We’ve been writing a lot of articles lately on techniques to build up sales with the useful tools provided with some of the best ecommerce solution software in the market. We’ve done so because the holidays are just a few months away and we want our merchants get the best of this shopping season. We’ve touched on cross-selling and up-selling in earlier posts and we will take it a step further here.

There are quite a few things that even the best ecommerce solution or free shopping cart software can’t help you do. It’s because there’s a lot of psychology involved in getting a customer to accept a product, let alone buy or spend more than they originally planned to. Sadly, web hosting shopping cart technology hasn’t reached such an advanced state…yet.

Cross-selling and up-selling are always great ways to expose people to more products they might be interested in but had not thought of. Nevertheless,, getting them to actually consider purchasing those products is a whole other matter. The way you go about persuading them is very crucial. Literally to get customers to accept cross-sell and up-sell products, you have to choose your words properly.

Here are a few suggestions:

Add A Personal Touch

Try to personalize your product suggestions as much as possible. Don’t just use “We recommend.” But instead, try engaging “We think you might like this/these.” This gives a much warmer feel. This phrase works great with up-sell items or items which are related (same category).

Establish A Need

Instead of making outright suggestions, why not put it in a different way by actually asking the buyer if he or she needs something. If a person has just bought a digital SLR for instance, you could ask, “Do you need batteries?” or “Would you want this camera bag for your gear?”. This method is good for products with lots of accessories. This is why guys go into DIY stores searching to buy a $5 screwdriver but come out with $200 worth of power tools and equipment which will be borrowed by neighbors and never returned. Mind you, have you noticed how fast food outlets cross-sell? As soon as you order a soda and a burger, you’ll automatically be asked, “Would you like some fries with that?” If you agree, the ever-helpful staff will then try to up-sell the product, “Why don’t you try our large fries? It’s just 20 cents more.” Even if 3 out of 10 customers opt for the fries, regardless of size, that’s already an increase in revenue.

Everyone Wants A Bargain

No one loves to pay retail. If you want someone to purchase something (extra) you need to make it worth their while. You need to express the value of the deal to them. Tell them exactly how much they will be saving and emphasize what a great deal this is. And it pays to select your figures wisely here. For example, given a choice between “Save $1.99″ and “Save 30%”, which do you think would have a bigger impact?

Tell Them The Sky Is Falling

You will be surprise people usually react to urgency. Place some sort of limit or a condition to the items you cross-sell or up-sell. “Available at this price for 15 minutes only” or “Hurry! Last 5 units left” are just some examples of this. Some view cart and checkout pages even employ the use of countdown clocks to emphasize the urgency. This method is excellent for items that are low in stock or end life products.

Curiosity Killed The Cat, But Not The Sale

I read somewhere that you should persuade and not inform when trying to sell. However, Amazon has started using analytic as part of its up-selling function for some of its products. Lets just say you request item A to purchase. Amazon will list that item along with a few more similar items and state the percentage of people who bought them. Basically, you’d discover that most people bought products that cost more than the product you selected. Basically, yours would be the only one not to hit 2 digits percentage-wise. You would then start to have doubts about buying product A and start browsing through all the other costlier alternatives. Genius, huh?

Viral marketing, just like any category of online marketing campaign, aims to drive as much traffic to a site as possible. It actually leverages on the numbers game: the more traffic that ends up at your site, the higher the possible number of conversions.

Needless to say a viral marketing campaign has to work hand-in-hand with other factors of the page in order to convert visitors.

But what actually is viral marketing and how can you formulate a campaign yourself to assist drive traffic to your store?

Even a problem free shopping cart store software powered by a dependable yet free shopping cart e-store needs help in the marketing department. It takes a bit of strategy to let people out there know that your store exists (and is worth visiting).

Online Marketing

Online marketing has a lot to do with content. And so it has been said that content is king. But the content has to fit the medium in which it’s used and it has to seize viewers’ interest in order to be of any value. The subject of an online marketing campaign does not entirely have to be a product or service or something that is already being sought-after. It is possible for ad campaigns to create interest about new products as well as improve brand awareness for existing ones. The wonderful news is that an online marketing campaign need not cost you an arm and a leg.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is not a hard concept just as long as you know what you are doing. Viral marketing makes extensive use of existing resources on the Internet. This potentially include micro-blogging sites like Twitter, social networking sites like Facebook, video sharing sites like YouTube, and of course e-mail to get the word across. All these resources can get “interesting or worthy” news out fast at an exponential rate. Take the viral marketing campaign for the movie Cloverfield for instance. The marketing team opted for an indirect approach by producing teasers and micro sites instead of just a traditional movie trailer. That created such a buzz that the marketing practically took care of itself after just a few weeks. Keep in mind, the campaign was spread out over a year. Every few months bits of information were released, rumors were spread and theories suggested for the sole purpose of raising awareness and keeping people hooked. Of course, the strategy proved to be a success.

Of course, this road may not be for everyone. You need to know your target market and what would appeal to them.

What Makes News Or Updates Worthy Of Being Repeated?

Conventionally, people like free stuff and they also like heavy discounts. Therefore, these free or discounted items should have a high perceived value among the masses for your campaign to garner any interest at all. Let’s say you want to announce a mid-year sale for your online ladies shoe store. You need to take note that many other stores might be doing the same thing as you. You could use the resources mentioned above to promote your sale, while always making sure your titles and descriptions are SEO-friendly. Now, women love shoes. And I would guess that they love free shoes even more. Why not come up with a contest that challenges people to guess the size or weight of a certain pair of shoes. The first 10 correct entries will be given gift vouchers worth $100 each and the next 50 correct entries will be rewarded with a 50% discount coupon. Done correctly, word of mouth about your store and its offer can spread quickly to more and more potential clients.

Another good example is a recent viral marketing campaign by an online camera store that is giving 2 very desirable cameras for free to participants at random. The catch: in order to be eligible for consideration, participants must first Retweet or publish on a blog the ad line containing a link to the store. A dishonest way to get links as well as get the word across, isn’t it?

Cost

You don’t have to develop a teaser video like the one for Cloverfield to spread the word. Many artists and companies on a shoestring budget have produced successful viral marketing videos of varying degrees of quality. As an example, The Blair Witch Project (whatever you may think of the actual movie) was a small-budget movie with one influential viral marketing campaign. The bottom line is that if your marketing materials are captivating enough and you have fully utilized the channels we mentioned earlier, then you can look forward to a bombardment of visits in a relatively short period of time.

Viral marketing is great for marketing a new web store. Just make sure you have all your bases covered first. Ensure you’ve first signed up for a worry simple ecommerce shopping cart solution. A feature-rich, easy-to-use free shopping cart e-store like the one from InstanteStore is a good bet. Once you’ve got all your basics done and you have your store set up and tested, you’re ready to allow the world know you’re in business. Good luck!

Viral marketing, just like any category of online marketing campaign, aims to drive as much traffic to a site as possible. It actually leverages on the numbers game: the more traffic that ends up at your site, the higher the possible number of conversions.

Needless to say a viral marketing campaign has to work hand-in-hand with other factors of the page in order to convert visitors.

But what actually is viral marketing and how can you formulate a campaign yourself to assist drive traffic to your store?

Even a problem free shopping cart store software powered by a dependable yet free shopping cart e-store needs help in the marketing department. It takes a bit of effort to let people out there know that your store exists (and is worth visiting).

Online Marketing

Online marketing has a lot to do with content. And so it has been said that content is king. But the content has to fit the medium in which it’s used and it has to seize viewers’ interest in order to be of any value. The subject of an online marketing campaign does not entirely have to be a product or service or something that is already being sought-after. It is possible for ad campaigns to generate interest about new products as well as improve brand awareness for existing ones. The wonderful news is that an online marketing campaign need not cost you an arm and a leg.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is not a perplexing concept just as long as you know what you are doing. Viral marketing makes extensive use of existing resources on the Internet. This potentially include micro-blogging sites like Twitter, social networking sites like Facebook, video sharing sites like YouTube, and of course e-mail to get the word across. All these resources can get “interesting or worthy” news out fast at an exponential rate. Take the viral marketing campaign for the movie Cloverfield for instance. The marketing team opted for an indirect approach by producing teasers and micro sites instead of just a traditional movie trailer. That created such a buzz that the marketing practically took care of itself after just a few weeks. Keep in mind, the campaign was spread out over a year. Every few months bits of information were released, rumors were spread and theories suggested for the sole purpose of raising awareness and keeping people hooked. Of course, the strategy proved to be a success.

Of course, this road may not be for everyone. You need to know your target market and what would appeal to them.

What Makes News Or Updates Worthy Of Being Repeated?

Conventionally, people like free stuff and they also like heavy discounts. Hence,, these free or discounted items should have a high perceived value among the masses for your campaign to garner any interest at all. Let’s say you want to announce a mid-year sale for your online ladies shoe store. You need to remember that many other stores might be doing the same thing as you. You could use the resources mentioned above to promote your sale, while always making sure your titles and descriptions are SEO-friendly. Now, women love shoes. And I would guess that they love free shoes even more. Why not come up with a contest that challenges people to guess the size or weight of a certain pair of shoes. The first 10 correct entries will be given gift vouchers worth $100 each and the next 50 correct entries will be rewarded with a 50% discount coupon. Done correctly, word of mouth about your store and its offer can spread quickly to more and more potential customers.

Another good example is a recent viral marketing campaign by an online camera store that is giving 2 very desirable cameras for free to participants at random. The catch: in order to be eligible for consideration, participants must first Retweet or publish on a blog the ad line containing a link to the store. A sneaky way to get links as well as get the word across, isn’t it?

Cost

You don’t have to develop a teaser video like the one for Cloverfield to spread the word. A relatively large number of artists and companies on a shoestring budget have produced successful viral marketing videos of varying degrees of quality. For instance, The Blair Witch Project (whatever you may think of the actual movie) was a small-budget movie with one influential viral marketing campaign. The bottom line is that if your marketing materials are captivating enough and you have fully utilized the channels we mentioned earlier, then you can look forward to a bombardment of visits in a relatively short period of time.

Viral marketing is great for marketing a new web store. Just make sure you have all your bases covered first. Ensure you’ve first signed up for a worry simple ecommerce shopping cart solution. A feature-rich, easy-to-use free shopping cart web store like the one from InstanteStore is a good bet. Once you’ve got all your basics done and you have your store set up and tested, you’re ready to allow the world know you’re in business. Good luck!

We’ve been posting a lot of articles lately on techniques to increase sales with the useful tools offered with some of the ecommerce solutions software in the market. We’ve done so because the holiday seasons are just a few months away and we want our merchants to make the best of this shopping season. We’ve touched on cross-selling and up-selling in earlier posts and we will take it a step further here.

There are quite a few things that even the best ecommerce solution or free shopping cart software can’t help you do. It’s because there’s a lot of psychology pertaining in getting a customer to purchase a product, let alone buy or spend more than they originally planned to. Sadly, web hosting shopping cart hasn’t reached such an advanced state…yet.

Cross-selling and up-selling are great ways to show people to more products they might be interested in but had not thought of. However, getting them to actually consider purchasing those products is a whole other matter. The way you go about win over them is very vital. In order to get customers to buy cross-sell and up-sell products, you have to choose your words properly.

Here are a few suggestions:

Add A Personal Touch

Try to personalize your product suggestions as much as possible. Don’t just utilize “We recommend.” But instead, try using “We think you might like this/these.” This gives a much warmer feel. This phrase works perfect with up-sell items or items which are related (same category).

Generate A Need

Instead of making outright suggestions, why not put it in a distinct way by actually asking the buyer if he or she needs something. If a person has just bought a digital SLR for instance, you could ask, “Do you need batteries?” or “Would you want this camera bag for your gear?”. This method is perfect for products with lots of accessories. This is why guys go into DIY stores searching to get a $5 screwdriver but come out with $200 worth of power tools and equipment which will be borrowed by neighbors and never returned. Mind you, have you noticed how fast food outlets cross-sell? As soon as you order a soda and a burger, you’ll automatically be asked, “Would you like some fries with that?” If you agree, the ever-helpful staff will then try to up-sell the product, “Why don’t you try our large fries? It’s just 20 cents more.” Even if 3 out of 10 customers opt for the fries, regardless of size, that’s already an increase in revenue.

Everyone Wants A Bargain

No one loves to pay retail. If you want someone to buy something (extra) you need to make it worth their while. You need to express the value of the deal to them. Basically let them know exactly how much they will be saving and emphasize what a great deal this is. And it pays to consider your figures wisely here. For instance, given a choice between “Save $1.99″ and “Save 30%”, which do you think would have a bigger impact?

Tell Them The Sky Is Falling

People usually react to urgency. Place some sort of limit or a condition to the items you cross-sell or up-sell. “Available at this price for 15 minutes only” or “Hurry! Last 5 units left” are just some examples of this. Some view cart and checkout pages even employ the use of countdown clocks to emphasize the urgency. This method is excellent for items that are low in stock or end life products.

Curiosity Killed The Cat, But Not The Sale

I read somewhere that you should persuade and not inform when attempting to sell. However, Amazon has started utilizing analytic as part of its up-selling function for some of its products. Lets just say you select item A to purchase. Amazon will list that item along with a few more similar items and state the percentage of people who bought them. Normally, you’d find that most people bought products that cost more than the product you chosen. Basically, yours would be the only one not to hit 2 digits percentage-wise. You would then start to have doubts about buying product A and start browsing through all the other costlier alternatives. Genius, huh?