More than half of the Internet traffic to websites now comes from mobile devices (phones and tablets).
More and more people rely on their mobile phone to quickly check availability or prices.
You need to make sure your website can be used on these devices.
Please note people tend to browse for information however most purchases still happen from a desktop or laptop computer.
Customers are proud of what they build themselves. This goes for essentials such as a flat-packed bed or bookcase and is also true for non-essentials such as plastic model kits.
Having to put some effort to get a finished item adds to the perceived value for the person who built it.
You can benefit from this bias by offering items which have to be put together by the customer. Everytime they look at or use the item, they will value it more than if they had not build it themselves.
More and more research are proving what we always thought: negative experiences are more easily remembered than positive ones. They are also usually more vivid memories.
This comes from a primal instinct: remember how bad your encounter with a tiger was so that you can live longer.
You need to keep it in mind and put the emphasis on positive benefits of what you are selling. There should be enough of them to overcome any negativity towards it.
Please note this is likely to require more convincing than you think!
I am pretty sure no customer has ever told you “Your price is not high enough”.
The reality is that a price cannot be too high. It can only be too high if you are not able to explain it.
This is all down to perceived value. This explains why a 200 page market trading book will sell for £25 while a 200 page novel will go for £7.99. In one case you are spending money in the view to make more, in the other you are buying a few hours of dreaming.
So make sure you focus on the benefits for the customers and ignore the pricetag.
Be careful where you choose to advertise. Publishers (online or not) will always boast about how many readers they have. However, they may not translate into sales for you.
The obvious reason may be a lack of targeting: if you sell toys, a magazine about gardening is not going to produce results regardless of the size of their readership.
Another reason is what people are doing at the time of seeing your ad. For instance online forums are usually well attended and highly focused, however when people are involved in a discussion they are unlikely to react to your ads.
Offer two options to a customer, say product A and product B. The customer will buy one.
Tell the next customer who is interested in something similar what the first customer bought. It is very likely they will buy the same.
This is basically the herd behaviour: once a sheep goes somewhere, the whole herd follows.
You can use this to influence customers. Simply tell them how many people bought the option you want them to buy.
You probably want to have a presence on Facebook. And on Twitter. And Pinterest as well. And Instagram. And a few others…
The problem is to decide why you want to do it? If it is simply because you read somewhere you have to, you are mistaken.
Being on social media takes (a lot of) time. It takes commitment. It takes vision. You cannot be a part-timer on social media.
Is it really the best use of your time at the moment?
You can try to guess what customers want and to some extend you are going to be successful. However this will never be as good as asking customers for their opinion.
It is not because they do not buy something that they do not want it: they may simply buy in bulk elsewhere.
Do not be afraid to ask, you will be surprised as to what you will uncover.
If you sell on an online marketplace, it is very difficult to make your brand and your name recognised.
Most people when asked where they bough an item will say “I got this on eBay” but will not be able to say the vendor’s name.
If you are trying to build a reputation and grow your customer base, you need to find ways to bring your customers to your own website, to your own shop and deal with you direct.
Do you know that if you sell on a marketplace, say eBay or Amazon, the customers are the marketplace’s?
It means you cannot do any marketing activity to them, even once they have bought from you. You are not allowed to use their contact details including email and physical address to promote your other products.
It also means you cannot add them to your newsletter or even send them an email to suggest they follow you on Facebook.