Bob Dylan once wrote, “the times, they are a-changin”, but his words still ring true today and can be applied to pretty much every aspect of our lives—not least of all retail. The ability to recognize changing situations and adapt in accordance with them isn’t a sign you’re changing your deeply-held values, but an ability to simultaneously look into the past, present, and future. You’ve got to acquire this ability or, as Bono once sang, you’ll be, “stuck in a moment and you now you can’t get out of it”.
Adding Online to Your Channels
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already got a bit of the ecommerce spirit flowing through you with listings on one of the major marketplaces like Amazon, eBay or Rakuten’s Play.com. And whether you’re selling solely online or adding it to your offline retail efforts, the following online selling tips are going to prove very helpful.
The first thing to know is you’ve got a growing trend on your side—the Wall Street Journal has recently reported that 40 percent fewer consumers shopped at brick-and-mortar stores over the holidays in the last four years, which means they’re shifting to online shopping in droves.
Tips to Keep in Mind
As you prepare to add online channels to your retail mix (omnichannel retailing), there are several key steps you absolutely can’t skip. They are:
- Keep a Full Inventory: If a consumer shows up at an offline store and the product they’re looking for isn’t there, that’s not usually a big problem. The sales staff can either order it in, or direct them to a store that has it. But if you don’t have a certain product in your online store, buyers will just skip onto the next seller who does.
- Learn How to Group Your Products: Organising your merchandise—whether in an online or offline store—follows the same concepts, like cross-selling, moving from low- to high-priced items as you move deeper into the store, and setting up a “trinkets” area for impulse purchases. And if it’s at all possible, avoid confusing or misleading prices, such as hidden shipping or tax fees. If you’re an Amazon third-party seller, the scenario here might be to lower your costs on a line of products to get lots of sales and positive feedbacks that take you closer to Feature Merchant status and eligbility to win the Buy Box.
- Practice the Art of Repricing: Walk into any store, like Walmart, and you’ll see constantly shifting prices. This isn’t just to draw in customers, but done based on market trends and competitors’ pricing. Prices are one of the least-static things around, and using repricing software can help you get a firm grip on making advances with your e-commerce business.
- Maintain a Clean Website: We could write a whole post on how to have a good website, but a clean layout, ease-of-use, and key features placed prominently are just a few of the things to keep in mind. If you’re not good with site design, hire someone who is. The characteristic of a great leader is surrounding yourself with strong minds skilled in respective areas, so adopt this trait for yourself. A website can be a massive investment when adding online to your retail mix, and there are a lot of experts (including ourselves) who recommend selling on Amazon or other major marketplaces first—you get a huge ready-to-purchase group of potential customers (hundreds of millions) and many fulfilment services can be passed off to Amazon FBA.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Now that you’re armed with enough tips to get you going, the next step is to keep moving forward like a shark. It’s awfully tempting to sit back on your haunches and relax once the infrastructure’s in place, but that’s one of the worst things you can do.
The word to remember is “leverage”, as in leverage your brand every chance you get. Engage in social media, constantly pursue quality clients, get regular feedback on what you’re doing right and wrong, and keep building your ecommerce business.
Oh, and always stay on top of the repricing ball.
For tips on how to adapt to the ever-shifting landscape of ecommerce, there’s a never-ending litany of articles and posts. For everything else, there’s RepricerExpress. Check out our 15-day free trial of repricing software, and you’ll never look back!
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