Every online business has a single primary objective – to sell more. This holds true for every single business, be it a small mom and pop shop or a large multi-national corporation. To sell online, be it for a product or service, businesses can tweak numerous things that could help them in attaining success. It could range all the way from boosting traffic on one’s website to optimizing the conversion ratio through dedicated metrics.
But in today’s online world, there are a lot more changes one can implement to attain success when they sell online. More than often these changes can be implemented in no time, ensuring that it results in feasible results. These could also be strategies that can be implemented to ensure more goods or services are sold.
We will now examine some best practices businesses selling online could follow:
Honest sales communication
For businesses that have planned to sell online, this might seem like an obvious to-do task. But being honest in sales communication is the first step towards building a lasting reputation. A reputation that fosters and nurtures trust among potential customers for a brand. While everyone knows what to do to have an honest form of communication, many marketers and entrepreneurs are oblivious regarding what to avoid. This could include the likes of claims that cannot be substantiated, or messaging that is over the top. With the present generation of customers being averse to numerous things, the onus is on marketers to ensure there is an honest form of communication when they sell online.
Keep messaging consistent across platforms
For businesses that sell online, it is imperative for them to ensure the messaging is coherent and consistent across all the platforms. From the website to the landing page to the ads and their extensions to the social media handles, it is of paramount importance to maintain uniformity. This helps ingrain the brand’s proposition in the minds of the consumer and helps them build a level of trust. While different mediums demand a dedicated and customized form of communication, marketers must ensure that the overarching theme is in line with the brand’s core proposition.
Show-off your testimonials
Organizations that sell online have a trump card that is relatively difficult to have in the real-time retail world. Nothing resonates more with a potential customer than a review from another consumer who has used the product or service already. In this world, a satisfied consumer can attain a better conversion ratio for a business than anything else. While this helps in increasing online sales, it also helps the brand have a favorable perception that is priceless. This perception is the first step a brand can take in removing any apprehensions in the mind of a consumer.
Don’t assume anything
One of the biggest mistakes businesses that sell online make is to assume that the customer has an idea about the product that is being advertised or sold. Marketers building their communication on these assumptions could end up having a harsh reality check, which can have adverse effects on the organization. Hence, marketers must answer every tangible question through their communication along with keeping it precise, concise, and clear. The entire picture can always help customers make an informed decision, which benefits them and the organization as a whole.
Always be clear with your value proposition
Too many businesses that sell online fail because they end up focusing on themselves more than the consumer they are catering to. The harsh fact that every marketer must confront is that no one cares about the brand that is being built. An audience’s backing is just as strong as its value proposition. Customers first buy into the value proposition that is being offered before dwelling into the products or services. This value proposition can be further broken down into relevance, quantifiable value, and differentiator, and businesses must define each of these facets distinctively to ensure they sell online successfully.
Use urgency to your advantage
There’s nothing against using urgency to one’s advantage. This holds true especially for organizations that sell online. Customers react positively to a sense of urgency that is created, especially when it comes to time-sensitive special offers or the limited-edition coupon codes. But this sense of urgency must be created using the right mediums. Google offers ad extensions where one can put countdowns for a limited-time deal. This also works well for intuitive and interactive mailers.
Constrict the number of choices
Contrary to popular belief, offering numerous choices to a consumer does not translate into more sales. In the online world, where choices are already in abundance, businesses that sell online must look at having limited choices to avoid indecisiveness and confusion among the customers. Having numerous products in the online world also means a dedicated page for each product. This further increases the amount of time a consumer spends on the website, which could lead to a dropout. By constricting the number of choices, dedicated emphasis can be laid on individual products which could ensure that the customer does not bounce and go anywhere.
Seamless checkout process
Enough has already been said about cart abandonment rates across online businesses. The only way the cart abandonment rate can be reduced is by having a seamless, frictionless checkout process for the consumer. The process of navigating through the website and completing the payment for the order has to be well thought through to ensure the conversion rates don’t drop. This can be done by eliminating any redundant steps that exist in the checkout process. These hurdles could dissuade a potential customer from becoming a loyal consumer.
Offer choices in payment modes
In today’s digital-driven world, different customers may have different preferred modes of payments. When businesses that sell online offer numerous payment options, they open the doors for different subsets of customers. Customers that are not deterred by the limitations in the modes of payment. While having numerous payment options can be a hassle for businesses, it is definitely worth investing in it to ensure there is a considerable spike in online sales.
Forget mobile. Offer cross-device
No, we are not asking businesses that sell online to ignore mobiles. Mobile search has eclipsed desktop search already, and it is bound to grow multifold in the years to come. It is imperative for businesses to cater to their mobile audiences with a dedicated app or a form that is responsive enough. In today’s world, we are seeing growing browsing habits across tablets, laptops, and desktops, and businesses can’t afford to miss out on any.
