In today’s overcrowded market you need to have some creative ideas to sell efficiently, and you also need to know what customers need in the area you target. There is not a perfect recipe to be successful, but if you take some good steps you can be closer to make your e-commerce dreams come true.
It doesn’t matter what chapter you are in currently with your e-com business. Are you just about to start selling with your online store but you are lack of useful ideas? Or have you been on the market for years from now but you are planning to change your sales strategy? The following tips can be useful to you. Maybe you won’t use any of the ideas as they are written below but new ones might come to your mind as being inspired by our article.
Let’s see our ideas on how to decide what to sell, how to create a unique business structure, and how to have an online store that sells well. You can pick or rethink any of the ideas from below.
Have a Focus Point
Do you think it would be beneficial to sell fitness items? Or organic beauty products? Maybe vintage home décor? Moreover, adult accessories as well? Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to focus on only one category and build a nice business on that? It’s not always necessary to sell everything that comes to your mind just because you see a good potential in them. Pick one product field. Create a unique and well-built business structure, make a clear message that reflects the service you offer.
Unique & High-quality Products
You should sell products from individual suppliers. However, if you choose to resell articles from marketplaces like AliExpress, Amazon or eBay, it has a high chance that you can’t be unique in the market with those cheap and boring items. Many stores get products from these places, so customers can see the same articles everywhere. Why should people buy these products from you? Probably they can find that selection for a cheaper price elsewhere or on the original page on the marketplace.
Find individual, real drop shippers or wholesalers in online catalogs, or look for them in Google. You can’t imagine how many companies are waiting for your inquiry to sell their unique, high-quality products for a good price.
It’s also good to hop on trends early and sell items that people seek from all over the world currently. However, in the long run, it is more beneficial to sell from a certain product category, not changing your style completely. Be on a trace you create for yourself and for your target audience.
Seasonal Products
There are many seasons in a year you can make some changes in what you sell or offer. We give you some examples that might be helpful for you. Why is it recommended to hop on seasonal items? It’s because those are the products people are looking for and you can sell many from. Some evergreen recommendation:
Spring & summer: running shoes, gym accessories, beauty products, jewelry, travel or hiking accessories, swimsuit, sunglasses, suncream,
Autumn & winter: boots, jacket, mug, umbrella, socks, Christmas decoration, Halloween decoration.
Also, think about the key shopping dates. For example, the wedding season lasts from about May until July. The festival season lasts throughout the summer. The back to school season is also important, then think about Halloween, the Black Friday. The list is quite long.
Products by Style
Selling products by a particular style or type can suit many product categories such as clothing, home décor, artistic items. It is a never-ending list. You can pick from many styles or product types, or you can mix them too. Selling in these fields can grant you a customer base for sure – if you have good marketing methods. Think about vintage, hip-hop, rock/metal, country, eco-friendly, luxurious products, hippy, casual, basic ones, print on demand, streetwear, medieval items, costumes, or wedding products, for example.
It can be a good idea to sell products by colour as well. For instance, only in one or two colours. What about selling only black clothes, shoes and accessories? It can make your store to look and be cool, and you can build marketing on it. The only hardship can be about it to find proper suppliers. However, with Syncee you can select what products you want from any chosen supplier (but you cannot filter by color automatically).
Check What is Missing From Your Target Market
If you decide to sell for example curtains, but there are 15 other merchants who provide the same products in your region, maybe it’s not the best idea to have these items in your store. You need to find what is missing from your target market. Take care, find the balance, you also have to be sure that people need those items you choose. You have to kickstart a business that has the high potential to be lucrative when using effective marketing methods.
How can you check what is missing from your target market? Well, some say it’s hard to find out, some say it’s easy.
- Check other markets. You probably would like to target a particular region. Check the top-selling items in other locations. If you want to sell worldwide, check product categories one by one also by locations.
- Create surveys. These can be offline and online ones too. If you do it traditionally on paper, you can spread it out in workplaces, schools, or you can just ask random people on the street. However, if you want to use online forms, you can post it in many Facebook groups and in other forums as well. It doesn’t necessarily have to be filled with direct questions like “what product would you like to buy in your location but you don’t have the chance to?”. You can ask about certain product categories using the likert scale method (e.g. five-point scales) to get a result that shows the most.
- Use Google Trends. It is a new way to discover what people really think and need. Many times in the traditional direct surveys (even if they are online) people don’t say the truth. They are influenced by current circumstances and they are afraid what analysts will think – even if the survey is anonym. However, Google Trends is something new. People don’t even know that their Google searches can be used for researches. Well, you can’t examine people one by one of course, but you can check Google search results in total by regions, for example, or just by picking the worldwide option. You can search for, for instance, sunglasses, and you will get how many people were searching for it in a particular period you chose. The system shows what is trending currently. You won’t get an exact number, it will be just an approximate statistic depending on the total result the actual keyword has as for the Google search results. It’s also possible to compare the results of more keywords in one chart. Basically, Google Trends, that is like a huge database of the Google search results, is a new source of the big data. Google Trends is a useful and modern source while doing researches.
Prominent Customer Service
Being customer-friendly and providing the best service for your clients is crucial if you want people to like your company. If you are rude with them and you are not helpful, they are going to stop buying your products even if they used to like using them. It can happen easily. Moreover, make sure you will answer the enquires in less than a business day.
It’s also a good idea to create menus in your online store that gives useful information for your potential buyers. For example, if you sell clothing items, create a menu where people can read about the sizing of your products. Furthermore, it’s good to have a menu about the shipping information, or about warranty. Make sure people don’t have to browse your whole site to get a piece of information that you hide somewhere in an article that has nothing to do with the certain topic you are actually looking for. Customer is the first. Be kind with them, even if in another situation you would get impatient about the certain issue immediately. Help them with everything, but at the same time be true to yourself, to your company. Always provide what you said you will give in your promotional content before. Please do not forget that running an efficient marketing strategy is important to have a blooming e-business. Post neat content on social media, create ads, send newsletters every week.
Simple Design
It is the best choice to pick a simple, neat design for your website and for every visual content you create on social media or in advertisements. The main colour should be white, and it’s better to choose only one, two, or a maximum of three colours to play with as for your design. We don’t live the days of the really colourful styles.
Not to mention the structure of the website that has to be clear for visitors. You have to create a user-friendly surface where people can find everything easily, and can filter the products efficiently by almost every quality.
Check Online Catalogs
By online catalogs I mean supplier lists where you can find thousands of products from reliable drop shippers and wholesalers. By searching in these directories, you can find products you maybe haven’t even thought about to sell yet. As you can find small suppliers too in these lists, it’s easy to find items that you really like and probably your target audience would need it too. You can try, for example Syncee Marketplace. The application, Syncee in which this service is available does product data uploads & updates automatically on a daily basis, so customers will be satisfied with the products and service you provide. They won’t get apology e-mails like “sorry, the item you picked from our selection is actually out of stock”.
More High-end Tips to Have a Successful Online Store
Would you like to read more about how to be successful with your online store? Check our most useful, relating articles:
- How to maintain an outstanding social media marketing
- Why should people visit your online store instead of others’?
- How to find your niche product?
- How to persuade people to buy?
- How much does it cost to run a Shopify store?
- The benefits of the Remote Warehousing model
- The new way of drop shipping: remote warehousing
- Get to know what branding is and soar with your store
- What makes a successful online store?
- You have traffic, but no sales?
- Finest e-commerce advice
- Why is it worth creating a blog for your Shopify store? – Tips and Tricks
