Ecommerce Blog How to Sell Online17 Ways to Make Your First Ecommerce Sale 17 Ways to Make Your First Ecommerce Sale by Mark Hayes Posted in How to Sell Online42 Have you ever walked into a bar, restaurant, or other small business and saw money framed and mounted on the wall like a trophy or work of fine art? For many businesses that first sale, first dollar earned is a monument, marking the transition to a real revenue-generating concern. Unfortunately, brand new online retailers sometimes open to something like the sound of crickets chirping. Here are 17 ways to make your first online sale even before Google or Bing have bothered to notice you: 1. Tell Family & Friends Imitate the Avon ladies, Tupperware queens, and Pampered Chefs of multi-level marketing and tell all of your family and friends about your new ecommerce store. Encourage them to share a link or two on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. Remember, youre not just asking them to make a purchase, youre asking them to share your online store with their network - which can be extremely valuable. 2. Use Google Adwords Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, at its core, is the act of buying site traffic. Although PPC marketing can be nuanced, its a pretty sure fired way to get site visitors and, thereby, sales. Every new Shopify store owner receives a $100 Google AdWords Credit upon signing up. Use your AdWords credit to drive targeted traffic to your online store. Finding the right audience across millions of websites can be difficult and when youre paying per click, the costs can add up. Be sure to learn some Google AdWords best practices before ramping up your spend too much. 3. Give Stuff Away Giving products away may not seem like a smart way to sell something, but there are two clever ways to turn giveaways into real sales. You can gain hundreds, even thousands of email subscribers by hosting a product giveaway before or after your online store opens. Ask visitors to register to enter the contest and give bonus entries for sharing the contest on social media networks or forwarding it to friends. Once the site launches, or when the contest ends, send a promotional email offering a discount. Search google for the influencers in your industry. Say youre selling a cool new gadget, find the reporters, blogs, and magazines that may be interested in your product and send them a free sample with a short description of what your product and online store is all about. Big businesses have been doing this for ages, and it works if done correctly. Just dont expect a huge response from this tactic, even if you only get 1 article as a result, the campaign should be considered a success. 4. Make an Infographic Informational graphics, better known as infographics, visually display data in a way that makes it easy to understand. This form of data communication has become very popular recently — as an example check out our Build-a-Business infographic published right here on the Shopify blog. Have a designer create an infographic relevant to the products your store carries. For example, if you sell hiking boots you could publish an infographic about the miles of open, public trails that might show how the number of miles of trails has changed over time or in comparison to other regions. Killer Infographics is a great design firm that only does infographics - theyre a great place to start. The inforgraphic could then be released on a paid news service like iReach, or a free design show-and-tell platform like dribbble. Dozens of publications could republish the graphic Each one linking back to the store. 5. Submit to Product Feeds Sites like The Find, Nextag, Shopzilla, and Google Merchant, aggregate product information and prices so that consumers can find and, lets be frank, compare prices more readily. Adding a feed to one of these sites and sometimes paying a small fee could send a parade of new customers to your online store, helping to secure an initial sale. 6. Embrace Video When the marketers at Seattle-based Replyboard launched their service, which screens Craigslist replies, they released four videos showing ReplayBoard pranksters responding to Craigslist ads. One video features a man randomly taking a shower at a sellers home. Its pretty hilarious. While it might not be a great idea to punk potential customers, video can be a very powerful way to promote a new business, and in the case of an ecommerce business, garner sales. You can also consider adding ecommerce product videos to your online store to better display some of your more popular products. 7. Put Stuff on eBay Online retailers should be comfortable selling via any number of channels, including eBay or similar auction sites. Dont be afraid to put a few products up. Include a coupon for 10 percent off a purchase from your online store. This way, its possible to make a first sale and a second. 8. Ask Vendors for Some Love Distributors and manufacturers will often help new retailers by including the startup in dealer listings or mentioning the new retailer on social media sites. Dont be afraid to ask them for some assistance while youre building your business. 9. Get Interviewed Merchants are frequently experts in a particular industry. If you sell handmade shirts and youre knowledgeable in mens fashion, why not approach media outlets about providing them with expert comment on fashion. Reporters are often on the hunt for industry experts, and youll often get the opportunity to mention the company you own or represent. To help get this sort of relationship going, consider using Help a Reporter Out (HARO), and check out our Guide to Getting PR. 10. Make an Awesome Blog Content marketing is the technique of attracting site visitors (read potential customers) by providing good quality content, like how-to blog posts. There are a few key ingredients to improve your ecommerce stores blog and make it something worth sharing: Offer good and relevant content, make sure its visually appealing, show your products in action, keep it short and snappy, and show them behind the scenes. 11. Use Amazon Product Ads Amazon lets online retailers place ads right in the context of an Amazon product detail page. Since the people who see your ad are already on Amazon looking to make a purchase, the conversion rate on these ads can be much higher than traditional PPC. All new Shopify store owners get a free $100 Amazon Product Ad Credit upon signup. All you have to do is create an Amazon Product Ads account, then install the Amazon Product Ads App and follow the instructions to set up your campaign. 12. Hand Out Business Cards Every online store owners should have business cards. Get some cards made, make sure theyre stylish and reflect your store design. Remember, your store URL should be front and center. At Shopify we get all our cards made by MOO - they do extremely high quality work for a good price. Since Im referring you, if you use the link above, youll get 10% off your first order. Once you have your cards, hand them out to everyone! 13. Rev Up Social Media Youve read a million blog articles about social media marketing for a reason - it works. Make sure you have a strong presence on all the usual suspects: Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Start conversations about your industry, and also inject yourself into conversations already happening, and youll quickly grow to become an influencer and a thought leader. Its amazing how much traffic you can drive through social media. If you keep growing your social presence it wont be long until your following start to convert to customers. 14. Create a Coupon Code Everyone loves a deal. You may be surprised how many people shop by typing ____coupon code into Google. Create a coupon code for your online store then head over to a site like RetailMeNot or RedFlagDeals and post your deal. Write something like, Woah, I just found this awesome coupon for yourstore! 15. Consider an Affiliate Program With an affiliate program you can pay people to share and promote your products. Essentially, you sign up with a service like Commission Junction or ShareASale and then youll pay the affiliate a certain commission on each sale they bring you. These sites can be expensive and time consuming so theyre not for everyone, but for certain products its worth a shot. 16. Facebook Advertising Facebook advertising can be a great way to access a very targeted audience. Lets say you sell jewelry, with Facebook Advertising you can target people who have jewelry or watches or bracelets with custom banners that have a message specifically to their interests. Similar to Google AdWords, advertising on Facebook is PPC. 17. Be Patient If you were launching a brick and mortar store or restaurant you probably wouldnt expect your business to be profitable for the first little while. Same goes with ecommerce - it takes time, so be patient. Share this article inShare 45 Comments 42 Alex CommonsAlex CommonsMarch 29 2012, 11:31am Awesome list Mark! Those first few sales are the hardest part for shops to get any traction. This is a gold mine for new stores! Beth RBeth RMarch 29 2012, 06:26pm Talk about useful. Every new business owner should read this. Jeff IssisJeff IssisMarch 30 2012, 04:10pm Great tips. I know one way we launched our sales was we put a gift card up for sale on ecardexchange for a small fee they will publish your gift card to millions. If you put a link to ecardexchange on your site they will also share your coupon codes. ggbbggbbApril 03 2012, 11:31pm fytf donna & huggalodonna & huggaloApril 19 2012, 05:13pm Great article. When there are so many options for new commer Read more: shopify/blog/5893075-17-ways-to-make-your-first-ecommerce-sale#ixzz2qkOufcMS
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 11:11:13 +0000
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