Increase Sales + Turn Any Website into a Sales and Marketing Machine! [Beginner’s Guide]
Increase sales. Increase sales. Increase sales. It’s everyone’s mantra.
Yet, most small business owners don’t realize they already have a power-tool at their fingertips, that is perfectly designed to make MUCH more money.
In this article, let us show you how to instantly increase your sales by turning your website into a sales and marketing machine!
Website Sales
First, a little background. Of all retail sales in the United States in 2018, 10% of them were online.
Let that sink in.
One out-of-every ten retail transactions occurred on a website.
That’s a huge slice of the money pie!
eCommerce data highlights the increase in website sales from 2013 to 2021.
Despite this, there are still people who open and run a business like it’s 1991.
Don’t be stuck in the past!
A company may still succeed like this, but ignoring the online part of product marketing is like driving 10 mph under the speed limit, for no good reason.
The truth is, your competitors are already going after this slice of pie.
If you want to stay in business you need to, also.
Every business needs an eCommerce website. Done correctly, any business can increase sales by listing products online.
And this guide can get anyone started.
Running an online store for a business website has never been easier or more affordable.
All it takes is a little initiative and know-how.
So, here’s how anyone can increase sales by turning any website into a sales and marketing machine…
Add Products Online
No matter what a business sells, it can be sold online.
The revenue for online only used car dealer Carvana topped $858 million in 2017.
More and more people research a product or business online before making a purchase.
Having a business site is a start.
When potential customers can find the product they want, and are a click away from buying it, your business is much more likely to increase sales.
Instantly increase sales by adding your products online!
Adding your inventory to an online shop is the first step.
For small businesses, there are several options for setting up your shop.
If you’re already operating a brick & mortar store, you might want to consider adding an eCommerce platform that naturally syncs with your point of sale.
eHopper offers a fully integrated eCommerce package that brings together your point of sale and online ordering.
Even better, eHopper does all the work for you!
Adding your products online doesn’t have to be complicated or intimidating to the less-than-tech-savy.
You can easily integrate eHopper POS with your website.
Just send us a list of your inventory, and our team uploads all of your products online, making them available for purchase to anyone in the world.
Already using eHopper POS to power your business?
Our team can add your products online…right now!
Increase sales by letting our team turn your website into a sales and marketing machine for you.
Connect to Social Media
According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of U.S. adults are on some form of social media, which makes it an indispensable tool to increase retail sales.
There is no good reason that a business should not have an excellent social media presence.
This is where customers live, and social media is a free platform where a company can interact with them.
Connecting to socials is an immediate way to increase sales.
Social media also allows for a business to communicate with customers 24/7.
The average customer will use social media chat apps 9 times a day.
These chat apps can be manned by bots which allow customers to communicate with a business 24/7, as well as answer basic questions and book appointments.
Connecting your website to social media is an important step in turning your site into a sales and marketing machine!
Business should also promote their social media presence by having buttons that link customers to their Facebook, Twitter, or other social media page.
Collect Emails
Email is still an effective means to generate sales, and online sales are a great way to get the email of a customer who was willing to buy.
Just don’t mass email all your contacts.
Segment your emails, which means only send the email to the customers who would find the content useful or interesting.
Targeting the emails sent to customers by interests can result in a 1,000% increase in the click-through rate.
There are many advanced tools to determine the precise interest of your customers based on website and IRL traffic, but any beginner can start increasing sales with some basic tactics.
Just ask yourself:
What are my most popular products? Offer these products to NEW customers!
What products are under selling? Offer a discount on these products!
By using your website to collect email addresses, you are arming your sales and marketing machine.
Remember, always make receiving newsletters or promotions something that the customer opts into, and make it easy for them to opt out later.
There isn’t much that will turn off a customer more than finding tons of spam in their inbox.
Increase sales by collecting email addresses on your website.
Automate Sales with Credit Card
The cost of doing business, in large part, boils down to the time spent managing the sales process.
It can eat up a significant portion of a day unless you automate the customer resource management (CRM) process.
A sales automation system can accept credit card payments online, send email verification, and receipts with little effort on the part of the owners or management.
3 to 6 hours spent handling the sales paperwork can now be done with a few clicks of the mouse.
How vital is automated sales/CRM when it comes to businesses wanting to increase sales?
Well, according to one study 79% of all leads handled without automated CRM go cold. The transaction is lost.
By automating sales with a credit card, you can speed up the sales process online AND in-person.
While, there are a few things to consider when choosing the best credit card processing for a small business
Transform your website into a sales and marketing machine by accepting credit card payments
eHopper’s Omnichannel plan lets businesses accept credit card payments through a variety of point of sale hardware, as well as on your own website.
By accepting credit card payments online and at your point of sale, you WILL see a lasting increase in sales.
Allow Customers to Order Ahead
Online sales don’t always need to be shipped.
Most everyone is in a hurry these days , from the soccer mom shuttling her kids between practices and recitals, to the student trying to make it from the last class to their job without being late.
Everyone is running late.
Being able to order a product, then conveniently and quickly pick it up, is a HUGE selling point, and will dramatically increase sales.
Allowing customers to order ahead, but pickup or pay later is a great way to instantly increase your sales by leveraging your website.
Little Caesar’s “Hot-n-Ready” model for selling pizzas has made it one of the fastest growing restaurant chains, and even they have found success increasing sales via online ordering with digital sells seeing a 45% uptick since 2014.
Reduce the barriers to business.
Let your customers order ahead, on a the device they’re already using, and you WILL see a huge increase in sales from your website.
Improve In-store Experience with QR Codes
One of the better avenues to increase sales over the last couple of decades is the use of the QR code.
What is a QR Code?
QR Code Stands for Quick Response Code
Basically, a QR Code is a two-dimensional version of the bar code.
increase-sales-qr-code
QR Codes are gaining popularity because the technology is “open source”, i.e. available for everyone. Significant advantages of QR Codes over conventional barcodes are larger data capacity and high fault tolerance.
The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text.
The other key feature of QR Codes is that instead of requiring a chunky hand-held scanner to scan them, many modern cell phones can scan them.
They are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone.
This is where you start capturing sales!
We’ve already outline above how much business is taking place online – and all shoppers are using their phones.
With QR codes, you can capture the modern shopping habits of consumers.
You can use them to instantly be redirect in-person customers to your website that has relevant information, or even make a purchase.
QR codes are inherently linked with e-commerce, and will only be successful as part of a broader e-commerce strategy to increase sales.
With smart planning, you can use QR codes on your website to increase sales, attract new customers, and hone in on restaurant management strategies.
Local SEO
Many of the searches people do, especially when they’re on the go, are for something local.
Businesses don’t need to come up first in Google searches everywhere.
They only need to show up in google searches done by customers nearby.
Almost 90% of mobile users actively search for something local or “near me.”
This means that local businesses need a different SEO strategy to increase sales than big corporations.
In addition to keywords relevant to a local search, having a product listing will boost a site’s search ranking. Google’s search algorithms don’t only look for keywords.
Use your website to increase sales by showing up in local search results.
They look for other relevant content that is within the context of the search.
In other words, it will place a site higher in the results, if they have a product that is being sold versus a site that is just talking about the product.
The end result is more internet traffic funneled to a business’s website and an increase in retail sales.
Tip: A small, local store? Instantly increase your SEO with Google My Business!
Blog Posts
Blog posts serve two main purposes.
The first is that a well-written blog will help and establish a business’s place as an expert within its industry. 81% of consumers trust the information found on blogs, and trust can quickly increase sales.
The other reason is that a flow of fresh content, complete with relevant hyperlinks and keywords, will boost a site’s SEO.
One thing to remember is that blogs must be more than a collection of words.
It has to entertain and actively engage the readers/customers and offer something of value.
It doesn’t have to be material, like coupons.
Useful information and advice is something customers appreciate, and they might be persuaded to show that appreciation by signing up for a company’s newsletter or mailing list.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter how big your business is, how tech experience you have, or how comfortable you are with computers – any business owner can instantly increase sales by following a few simple online basics.
ANYONE can turn their website into a sales and marketing machine by taking a few basic steps:
- Add products online
- Connect social media
- Local SEO
- Automate sales with credit cards
- Order ahead
- QR codes
- Blog Post
Ready to ramp up your sales machine?
Test drive eHopper eCommerce today – Risk Free.
I believe that using QR codes can help to make a seamless integration between online and physical stores.
Great article! These tips can really help to increase website sales.
Thank you very much for this wonderful article. Email marketing always works great and every online store should use it.
Great tips, thank you. I have my own website but also sell some products on Amazon. How can I increase my online sales on Amazon?
Hi Dana,
Thank you very much for your question. Please, check out these tactics that you can use to increase your sales and other key metrics through Amazon: https://ehopper.com/articles/how-to-use-amazon-to-increase-sales/
I believe that the one of the best ways to increase sales on website is to optimize your conversion rate. For example, you can use A/B or multivariate testing tools.