A 6 Step Guide On How To Increase Sales In E-Commerce Business

Every business depends on the increase in sales and continuous revenue flow. Starting a business is not a big challenge, thriving and growing sales is. So, how to increase sales in the e-commerce business?

The question seems more relevant than ever during the Corona outbreak and newer variants after every couple of months. Fortunately, contrary to other businesses and trades, e-commerce has improved its turnover exponentially during the ‘Corona Kaal’. People are staying at home and ordering everything at home, which led to outstanding growth.

Recent Trends

As per a report published by Business Standard, the e-commerce market will reach 111 billion dollars by 2024, with a growth of 84 per cent. This excellent growth is because of the great demand created during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report further quoted Phil Pomford, MD of Asia Pacific, Worldplay from FIS, “The Indian e-commerce market is going through a huge growth because of Covid-19, and there is significant scope for future growth,”

Let’s further our topic, how to increase sales in the e-commerce business. This growth and revenue jump is mainly the scenario of big e-commerce companies, what about small businesses and startups? The question of improving sales remains true for small businesses and startups because of lockdown, disruption in logistics, absence of workforce, and less technological innovation.

You might experience that even after making all the arrangements, including website, social media promotion, etc., your business is not getting enough sales. So, how to increase sales in the e-commerce business in this nail bite competition.

Let’s get into the business and explain step by step how to increase sales in the e-commerce business through the passage.

But first, we should know what ails our business that hinders sales and productivity. If you recognise and accept your mistakes, it’s a great start to understand how to increase sales in the e-commerce business.

Significant Problems Faced by E-commerce Businesses

• Targeting and approaching the wrong market
• Improper or missing sales funnel (we have dedicated a section for sales funnel in the latter part of the passage)
• The website is not professionally optimised, and there is a trust deficit among customers
• No email marketing and social media marketing strategy
• Casual or rude customer support
• Improper logistics, delayed delivery, and poor post-sales services

How to Increase Sales in E-commerce Business

The business community across verticals have made 360 degrees change in their marketing plan due to the outbreak of the pandemic. Several emerging and innovative tactics are visible in marketing products. E-commerce startups and small businesses can utilise these trends to boost sales and productivity in 2021.

Step 1: Personalised Customer Experience

Customers today are more informed than ever. They need personalised experience whether they are shopping in a physical store or on an e-commerce portal. They come to your website with all the research and want something to stick there, such as a discount coupon, customised services, email with their name, etc.

As per a research published online, around 71 per cent of people want a personalised experience during their online shopping. So, if you want to know how to increase sales in the e-commerce business, make your products and website appealing.

Step 2: Transition to Virtual Commerce with Artificial Intelligence

IBM Retail Index has pointed out in their paper that “lockdown accelerated transition to online shopping by five times,”

AI, ML and VR are the ‘mantra of 2021’ to boost your sales by improving productivity. You can use leading bahi khata apps such as OkCredit to manage funds and staff management apps such as OkStaff for the best outcome for the e-commerce business.

These AI-based apps organise your business, improve accessibility and overall e-commerce business management. You can track and manage staff from the dashboard.

Step 3: Affiliate Marketing

E-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart use affiliate business models to expand remotest of India. Affiliates promote your product on their blog, channel, etc., and take a commission on sales. The system spreads brand awareness, improved communication, and income opportunities for the affiliates.

So, affiliate marketing has to be on the to-do list to understand how to increase sales in the e-commerce business in 2021. Promote your affiliate program with lucrative offers and expand your business far & wide.

You should focus on key points for affiliate marketing given below:

• Your program should provide value to the customers.
• Do not use too many email links.
• Do not advertise everything, restrict to the quality & best products, at least for the initial phase of the business.
• Develop and maintain a healthy relationship with customers.

Step 4: Digital Strategies

• Build a strong email marketing campaign. If required, hire a professional email marketer. Make an email campaign combination of personal and professional communication.
• Make an E-commerce plan with digital marketing tools towards the ultimate goal of building a brand and trust among netizens.
• You cannot ignore SEO if you want to know how to increase sales in the e-commerce business. Use analytics, A/B testing, optimise SEO with the latest updates for making the customer experience interactive.
• Promote, communicate, and sell through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social channels.
• Write engaging content for blogs, ad copies. Hire a professional content creator for the best impact.

Step 5: Delivery and Customer Support

Sales and retention of clients depend a lot on delivery and customer support. Your target customers are humans, and they need someone human on the other side of the call or email.

Use the level system in customer support: the first level through chatbots and the second level with support executives.

Maintain delivery time always and exceed customer’s expectations by pre-delivery.

After how to increase sales in the e-commerce business through modern and traditional methods, we will discuss the sales funnel in the next section of the passage.

Step 6: Sales Funnel for E-commerce

The sales funnel is a marketing tool that shows your customer’s journey with the product and the brand. It is crucial to know how to increase sales in the e-commerce business with a sales funnel.

An optimised AI and ML-based sales funnel provide vital inputs for the best customer experience. If the customer is happy, it will have a positive impact on sales figures and trust factors.

Four Steps of the Sales Funnel

Step 1: Brand Awareness

The customer gets to know about the brand through marketing campaigns such as cold calls, Google and Social media ads, BTL activities, blogs, and videos. Customers also know about the product through search engines.

Step 2: Expression of Interest

The customer shows interest in the product. It could be because of requirements, the content of the advertisement, etc. Interest does not mean they are ready to buy.

Step 3: Desire to Purchase

Customers show intent to buy but want more information about the product before the final decision. Here your Sales team’s work starts. They explain benefits and competitive advantages. If convinced, the customer will approach the final step.

Step 4: Action

Customers buy the product in the last step of the funnel. To improve their experience and build a relationship, use feedback forms, on-spot offers, festive offers for loyal customers, etc.

Organising pre-and post-sales services is the essence of any business, e-commerce in this case. This is how to increase sales in the e-commerce business through the sales funnel.

Concluding Remarks

These are significant steps to boost sales, improve productivity, and promote your business into the big league of e-commerce companies. We hope our stepwise guide answers your query about how to increase sales in the e-commerce business.

E-commerce is one of the sunrise sectors in India, and if you implement the above-mentioned strategies efficiently, your business has a bright future.

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FAQs

Q. How to increase sales in the e-commerce business in 2021?

Ans. Merge traditional and new-age marketing strategies with a smart approach to boost sales in the e-commerce business in 2021.

Q. What are the Government of India’s new guidelines regarding e-commerce business currently?

Ans. E-commerce companies need to showcase the total price of goods and services offered for sale along with the individual details of other charges.

Q. How much FDI is allowed in the e-commerce business in India?

Ans. The government of India allows 100 per cent FDI through an automatic route for the marketplace model of e-commerce businesses.