7 ways to sell your merchandise on a constrained budget

It is necessary for any business to keep up with the current age and trends to prosper but, for any business to thrive, there need to be some steps or methods that need to be taken that help them give competition to the bigger firms if not firms that are in direct competition with them. It is not easy to compete with firms like Nike and Adidas who have left their mark on a global scale. Online shopping is currently one of the most trending ways to sell products. There are many benefits of shopping online and they are made to make the job of the end user easier than traditional methods. Users employ this as a means to find more variety online. They can find goods for a cheaper price also and this also offer a level of discretion that physical stores cannot offer. Setting up an online store has its set of difficulties but beyond that, getting users to the site to purchase, is an uphill task on its own. It is necessary to market the products; here are a few ways by which one can achieve this:

1) Pre-requisites

One of the most essential pre-requisites is market research. It involves understanding all aspects related to the market like understanding the current trends, Strength-Weakness-Opportunities-Threat analysis, getting to know that audience’s likes and dislikes, their spending habits, location wise segregation, amongst other things. Understanding demand and supply aspects of the market help the seller in identifying their competition. Analyzing these details in depth is necessary as it helps the seller come up with strategies to ensure that the business is able to flourish in the market despite dynamic situations. Tools like Google Insider Databoard, Survey Monkey, BizStats, all help the seller in doing so.

2) Back to Basics.

Merchants often underestimate the importance of having a neat website. A website that makes the users’ job easy and does most of the work is one that will be more successful than one which does not do the same. Features like user friendliness, User interface, websites consistency are key in grabbing the user’s attention. The longer the website is able to do so, the higher the conversion rate.

3) Specialised sales

There are multiple ways by which one can get probable buyers by simply changing the pricing schemes in regular intervals. Pre-order is an easy way to get users to purchase merchandise online, users who’re eagerly waiting for a product would readily pre-order. Buyers would be happy to get an opportunity to get the product beforehand or get an opportunity to own a unique product. Traditional methods like Discounts and schemes, contests, competitions, quarter end sales or season end sales will also help the seller in attracting users to visit the site as well as buy in bulk.

4) Advertisement

Even the greatest product or service in the world will not make money unless the consumers know about it. We learn a few things from this one statement – Firstly that a great product in itself cannot sell, secondly there has to be a medium of communicating this to the consumer and thirdly the aim is to make money from this.

Advertisement can help the seller market his product and ensure sales. It be done in two ways; it can either be outsourced or be taken care of by someone in-house. One also needs to understand the market, budget, resources as well as the target audience amongst other factors to select a type of advertisement. If we are to take care of the advertisement in house, here are a few ways which will help us do so:

Infomercials

The traditional way of advertising through television and other broadcast media is a fundamental for any large product seller. However, for smaller and medium sized outfits, this is an expensive option which can be kept aside initially because it is a paid manner of advertisement. Infomercials are paid form too however, the seller can strike a deal with a website or a group of websites which can display infomercials within. Eg: Manufacturer of Football studs can advertise a Sports apparel website and they in turn can do the same for the manufacturer.

Optimal Use of Social Media

Social media is currently the most effective way of advertising your products online. With the help of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, the job of advertising has been made easier. Advertisement Campaigns can be executed in a manner by which the footballing Diaspora can be targeted. A social media campaign across all social networking sites and all platforms can be executed. However, using social media and optimally using social media are two different aspects. One needs to make targeted posts, ensure that good creatives are being uploaded, piggybank on trending hash tags on Facebook and Twitter as well as work on getting mentions from other pages or online communities.

Increase search ranking by registering on established sites

Sites like OLX/ Craigslist/ E-bay can be used to sell products online. Users that are searching for specific merchandise can be targeted using this method. Sites like GoEMerchent.com, BigCommerce.com and shopify.com can be used if we are ready to pay for advertisement and sites like Facebook Marketplace, OLX, Craigslist; which are free to use, can be used in case the seller does not have a high budget for advertisement.Registering your name on multiple platforms and especially with the larger ones gives a higher probability of better search rankings for your brand on Google. The technique of Search Engine Optimization which can be done using tool available for free on few websites can be used to ensure a higher search ranking.

Indirect PR boost

This is an indirect way to direct traffic to you website and can be using sites like helpareporter.com, the seller can give an interview which will be beneficial for both, the reported and the seller. A few articles online about the firm would help in building a positive image. The seller can also write an article or a blog as a guest. Both of these would lead to an increase in traffic on the website as these appeal to the curiosity of the reader and encourage him to find out more.

5) Listing your business

It is important that one leaves a trace on the virtual map. A business that leaves a digital mark at maximum possible places is likely to get more unique visitors on their website than one that does not. Most people go and search for “sports equipment in *location*“ , in this case, having information up on Google or Yahoo or Bing would be very helpful. What aids to higher ranking on such searches is a good review of the business.

Putting your URL in all posts, updates, newsletters, other modes of communication, is one way to direct traffic. The conversion rate from visitor to buyer is lower than 5%, one needs to play the numbers and get more traffic so that their sales increase and this method has helped do the same.

6) Unique Promotion strategies

It is also necessary for the seller to come up with creative methods of marketing like an interesting write up about the product or video explaining things about the product or a detailed description about the product in a unique manner. This helps gather the attention of the end-user and it can be one of the factors pushing for a conversion (potential buyer to buyer).

These blogs or videos can also be a place for interaction with the customers where in the seller can get vital feedback about the products and after sales services. This method is simple, free, effective and comes in very handy whether or not one is on a budget.

7) Newsletter and email chains

Another simple way to promote your business online is to send regular emails and newsletters to current customers or email ids of the potential customers that the seller posses. It is way by which the seller can inform the end users about schemes or discounts or different offers that will be available at a specific period of time or any piece of information that will benefit the users can be communicated this way as well. It is necessary to use multiple ways to correspond with the users as it can increase the outreach. Tools like Mailchip and SideKick can be used and online tutorials about the same make it easier to use and assist the seller.

Most sellers are now proceeding towards selling their goods online and we can see innumerable buyers who are all set with their product but fail to make a lasting impression on the end user because of substandard techniques to market their products. Conventional methods get results undeniably but it’s not sufficient enough for a business to sustain with just that. The online shopping industry is vast and dynamic and it takes a lot of effort to stand out of the crowd and make your presence felt in the market. Unconventional methods are the ones that will grab the attention of the buyers and the ability of the seller to use unique and offbeat methods will help gain more unique hits (website) leading to a higher conversion rate. The results may not be immediate as incorporating these methods may be time consuming and it may be a while before it to generate any kind of buzz in the market however, once it does, it makes the job of the seller much easier than before.