Christmas is a time for giving, sharing good times with your friends and loved ones, and increasingly… buying gifts online.
Over 75% of UK shoppers* have revealed they now shop online. Grabbing their attention in an increasingly overcrowded marketplace is becoming tougher than ever for online retailers, who literally have just a few vital seconds to make an impact before buyers move on to the next listing.
E-commerce expert Optiseller, who specialise in online data tools and analytics, have revealed its five top tips for online retailers to sell more this Christmas:
1 - Speedy postage is now what people crave
According to Optiseller, fast postage is what online buyers now demand above all else, and they are quite happy to pay for the privilege.
Optiseller’s experts recently analysed data from several online sellers, and found that online sales went up dramatically when express postage was offered. The research also found that fast postage is now far more important than free shipping, as eager online shoppers expect their goods as soon as possible.
So, prioritise express postage or next day delivery this festive season, as Christmas shoppers don’t want to wait for Santa to deliver!
2 - Remember item specifics
It is vital to make sure your listings are found quickly and easily, so remember item specifics are there for a reason, so use them. People no longer want to waste time searching, meaning the use of filters has increased dramatically. Item specifics are vital to your SEO on the eBay marketplace, and the more you populate them the more views and sales you will receive. We realise with constant updates, populating item specifics can feel like a never-ending task, so consider using a tool like Optiseller’s Aspect Finder+ which scans your listings automatically to identify any important item specifics you may be missing.
3 - Don’t duplicate
Online stores such as eBay crack down hard on duplicate listings. Sellers who have fallen foul of the policy have found themselves suffering lower search rankings which result in lower conversions and sales. It can be difficult if you are listing hundreds of thousands of products to spot which listings are duplicates and which should be removed. But time spent addressing this issue is time well spent. You don’t want to be penalised and lose out, especially during these peak shopping times.
4 - Keep listings up-to-date
Optiseller recommend that your title should have between 70-80 characters, and always review your item description as if you are reading it for the first time. Put yourself in the buyers’ position, what will prompt them to click on your listing rather than hundreds of others.
Remember a listing's sales history is one of the things that determines its position in the search results., Buyers won’t be impressed if you have to cancel their order because an item is out of stock, this can result in negative reviews and a reduction in sales.
5 - Use socials to sell
For online sellers, using social media marketing can be a really effective way of getting in front of new and existing customers at the right time in their shopping process.
It’s vital to set your objectives and goals, for example do you want to boost awareness of your listings and store overall, or do you want to increase loyalty and encourage return trade from existing customers? Also, remember to pick the platforms that suits your business; if you do a lot of business-to-business selling then maybe LinkedIn is the platform for you, whilst if you sell collectibles and jewellery, Instagram might be the right tool for you. Remember to use the right hashtags (#) and tagging (@) to make your products and posts show to the right audience, and consider using adverts to increase your reach. By placing a budget and duration behind a post, it will allow you to target specific audiences or geographic areas, therefore pushing your social media posts in front of new audiences that you may not reach at all without paying.
As we enter peak season trading, it is an exciting time to test out new marketing techniques. Our advice would be to test the waters, see what works and change from there.
Optiseller help sellers quickly and easily optimise their listings and monitor their performance on eBay and other marketplaces. Optiseller is an e-commerce data platform that provides over 50,000 users with the tools they need to control, manage and monitor their performance. The platform is now used in over 160 countries, reviewing over 70m listings every week. In total it has analysed over 1.1bn products.
For more information please visit www.optiseller.com.