Clever little tricks, tips, ideas and methods to help your ecommerce brand sell more and build a loyal fan base.
There is so much content out there on the internet. In the time that we have been at it, we’ve found some blogs to read if you sell anything online.
Our list is composed of everything. Colour inspiration, eCommerce and entrepreneur tips to crafting ideas and how to knit. Yep. If there is nothing here that helps you, please let us know and we will personally search the internet for you. Seriously.By the way, we also know how annoying it can be to sift through your bookmarks bar. Feedly fixes that.In no particular order:
Have you noticed that not all Etsy stores take off and automatically generate a 6 digit income overnight? Sidehustle is a website dedicated to people that have their business on the side whilst working a 9-5.Our favourite read: How to quit your job this year.
Handmade in the USA is a blog written by the lovely Jana. She is full of tips for entrepreneurs and makers to turn their passions into profitable businesses.Our favourite read: How to validate your idea.
Noobpreneur gets our vote for the best-named blog. Noobpreneur.com are a team offering tips and ideas for small business owners and those who want to enter entrepreneurship with the right mindset.Our favourite read: How freebies can help your business
Social media examiner are a behemoth. They know basically everything there is to know in all categories of social media.Our favourite read: 19 tools to create social media content.
What do Yotpo do? Not much, only get their customers more reviews, an increase in conversions, retention of customers, acquisition of new traffic, and a rise in search results.Our favourite read: How to collect and leverage customer photos.
Sue B Zimmerman is often called the Queen of Instagram. Her knowledge of the photo sharing social media application is second to none. Proof of this is how quickly she got on top of the new ‘Stories’ feature on Instagram.Our favourite read: Instagrams new ‘Stories’ for business
GetResponse hail from Poland (just like us!), the home of the Startup business. GetResponse takes care of all your email marketing and everything that goes with them.Our favourite read: 9 little white lies about marketing automation
UK Craft Blog is exactly that. A blog aimed at UK based crafters. A massive collection of crafty inspiration and ideas for anyone looking to keep their hands busy.
Folksy is a place to buy and sell handcrafted or designed work from UK designer-makers. Based in the gorgeous Sheffield, UK, this great little community always pumps of golden blog entries.Our favourite read: Styled product shots
Marmalead has to be one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated tools out there. Specifically for Etsy sellers who want to grow, their tools are in-depth and thorough. As is their blog. Bonus: The Etsy Shop Fitness calculator.Our favourite read: Why you should talk to your customers.
A beautiful mess are 2 sisters who are a women's lifestyle company focused on creating happiness every day through a homemade lifestyle. They do lots and they do all of it well. Even better, the blog about it all.Our favourite read: Etiquette whilst networking.
Millo is a blog dedicated to making small business owners think about all aspects of their business and how they can be streamlined, made easier and made enjoyable.Our favourite read: Maximize productivity, minimise burnout.
Copyblogger is hands down is one of my personal favourite blogs to read. Talking about a range of topics when it comes to writing content for a blog and how to push that blog in front of people that want to read it. Content Marketing Mastery.Our favourite read: Why you hate writing.
Shopify blog- What needs to be said about Shopify?Our favourite read: How going beyond Etsy is essential to growing.
Bplans is a wealth of information to starting, running and growing a small business of any kind.Our favourite read: Preventing small business fraud online.
Kissmetrics takes a very analytical and mathematical approach to improving your eCommerce store. Professional number crunching is behind a lot of things they discuss. Definitely, something we all need to know more about. Once of our favourite blogs to read if you sell anything online.Our favourite read: How personalization helps drives customers.
Ohjoy are producers of how-to lifestyle videos and a daily blog with a focus on design, fashion, food, and joyful moments from everyday life. Bright, bubbly and always able to make us feel better about anything.
Responster describe themselves better than I can. “Weekly posts on building a business, entrepreneurship, and failing gracefully‘. One of our essential blogs to read.Our favourite read: How to gather and analyse customer feedback.
WME group are one of Australia’s fastest growing agencies 3 years running. Offering in-house digital services for some massive Australian Brands, their blog is also a goldmine of knowledge.Our favourite read: The magic of using correct keywords.
Plentyofcolour is a bit of an exception. It's not a blog per se, but it is a collection of images constantly updated. One look at these images and you’ll know why it's regularly visited when we need inspiration.What did we miss? What don't we read that we should? Let us know your favourite blogs to read if you sell anything online!
86% of Etsy sellers are Women. So what can we learn from men on Etsy? We discussed business, days off & marketing with some of our favourite male sellers.
What can we learn about 'men on Etsy'? What can the male sellers teach these '86%'?To help out the gents, we’ve decided to shine the Shoplo spotlight on some of our favourite men on Etsy, the best sellers that come from Mars. We asked a multitude of questions about their business, how they grow and develop and how they find selling on Etsy.
Roy of Christ Centered Forge creates unique hand forged skillets, hammered copper bowls, to floral sculptures.
Kosmas of Aluminiopassions makes customised aluminium items, such as bracelets, necklaces, key chains and other gift items.
Howard Brown of Brown & Williams Clothiers and Temporal Outfitters does a lot in the way of Vintage British clothing and vintage modern/retro clothing.
Bryan of bryancronk ceramics makes utilitarian pottery and attractive, rustic, handmade ceramics for everyday living.
Damir of fireflygentsware specialises in custom made and one-off vintage gentlemen's wear ranging from ties, tie clips, pins, and cufflinks.
Anthony of wakethetree creates fine modern furniture built for everyday use, handmade from beautiful solid wood.
Roy: I've been acquiring my blacksmithing skills over a span of about 8 years. I started learning on my own, mostly by reading books written by other blacksmiths, and also by trial and error. After several years, I started attending craft schools such as Touchstone Center for Crafts and John C. Cambell Folk School and I found that my skills increased exponentially by studying under a smith more advanced than myself.
Bryan: Needing to step away from the computer, I signed up for a ceramics class 8 years ago, and have been experimenting with pottery techniques since
Damir: I have been making things such as cufflinks for a few years as a hobby, just used the internet and went from there...
Anthony: My father is a woodworker. I grew up helping him in the shop and learning from him.
Newman (left) and Anthony hard at work.
Bryan: Pretty much now. I still currently have a 9-5 day job but am in the process of figuring out what it will take to be a creator full-time, and hope to be working for myself by 2017.
Roy: Up until about 4 years ago, I had a great career as a lead HVAC installation technician. One rainy morning, I got into a car accident on my way to work. That wreck caused me to have a spinal injury to such a degree that I could no longer work in that trade. I took a leap of faith that my passion of blacksmithing could provide for my family.
Damir: I've been using it for a few years after I shopped on there once and said, "I can do that too!"
Kosmas: I heard through a friend who was also an Etsy seller. It was an opportunity for me to promote and sell my work outside Greece since nowadays my country faces a serious economic crisis.
Kosmas: When my earnings from my Etsy shop covered my daily expenses. From this point on I decided to become a full-time Etsy seller.
Bryan: In the beginning, I posted all of my work. it was unfocused and scattered. A couple years ago, I started making faux bois style pottery, and it felt as if I found a voice. I put the new work onto Etsy and the reception was better than I expected. It was the first time I felt like I was on to something. My ceramics business and career is still in its infancy, but that was a changing point because it became clear what my direction and focus would be going forward.
A fine example of Bryan's work.
Howard: Getting our listings/ products to stand apart from all the other offerings on Etsy.
Damir: Getting customers. I have a Facebook page too. I found that the more items you have the more likely someone will buy. Also, really high-quality pictures help!
Anthony: Making sure that we were managing our money well. When we started out, we tried not to accrue debt. We wanted to work with what we had, little by little. I had to start a shop from scratch, so getting the money together for shop tools and equipment was a challenge. I had to learn to be more creative with what I had, to make due with less. We also had to adjust to our new lives and learn to create a balance between personal and business.
Roy: My biggest challenge I faced during my first year was breaking my dependency on a weekly paycheck. When you sell online, the amount of money you make in any given week or month greatly varies. When you have terrific sales, you better save some of that money. And when you sales are dry, you better tighten your belt.
No doubts about Roy's work being functional and attractive.
Roy: My team is fairly small. Including myself, there are five people who do work related to Christ Centered Ironworks. I do the majority of the forge work. I have two other blacksmiths that I sub-contract on an irregular basis. I also work with a local wood artisan to create crates for my skillets. My wife does everything related to the computer- bookkeeping, creating listings, replying to customers, social media posts, plus photography too.
Howard: Only 2 of us.
Kosmas: Apart from myself, my teammates are my wife who helps out when there is need and my little dog Joy who provides moral support.
Bryans assistant is also a great talker.
Roy: I wake up at 6am with my wife. We read our Bible, pray, go for a jog, and eat. After we've spent our time together, we wake up our children at 8am. I generally work from 9am to 5pm, stopping for lunch midday. If I'm cutting some deadlines close for orders, I spend two more hours in the forge after dinner. Normally we wrap up the evening with a movie and a prompt 11pm bedtime.Anthony: I try to get up early in the morning for a run. Sometimes it’s 4 or 5 AM, but making the time to get some exercise and be outside is important to me. Some mornings I’m in the office, working through details with customers on custom projects, purchasing materials or doing design work. Then I work on shop projects. Liz spends most of her day in the office. We usually quit around 6 or 7 PM to cook dinner and spend a bit of time together, relaxing before going to bed.Kosmas: My day starts at 7.30 a.m. and stops at 01.00 a.m. when I go to bed again.
Kosmas thanks one of his supportive Street Teams
Damir: I look around at other stores and keep up with what people buy. Changing prices, pictures etc. as the weeks go on.
Bryan: I read a lot. I read financial and entrepreneur blogs, keep up with Ceramics Monthly magazine, follow and watch what other ceramic artists are doing on social media. It’s a lot of trial and error, reading, and observing others.
Anthony: We keep up with other small business owners on social media and blogs. Liz reads some small business blogs and researches specific questions that we have. We try to keep a fresh perspective on things.
Anthony has a close eye for detail
Kosmas: My goal is to continue adding more listings to my shop. More listings mean more chances of making sales
Damir: I'd love to have my own gentlemen's store but I don't have the disposable cash right now
Howard: Eventually we would like to have a brick & mortar shop that acts as a vintage collective, where other sellers can exhibit their wares also, but the eComm part of the business will still be key.
Howard: Through Etsy groups and facebook, as well as selling out at pop-up events and markets. We also take part in 2 or 3 fashion shows every year. I also handing out cards at costume events i attend.
Anthony: We keep up with our SEO and try to stay active on social media. We try to take advantage of press opportunities as much as possible.
Roy: We have recently been broadening our horizons when it comes to promoting our business. We've opened additional stores online with Amazon Handmade and Scott's Marketplace. Earlier this year, we launched our own website with a blog and store. We've had a professional facebook page for several years, but made it a goal (that we started in June) to post something 4 times a week. We post everything from products to shop updates, what we've been doing for the day, a recent article we've written for our blog and more. We make videos of our products in use, and post them on youtube.
Roy feels sparks with his work.
Roy: I've really been surprised by the vastness of the e-commerce world. I've literally sold items that have gone to the other side of the world. I love to look at the "map" under the stats section on Etsy and see all the views I've had in various countries worldwide.
Howard: The number of people who look, like and re-post things even if they don't buy. They "window shop" electronically and that gets us more exposure.
Bryan: The competition and how difficult it is to be found. You can’t expect people to find you because you have a good product, you have to find ways of shouting and getting people to notice you and generate interest.
Kosmas: What really surprised me was that there is so much demand from countries on the other side of the world for items in my shop related to Ancient Greek history and especially Spartan history.
Bryan: Most of my sales are through word-of-mouth. I am lucky enough to have been contacted through Instagram, Facebook, and friends for commissions. Etsy sales are still relatively low for me, but I attribute that to the tactile nature of my product.
Roy: My products are for sale outside of Etsy. In the past, I've sold on eBay and CustomMade. In addition to my Etsy store, I currently sell items through my own website, Amazon Handmade, Scott's Marketplace, and occasionally locally. As far as the flow of orders, my Etsy store brings in the most.
Damir: I've had a few female buyers who buy my items for their partners, brothers and family etc. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing a nice set of cufflinks on a girl's shirt one day!
Kosmas: Most of my listings target men. However, most of my customers are women who buy them as gifts for men.
Howard: We find that about 20% of our clientele are women because many vintage men's clothes are too small for the average guy today we find that a good many women buy our clothes. A large number of women who see our clothes rave about the looks and say they wish their men would dress that way.
Howard from Brown & Williams will keep you far beyond dapper.
Bryan: Outside of ceramics, I work full-time as a web developer and am fixing up an old house. I like to work with my hands, be it with a keyboard, hammer, or ball of clay.
Roy: When I'm not in my shop, I spend my time jogging, hiking, camping, playing with my kids, practising parkour and callisthenics.
Anthony: We love to travel, camp, hike and spend time in nature. We have a van which we use as a hybrid — it easily converts from work vehicle to camper.
Kosmas: To try the Etsy platform for sure but make sure they invest time and effort if they want to make sales.
Damir: Just do it - let your friends, colleagues and family know. Some of my friends have bought my items to give as gifts because each item that I have, there is only one out there so not everyone will have them
Roy: I encourage everyone to try a handicraft. If you want to take it further, set a small goal for yourself. Make a few items to sell. When you reach that goal, make a new one- this time larger. Keep growing! Don't be just a dreamer- be a doer! Don't be afraid to try new avenues- you may fail or succeed, but the thing that makes you truly successful is your attitude! Men- don't be afraid of making pretty things! As far as I have observed online, women do most of the shopping.
Bryan- Find your voice and brand. I would advise other guys to know who they are and what their market is. I’m still working on this myself, but once I started putting effort into defining who I am and what I make as an artist, things started getting clearer, and a purpose to what I am trying to do and sell emerged.
Howard- Get out there and do it! Etsy is a great tool to showcase your crafts and handiwork. Don't be discouraged if sales don't come instantly... take good pics, write engaging descriptions and participate in Etsy groups. Also, think on what tags/ keywords will appeal to the customer you are trying to reach... what would THEY type into the search field?
Anthony:1) Make sure you have a great product that you are 100% confident in from the start.2) Take the best photos possible (they are definitely worth the investment when the customer cannot see and feel your product in person)3) Stay as organised as you can.4) Remember why you started. Consistently look over your goals and vision for your business. Don’t forget about the details or the big picture. Take a step back and analyse how things are going— this can be difficult when you are busy and wrapped up in the day-to-day. Liz and I have weekly collaboration meetings to make sure we are on the same page, to analyse what’s working and what’s not, and to find solutions together.5) Strive to provide excellent customer service. If your customer isn’t 100% happy with your product, do what it takes to make it right with them. Try not to let any of your customers walk away without feeling good about their experience. As a small business, you rely on customer feedback to build your reputation and to make sure your product is the best that it can be. Don’t ignore criticism —use it to change your product so that it becomes better.
A good supervisor, like Newman at wakethetree is essential to success.
Thanks very much to our favourite guys for giving us an insight on how they work their magic!
Who are some of you favourite men on Etsy? Let us know in the comments!
Being a small store has its benefits. Use them to compete with big brands. See 5 possible advantages of your business over the big competitors.
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One of the key factors crucial for ecommerce store to succeed is the choice of an adequate niche. The biggest stores offer a great deal of various products. Therefore, what is favorable in smaller stores, is their curated selection of goods, so that the items they have in stock meet customers' demands and are of really high quality. Take Lamps&Co. for example – it offers only original, handmade products for children prepared by best designers and manufactures. Of course, founding a business as a niche does not have to exclude expanding its assortment in future.
Lamps&Co products
Because of a large scale of the biggest stores, they remain anonymous in relations with their customers, whereas in smaller shops it is much easier to reply to all the e-mails you get, talk with the users and listen to them in social media.By keeping in touch with your customers not only will you gain crucial knowledge, but it will also help you build relationship with them, which may prove fruitful. Always remember to be positive and personal in communication with customers - you will not sound like a robot then. In terms of the best medium - offer as many as you can.Livechat has become more and more popular in the last few years, but email and traditional phone support ensure that everyone can communicate with you how they want to. If you're wary about providing phone support, an online answering service like PATLive may be the best solution for you.
In the majority of large ecommerce stores the descriptions of products are copied from wholesalers' catalogs. Unique product descriptions will enable you to optimise your store in search engines so that it is more visible and consequently visited more frequently.
Preparing your own products gives you a guarantee that the goods you sell are unique and that the only place where customers are able to find them is your store. It helps you achieve a higher margin, since users do not have a possibility to compare your prices with other stores. Moreover, customers are more likely to pay more for things which they know are unusual.
Another advantage of your store may be its history – let your customers be the part of it. A way to emphasise the uniqueness of your store is to attach a deeper meaning to sales, for example by donating to some foundation or selling only the products with a fair trade mark. An instance of a store with such unusual history is business run by two sisters, Martha and Anna, whose grandfather was a tailor and they are still sewing and selling dresses together.
Manufacturing at Szyjemy Sukieki
The owners of small stores strive to be like the large, popular brands instead of taking advantage of the superiority they have over their competitors. What is your strategy to compete with large stores?
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!