All online (or offline) businesses are always looking for ways to boost sales. We’ve had a look around and come up with 3 ways you can boost sales for no extra cost!
Here they are in no particular order:
• Increase the average order size.
• Increase repeat purchases.
• Enter into a cooperative sales agreement.
All of which are easily said, but what’s involved with each one?
1. Increase the Average Order Size
This is the ‘would you like fries with that’ principle. When a customer is just about to make a purchase it’s a great time to try and sell them something else. Lower value items are best; that’s why McDonalds offer you ‘fries with that’ and why supermarkets put chocolate and magazines at the checkout.
Have you heard of the ’60 x 60 rule’? I hadn’t! It states that 60% of the time customers will buy additional goods worth up to 60% of the value of the items in their basket. To put that in context here’s an example:
• 10 customers get to your checkout with £100 worth of goods in their basket
• That means the total basket value would be 10 x £100 = £1000
• 60% of these customers are likely to purchase additional goods (6 customers)
• The current basket value of those 6 customers is 6 x £100 = £600
• The likely additional spend is 60% of £600 = £360
That means if you’re missing out on the opportunity to upsell you’re potentially missing out on £360 worth of sales for every £1000 you’re already making!
There are loads of ways you can go about upselling.
• If you offer volume discounts – remind customers about them at the checkout.
• Suggest items relevant to the current basket. ‘If you like this, you might like this…’
• Offer bundled deals on items that are commonly bought together.
Many of the online shop solutions offer built in ways to do this which are really easy to use – you could be just half an hour away from increased sales
2. Increase Repeat Purchases
It is often stated that it ‘costs five times more to acquire a customer than to retain one’; you should be doing everything you can to hold on to your current customers – it should be far easier to sell to them than to sell to somebody new.
But how do you hold onto customers?
Here are a couple of suggestions.
• Service is king, if you treat customers well they will come back; if you treat them really well they’ll probably tell someone else about you. Here are a few points to consider:
o Respond to correspondence quickly
o Communicate clearly
o Show Empathy, Patience and Consistency
o Be adaptable
o Know your products inside out
o Respond to Feedback
• Keep an opt in mailing list and sent targeted follow up email.
o Try customer specific offers
o Offer a one off payment for a years’ worth of ‘free shipping’
o Offer a time limited discount for their next purchase on the same or a similar product
• Make everything as easy as possible when they’re on your website.
o Make logging in as easy as possible – offer the ability to login with social media credentials. E.G. ‘Login using Facebook’
o Retain card details if your payment provider offers it
o Offer a quick re-order option.
3. Enter into a Cooperative Sales Agreement
This can be particularly effective if you offer a niche or limited selection of stock. Contact companies selling complimentary or related products and services. Offer to sell their products and ask them to sell yours too. There are a number of benefits to this cooperative approach.
• Your perceived product line is improved
• You now have more options to ‘upsell your own products’ (See above!)
• You have additional outlets for your products
• You potentially have an increase in sales staff and marketing for your products.
That’s it! Our suggestions for 3 ways to boost sales for free. Let us know on Facebook or Twitter if you’ve found any of our suggestions useful
