Curate your products on the internet to maximize your reach and profit for free
Online selling has become a highly lucrative business, and it’s easy to see why. If you’re a modern-day entrepreneur, you’re probably aware of how useful the internet can be to help grow your business. You’ve seen it happen to other businesses. Whether they’re operating on a large or small scale, the internet has proven to be a helpful ally. However, it has to be used the right way in order to truly maximize the benefits it could give to your online business. If you want to reach the same level of growth for your own business, here are a few things you could do.
Consider All Avenues for Selling
You can start by considering all your options. You can choose to be an online seller in a marketplace or add e-commerce features to your existing website. Take your time choosing from a wide range of options e-commerce platforms. The best option for you depends on what you want to achieve as well as the nature of your business.
If you’re new to online selling, you might find it easier to use online marketplaces. Facebook marketplace is perhaps the least intimidating because you’re somehow navigating a more familiar environment. However, if you have a large inventory and would want to reach out to as many customers as you can, you can venture out and try Lazada, Shoppee, Carousell, and others. You can even sell in multiple marketplaces at once but make sure you get the hang of it first and have enough support and manpower to deal with all the processing once the orders start coming in.
If you have been in business operation for quite some time and have developed a decent amount of customers, you can build your own website or add e-commerce features to your existing site. If you want to maximize your online presence, you can consider doing both options but keep in mind that this will take more time and effort to maintain.
You can take on multiple platforms to maximize your reach, but it’s always advisable to start with the one that’s most suitable for the type of online business you run.
The Use of Social media is here to stay, so why not take advantage of it?
Try a Multifaceted Approach to Marketing
Having an online platform isn’t enough if you’re not working towards improving your brand’s visibility. Having a solid marketing strategy helps you obtain a steady flow of customers. Take advantage of social media to build your brand identity and engage with customers. Reach out to your customers via email newsletters and encourage them to buy by running regular promotions.
Work on building your client email list so you can keep them informed about new stocks, sales, and other exciting news about your business. Keep a steady flow of communication with your customers’ but be careful not to spam them.
You can also work on boosting your social media presence organically by making sure there are lots of visually stimulating images and content on your pages and website. You can come up with high-quality and creative shots of your products and produce infographics to help your consumers learn more about your products and other offerings. Be as engaging as possible.
Utilize every opportunity to show off your products and/or services. However, be thoughtful about the message you deliver. Your branding should stay consistent across the board.
Maintain A Solid Reputation Online
This is among the most difficult things to do in business, but one that is necessary. An excellent reputation could be one of the few things that will sustain your business and ensure its survival because it helps you attract and keep more customers. Your brand reputation helps you gain more customers through word of mouth. If you keep a tight ship and ensure that your customers get the satisfaction they want, they’ll advertise your brand for you for free.
Every decision you make matters because every little thing affects your business’ reputation. Everything from the quality of your products, the type of service you provide, the efficiency of your manpower, and others. Make sure to monitor everything but do get all the help you need. Operating a growing business can be overwhelming if you try to do it on your own.
Employ the Right People
The best way to ensure your customers always get excellent service is to hire and train the right people. Even if you’re running a business that’s purely online, your customers will have questions and concerns, and someone needs to address them.
Know what your customers need beforehand and make sure to provide it for them. It could be durable packaging, fast and reliable shipping, and so on. Be prepared for the bulk of orders when they start to roll in. Building your online presence and attracting more customers is only half the battle. Once they start ordering, you’ll need to be able to fulfill such orders in a very timely manner. This is critical if you want to keep them satisfied.
Having the right people is one effective way to propel your business forward.
Get the Right Tools
Get the right tools to help you run a smoother, more efficient operation.
While it does sound easy, fulfilling orders can become more and more challenging as your customer base expands. It does help to equip your team with the right tools. That way, they’ll be able to work more efficiently and provide better service to your customers.
Getting an order management system can greatly improve the flow of your business. Systems like Page 365 are great for online selling. It helps you manage billings, stock inventory, and chats. If you need to, you can also enable its automated chatbot and customize your page’s welcome message and order status update, so your customers are always updated.
If you want to better understanding of your store trends, Page 365 lets you add Facebook Pixels or Google Analytics so you can track traffic and relevant customer activities on your sales pages. This would serve as useful data to help you come up with various marketing initiatives for your business. You can easily plan and strategize your ads and other types of promotion better because you’ll have a better understanding of your customer’s preferences and spending habits.