When shifting your business to E-commerce, your initial sales are of utmost importance. Quick sales and satisfied customers set your momentum, helping your chalk out an effective marketing strategy while letting you bridge up loopholes in your sales process. However, though initial sales are very encouraging, they are far more difficult than you can imagine.
This post will give you tips on acquiring your first customers. This will help you determine whether your sales strategies are up to mark or that they need to be redesigned.
What Should You Aim For?
After reading this article you should aim for getting your first ten sales. Try not to engage in other sale order unless your previous client calls asking for more. In addition to this, you should also be able to analyze how each channel works in getting you clients.
Start With A Pre-Launch Email List
In order to start with your sales journey, you need to generate a buzz and there is no better way to do that than creating an email list regardless of how small it is. You can create a pre-launch list and email to your potential clients before your grand opening. The people you email are your potential clients as they have already given in their email addresses, so that they keep up-to-date about the progress at your online store.
In order to make things easier for you, you can use email apps or services like MailChimp so that you can send emails without any hassle.
Sell To Your Near And Dear Ones
In order to kick start your sales you can convince your family and friends to make the purchase from you. However, you don’t need to force them into buying stuff that won’t offer anything valuable to your initial buyers. For example, you shouldn’t ask your mother to purchase a men’s T-Shirt just because you are selling it. Rather you should genuinely look around for family members or friends who would appreciate buying the product from you. Try to approach them on your own and then ask them to make the purchase.
Run Surveys Or Giveaways
Giveaways are a great way to get your product occupy an important spot in the market. Though many marketers think that giveaways attract people who are looking for deals, the viral nature of this activity can garner a lot of customers and a positive word of mouth.
Nowadays you can gather more traffic from your giveaways by using apps that help broaden your reach by passing surveys through social media.
Sell Through Social Channels
If you have already tapped on your potential customers by talking to them personally, now is the time to look for people within your circle on social media who would love to buy from you. Like most business persons, you would know the importance of Facebook.
How can you strategically use Facebook to garner higher sales?
Before you go on to announce your store’s launch and the products that you are offer, it is best to make use of its social graph search that will help you identify potential contacts that would buy your products by using keywords relevant to your products.
Once you have filtered out your contacts who are likely to show interest in your products, you can approach them personally. You can also then post updates about the launch of your product to widen your reach.
Try EBay And Other Marketplaces
If you really want to be a successful entrepreneur, you should check out on all options that will increase your sales. Sites such as EBay and Craigslist are a great way to boost your sales. They will be particularly useful for you at the start of your business as these already have a lot traffic, which will be directed to your products too. It can be really helpful to initiate your selling process and getting your products appear in Google search as you work on SEO.
Run Facebook Ads
You have already invited your friends and Facebook contacts to use your product. Now think big and utilize Facebook ads to target a wider audience. One of the best features about Facebook ads is that it allows you strategically target your audience and it is must-try for all e-commerce businesses. You should spend some time thinking about the market that you are targeting, their interests, and their dislikes so that you tweak your adverts according to the preferences of your target market.
While advertising on Facebook can get you great results, it is going to cost you. So make sure that you fully understand your market and then put up your advert accordingly.