No one needs to be convinced about how dynamic the development of the eCommerce market is. The pandemic also contributed significantly to its growth, forcing many entrepreneurs to focus on this segment of their business and forcing potential customers to use this channel.
In practice, this means that we have many more customers to whom we can sell our products, but we also have much greater competition that wants to sell the same products to the same recipients. The conclusion is quite obvious – to win the competition on the market, we must be better than our competitors (which absolutely does not mean that we have to sell cheaper).
What factors can improve sales in an online store?
Sales in an online store is a complex process influenced by a number of factors. Simply having an online store with active Google Ads or Facebook Ads is not enough for the process to be successful, after which we would open the champagne and enjoy the money earned. The starting point should not be the launch of a campaign, but rather the analysis (if an agency sends you an offer for a campaign that was not preceded by any specific consultation, a red flag should light up). Let’s get down to business and discuss the most important points that may influence your purchase decision.
Price
Although you shouldn’t compete with it by reducing your margin and selling products practically for free, you can’t ignore it. If the competition sells the same products, several dozen or several hundred zlotys cheaper, it is rather unlikely that someone will make purchases from us. You should be competitive, not necessarily the cheapest.
For example, if you know what product you want to buy and enter its name in the search engine, offers will appear – which one will you choose?
Let’s assume you are interested in the first three products displayed. Each of the stores where the product is available has built brand awareness and enjoys trust among consumers. The only difference is the price – using the cheapest solution compared to the most expensive one, you can buy the same product for PLN 232.99 cheaper! It’s hard to be competitive in such a situation 🙂 The solution in such a case would be to reduce the price of the product and take care of other aspects related to supporting online sales.
Appearance, usability and page speed
UX, i.e. user experience, is another element worth paying attention to. Today, users navigate the Internet quickly and intuitively, they do not want to wonder how to add a product to the cart, how to make a payment or where to click to perform a specific action. Therefore, a very important element of an online store is its appearance and usability, by which I mean properly embedded customer path on the way to purchase. The cart button should be available in a place consistent with generally accepted standards, i.e. it should be in a place analogous to most functioning and selling stores. The same applies to chat, contact, returning to the home page, etc. Take care of the appearance, usability and speed of the website, and users will surely be grateful to you and appreciate it 🙂
Free delivery and returns
Undeniably, free delivery and free returns are a great convenience for the customer and can effectively contribute to making a purchase decision. In the era of competition such as Zalando, Answear or even Allegro, free delivery is becoming a standard. If the competition offers such solutions, it would certainly be worth not being left behind. However, if the competition does not offer free delivery or free returns, this is the point at which we can be better than the competition and offer the customer something above the standard offer.
Expert materials
Regardless of the category of products you sell, it is worth becoming an expert in your field. Product tests, rankings, comparisons, instructions for use or opinions can become your bargaining chip to encourage the user to take advantage of your offer. You can try to spin the mats
