It may be that you’ve been selling products online for a while now but are finding that you’re never quite reaching your targets for sales, or even slowly seeing your sales decline. Both these scenarios can be truly heartbreaking, especially if you’ve poured your heart and soul into building your online business so far.
There may be all manner of reasons why this could be happening, but you may not be able to see them as you’re too close or emotionally attached to your business. However, there are a few simple steps that you can take in an effort to reverse that decline and start seeing those online sales rolling in again.
1. Sell in as many places as possible
If you haven’t tried it so far, it’s worth mentioning that the more areas you try to sell your products in, the more potential customers you’ll reach, for instance:
Selling platforms
You may be so focused on one specific selling platform that you’re totally neglecting trying another to run alongside your current efforts. When it comes to running a successful business, your loyalty to one selling platform could see you putting all your eggs in one basket, so it’s a good idea to try another and see if they make a difference to your overall sales if they’re combined.
Once mastered, there’ll be nothing stopping you from venturing into another from there, and so on.
Your own website
With this in mind, if you haven’t already, you should take things into your own hands and have your own standalone website to sell your products on. This may seem daunting at first, especially if you’re aware of the amount of work that needs to be done to create a website and then get high-quality traffic to it.
However, there are professional businesses and agencies such as MageCloud that will be happy to take this hard work off your hands and provide you with a top-of-the-range and fully functional Shopify website that’s bespoke and crafted specifically to your business niche and needs.
2. Increase your product range
That said, you may find that you also need to have a look at the product range you offer your customers. It may well be that it has become dated or not quite as fashionable as it was when you first started selling, and therefore, is being outperformed by your competitors.
So, checking that all the products are highly desirable and that there’s still a buoyant market for them should be your first move, and if this is the case, then see if there are other products within your niche that you can also offer to your customers.
Of course, it’s totally up to you if you offer more of the same but different brands or go for complementary products to enhance the customer experience. For instance, if you’re selling pots and pans for culinary exploits, add other kitchen gadgets or cookbooks to increase your range further.
Final thoughts
Most businesses go through a stage where sales start to plateau, and some even experience sales falling. The best course of action during these times is to see if current sales techniques need tweaking or expanding to encourage more customers into the sales funnel.
In addition to this, though, you could also try to expand your range slightly in order to catch the eye of potential customers who would otherwise show little interest in your products.
Article and permission to publish here provided by Carol Trehearn. Originally written for Supply Chain Game Changer and published on March 1, 2024.
Cover photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash.