5 Ways To Make An Online Store Profitable
Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a rising demand for online stores as consumers want to shop from the comfort of their homes. Also, business owners have also realized the importance of an online store, ranging from a wider audience reach to reduced costs.
More than one out of every four people you see around you is an online shopper. The online space is more than a market as there is no fixed time that everyone leaves and then resumes.
Knowing people are always available to know what services you render and are ready to exchange the value for it with you is the reason why you need to have a profitable online store.
Given the rising trend, the potential for an online store is huge. And as with this trend, an online store owner has to know how to create a profitable one.
This article walks you through the process of how to create a profitable online store. A business/ store where your gains will surpass your losses. A store that can make you financially active to achieve more goals and break more business bounds.
Create a Profitable Online Store In Five Easy Steps
Here is a step-by-step guide to creating your profitable online store
Let us dive into the details.
Sell Products That Are On Demand
This is how it works: sell products that are in demand by your audience/potential customers on the online space that you have chosen, or look for a space where you can find your potential customers that will buy the products that you have decided to sell because they need them.
Firstly, check the media space that you are on, is it a place where you can find your potential customers? Is it possible for you to sell your brand there? What do they need to buy? What can you sell that can be beneficial to their everyday lives?
Where can you find your audience? What does your audience need? What media space do you need to be to meet the demands of your customers or to actualize your business ideas?
There are so many factors that determine what to sell. This is similar to one of the economic problems; what to produce? And this is not just what to sell, it is what to sell that is in demand that is profitable.
The factors that determine what to sell that are high in demand include:
Seasons or weather can help in determining the kind of products to sell. For instance, during harmattan season, products such as harmattan kits are on demand, and you do not want to miss out on sales, because you are out of stock or do not have them in stock at all.
Also, in some seasons of the year like In December, Gift packages are on demand. People will want to gift their loved ones during the festive season. Hence, understanding what your target audience is looking for can help you stock their favorite gifts and drive more sales.
Your audience will help you to determine what they need, and what you want to sell will determine where to find your audience. Are your audience offices or corporate organizations? In line with what season or period it is; what do they need now?
Likewise, for instance, if you are selling perfumes, who are your audiences and where will you find them?
On what social media space can you find these potential buyers? It can be Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and what have you.
From where can you link these people to your business, as people will search for you on search engines; Google, Reddit, etc?
Finding your customers and situating your business there corresponds to a high increase in sales, quality leads, more revenue and increased visibility.
As a brand owner, you should make it easy for your target audience to locate your online store on search engines،
Your online store equates to your online presence, and it is where and how you are stationed on the World Wide Web. Where and how you want to build your shop are one of the factors that you should consider.
To increase the visibility of your online store that you have located your business and consider as where you can meet your potential buyers' needs, you should have a website; an SEO-optimized website.
This seems like your business headquarters, the root of your business, where your online presence or web presence can grow from.
Your website will be your shop, your online store, your marketplace, and several web pages that talk about your business in text, images, videos, infographics, and what have you.
Going from there, you can create different web pages/ blogs on your website. Add the necessary sections and all of that; your Homepage, About Page, Products Page, and Policies/ Terms and Conditions page.
You can have several blog articles on your website that promote your brand and also use that as a way to solidify your presence on the internet by adding your social media account links to it.
In this way, your web presence is gaining improvement, and you can now promote your online presence by creating different social media accounts in different social media spaces; Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, WhatsApp, Medium, and what have you.
You can create ads and pay for these social media platforms according to your budget to display them on media platforms, sites, and blogs. Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and Search Engines, among others, help display business ads.
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Furthermore, you can set up your business on Google My Business (GMB). A Google My Business listing makes your business information more visible in search results, and it is a strategy to boost your web presence, but it doesn’t give you the level of customization and control a website does.
A Google My Business listing will make your target audience/ potential customers easily find your brand, and this will increase sales, and to the same effect hype your web presence.
Google My Business is a free listing that google offers qualified local businesses like your brand. It is a free local tool that allows you to promote your business profile and website (if you have one) on Google search and maps.
Your GMB should contain your company's name, address, phone number, (website URL), business hours, and much more. Of course, websites also have such procedures. But, you do need a website.
Being intentional about selling goods that are in demand and checking the necessary factors shows how ideal you are about business. It does not only help you to thrive as a business owner but also helps you to make an immense profit.
Have you thought of the consequences of selling products that are not in demand, or that will not thrive in the social media space that you are in?
If you are in the wrong media space, then you can't find the right audience for your product. And such will yield low or no sales, and losses instead of profits.
Selling products that are in demand will increase sales and as well increase profit.
Price Your Products Competitively
Charge the aggregate worth of the service that you render. You should neither overcharge nor undercharge for your product.
Do not let your competitors negatively influence the price you charge for your goods. Because your competitor(s) are selling their mini collections of perfumes for $2 does not mean you have to sell it that way or beat the price lower.
The cost of factors that are involved in making that service available should instead be the factor that determines the price of your product.
The entrepreneurial process – capital, labor, and land (the online medium that you have chosen to sell your product) differs from your competitors, and it is what should determine how you price your product.
As a brand owner, you should render your services to their full value, and charge their worth. Buyers will always go where they can get ultimate satisfaction. Do not overprice or underprice your product. You should sell to make a profit.
Use Effective Marketing Strategies
Because you are neither the first person to start such a business nor the only person engaged in such a business, it is important for you to focus on branding your business. Branding your business makes it unique and creates a sense of belonging to your customers.
There are so many effective marketing strategies that can help you to achieve your desired level of success.
A brand owner should deploy effective marketing strategies that will drive traffic to his/her store, and what are these marketing strategies?
Content strategy: e-flyers and ads (Instagram, Facebook, Google, etc., copywriting, blogging or guest posting; SEO-optimized websites, email marketing, targeted advertisement, co-branding /partnership, following or jumping on trends, etc.
These are tested and trusted strategies that can help you to boost your online sales and increase profits. In case you need help with identifying and executing a marketing strategy for your business, then you can reach out to an expert for assistance.
Offer Excellent Customer Service
One way to offer excellent customer service is to deliver to your customers the exact service that they want.
Nowadays, there are several cases of "What I ordered vs What I got". This does not only show that people usually patronize online business vendors, but also shows that these can cause a setback in business for the brand and brands that deliver such services.
So as a good business owner who is keen on boosting his/her online sales and making profits, you should make sure to deliver exactly what your customers have ordered. Your increasing web presence should be for you and not against you.
Selling quality products, delivering quality products, gaining trust, and letting people be able to vouch for your brand is a way to increase sales and make a profit.
Another way to offer excellent customer service is to put 'you' in your brand. Moderately; relate with your customers, check up on them, greet them in festive seasons, give them discounts, etc. Let them feel valued.
Constantly Update Your Inventory
Brands or products that update that store or change something about their brand, or add something to their brand have more online visibility which will result in more sales and more profits.
As your sales increase, add more business ideas to it and actualize them. Do you want to add new products? Do you want to co-brand? Do you want to have a brand extension? Do you want to rebrand your product? All these are what you should plan to do and actualize to increase sales and make a profit.
General Overview
Your online store is your business location, your shop, your marketplace, and where you are to exchange profitable values with people that are interested in your brand.
It is your contact point where you as a seller or a brand owner meet the people that are interested in your business.
And what is business when the notion of selling to make a profit is lost? The goal of a successful entrepreneur who takes risks is to make a profit. Every business idea has its own goals, and one of them is to make an immeasurable profit.
As a brand owner, you should be keen on having a profitable online store. Afterall, who doesn’t want to drive more revenue with a sustainable business?