According to Shopify, global ecommerce sales are expected to reach and exceed
a staggerir $5.55 trillion in 2022 and beyond. With such a vast, borderless market to draw from,
there's enormous potential for ecommerce sellers to increase sales online.
That doesn't necessarily mean selling products on ecommerce platforms is easy. In fact, with nearly
2 million small- and medium-sized businesses growing on Amazon alone as third-part.selling partners,
outshining your competitors is essential to improve online sales.
In this article, we'll explore six ways you can stand out from the competition—and boost your online
sales—by ensuring the quality of the products you sel
Setting up shop as an ecommerce seller is relatively straightforward. But
attracting customers
and ensuring their satiSfaction can be a little more challenging.
With so many sellers capitalizing on the ecommerce explosion, you need an online sales strategy
that:
The question is: what does an effective selling plan—one that overcomes the
challenges of how to get customers online to buy and recommend your products—actually look like?
The key to converting more of the millions of shoppers online (Amazon.com statistics reveal their
platform alone has 300 million active users and 2 billion visitors monthly) lies in establishing a
good reputation for selling quality products.
Whether you sell clothing, furniture, electronics or toys, for example, finding the right
supplier—and overseeing their product quality—is the first step to winning customer trust and
increasing online sales.
As a new or growing ecommerce seller, quality control might be an unfamiliar term, and you could be unaware of the role it can play in increasing your sales. For many well-known brands and top sellers, meanwhile, quality control is an essential part of their supply chains–helping to ensure the products they sell are compliant and consistently meet customers' expectations. Here are six major ways that performing regular quality control inspections of your products can boost your online sales.
Ecommerce returns are central to the customer experience. But
despite
an average return rate of 20-30% across industries, there are steps you can take to pre-empt
product dissatisfaction and reduce returns through active quality control.
Some 30% of returns, for example, are the result of items arriving faulty or damaged. So
simply ensuring your products are packed and shipped securely can go a long way to
making–and keeping–more online sales.
Refunds may not seem like a big deal if you only consider the
face-value of returned products. Unfortunately, the true cost of an online refund goes
deeper.
For a start, ecommerce sellers must factor in the shipping, labor, and customer acquisition
costs attached to refunded sales.
Worse, by requesting refunds, customers are signaling a problem with your products that can
impact your:
The good news is that selling high-quality, carefully inspected products will save refund costs and help preserve customer relationships. Statistics show, meanwhile, that by working to increase customer retention by just 5%, you can improve revenue by 25-95%
Customer expectations of your product versus its actual
performance
plays a big role in achieving positive ratings.
You’re more likely to get higher product ratings if you use clear product descriptions and
images to set realistic expectations–and follow up with supplier inspections that ensure the
measurements, materials, and workmanship quality you’ve promised your customers match what’s
being delivered.
Research suggests even small increases in your product’s online star rating (0.2 stars, for
example) can drive growth by 30-200%.
Positive customer reviews are critical for persuading new buyers
to
purchase your products. Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to improve online sales is by
being proactive about collecting these reviews.
You might, for example, consider
