How to Increase Website Sales?

What to do when you have lots of website traffic but NO sales?

This has been a common complaint for many ecommerce stores (stores that have a website to generate sales). The problem stems from the business owner/executive team, thinking of the customer journey from a business stand point instead from the customer standpoint.

When the hats are switched, it makes it easier to see through the shopper's lens.

Your website is not a museum of products but rather, a virtual shopping store, therefore engage with the shopper.

Let me take you through a vivid shopping experience you've had before.

Picture you are at your favorite shopping mall to either purchase gifts for someone or yourself. There you are, standing in the hallway. To your left and right are clothing stores.

Clothing store to your left has a huge sign "Sale ends today! 35% OFF the entire store"

Clothing store to your right has no visible persuasive signage.

Which one would you walk into at first?

The general consensus says they would walk into the store on their left, the one with the visible persuasive signage.

Now, liken that to your website.

What visible persuasive signage do you have up? Is your header banner attention grabbing or is it hidden by all the noise on the homepage?

That's something to think about!

Let's continue along with your vivid shopping mall experience.

As you enter the store to your left, you are immediately approached by a sales rep.

"Hi Thank you for stopping by! Is there anything I can assist you with?

Firstly, one of your leg is in the store, the other is outside the door. You haven't gotten a chance to smell the store fragrance and catch the music they are playing through the intercom.

How does that make you feel? Annoyed, right? I figured so!

"Can I get some time to walk through the store first please?" Yip! that's the general consensus response.

Allow the shopper time to inhale, plant both feet on the store's ground, and observe their surroundings.

That is the same experience shoppers get when they land on your website. They are immediately bombarded with an entrance pop-up notification, asking them to sign up for the newsletter or join the mailing list etc.

Give the shopper space and time! Do not scare them off your virtual store!

Allow the customer to view your store details/items before triggering a conversational pop-up notification.

Now let us go back to your mall experience.

Which works out better?....read the two scenarios below.

There you are, looking for a dress to attend your friend's anniversary party. You are not quite sure how to articulate what you want and time is against you.

After spending 5 minutes in the store, skimming through racks, you get frustrated and storm out. You are unhappy.

Here is the other scenario.

Whilst you are looking through racks, a sales rep approaches and asks you specific questions.

"What style of clothes are you looking for?" You reply with the style

"What size are you looking for?" You reply with your size

"What color are you looking for?" You reply with the color

Then, the sales rep points you to the aisle, where you would find exactly what you need.

Whew! What a relief!

You feel less flustered. You have fewer items to sift through because you are seeing what you want, its in your style, size and preferred color(s).

Before you know it, you tried on a few dresses and you made your choice.

That should be the same experience a shopper receives when she visits your virtual store.

So, how do you create that in-person experience virtually? I thought you might ask!

I recommend using apps like Optimonk and Jebbit. They are great for having conversational popup notifications in the form of a quiz.

The shopper can be asked 2-3 questions, about 5 seconds after landing on your website. Have different options of categorized items in your store so that they will know what they are looking for.

At the end, give the shopper a token of appreciation in the form of a discount, via email or text, for answering the questions. Upon submission, redirect the shopper to the specific products that matches their inquiry.

Simple right? Check out Skin & Glory UK website. They have a great example Optimonk's conversational entrance pop-up notification. Whereas, Sweet Surrender's website has Jebbit's quiz.

This simple strategy lowers your website bounce rate because you found a way to keep the shopper on your website a bit longer.

Here are some other important things to consider including on your website to increase sales:

Have a chatbot icon so that the shopper can feel free to ask questions about a product, shipping etc. Your aim is to make the shopper's virtual experience as close to the in-person experience.

Always use persuasive language that captures the shopper's attention.

Showcase your brand ethics/ beliefs. You do this by highlighting products designs, durability, guarantees, etc, to encourage the potential buyers to make that purchase. Check out Lucyy Lunaee's website for an example of this.

Showcase your specials, different “Hot Selling” items and similar products to encourage your shoppers to make that purchase.

Always make sure to have an exit POP-UP notification. Speak to the shopper using direct words. Make it seem as though you are interacting face to face with them. Check out Lash Bar Kollection's website for an example

Capitalize on your website’s traffic data to know the attributes of those who visited and those who made a purchase. This makes it easier to remarket.

Last but not least, your website content should match the standard of the website’s name.

If you are in need of an Ecommerce Operations Strategist to grow your store into other locations, sales and profits (among other things) schedule a call with me today. We can speak briefly before organizing a lunch meeting at a preferred restaurant.

What to find your target audience?

When starting out in business, you need to conduct market research. Market research, when done correctly, would identify where there is a gap in the market. You should seek to fill that gap by offering the solution to the problem.

For example: Short people, often referred to as dwarfs, encounter problems when shopping for clothing. Shopping in the kid section is not age appropriate for adults. The adults usually have to get their clothes tailor made to suit their unique measurements.

How did I know that?

Market research done the right way!

Perhaps you skipped market research and went all in your business. Now you are stuck at the place where, you do not know who is your target audience.

Follow these steps to help you find your target audience:

1. Create a google analytics account

2. Insert your google analytics tracking ID on your website

3. For 30 consecutive days, promote your business using organic marketing on as many platforms as possible.

4. At the end of the 30 day period, go to Google analytics to check out the data.

5. The analytics would show you the following:

• The best sales channels and referring websites

• The audience behaviour on your website

• The audience real interests

• The bounce rates from the various sales channels

• The audience that added to cart versus those who left at the home page.

Here are some important thing to consider when finding your target audience:

• Enter low competitive market and raise the standard to dominate the market by delivering a service to your niche.

• Target audiences with difficult or overlooked demands and provide a reliable service/product to set a particular standard to the market.

• Identify where there’s a gap in the market and provide the solution to create a demand.

How to cost your products?

They say "Cost x3"....Is that correct?

There are three product costing methods circulating out in social media, so the question is, which one is correct?

Method 1. Cost Price is derived by adding all initial direct costs.

Your cost price is calculated using the vendor price, the shipping cost and the packaging price. The cost you get after tallying, will be your product cost price.

Make sure to have a reliable multiplier to ensure that all business expenses and future incoming profits are covered.

Method 2. Charge your worth and add tax!

This may not always work in your favor because self-evaluating is never the same. The way you perceive yourself is how you will measure your worth. However, evaluating your products may be more straight forward in terms of calculating the fixed vendor price to the packaging price.

Method 3. Competitor Prices

This is where you look at the competition and base your selling prices either lower or higher. This type of pricing is inaccurate as your gross profit margins would differ. Competitor cost prices vary on the volume of the product that is being purchased from their vendor or manufacturer. This is not the best approach.

“Market pricing”, this means providing a unique good or service which is applicable or affordable to the niche you wish to attract.

“Selling price”, in order to calculate the sale price of your product, in the first instance you need to ADD the Cost price, Shipping price, Packaging price, Salary, Taxes, The Business expenses all together. When you get the final cost then you add profit and the final figure, will be the Selling Price of the products.

Watch the video below to get more details.