With more and more people jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon, those who are joining in late in the game need to find ways to beat out the competition. In order to earn more than others who belong to the same niche as you, innovative and brilliant ideas need to be hatched. Here are some ideas that you might want to consider in order to get an edge over the competition.
Offer free shipping – anything with the word “free” in it is very eye-catching, particularly to buyers who are always looking out for bargains and deals that are hard to say no to. If a buyer can purchase an item from you at the same price as your competitor’s, but they get free shipping from you as opposed to paid shipping from your competitor, guess who they will buy from? Offering free shipping may cut a bit into your profit margin, but it will make buyers choose you over similar sites that don’t offer free shipping for their products. You can offer this for sales above a specific amount or for items that are not too bulky.
Give discounts for certain special purchases – if a person’s total bill reaches a specific amount, you can offer them a discount. If they add a specific item to their cart, they can also avail of a special discount. Giving buyers discounts on what they are purchasing from you for special purchases, reaching specific amounts, and buying in bulk will make them want to buy from you. This is because of the perceived savings that they are going to get with the discount that you are offering.
Give rewards points that can be converted to purchase points – this is the same as those rewards cards that supermarkets and other physical stores offer. Giving your loyal customers points for each purchase, which they can accumulate and use later, will make them want to buy more from you. You can have them use these to buy special items that can only be purchased with points or have them convert these points to cash that they can use to buy regular items on your site.
Offer rebates, rewards, and gift checks for referrals – a lot of travel sites use this tactic to get more people to reserve tickets and accommodations with them instead of with their competitors. How this works is when a friend uses a code that you give them to buy something on the site, you get cash for the successful referral, and the friend gets a discount for their purchase. With every new buyer, you give the same offer, and this will help increase your market base since people will want to accumulate enough cash credits for a “free” purchase by referring more and more people to your site.
You can also run an affiliate program where you allow others to resell your products for a commission. Other good ideas for increasing your e-commerce site’s traffic and revenue is to hold quarterly sales, social media contests, email marketing, and newsletter coupons. There are many ideas that can help you earn more via your shopping site, and all it takes is to come up with ideas during the e-commerce website development stage, as well as while your site is running.
