How to increase online sales in a few simple steps?

According to statistics from the Central Statistical Office (GUS), over 9.4 million households already have Internet access, and in just one year their number has increased by more than 400 000!

In turn, research conducted by the ARC Rynek i Opinia agency shows that as many as 48% of people using online shops will decide to do more shopping online than before.What should be done to meet the needs of such a large group of potential customers and increase sales over the Internet?

The first and at the same time one of the most important factors when deciding to buy from a shop is the availability of the goods in question - and thus the possibility of fast order fulfilment.

For example: a seller sells an item for 100 PLN, with shipping within 3-4 working days, while a competitor sells an identical item for 110 and offers shipping in a maximum of 24 hours. Even though the product of the first seller is more attractive in terms of price, most customers will decide to pay extra PLN 10 and have the desired item - right away.

However, remember to quote the actual delivery time, so that our potential advantage does not turn against us in the form of negative feedback for failing to meet the delivery deadline.

It is also worth considering the free delivery option, which, if well advertised (for example through a banner on the shop's home page), can significantly increase customer interest with little effort.

The ability to purchase without registering, and a clear and comprehensible shopping basket.

A large proportion of potential customers abandon their final purchase when faced with a registration form that is too time-consuming and incomprehensible. It is worth ensuring that the handling of our shopping basket is as simple as possible - an example here is Poland's largest auction portal - Allegro.pl.

Original (own) description of sold products.

One of the biggest mistakes encountered in online shops - is the repeated duplication of content posted e.g. by manufacturers.

When there are several distributors of the same product and each of them places in their shop a description created by the producer - the product loses its uniqueness. Probably the bigger crime can only be committed by not adding any product description (and counting on its sale)! Therefore, it is worth ensuring that the description of our product is unique and encourages purchase. If you are selling something consisting of several elements - it is a good idea to list each one individually in a few words explaining what each element is used for.

An important issue in the case of duplicate product content is the aspect of positioning - the google algorithm - significantly lowers the position of a page / subpage - which contains duplicate content.

Cross-selling - or related selling.

The principle of cross-selling is trivial - a customer browsing a specific product, e.g. a razor, automatically sees in the panel next to (or at the bottom of) the page hints to this product - razor blades, gel, foam, cream, etc. In a word, all the accessories that can be used for the product. - In short, all the accessories that he or she might need when using the 'main' good. It is easy to imagine that a customer who decides to buy from a particular shop, wanting to save on transport costs, will buy the suggested additional goods, even if they turn out to be slightly more expensive than those of the competition.

 

These few steps can make a significant contribution to increasing online sales!