Optimising for ‘sell more online’

7 ways to sell more online

Businesses who have managed to move their businesses online during lockdown, or who have worked on processes and systems to allow them to sell more online, have benefitted from the inevitable move to online shopping by large portions of the population who had previously resisted it.

However, simply adding WooCommerce to your website is not the answer. Our ecommerce specialists at Vertical Plus have the following top tips to help businesses excel at online selling. If you want to take your business online, or seriously take on the ecommerce sector, you need to understand how to sell more online.

Sell more online

1. Know your numbers –  it’s important to connect to, and to understand, visitor and customer data. Get hold of as much data about your business, customer behaviour, trends etc as you can and cut the data in a number of ways so that you have extracted every bit of knowledge you can. Use sales data, Google Analytics, social media insights and whatever other data collection systems you have.
   
   
2. Develop a great brand – make it clear what is good about you and don’t forget to tell your customers about it. Take a fresh look at your website and social media platforms. Are they consistent? If you showed it to a stranger, would they ‘get’ what your business does  – and what you can do for them? It’s worth having a designer with a track record in branding look at your logo and website design. It’s also worth looking at how you communicate with your existing or prospective clients – never assume that they already know what you do!
   
   
3. Have a great customer experience – Well designed, well thought out website and visual experience. Most people don’t think about the flow of a customer through their website. It needs to work on mobile as well as on a desktop so check that menus are easy to use and that you minimise the number of clicks needed to get to the important pages.
   
   
4. Get your product benefits right – it’s important to have the right photography, the correct style of writing, the right marketing messages surrounding your product ranges. Read the copy critically – is about you, or about your customer? If a lot of sentences start with ‘We’, then rewrite it so most of the sentences are about ‘you’ instead.
   
   
5. Understand your costs and profit – there’s no point in doing any of it unless you make money. A cash flow forecast will help, as will up to date P & Ls.
   
   
6. Have a robust business plan and invest only when you have hit the numbers. You can’t trade on optimism and gut feeling – although they help!
   
   
7. Connect with suppliers – all your sales come from getting a good supply chain (and price!) with suppliers so working with them is essential to online success. If they understand your ambitions, they will probably be more willing to help you with extended terms, or better pricing structures. Having a good relationship with them also means that when you hit problems, they’ll help you. They’ll also help spread the word about your booming business – another plus for treating suppliers well.
   
   

To find out how Vertical Plus can help you take your business online, or how we can help you reach new markets online, get in touch.

There’s more information about our fully funded ecommerce project at www.e-channel.org or you if you would like to put your company forward for the project, please email info@e-channel.org