So, you’ve set up a great virtual store, invested in a stunning design, beautiful photos, and of course, advertising in various media, but you still aren’t generating enough sales as you hoped?
That’s exactly why we’ve compiled 7 tips for you that will increase sales in your virtual store.
Make sure your website is simple and easy to navigate
Just as you certainly don’t like to wander around a giant, cluttered store with no category distribution where it’s hard to find the products you’re interested in, the same happens in the virtual arena.
If your site is difficult to use and not user-friendly, people won’t use it and won’t bother trying to understand how it works. People like order, clarity, and convenience, so when creating a virtual store, you must ensure that the user experience on the site will be positive, easy, simple, and intuitive.
Allow the users to easily navigate between site categories, help them find the product they are looking for easily, and assist them in understanding how the purchase process is done.
Make sure the product purchase process is as simple and fast as possible
There are many statistics showing huge amounts of abandoned carts by potential customers on the site when in fact, this situation could have been avoided.
So how do you get a potential customer to complete a purchase on the site and not abandon their shopping cart?
Just as you’ve made it easy and simple for the user to search for products on the site, navigate between different categories, and find what they were looking for, you must ensure that the purchase process is quick, simple, and intuitive as well.
Invest in product photos on your website
You know the phrase “we eat with our eyes first”?
This is also true when it comes to non-food products. Appearance is crucial in how we perceive things and how we feel towards them. Invest in quality photography of your products on your virtual store, and avoid amateurish photography and displaying dark, small, and unprofessional product images.
Also, display a wide variety of pictures and photograph the product from different angles. Some may think it’s an unnecessary action, but it’s important to understand that since it’s an online purchase, the user can’t really see and feel the product, so we need to ensure that they have the experience closest to purchasing in a physical store and can get as much information as possible about the product and be ready to buy it.
Create a sense of urgency among your users
Motivate your potential customers to take action and make them purchase your products now by using various triggers that create a sense of urgency.
For example, you can use special discounts limited to a few days or hours, advertise products in a limited edition, limited stock, offer free or discounted shipping for those who buy now, offer cashback for the next purchase for every customer who buys today, and more.
Add “pop-ups” to your website that move users to action
A pop-up is a “window” that pops up on the site, usually on a small part of the screen, and catches the user’s attention.
It is an effective advertising tool because it requires the user to take action: to close it or to click on it. Use pop-ups to promote your special offers, advertise new products, invite users to subscribe to your newsletter, or offer a discount code for their next purchase.
Use remarketing
Do you know that feeling when you searched for a flight to London, entered some website offering various deals, but did not make a purchase, and a few minutes after leaving the site and continuing to browse other sites entirely, you encountered an advertisement for that website?
Well, it’s not a coincidence, but rather the use of an effective advertising technique called “remarketing.”
Remarketing is an advertising tool that allows you to reach visitors who have already been to your site and display your ads to them while they are visiting other sites on the web. It is an effective advertising tool offered by Google AdWords and Facebook that “follows” the visitor.
This way, you can reach potential customers who have left your site without making a purchase and show them an ad that will create brand awareness and encourage them to return to your site and make a purchase.
Engage with your potential customers on social networks
Contact and engagement with potential customers through various social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, is seen by many business owners as a tool with little impact on actual sales.
However, it is actually one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and sales.
When you respond to questions that people post on your Facebook page, provide them with vital information about the products they are interested in, and address each user personally, you create a living perception of your brand and increase the chance of gaining new customers.
