Later today I’m flying out to San Francisco to be a speaker at the DG Expo Fabric and Trim show and one of my Seminars is called “How to Sell More from Your Online Store”. The DG Expo is great for emerging designers who are looking for wholesale fabrics in small quantities. Every single vendor there caters to small companies and they ALL have low minimums – so it’s a very useful event for small design companies. (Check out the show and the Seminars here: http://www.dgexpo.net/)

But anyway… Today’s post is about selling MORE of your product online. This is a sneak peek into what I will teach in my Seminar on Sunday in San Francisco. I get so many questions about this topic and online sales are continuing to grow like crazy – if you know what you’re doing. Volusion (e-commerce software) is expecting 20% growth in online holiday sales over last year. That’s awesome.

So here are the 3 things you need to have in order to sell MORE online. (Remember, this is a quick overview, not the full training).

#1. Traffic

Well duh, of  course you need people to come to your site – especially when you consider studies show conversion rates to be anywhere between 2 – 8%. And you want this traffic to be actual potential buyers – not just any traffic. You want people who like what you have and can afford to pay for it – your “ideal prospects”.

Getting these “right” people takes marketing, and there’s no quick fix for getting LOTS of traffic, like tomorrow.  I teach the entire process in my Marketing Course for designers, but for now, here’s what you can do.

A simple and relatively easy way to get yourself and your product mentioned on Twitter and in 3rd party blogs. It’s something you can do NOW – and boost traffic before the Holidays. This article tells you how to do it. Of course, social media is a great way to drive traffic and it works best when you have been keeping up with people on these platforms rather than blasting them out now and asking for the sale.

#2. Conversions

When your “ideal prospects” come to your site, you want to engage them and be sure your site encourages them to make a purchase. You need these things:

• Your site has to pas the “3 second rule”. People know what you do and what you sell in under 3 seconds
• Site speed. A study by the Aberdeen Group found that, “a 1-second delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and a 7% loss in conversions.”
• Trust. When prospects come to your site, it has to seem “legit” – meaning no home-made Go Daddy sites.
• 3 clicks to the BUY. If your site is hard or confusing to navigate, you will lose sales

#3. Repeat Business

This means having a strategy for engaging the customer after the sale. I teach designers to go after the lifetime customer, not the quick sale. For instance:

• Sending them a quick survey about how they liked the product and if they have used it yet
• Using this info (with permission) or directly asking for a testimonial. Social proof – more conversions
• Email Marketing – a simple strategy to stay in touch, add value to their lives (content marketing) and let them know what’s new and how to buy
• Sending previous buyers a surprise bonus or gift card as a sincere Thank You.

Many entrepreneurs focus so much on acquiring NEW customers that we forget to appreciate and cultivate out CURRENT customers. I know I have made this mistake so many times!

There is a so much more to this topic, of course, but I hope this simple overview helps you. If you have a question for me about this topic, please leave it in the comments below and I’ll answer you!

Have a great day!

Jane

P.S. I recommend my “20 Up” Marketing Course for EVERY designer out there who is not selling enough to relieve their stress.  I have a proven 6 step Marketing System that can help you. Students of this course have DOUBLED their sales because of the strategies they learned in the course. Check it out here: https://fashionbrainacademy.com/training-courses/20-marketing/