I hear this time and time again during my WordPress training sessions and when business networking in Newcastle – "My online sales are too low!, I sell very little from my online store!"
I know you can and should be selling more from your WooCommerce website.
Your stand alone WordPress store can sell more.
With Amazon dominating, the larger online brands pulling in visitors how can you compete? High streets are struggling to remain relevant, and customers are becoming ever more demanding of a saturated market. It's challenging.
Selling online doesn't always mean success; recent reports indicate eBay and ASOS are struggling. Everyone has to work harder for smaller gains.
So how do you position your online store to drive sales and have a winning business?
With consistency and long-term marketing strategy in place, you can create a profitable online store.
It's all about brand
People don't buy products; they buy into brands. Brands play a crucial part in today's consumer society. A brand has a significant influence on buyers decisions. Buyers will pay more for their favourite brand where a cheaper non-branded alternative could be available.
They buy a brand to reflect their values and tell the world where they fit in society. Understanding why people buy is a crucial element on your WordPress website store.
Creating a strong and engaging brand will give you the stand-out you need online. A strong brand identity creates difference and builds trust.
A brand is more than just a logo.
Yes, a logo is an essential element; your brand identity covers your whole ethos, ideas, concepts, values. It includes colour, imagery, graphics, typography and copywriting.
Building your WordPress store brand should be your #1 goal when you launch. Yes, product quality and efficient delivery are essential, but with no customers, these aren't going to get you far enough.
Building a brand following will take time and effort. So be prepared for the long haul. (Prepared both mentally and financially).
Brand promotion
Be everywhere at first then refine later.
Building a recognised brand and a loyal brand following takes time. The online space is busy and noisy; to get seen you need to be everywhere, especially at the start. Every social media platform is vital at the beginning. Be everywhere first then refine.
Being everywhere will allow you to find out where conversations are taking place, where people comment on your posts, where people click through to your website, where people are asking you questions and where they refer you to their friends.
If followers are not ready to buy now they might buy in the future, so think long term. Build trust over time. Inform, be prominent.
Humanise your brand. Give it emotion and feelings. People are more likely to connect with your brand when emotions and feelings are involved.
Build relationships with customers using social media and email marketing. Customers want to feel part of a brand, listened to and appreciated. Once they love your brand, they will become your most valuable marketing asset.
Once you know where you get the most reach online, stick with that and grow your following.
It's all about traffic
E-commerce stores need a lot of traffic. A good conversion rate for an online store is around 1.6%
If your WordPress WooCommerce store gets 1,000 visitors per month that means you should get around 16 orders. Depending on your average order price this number is going to be challenging for any business.
You need to drive a lot of traffic to your online store.
Traffic driving ideas:
- Write and promote a blog and promote it
- Create a regular newsletter
- Work on SEO (organic google search results)
- Consider paid adverts (Google or Facebook)
- Work on page conversion optimisation
- Do blogger outreach
- Contact and connect with product influencers
- Create a range of content on social media that points back to your website
- Publish long-form content
- Go for long tail or semantic keywords
- Launch campaigns, promotions and seasonal activities
If you need help driving traffic to your online store, then contact WP North East for a WordPress website training session all about traffic driving techniques.
A smooth customer experience
Make it easy for visitors to buy. Make it easy for them to find their ideal product. Create relevant and logical categories and tags so that visitors can easily find products. Create clear and interesting product descriptions so they know every detail about the product they buy.
Be clear about delivery and returns. Add trust factors such as reviews, ratings and testimonials. Make it easy for customers to get in touch. Prominent phone numbers or email support are additional trust factors.
Refining this customer experience (or User Experience, UX) will improve conversions (visitors becoming customers), encourage visitors to return and make it even more comfortable for them to buy. UX can improve repurchases, up-sells and cross-sells. Helping you to sell more and improve the average % purchase per customer.
Test and iterate. You might think your website is easy to use, but being too close you can miss specific nuances that are important to new visitors. Ask visitors for feedback – could they find what they came for, was anything missing. Did they find the information they needed?
With this feedback, you can continuously improve your WooCommerce store. WordPress websites are not a set-and-forget project. You need to work to make your site better.
Value propositions not discounts
Some customers love free shipping, some love discounts and some want to trust that they can buy with confidence and quality assurance. When you know your customer profile, you will know which value proposition appeals to them.
If you know your audience loves free shipping, then include free shipping. If your customer's profile prefers quality, provide many quality statements and photography and video that showcases your product quality.
Tailor your value proposition to your product and ideal customer. Don't think you have to offer discounts just because your competitors do. Think about the value your customers are looking for in both product and service.
Do you need help to maximise your online store?
If you need help with your online store why not ask about our 2-hour, in-person WordPress Training session and fast-track your solution. Or a more in-depth 4-hour WordPress Training session.
Every detail matters
If you don't care about the detail on your website, then whey should a visitor spend time browsing to buy.
Every detail of your website matters. From colours to typefaces, to every single message your visitors see when they are on your store. Pay attention to every detail. Layout, style, product placement. Calls-to-action all need to be carefully placed in the right place and look beautiful
Make sure your online store looks appealing and stunning not only on desktop (larger screens) but on mobile (smaller screens). Many people research and browse on mobile but might move to desktop to purchase.
Photography and products shots need to be perfect, more than perfect. They need to be unique and on brand. Poor shots just won't cut it. Include lifestyle images, screen setting and images that set the mood and tone.
Find out more about our tailored WooCommerce Training Sessions
Training you to sell more from your online store.
The Takeaway
It is possible to create a prosperous, stand-alone online store. It will take time, and it is competitive. You need to be tenacious, imaginative, different, bold and deliver over and above customer expectations. Consistent and everywhere and a plan for the long-haul.
If you need WooCommerce WordPress online store training or someone to design your WooCommerce brand and website, get in touch for an initial chat.
Our tailored WordPress training can cover:
- Designing your WordPress WooCommerce store for conversions
- Building your WooCommerce store
- Driving traffic to your WooCommerce store
- Search Engine Optimisation for your WooCommerce store
- On-page conversion optimisation training
Belinda White | WordPress Consultant | WordPress Trainer
Image credits: Unsplash and Adobe Stock
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