the navigation bar.Take Sugarpills, one of the stores on Shoplo.com, for example. In its main navigation bar it focuses on its most important categories of items, whereas it pays less attention to things such as return policy, terms of delivery, a contact form or “About Us” section. This way, they direct customers straight to the products, which increases conversion.
Hint: Make sure to place the categories your customers find most interesting in the navigation bar.
This point is partly related to the previous one – since this is your product which counts most, the customers must know what you sell immediately when they enter your website. The easiest way to provide them with this info is to present big, high quality pictures of the goods you offer. A site that includes many distracting elements may discourage customers from choosing your products and will make them feel lost.Research shows that over 70% of buyers claim photos of the items have a great impact on decisions they make while shopping.Hint: Focus on your products and their presentation, also on a home page.
Not all the stores accept any kind of payments. Therefore, do not forget to include a list of icons of the credit cards you acknowledge not only on the sites of particular products, but also on a home page, for example in lower right corner. That will make it easier for your customers to look for the information they need and then make a purchase.Hint: Add information about the possible methods of payments to the website of your store.
Although customer confidence online has increased in recent years, many people are still afraid to shop online. In order to convince them, you should add a 'safety policy' where you will describe the rules and guaranties valid in your store, as well as a return policy. Make sure that the regulations are accessible and easy to find for the visitors. The most common place to put them is in a footer.Hint: Provide your customers with safety guarantees and you will convince the unconvinced to shop online.
As the research shows, the decision to buy a product for the great majority of customers is based on other people's recommendations. Consequently, more and more online stores present reviews of their satisfied users to attract new customers. Not only does it persuade the prospects to buy your goods, but also is a way of demonstrating your current clients that their opinion matters. Use our Yotpo app to collect social reviews from your customers.
Hint: Including satisfied customers' reviews will attract new buyers.As you can see, there is a great range of ways to improve conversion. In order to boost your sales, take the above-mentioned tips into account and optimise your website before you start marketing campaigns.Good luck!