10 ways to increase sales on your dropshipping store
You have set up your dropshipping store and are ready to make some sales. But wait, nobody knows about your store, neither do they have any reason to buy.
A few lucky dropshippers start getting sales within the first month, while others must wait longer. Whereas it is tempting to focus on continually tweaking your site after every YouTube video you watch, this method does not always work.
Driving steady sales to your dropshipping site takes time and effort. To be successful, you need strategies that work.
In this article, we’ll look at some of these strategies to help you increase sales for your dropshipping store.
How to increase sales for your dropshipping store
1. Choosing the right products
Running a successful dropshipping store starts with selling the right products. Choosing a product niche therefore becomes a critical stage of the process.
Tips for choosing the right niche
- Passion and interest: It helps to choose a product niche in which you have interest. If you are selling a product that you are not interested in, you will most likely not be committed to the business. The upside of having an interest in a chosen niche is that you can understand customer pain points and, therefore, choose products they are more likely to buy.
- Search volume: A sure way to fail is to sell products that nobody is looking for. So, as you choose a product to add to your store, check for its search volume and related terms. Furthermore, check out other companies that sell those products and how much traffic they generate. The higher the volume, the larger your customer base.
- Profitability: Your niche of choice should generate reasonable profits for you. Profitability could lie in higher purchase volumes per transaction or high mark-ups per item. That considered, you may want to avoid products that are too cheap since they do not often provide high profits per sale.
2. High-quality content
Content is critical to driving traffic to your dropshipping store and converting sales. It works in different forms, like blogs, product descriptions, graphics videos, etc.
Product pages
Your product pages will probably be what people find when they look up your store or your products. You want to make them as appealing as possible. The longer people stay, the more likely they are to buy from you.
If your product pages look poorly done, you easily come off as an illegitimate store.
Tips for more attractive product pages
- High-quality product images: Customers cannot touch or feel your products, so your pictures must do the talking. If you have the budget, hire a professional. High-quality images attract potential customers and make your products look more convincing, thus increasing the chance that they will buy from you.
- Product descriptions: 95% of customers reportedly use product information when considering a purchase. Product descriptions also influence SEO. Using the right keywords helps you rank higher in search engines.
3. Use ads
Competition for customer attention online is intense. To get your message out through the noise, you may initially need to use ads. There are many options available, from Google ads to Social media ads.
Top considerations when using ads
- The target audience: Your ads will be useless if they target the wrong people. Ad platforms allow you to choose your specific demographic. Therefore, you must know which customer groups would be interested in your offerings and then customize the ads to reach them.
- Ad content: The content you use will make or break your ads. Best practices suggest shot and concise copy, along with captivating images or videos.
The less an ad looks like on social media, the more clickthrough you are likely to have. - Objectives: Before creating an ad, you should define what goals you intend to achieve with the ad. In this case, you are trying to drive sales. With this understanding, you will know whether the ads are working and how to measure results. Key metrics to consider here would be clickthrough rates and conversion rates.
4. Site specifications
The technical specifications of your dropshipping store could affect your sales. Your website should be fast and easy to navigate.
In that regard, you must choose your website builder carefully. The most recommended platforms are Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Weebly.
- Site speed: Users nowadays have short concentration spans. Research indicates that customers are more likely to abandon your website if it takes too long to load. Experts, therefore, recommend keeping your site’s load time to 3 seconds maximum.
- Site appearance: Consider what you want potential customers to find as soon as they land on your site. You must ensure that your dropshipping store is attractive and easy to navigate. Furthermore, do not disregard your home page since it is often the first point of contact.
- Automate your site: Incorporating site automation streamlines your dropshipping operations. It also keeps your site running even when you are not physically present and makes it easy to carry out daily repetitive tasks.
- Payment methods: Unfavorable checkout processes are the third reason why most shoppers abandon their carts. To reduce cart abandonment, you must make your checkout process as seamless as possible. Provide multiple forms of payment and opt for single-form checkout.
5. Promotions
People like free stuff and an irresistible deal. Promotions, discounts, special offers all help drive sales. They come in several forms too.
- Coupons and vouchers: Shoppers love coupons because they make them feel special. You can offer them coupons and vouchers in exchange for email information.
- More for less: Offering multiple products for a lesser price attracts bargain buyers. It also helps to get rid of unwanted stock and build a solid customer base. For example, you can offer a 2 for one promo.
- Bundling products: This is a common strategy with online stores that increases sales. You can pair related or complementary products and offer them at a lower price. Doing so allows you to command a much higher price. This practice helps you increase your average order value.
- Discounts: With discounts, your sales will double if you apply it for a short period. Time-sensitive deals add a sense of urgency among shoppers, helping you boost sales. Discounts are common during festive seasons.
6. The right supplier
Choosing the right suppliers has a direct effect on your store’s sales in the long run. The supplier stores all the products and ships them directly to your customer. So, if they are not reliable, you will deal with many dissatisfied customers—late deliveries, damaged goods, etc.
As you choose suppliers for your store, you may want to have several alternatives for the same products. If your leading suppliers run out of products or cannot deliver for any reason, you can still fulfill your customers’ orders. Remember that when customers have a great experience, they are more likely to recommend you to others, which brings in more sales.
7. Outstanding customer services
It is excellent customer service that sets you apart in the competitive eCommerce landscape.
Customers value your ability to solve their problems. Therefore, always address their queries fast, provide real-time updates about their packages, and guide them through placing orders and the processes that follow.
Customers will more likely return if they had a good experience the first time.
8. Free shipping
Shipping costs are the number one reason why prospective buyers abandon their carts. Therefore, providing free shipping is a great way to reduce cart abandonment and encourage more purchases.
You may attach free shipping to a specific value, e.g., free shipping if you buy goods worth $100 or more. This incentive encourages buyers to buy more from you.
9. Retargeting
Retargeting marketing tactics enable you to target customers who visited your site but took no action.
In most cases, visitors will not buy from your site the first time. It does not mean you cannot convert them. In fact, statistics indicate that returning visitors to ecommerce stores outnumber new visitors, and spend more time on the site.
You can show these visitors more relevant and targeted ads and recapture them through re targeting.
10. Cross-selling and upselling
Up-selling is a marketing strategy to persuade customers to buy a more expensive option than their initial intent. It applies before the customer buys the product. For example, you can invite an iPhone 11 buyer to get the iPhone 12 instead.
Cross-selling involves suggesting complementary products to the customer’s purchase. With cross-selling, you encourage customers to buy additional items with their purchase. For example, you can invite an iPhone buyer to get a phone case or an extra screen protector.
The cost of acquiring new customers is 5 times more than retaining existing ones. Furthermore, existing customers are more likely to spend more because they are already familiar with you and confident about your offering.
It is easier to predict and suggest additional items based on what the customer has already bought with cross-selling.
Best practices suggest not overdoing it as buyers may quickly get distracted and leave the site without making a purchase.
Conclusion
Driving sales to your dropshipping store is no easy feat if you lack the appropriate strategies. Additionally, there is no one size fits all solution. Therefore, ensure that you adopt methods that cater to your unique niche and dropshipping store.
The tips shown above are proven methods guaranteed to get you results in the shortest time possible.
Source: Wholesale2B
