3 Ways to Generate Online Sales

With more consumers continually looking for opportunities to shop online, is your business taking full advantage of the online sales opportunities available to you? Keep reading for 3 areas that may represent new sales opportunities for your business.

Online

If you don’t already have the capability to sell products on your website, you could be missing out on a significant number of sales. This may seem obvious to some, but as of February 2021, one in four small businesses (28%) don’t have a website. If you do have a website, building and maintaining a website can still be a challenge. An outdated or inaccurate site may be what’s holding you back from your full online sales potential.

A survey by Top Design Firms found that almost half of small businesses (46%) have in-house employees manage their website and 32% use DIY website builders to create a basic website. Ecwid is a user-friendly option to add an online store to any site—with free and paid versions available.

Mobile

Did you know a third of all online purchases were made on mobile devices during the 2020 holiday season? If your website doesn’t make it easy for mobile users to view your website on their mobile devices, this could represent a missed sales opportunity for your business. Click here for a past blog post with tips on how to optimize your mobile site in 3 steps.

Social Media

Reach new and existing customers where they’re already spending time—on social media. Most popular social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, have easy-to-use options for creating an online store. For many businesses, having an online store on Facebook may take the place of a website.

If your business isn’t already taking advantage of these sales opportunities, now is as good a time as any to get started!

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

3 Expert Tips for Optimizing E-Commerce Sales

Did you know what grabs consumers’ attention in stores, is not always the same for online? Keep reading for 3 fresh tips from CEO of Pearl Resourcing, Emily Page, to help make your product stand out online and gain more new and return customers.

 
Photo credit: The Madelaine Chocolate Company

High-Quality Photos + Mock-Ups

The first thing a shopper notices online is not the packaging or the product, but the image of the packaging or product. In that sense, you must focus on the quality of your online images to convert sales.

Pay for a professional photographer to not only take the photo, but touch it up so the lighting and realism is clear. Or consider hiring a graphic designer to professionally brighten, sharpen and enhance the images you already have.

The primary product photo includes the exterior packaging with examples of the interior product fully visible on a plain white or grey background to optimize contrast. Shadows should also be minimized or eliminated. Secondary photos should include close-ups of your treats, also on a minimal background, making it clear what's included in a purchase. If you have the budget, the next set of photos should include “lifestyle” perspectives of the chocolates or candies opened or being enjoyed.

Center your product in the photo and make it as large as it can safely fit in the dimensions required for your shopping site. The closer to the edge, the larger it will appear in the search results on your site, making it more likely to be clicked.

Compare with Competition in Search Results

When consumers shop, they often use the search bar to find what they want. Imagine the search results page to be a retail store shelf. You want to be sure your packaging design and product images help your products stand out among the competition online.

Before you embark on a packaging redesign, enter search terms into a shopping platform and look at what the consumer will see when they quickly scan search results. The human eye notices color, shape, symbols and text, in that order. Both the packaging structure and artwork should utilize high-contrast colors and shapes should be bold and unique.

If you only sell products on your website, consider how each item looks on your own site as customers browse or search. Are product flavors or callouts clear enough that a consumer is able to distinguish differences between each of the items listed? If you sell on other e-commerce sites the same is true—if all chocolate boxes in the category are white and brown, how can you stand out so consumers notice and evaluate your product over the competition? Choose bold colors and unique shapes—adding a bow or incorporating a photo with a different placement of your chocolates will draw the eye.

Use Secondary Packaging to Grab Attention

Oftentimes online purchases are decided based on the product images on your website. After an order is placed, your brand may go unthought of until that lovely unboxing moment, when the customer opens the package upon arrival. Additional packaging is a billboard for advertising your other products, telling your brand story or inviting them to engage with your larger community of fans online.

Printed inserts can provide a quick reminder to get customers back to your website and to engage on your social media pages. Custom tape on the outside of the box reminds them of the inspiring story of your brand or product. Although there is extra cost involved to print secondary packaging elements, these elements can increase sales volume and help you capture repeat sales. Consider secondary packaging as a marketing expense instead of a packaging expense to keep existing customers coming back for more.

Selling your confections is an art form in itself and there are unique elements of the online shopping experience that influence best practices in packaging design. By utilizing these tips, you can make a difference in how consumers view and engage with your products, allowing you to achieve even better sales.

Crave more? If you like what you read here, look for the "Subscribe now" box on the right to enter your email address and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

About Emily Page: Emily has managed and launched multiple 7-figure product brands in Costco, Williams-Sonoma, Kroger, and Amazon as a Business Growth Consultant and CEO of Pearl Resourcing. She’s bringing you the expertise, resources, and mentors you need so that you can develop products and make them sell in her blog articles and her START TO SOLD YouTube channel and blog.

http://emilyannepage.com

http://pearlresourcing.net   

http://youtube.com/c/starttosold/