I am pretty sure, you guys are well versed in the field of marketing. So, when the query starts to probe itself “How To Sell Products Online”, I am pretty sure that a handful of thoughts would have crossed your mind.
My intent is not to make you guy’s wait long. Before we jump into the core subject, strategy to sell handbags online, I would like to take you for a ride.
Note:- Over my short career as a digital marketer I had the privilege to work with a handful of startups. In a startup ecosystem, the decision stage of the buyer’s journey is constrained by multiple factors. Being a startup most people don’t trust you. People want to interact with a person before they make a purchase decision. Technology plays a crucial role in bringing the people and to position the brand value among customers. So, the significance of technology needs to be accentuated.
Technology and Marketing
I believe the time has way surpassed wherein a cognitive system will possibly analyse the situation and will make the best desirable action for us. Digital technologies are constantly refined to meet the customer expectation. We live in a virtual world where the reality is often a mere reflection of what we intend to see. The radical penetration of digital technologies into human life has stupendously changed our day to today life. Convenience is of paramount, where everything is made available on a shiny screen.
The desire to reflect a unique personality has forced the fashion industry to invent and reinvent eccentric styles. When someone decides to enter into the fashion industry, the person needs to synergize a comprehend strategy. A strategy that will help materialize the idea of establishing a strong foot in the market. Technology enabled customer-centric strategy will help transform into a business model that lures customers.
Business Over Technology
Technology gives you a means to sell online. In most cases, business entities end up depending more or technology. A few even get the digital transformation part wrong, that they will end up with digital upgradation. Integrating and synchronising multiple technologies may not promise you overnight sale. The sale happens when you interact with people, and when people derive value out of it.
If it’s a sole proprietorship company you bear the burden of wearing multiple hats. Being an entrepreneur you take the risk of investing huge sums to erect a strong identity in the market. The investment you made is a liability, whether you borrowed it from a third party or you decide to write a check for yourself. Either way as a business firm your objective is to make sure that you run a profit.
Regardless of what you sell you need to make sure that every step you make will help generate revenue. You need revenue to cover your expenses. As a business model, you need to consider the fact that a stable stream of revenue gives you enough room to expand and run the day to day operations smoothly.
Start an Online Store to Sell Products Online
To sell online you need to have a virtual platform where you can list your products and then make people interact with the platform. There are a plethora of pre-built eCommerce platforms that empowers a newbie entrepreneur to start an online business.
Most entrepreneurs have a fuzzy idea when comes to how the digital world operates. They are well aware of the benefits of setting up an online presence. A comprehensively designed virtual store can be a crowd puller. If you feel that you need to start with a custom designed online shop, then you need to look out for an agency that has some proven track record in the same. An eCommerce store demands few extra skill sets when compared to designing a regular website.
Few pre-build platforms to start with;
- Shopify
- KartRocket
- Zepo
- Volusion
The above mentioned platforms give you all the tools required you to set up a virtual store and sell Products online. The cool part is that you can try out the trial period and arrive at a decision. While you are in the selection process make sure that you have fully understood your need. With the added advantages comes limitations. Every pre-built platforms come with a set of limitation a safe envelope within which they operate. Make sure you are well informed, down the line the limitations should not prevent you from scaling and expanding.
For: EG; If you are planning to sell high end luxury Products online then the theme you select needs to have a spiffy look and feel. It will be an oversight to ignore the personality of your online store. An elegant theme clubbed with eccentric styles will be ideal to attract the young generation. The platform you partner with should enable you to carry out all the necessary day to day operation with ease, and should not compromise the quality of service you are trying to offer at any instance.
Strategy to Promote Productss Online
Influencer Marketing
The term may sound new to most people but it is as simple as getting your business endorsed by a celebrity. In this case an influencer, who has a handful of loyal followers. Since your priority is finely tuned to sell Products online, you need to target influencers who have made a remarkable identity in the fashion industry.
People who have a fondness for fashion are more likely to show interest in your business model. In the initiation stage, it will be a tiresome experience to reach out to a famous influencer with 1M followers and get your store endorsed. I say you can start small. Why not reach out to a local influencer. It can be a local celebrity.
Celebrity fan’s adore the personality, they tend to follow their styles and choices. If you can’t find a local celebrity find a fashion photographer who has some decent followers. The photographers Instagram will be flooded with images that are well aligned with what the fashion industry craves for.
Influencers are people who have invested enough time to create an identity of their own. Their skills and persistence help create astounding results which acted as a crowd puller. So, it’s not like a paid advertisement where you shout out to a generic crowd. Here the target demography is finely defined
Participate in Local Contest
People make use of online channels to search your brand presence, reach out to your business, look for endorsements/ reviews, etc. Great! It doesn’t mean that you cannot make use of the traditional channel to boot your presence. Matter of fact most brands recommend a holistic approach. Be ready to display your craftsmanship. Find local contests and participate in it. In most cases, people who are genuinely interested in the offering participate in a local contest.
Leverage the best out of the local contest. The organizer will have a common platform, by participating in the event you may get access to it. Let’s consider that the organizer has created a Facebook group for the event, and you received an invitation to be a part of it. Hope now you see the clear picture. Get active on the group and then introduce your online store.
Create an online contest of your own. Give the audience an opportunity to thread a fashion of their own demand. Let the audience exercise their creativity and come up with something great. Activities like this help increase the engagement rate on the platform and raise brand awareness. Consider it like this if 100 people participate in the activity then possibly 30 people will surf through the store to see what it offers and a few will be happy to share their creative plus what’s available on the store.
Content marketing – Often it Boils Down to a Subtle art of Uniqueness.
The distinctive benefit of delivering long term benefits has made content the top channel when comes to digital marketing. The online world is a crowded marketplace. Stats published on microfocus.com says that on an average 22 billion texts is sent every. Over the years the rate at which content is generated has increased exponentially. With an increasing churn rate in content, the end customer often gets flabbergasted to given attention to detail. The best option at hand is to show how unique you can be. Be creating, every text you add should be unique enough to attract the audience eyeballs.
Start with the title. It can be as quirky as;
- Are you shy enough to try me! Says the hobo bag.
- Vodka as a hair and skin enhancer
Be bold to stretch your creativity. With a huge amount of data being processed every second, it’s getting pretty hard to grab the audience attention. Create a theme for your virtual store. Make it distinct from what a normal person looks for. Align your brand voice to go with the theme.
Make use of avatars and animations to send across your messages. Put together a video or infographics to entice the customer. Make sure that what you create will help lure customers to your online store.
Personalised Ad Campaigns
We live in a world were customer convenience is of cardinal importance. When two firms compete for the same market, the best option is to deliver a great service. An exceptional experience for the customer. An immediate purchase happens people have a history with the eCommerce store. Most people don’t enter into an immediate transaction with an unknown entity.
Personalised retargeting ads are one fantastic way to bring people back to the website. You can create a custom audience list and can retarget the people who visited your website for a given period of time. Placing the business entity multiple times help to position the brand among customers.
A seasonal offer can get the customer’s attention but may not materialise into a sale. At the same time if you make use of dynamic retargeting strategies it will help the customer to revisit the product page and make a purchase.
Initiatives are being made to move from a cookie-based marketing strategy to a people based marketing (PBM) strategy. With PBM, the online entity will be able to track and monitor all the activities of the visitor. Making it possible to offer customised packages and services as he moves down the buyer’s journey. The limitation of a cookie-based strategy is that people tend to use multiple devices prior to reaching a purchase decision.
For eg; A person who wants to buy a Louis Vuitton Product may trigger the search query on her personal laptop, office desktop, mobile, etc.
Note:- We thrive in a global world where people are thought to clock behind a global citizens mask. It sounds cynical, a few let go of their ethnic wear in search of novelty and another set jumps in and take the place. If fashion is all about what we wear, then we perceived it wrong. The word fashion should stand for holistic health. How a personality can be reflected at its best