Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

Hold a Contest

One of the most effective marketing gimmicks that can be used by online stores as well brick and mortar stores are to hold a contest.

In fact, given that online stores are easier to operate, contests are actually easier to hold. Less work is involved, and more importantly less money will be spent.

If the online store retails or wholesales consumer goods, the best approach is to have a contest that requires a purchase within a fixed time frame.

As an example, buyers of select goods can be asked a simple question. The best answer gets his or her pick of what to receive. If a site sells magazine subscriptions, anyone who gets a subscription during the duration of the contest can be asked a simple current events question. The winner has the choice of three months free subscription to the publication of his choice, or perhaps a hard cover book.

The prize does not cost much to the online store. It can even be gotten free from the supplier.

To prove that the contest is real, entries can be published on the site. The winning entry is announced on an agreed date.

If there is a noticeable spike in sales because of the contest, other versions can be held in other time periods. For now, a Valentine’s Day contest can be held with the main prize being a Valentine-related article.

If the original contest did extremely well, a similar one can be held immediately. This can be repeated for as long as there is a measurable increase in sales.

Once the excitement has worn off, the contest can be ended, only to come back at some time in the near or far future. In the meantime, you can offer discounts in place of contests to bring in the customers.

To entice even more buyers, there can be more prizes offered, which means that there will be more than one winner. The online store can have monthly, quarterly or semi-annual contests, as well.

The top prize can be a dinner for two at a well-known restaurant, with consolation prizes of gift cheques and gift bags. Those bags can contain premium items that are usually given away by suppliers.

For online stores dealing in high end products or services, the contest can have as the major prize a trip for two to a romantic location. The second prize can be his and hers jewellery, while a third prize can be a dinner for two at a restaurant followed by an all expenses paid 24-hour stay in a top hotel or resort.

Be sure to know what government regulations there are, if any, when holding anything that offers additional incentives for buyers. Also be ready to address complaints from those who failed to win.

Consider having a separate and independent panel of judges. Business or community leaders from your immediate area are a good choice. Avoid political or religious leaders whose judgment will certainly be biased by the work they do.

You will definitely have many ideas for contests. As always, put yourself in the position of the customer. Would you join your store’s contest? If the answer is yes, then go for it!

 

 

Online Marketing Moves that Can Save Your Business

The thing with online marketing strategies is that it changes quickly and regularly depending on factors such as social media trends. In order to keep your business profiting well, you should be up-to-date regarding the online marketing tips that will move you ahead of your competitors. You should have online store or connectivity. If you are looking for new strategies to improve your performance in the middle of 2011, here are some of them:

Take advantage of the Like button on Facebook

If you don’t have the Like button on your website yet, then you are seriously not keeping up with the game. If you think that social media is only for teens who don’t have anything to do, then better change your thinking. The more likes you get, the more visibility you will have to the millions of people logging on Facebook everyday. While you are at it, better use the other applications that Facebook has been cooking up while you were still living under the rock until recently.

Use videos to the hilt

Videos are great marketing tools in which you have total control on how you want to present your products and services. You need not worry about your video getting lost in the multitude. Google search results now include lots of videos and they often show up higher than paid and organic results.

Your website should be tech friendly

Given the number of people using iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, it’s foolish to own a website that does not support these gadgets. Most people access the web through their mobile devices so just imagine the opportunity and exposure wasted if your website can’t be accessed through hand-held devices.

 

 

 

Tips on Making a Successful Store on Facebook

Make a community among your customers

If there is one thing that traditional stores do very well, it’s creating a sense of community among its buyers. Most online stores would not measure up when it comes to this, but you must do what you can to make your store as friendly and accessible to customers. Maximize your Facebook page and use it to provide info that is important to your community. You can post local news to create a sense of intimacy with customers. Do whatever you can to make give your page the feel of a community portal.

Choose your content well

Users are surrounded by lots of feeds everyday and if your posts are not catchy enough, they wouldn’t even bother reading what you have to say. So aside from store-related posts, add ones that are entertaining and amusing. This will make your page memorable to users.

Make use of the Like function

The more Likes you garner, the more likely your page will appear on the news feeds of your potential customers.

Promote your page through your physical store

Grab the chance to let your buyers know that you already have a Facebook page. Tell them all about it when they visit your physical store. Entice them to add your store in their list by creating incentives that they will benefit from.

 

 

Influential Social Media Trends for 2012

The merits and achievements of social media has been a hot topic for discussion in relation to investment returns for organizations. Some say that the relevance of social media will fizzle out eventually, sooner even. But according to some experts, social media will still be hot in 2012 and will be dominated by the following trends:

Companies will use social media sites for contests

Facebook is just one channel that companies use to launch contests for their businesses. As time goes on, these companies are getting more creative with the competitions they use to entice more customers. Competitions allow you to broadcast message about your business and brand and reach out to more customers than ever.

Companies will put more ratings and user reviews on their websites

The importance of online customer reviews is obvious enough, given the fact that more people now are relying on them when deciding whether to patronize a product or brand.

Social media will be utilized as a tool for customer service

Twitter and Facebook allow businesses to interact with their customers faster and more effectively. Because of this, expect businesses to come up with more creative and enticing ways to reach out to its customers with the help of social media.

Search engine results will be prominently affected by social media

Search engine results will generate results from LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, among others. Right now we can see some social media networks putting more relevant content to their pages so it will be included among the top of search results. Google has already challenged Facebook with its +1 button. They also challenged Bing with their use of results from Flickr, Twitter and other social networks to encourage users to decide regarding content, with the recommendations of their friends as basis.

Effective Strategies to Establish Your Brand Online

By now, all businesses are aware of the importance of online branding. With the amount of day-to-day business conducted online, a brand’s online presence can probably make or break the enterprise. To those in the know, establishing a brand online does not just mean investing money on the brand. It is all about building a solid entity that your customers can remember and relate to and will generate repeat business. This reason alone is enough for businesses to make online branding one of the top priorities in solidifying their products and services.

There are lots of strategies involved in establishing your brand online, but here are the top ones to get you started:

Know your audience

This first step is very crucial to the success of your online presence. Before you launch all your other efforts, you should know your target audience. You need to establish this before you come up with content strategies and marketing/communication plans. There are lots of tools available online for this task, which include Nielsen and Google. Through these tools, you can get important information about your audience, such as age, gender, income, and marital status.

Establish the voice for your brand

Using the outcome of your research, you can now find out what the audience prefers to hear or see, which will help you create the message that you want to send out to them. When doing this task, remember to keep an open mind and go through all ideas. Your content should speak with your audience and should be consistent. This will build credibility for your brand.

Establish your online reputation

This task is by no means a walk in the park and will take considerable time to accomplish, but this is something that you should not disregard. Your reputation online can make or break your brand. You need to identify the strategy and tactics that you will use.

Contradictory advice

There are some nuggets of wisdom for business which seem to contradict each other. One says that success is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. In other words, the key to success is nothing more than good, old fashioned hard work.

Yet another oft used statement commands “don’t work hard, work smart.” Meaning hard work is not as important as doing the right things, following formulas that work although they may not be based on working your butt off.

So, which is which? Is it better to work really, really hard? Or is it better to have an ingenious plan and follow it strictly, even if it does not require you to work to the bone?

Oddly enough, both contradictory bits of advice are right. If you want your online store to succeed, meaning you want it to earn you more than enough to just get by, then you have to devote a lot of man hours to the task of making it work.

But working hard while following a wrong plan won’t cut it either. You have to have a sound business plan for your online store to generate decent to excellent income.

There are a lot of business gurus out there who can show you the road map to your promised land, whether you are a casual investor or a committed entrepreneur. Warren Buffet quickly comes to mind. Some of them have written books which detail their no nonsense approach to making it. The great thing is that their books, or at least the best parts, are available online for free.

Take the time to read what the sages have to say. Sometimes, all you need is just one little tidbit of knowledge to get off the ground.

Judging the economy and the market

When market weakens, another one strengthens. Remember this when you review the products or services carried by your online store.

The global economic meltdown of a few years ago is a case in point. Real estate sales sank like a rock. But smart realtors knew that if sales of new houses would be tough, and with foreclosures being so widespread, then countless homeowners would be forced to downgrade their standards of living.

This meant that owners whose homes were foreclosed would have little choice but to look for affordable rentals. Or those with large houses would have to settle for simpler ones.

The fall of the housing market is an extreme example of one market segment weakening, while another segment’s fortunes rose. The same is true for cars. Whenever the price of gasoline rises, sales of fuel efficient cars rise, while during good times when pump prices are low, gas guzzlers have an eager market. Some years ago, it seemed that everyone wanted to own a Hummer. Now, even the used ones are hard to dispose of.

A cursory review of the economy, paying closer attention to your immediate vicinity, will tell you what products are likely to sell well, and which ones are likely to suffer. So if your online store sells jewellery, focus on the high end ones when the economy is relatively strong, and offer more of the low end ones during hard times. Whatever happens, there will still be couples getting engaged and married. There will still be anniversaries to be celebrated. Thus, there will always be a need for your jewellery, or your baked goods, or your pet supplies, or your sex toys, or whatever it is that you market.

Remember: In good times and in bad, the global, national and local economies will simply keep moving, no matter what.

What everyone wants

Everybody enjoys getting bargains which we define as paying less for a product or service than what others normally pay for. Bargains can be offered to the general public, or to special clients.

With this in mind, you can create bargain sections in your online store. The lower-priced-than-usual items can be offered to anyone who visits your store, or you can be more selective on whom the products are offered.

As an alternative to lowering the prices of the goods you sell, you can give freebies for every order. If you sell shoes, for example, you can throw in a couple of free socks. If you sell cakes, add a few cookies. If you sell watches, include a free strap.

Consumers love getting something for nothing, or next to nothing. This is why big department stores can include free gift wrapping for select items during holidays.

The gimmick also works for the service sector. If your site offers a swimming pool cleaning and maintenance service, think of giving away a beach towel or umbrella (with your company’s logo, of course) during a specific period when business traditionally goes down. Like to colder months.

You may notice that when stores advertise their specials in newspapers or any other media, they call attention to the freebies, even when the value of the giveaway is not all that high. They know that consumers are drawn to giveaways like ants to picnics.

Think of a simple but inexpensive freebie that you can offer anyone who buys anything from your online store. If it’s attractive enough, you will probably see a noticeable increase in your sales.

An example of a perfect niche marketer

A recent news story tells of an American who opened a store where everything sold was “Made in the USA.” The products in his store ranged from wooden toys to maple syrup.

His eclectic selection of products could be considered odd, even unwise by some experts.

Some thought that the store was doomed to fail. Instead, it became an instant hit.  He had apparently struck a raw nerve with the buying public. The American man’s nationalist streak was triggered by seeing some of his friends and relatives losing their jobs because US manufacturers were seemingly surrendering to foreign competition. Either that or the manufacturers themselves were farming out their production to overseas companies. Our man rightly believed that there are still numerous US-made products to be proud of, and that his fellow Americans wanted to buy those products if only they knew where.

He simply put one and one together, and came up with a winning formula. He had tapped into a market that was always there, but which no one had recognized as well as he had. Perhaps many other businessmen had thought of the brilliant idea, but no one took the necessary action of actually putting up the Made in the USA store until he came along.

We say bravo to him, a classic example of a niche marketer.

And he hasn’t even gone online yet, but we can expect him to do so in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, the smart entrepreneur is considering opening a few more branches of his all American store in the coming months.

If you have what you believe to be a brilliant or inspired idea for your online store, you can take the cue from him.

Push vs Pull Method

In marketing your online store to your target consumers, you have two choices. One is to reach out to them through various means. This is sometimes referred to as the Push Method. The other option is to do everything to make them come to you, also known as the Pull Method.

There are distinct advantages to either way of bringing in paying customers. With the Push Method, you have to go out and aggressively introduce your site and its products and/or services to your would-be customers. You do this through such means as linking up with other sites, having stickers, flyers and posters made giving the name of your site and posting and distributing these all over town, soliciting the aid of your friends and relatives to tell their own networks to head to your site. In other words, just like the field-based salesmen of old, you go out and sell, sell, sell.

The Pull Method, on the other hand, is equivalent to having a store with various sales gimmicks, tons of flash to make the public take notice, and a lot of enticements once they’ve entered your facility. So instead of you going out and selling, it is you luring the buyers to come to you. Car showrooms do this frequently by having festive atmospheres with balloons and barkers, free food, carnival rides for kids, live entertainment, etc. They also resort to newspaper ads and TV and radio commercials.

So you either go out to sell, or pull them in to sell. Done properly, either of the two methods works. You can apply one or try a combination of both. Whatever you choose, the point is to sell a lot of your products or services.

When the going gets tough

It’s a cliché, we know. It’s a popular phrase that you will see in a lot of motivational posters sold in bookstores and gift shops. Motivational speakers also like to mouth this line. But this cliche also happens to be true. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

But what does it mean, you may ask. It only means that you will never win if you give up too easily.  You’ll never get that girl (or guy) if you back off the first time she says no when you ask her out for a date. You’ll never get that promotion if you are afraid your boss will reject your request if you ask. And your online store will never get off the ground if you decide to virtually abandon it even before it has gotten a chance to attract enough customers.

Perseverance is one of the things that anyone needs in order to succeed, whether it is in business, sports, politics or relationships. Remember that Abraham Lincoln lost just about every election he ran in before he aspired for the presidency. The result we all know. Not only was good old Abe elected, but he ended up as the greatest president the US has ever had.

Perhaps you also know that Albert Einstein was an utter failure in grade school, barely passing some of his subjects. Yet he is now considered the most brilliant scientist of all time. Jack Nicholson was languishing in small roles in cheap B movies at the start of his career but became one of the most awarded actors of his generation.

How many success stories in online selling involve entrepreneurs who refused to give up? You know the answer to that one. Plenty. Why not be one of them?

Creating a database

There’s no such thing as an online store that sells anything and everything to anyone and everyone. Every attempt to create such a site is sure to fail.

What you need to do is to find your niche market and concentrate all your efforts in serving the needs of that niche. You may, however, need to know more about your niche. This requires your creating a database which will give you a clear idea of who buys your products and what their backgrounds are.

There are several ways of reviewing your database, which is essentially a list of all the clients you have had since you started your online store. Even if you don’t know the full details of each client, the information you already have may be enough.

You can break them down by areas, for one. The addresses where you ship your goods tells you right away where the bulk of your customers are. Do they live in cities, or are they mostly from the suburbs?

The names of your clients also tell you what their gender is. Are they mostly male or female? Your database may not be 100 percent accurate owing to some names which can be male or female, but these would belong to the minority. First names like Lee, Jeanne or even Alex can be either male or female. Some clients who only give initials can make it hard to fathom their gender.

If you want a more comprehensive or precise database, you could start immediately by asking present and future clients to provide you more info.

The more you know about your clients, the easier it will be to know what they want or need from your online store.

Look at the bright side

The state of the US and world economies may be far from good, but at least the worst is over. Keep this in mind when you think that your online store is not doing as well as you want it to.

We all agree that the global meltdown of a few years ago was bad, so bad that it was being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In hindsight, we can see that it wasn’t as terrible as some economic analysts had said.

One of its saving graces is the online-based economy.  There was no repeat of the dotcom collapse of the previous decade. Instead, what we saw and what we continue to witness is the survival and even the thriving of online stores.

If your own online store is surviving despite the poor economy, think about how it could boom when the economy picks up steam, which it surely will. This is one of the facts of life we have to live with; your country’s economy and the world economy as a whole experiences upswings and downswings. Unfortunately for most of us, the last downswing was a haymaker. A lot of businesses closed down, and countless families lost their homes.

But by all indications, the worst is over. The expected recovery may not be happening as fast as we want, but at least it is taking place. In the months and years to come, things can only get better. For owners and operators of online stores, therefore, good times are on the horizon.

Continue to operate your store, look for ways to improve your site and the service you provide, and ride the crest of the next economic upswing. It could happen sooner than you think.

Using CPM to go places

Dreaming for success and planning for success are two different things. With the former, your online business will likely go nowhere, while with the latter you will probably generate very decent profits.

Just as no architect will build a house without a plan, so too should your online business not move forward without a blueprint. Otherwise, you would just be wasting your time.

One simple way to plot your success is through the critical path method, or CPM. In its simplest form, the CPM is a chart that states what steps you should take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

You do not have to be a management expert to use the CPM method. Your chart should begin with Point Zero, which is the time you decide to take your online business seriously. You have to have fixed goals of what you want to achieve within a specific time frame.

Say you want to have a fully functional website selling car accessories within 30 days. You’re starting from scratch, so where do you begin and how do you reach your goal? Can you create the website yourself, or do you need help? Will that help be from a friend, relative or professional? How many hours a day will be needed to finish the task?

To the best of your knowledge, estimate the time frames needed to hit definite targets until the end goal is achieved. Then get to work. Stick to this blueprint of yours religiously, adjusting it only when necessary.

On a day by day or week by week basis, you will at least be achieving some goals. If all goes well, you will have your fully functioning website within the time planned.

Congratulations. You have just applied the critical path method.

Describing your inventory

About the only disadvantage in having an online store instead of a physical store is that buyers cannot see and touch the actual merchandise. This is not a problem when what you sell are items that everyone is familiar with, whether it’s watches, shoes, laptops or magazines. It becomes a problem when you are selling something that potential customers are not that common.

The only way to overcome this disadvantage is for you to describe your products in such a way that the buyer’s curiosity is piqued to the point that he or she just has to buy your goods. This means using colourful language. This means that you have to be more of a creative writer than a journalist.

Journalists deal in facts. So a leather briefcase would be described as follows – black leather, 14” X 18”, 1.8 pounds. All very factual, but doing little to help the potential customer make a buying decision. A creative writer, on the other hand, would describe the same item as follows – rich, full-grain, handmade leather bag ideal for the executive on the go, it easily carries your laptop or tablet alongside important documents, cell phone, charger and even a change of clothes, yet weighing a mere 1.8 pounds.

See the difference? The first totally accurate description is clinical and cold, while the second description is more imaginative and appealing. Looking at the item on your online store and reading the colourful description will lead the browser to tell himself, I have to get this.

Hobbies make a great business

A lot of retirees find a new source of livelihood because of their hobbies. But you don’t have to wait to retire to turn your own hobby or special interest into products or services to sell on your online store.

You may be an accountant whose spare time is spent collecting records and cassette tapes (in the past) to CDs not so long ago. Or you may be a mailman who just happens to collect vintage magazines or toy robots. Or you may be a teacher whose hobby is collecting coins or stamps.

You are therefore likely to have a huge collection worth a small fortune, and a lot of people out there would pay good money to buy your treasures. Presuming that you are willing to turn these goodies into cash, you now have products that you can sell on your online store.

Don’t worry about running out of things to sell. You can also turn your online store into a trading post, where like-minded individuals who do not have their own online business can sell their stuff. For your troubles, you get a small commission, of course.

If your special interest is not a product but a service, you can still sell your services online. Is yoga, or dance, or martial arts your passion? You can offer to teach or to lecture or to host get-togethers, not unlike the Tupperware parties which were popular decades ago. Again, all for a small fee.

Everyone has something to offer everyone else, be it a product or a service. An online store has become the best way to go. All you have to do is set up that store. So what are you waiting for?

Working smart

There’s a saying among sales people -- don’t work hard, work smart. There are countless salespeople who work longer hours and exert greater effort than their peers, but who still end up selling less than the well-organized sales person.

This applies to the physical world as well as selling online. The smart salesperson always has a plan and sticks to it, whereas less successful sales people always seem to play it by ear.

A bad or mediocre sales person blames fate, company management or the weather for his or her lack of sales. He may not recognize that it is his own inadequacies which are the reason that big sales are few and far between.

A good sales person can close a big sale, be happy about it, and even celebrate. A great sales person will put the details of that big sale into his or her data bank, eyeing a repeat sale to that buyer somewhere down the road.

The sale can be a big ticket item like a house or a car, or smaller consumer products or services like a big screen TV, dress watch, or a vacation to Hawaii.

Selling online may deprive the sales person of the opportunity for a face-to-face meeting, but this does not prevent him or her from keeping a database of good clients, whom he or she can then stay in touch with over the years via birthday greetings, congratulatory messages, and offers of the latest bargains.

An organized tracking system is but one of the ways that anyone selling online can count on for future business.

Expanding your online business

If the online store that you set up is doing reasonably well, meaning the income it generates is commensurate to the effort you’re putting into it, then the next logical step is to make it do even better. There are no simplistic formulas to double or triple your income. You can’t say that if you double your efforts, you will automatically double your income. If you want to increase the sales of your online store, the best way is to expand your product line, ideally with products allied to what you are already selling. One thing that will hinder your growth is if your online store is perceived as a one-trick pony. Let’s say you bake terrific devil’s food cakes. Orders are coming in on a regular basis and you have a lot of repeat customers. Why not experiment with sugar free devil’s food cakes? There are a lot of weight watchers and diabetics out there who still crave for sweets, and your online store could be the source of the kind of cake that they can enjoy. Or, if you’ve been selling only one size of your specialty, why not offer three sizes? What you have can be your regular sized offering, with smaller and larger sizes for those who want to buy more, or less. Just like the coffee you get at Starbucks, there should be variations which you can price accordingly. If your online store specializing in devil’s food cake has been doing well, maybe it can do better if you introduce angel’s food cake? Whatever line of business your online store is engaged in, expanding it should always follow a natural progression. A cake shop shouldn’t suddenly offer handmade sandals now, should it? But if you also happen to make terrific handmade sandals, what you could do is put up another online store for this other product line of yours.

An online store of hidden treasures

Remember the saying one man’s junk is another man’s treasure? You could be sitting on a treasure trove of things that you have grown tired of, but which someone may really, really want to have. Most of them would be in your garage or attic, taking up space and gathering dust.

Garage sales are a great way of disposing of all the stuff you’ve accumulated over the years. Plus, you get to earn some extra cash, which is always welcome. A little effort to gather and display your items is all it takes.

There is, however, one shortcoming. Unless you heavily advertise your sale, only people from your immediate neighbourhood are likely to come and browse.

Setting up an online store is an excellent alternative to holding a garage sale for several reasons. One, you will reach more people. Two, you are not limited to the few days that you can physically hold the sale. And three, you can keep adding stuff that you no longer want or need.

On the down side, a lot of buyers will want you to ship to them. What you have is, after all, an online store and buyers have gotten used to getting the things they buy online delivered to them.

 Unless, of course, you insist that all items sold have to be picked up. But this limits your customers to those willing to spend the time going to your place.

Think of your online store of second hand or used goods as your own personal ebay. If you find yourself running out of stuff to sell, ask your friends and relatives to post their own items on your online store.

 

Creating a niche online store

An entrepreneur who makes his or her mark by setting up a successful niche online store has probably done so because the products or services offered are close to his or her heart.

A woman in her late 30s is not likely to have an online store similar to a man in his mid 50s, and neither of them would carry products or services put up by siblings in their early 20s.

Whatever your age or gender, once your online store has been doing well for a while, it can practically run on autopilot. This gives you the opportunity to expand, but the question is, in what direction?

One possibility is to tap markets for people who are very close to you, such as your husband/wife, brother or sister, or best friend.

Your experience plus their special interest could be an opportunity to create a business partnership that will be profitable for both of you.

Say you are a young housewife who has put up an online store that specializes in products for pre-school kids. You may have a sister or close friend who is single and is crazy about cats.

You can help your sis or friend set up her own online store with you as a silent partner. The only requirement on your end is that you yourself have to have at least some interest in cats.

Most of the inputs like what cat products to sell will come from your new partner, but setting up the online store will be your job. If the new site has the same luck as yours, it should be off and running in no time.