The United States has 28 million small businesses, with over 22 million of these businesses being sole proprietors. With over 50% of the US’s workforce working for a small business, increasing online sales is essential for a healthy, growing economy.
Increasing sales is being done in multiple ways:
1. Outsourcing Key Tasks
Outsourcing is the key to small business growth, especially during the beginning stages of a business’s operation. Companies can outsource to international companies that have cheaper prices at a loss of quality of customer service.
Companies are also outsourcing tasks nationally in an effort to maintain higher quality work and reduce some of the overhead associated with hiring.
Through the outsourcing of key tasks, small business owners are able to focus on sales and their main product. Outsourcing can include marketing, website maintenance and upgrades, payroll or other key tasks that small business owners take on during their initial years of operation.
2. Sales Copy Honesty
Simple tweaks to sales copy can mean the difference between 1% conversion rates and 5% conversion rates. Consumers are more sensitive than ever before, and they’re surrounded by deceptive sales tactics every day.
Honesty in a sales copy is key to increasing online sales and building a positive reputation.
Everything, from a sales copy on a site’s homepage to an email copy, needs to be honest about expectations, features and what consumers can expect from a product or service.
3. Building Trust Through Signals and Social Media
Consumers will read reviews and follow social media accounts of the companies that they plan on purchasing from. The best copy cannot compete with testimonials and reviews from consumers.
Trust signals are key to a business’s online success, and the only way to build trust is to offer a top-tier product or impeccable customer service.
4. Money-Back Guarantee
LifeLock offers a money-back guarantee to ensure that their potential consumers know that the company stands behind their products. Through the use of a money-back guarantee, it’s possible for a company to avoid consumer risk aversion.
Consumers have a lot of options at their disposal, and they will try to avoid risks at any cost.
A money-back guarantee is one of the key ways to alleviate consumer risk and convert a potential lead into a sale.
5. Maintenance, Upgrades and Security
Consumers are concerned about website safety, functionality and security. Small businesses are able to alleviate these concerns with automatic website maintenance and upgrades.
Website upgrades and maintenance help:
- Increase site speed and performance
- Reduce security risks and concerns
- Patch known vulnerabilities
- Increase mobile-friendly performance
All of these factors lead to increased earnings online.
Speed impacts 70% of consumer decision when buying products online. Consumers will wait 3 – 7 seconds before leaving a page that is loading.
Automatic upgrades and maintenance through artificial intelligence and automatic scheduling allow owners to focus on their core business to further increase sales.
Through a combination of the tactics above, social media and advertising, small businesses are able to generate more online sales. Additional methods including streamlining the checkout process, offering multiple payment options, cohesion across all platforms and creating detailed buyer personas.