There’s plenty of potential for selling items online, but there’s a negative side to this potential: if there’s an opportunity to make a living by selling goods online, then you know that there’ll be plenty of other people who are trying to make money the same way. And so it is – there’s no shortage of online shops, and even if you have a shop that deals in niche products, you’re still going to have more competitors than you’d like.

As such, you’ll have to do more than people to just slowly realise that you’re the go-to shop for your field. You need to actively take steps to boost your sales. Below, we take a look at four tried and tested methods for nudging the number of your sales in the right direction.

Sell the Item

It’s rare that an item just sells itself. It has to be sold! That is, indeed, your job. You’re not just the keeper of goods; you have to go out there and make believe people that your goods are the right ones to buy. So take a look at your online store. Do your products include high-quality photos? Is the copywriting robust and well-written? Both play big roles. Since video is so popular these days, it’s worthwhile including a few videos of your products (including tutorials) on your site too.

Make It Straightforward

Selling items online is difficult enough, don’t make it harder for yourself. Take a look at your site, and assess how easy it is for your customers to find items and complete the checkout process. You might find that it’s more difficult than most customers are willing to put up with. You’ll want to look at integrating a ClickFunnels system into your site, and then make it compatible with BlueSnap payments. Many online retailers have issues with shopping cart abandonment — if you simplify the process, then you’ll find that these instances are reduced.

Customer Testimonials

It’s all good and well a website telling potential customers how great their business is, but really, they were always going to say that, and customers know it. What does work are customer testimonials, which are reviews written by previous clients about their satisfaction with the service they received. Now, you shouldn’t go overboard and plaster them all over your site, but a running ticket with a few words from happy customers will be well-received.

No Quibble Returns

Trust is the biggest thing that dogs online stores. If you buy in a store, you can feel the item and assess the quality, and then, if there are any issues, simply take it back to the store and get a refund. It’s slightly more difficult with an online store. That’s why it’s super important to have a clear and generous returns policy – studies have shown that customers are more likely to buy if they feel confident that it won’t be an ordeal getting their money back from the store.

Make these changes, and you should notice a difference!