Unlike the conventional stores, the journey to grow sales on marketplaces can be a complex task. However, many sellers might expect a wealth of potential in online marketplaces. Usually, they jump in thinking, “Once I get my products on eBay, Google Shopping, and Amazon, the sales will increase with 5 or even 10 fold!” This is a common expectation that a lot of online merchants have when entering highly competitive e-commerce marketplaces.
Unfrotunately, they end up getting very disappointed. Often, sellers on marketplaces must adopt new methods of thinking and implementing different business models. Whether your sales have not been performing well or you want to grow marketplace sales to the next level, here are some of the best tested and proven technologies to consider.
Grow sales by optimize your product contention marketplaces
To drive clients to your online marketplace and raise conversions, you need to optimize the content. The target audience should easily find everything about your product to decide to buy. Start by optimizing the headline, creating great descriptions, and capturing product specifications. These will give your visitors an opportunity to compare with other products and establish the items’ superiority. Besides, provide multiple images and product part numbers so that clients can be sure they are picking the right items. If you are using several marketplaces, it is important to optimize the data feed so that all the fields are included.
There is nothing that turns down and discourages clients from coming back like stressful shipping procedures. As the last step in a client’s purchase, it is important to make the settings accurate. When you optimize content for a product, deliver the right details, ensure it rhymes well with the market demand and target enhancing UX.
Provide top-notch customer support
Many marketplaces correspond directly with customers. To a great extent, they control the customer relationship. This brings about two crucial things for merchants who want to get higher sales in marketplaces; perfect relationship with the respective eCommerce retailer and a focus on the customers. How can these be achieved?
First, you need to follow the marketplace’s policies carefully especially on shipping, exchange, and refund rules. The focus at this point is to rank at the top by customers to win more. This means being on-call all the time in order to respond to any inquiry within hours and not days.
Note that even the marketplaces are also in competition. If a customer walks away because of poor support, the respective marketplace also loses. For example, eBay and Amazon do not allow any lag to clients’ inquiries. It is also crucial that you review customer emails regularly to establish whether the response is winning clients or a change is necessary.
Price your products competitively
Products’ prices within different marketplaces are highly dynamic. If you follow specific items on the marketplace list, the prices keep changing as sellers adjust with shifting demand. The objective is to ensure the price is not too low or too high. To achieve this, you should identify price monitoring tools and make appropriate adjustments. Some of the top monitoring tools include Appeagle, 360pi, Monsoon Commerce, and Channel IQ among others. The tools allow users to monitor prices of products from competitors in multiple marketplaces. Remember that these tools only provide recommendations for your prices. Therefore, you should factor the product margins before making adjustments.
Make sure to boost visibility via advertising
One thing that merchants must appreciate is that marketplaces cannot deliver the anticipated results on their own. Once you get the products on Amazon or another marketplace, it becomes the start of more aggressive advertising in multiple networks. You need to take the message about your product to the social media, form groups, and demonstrate why it is better than others. Here, you can even enlist the services of influencers who will direct following to your marketplace pages.
Many marketplaces also provide advertising platforms for their users. For example, Sears and TigerDirect have an advertising network called Search Exchange. Make sure to follow with your preferred marketplace to identify specific marketing platforms because many clients flock there for deals. Remember that once you settle for specific advertising models, include an appropriate analytics solution for regular reviews.
Create regular promotions
Many people flock to promotions. There are those who hold on until a promotion is announced to make a purchase. To raise your sales, ensure to plan regular promotions for the target market. This can be a gift that you include with the item, price reduction, or free shipping. Note that you should carefully calculate promotions with the target profit margins in mind. One of the best methods of offering promotions is providing free shipping to clients who reach a specific amount of purchase. In fact, Amazon has successfully applied this method to encourage clients to shop more from the store.
Select the right products: The key to grow sales on marketplaces
The marketplace operates differently from conventional stores. In many cases, products that do very well in your store might fail to replicate similar success in boosting revenue. To grow sales on marketplaces, you need to focus on specific market niches and identify the products that are in greater demand. At the onset of summer, a merchant might target selling tanning related products because everyone is getting outdoors. Make sure to stay ahead of the target market by establishing what clients want and how they want it.
When selecting the products, ensure to capture everything that guarantees users of extra value and engagement. This means sourcing from top brands with high approval in the market. The products on your store should also have comprehensive reviews or link to reviews that demonstrate their superiority. Do not shy from pointing at related items to demonstrate why clients should buy from you and not others.
Manage products’ inventory accurately
For merchants who list products on multiple channels, they should manage the inventory with great accuracy. There is nothing as harmful as getting multiple orders when you do not have enough items. The moment you cancel orders because they exceed the inventory, your rating on the marketplaces will fall drastically. To traverse this, it is advisable to indicate the items that are remaining in your store. You could also work in close collaboration with the manufacturer or supplier for a guarantee of prompt supply when bigger orders are coming in.
To grow more sales in marketplaces demands careful marketing and regular monitoring of competitors. Unlike a conventional store where you are under control of everything from price to product quantities, the marketplaces are more competitive and highly dynamic. Make sure to market the product more aggressively, use promotions, and apply the best analytics to understand emerging trends.
