Do you want to know how to increase online sales of your store or business? In this article we will explain the main points that you must take into account to increase sales in the online channel.
We start with the aspects to take into account to take care of the online channel of a business and then we explain the method that companies such as Airbnb, Hotmail or Dropbox have carried out to grow exponentially. Here we go!
How to increase online sales?
Before being able to implement a method to increase sales, you have to be clear that in order to exploit the digital channel of any business it is necessary to comply with all these points:
- Have your own website: Without a doubt, the first case to obtain more sales of your products through the internet is to have a website. For professional jobs it is essential that you hire a powerful hosting as well as a CMS that suits the objectives of your project.
- Work on the user experience of your website: Once you have your website active, it is important that you work on the experience of your users. The most important thing is that you create a simple and intuitive website that allows users to get in the minimum number of clicks possible to reach their goal (preferably convert to sale).
- Make your purchase process simple: A little related to the previous point. If you have an ecommerce, it is necessary that the sales process be as simple as possible. It will be useless if your website is friendly if the purchase process is complex and a large part of your users leave the products without buying in the cart.
- Reduce the shipping time of your products: E-commerce is currently a very competitive sector. That is why you have to try to get your products to their recipient in a maximum of 24-72 hours. If buying your product involves waiting weeks or months to receive it, users will look for alternatives in other digital stores or platforms such as Amazon.
- Eliminate shipping costs: Similar to the previous point. If you can, try to eliminate shipping costs for all of your products. If this is not possible, make it clear from the beginning that the purchase of that product will entail the payment of extra shipping costs. If you do not notify the user from the beginning, they will leave the sales process halfway when they find themselves with extra expenses than expected.
- Get a reputation on social networks: Social networks give us the possibility of generating a very positive impact on our potential customers. Do not neglect this channel and exploit social networks creating a strategy that manages to position your brand in the top of mind of your client.
- Get web traffic through digital advertising : Without users who come to your website it is impossible to obtain online sales. Therefore, it is important that you define the advertising campaigns that you will carry out throughout the year and create ads in Google Ads and Facebook Ads to increase the number of users that reach your web page. To get the maximum number of users who come to your website to finish, it is necessary that you create landing pages that you convert like the ones explained in this guide.
- Work on the SEO of your website and do inbound marketing: This point for some is not elementary. After all, you can always buy traffic through online advertising or creating strategies with influencers. However, we consider that working on the SEO of your website will bring you many joys and will allow you to have monthly web traffic totally free. This together with the creation of an Inbound Marketing strategy will undoubtedly allow you to increase the online sales of your business.
- Analyze your statistics and constantly improve: My last “basic” recommendation for you to increase your online sales is that you periodically analyze the metrics of your website using tools such as Google Analytics or Hotjar. Analyze will allow you to detect points to improve on your website and, therefore, improve those points that may be causing your sales to be lower than expected.
Growth hacking: the best method to increase online sales
The growth hacking is one of the best methods to increase online sales of your store or business. This strategy, very famous and used in the United States, has helped companies multiply their income to companies of the size of Zalando, AirBnb, YouTube, Tinder, OnePlus or Hotmail. We explain how in another article, because growth hacking is a very important element.
Other strategies to increase sales
In addition to growth hacking, there are other digital marketing techniques that will help you increase the sales of your product or service through the online channel. There are thousands of strategies, but we consider that the 5 that are reaping the best results this year are the following:
Offers limited in time or number of units
Creating an imminent purchase need in the user is undoubtedly one of the best techniques to increase your sales. In order to create the need in the user to acquire your products or services, there are two ways:
- Offer a limited offer in units
- Offer a limited offer in time
Both options are very valid for most businesses and choosing one or the other option will depend on the nature of the product/service to be sold.
E-commerce example
You have an e-commerce business and you want to finish the stock of a sports sneakers from the previous season. As you have a limited stock in units, in this case it would be interesting to create an offer on your website in which the number of units that are available is indicated (I recommend that they be less than 10).
If you want and your web technology allows it, I recommend that on the page of the product that is on sale in addition to highlighting the number of units available , you include a counter with the number of people who are viewing the offer at that moment. This will help you to encourage the purchase of the customer.
Now, could a time-limited offer work in this same business? Of course. A good example of this is the Media Markt Tax Free Days or Black Friday.
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Example Online Course
Now imagine that you are an expert in photography and you want to sell an online course that you have prepared. In this case, the most logical and effective thing to do will be to create a limited offer in time. To create a need for immediate purchase in users, the most advisable in this case would be to add a countdown on the landing page of the course as well as cross out the regular price and highlight the new price available during the days you have decided.
It is important that in addition to adding the counter on your website, you create a sequence of 2-3 emails directed to that part of your database that has a high interest in this type of course. This will help you increase the conversion percentage of your campaign and increase your income even more.
If you have a course that takes place live and only a very limited number of students can access it. If you choose this path, it is very important that all the marketing you create around the course is focused on selling exclusivity and personalization (offering a very direct contact with the expert to the future student).
Freemium model: let the client try your services
If your business sells services to users, one of the best tactics out there is the freemium model. In this type of strategy, the end user is allowed to test the service for a limited time. A good example of this is the trial period offered by platforms such as Spotify or Netflix.
Let’s take other examples. If your business offers a digital tool for a specific sector, another good option is to create an equal tool but with certain limitations and that is totally free with no time limit. In case your tool is very powerful, you can put a trial period for a ridiculous price (1-5 dollars) like Ahrefs does.
If you want to sell a course, you can either create a reduced version of it (where we would offer, for example, 10% of the syllabus for free ) or make a masterclass on the same theme as the course you want to sell.
As you can see, the freemium model adapts very well to different digital services. You just have to try and find the formula that works best for you.
Increase cross-selling in your online store
If you have a digital store, it is important that on all product pages you offer similar products so that the user can compare, as well as complementary products that other users usually buy when they buy the first product
If your business model allows it, you can even design packs of different products in which a small discount is offered to the user.
Create flash deals daily
This strategy is focused on always offering delas, but limited in time. The idea is to create a section on your website in which new offers appear periodically (days or hours).
The offers will be online for a limited time, this way the user should take action immediately. This strategy works very well, especially in stores with a long catalog.
