Do You Have a Strategy?: Your Online Store Sales Plan
Being a Boutique Owner, you know all of the different challenges and obstacles you deal with on a daily basis. Now with the current climate and the social disruption, these challenges have not changed but have gotten harder to navigate through.
They could be with a really good Sales Strategy.
Do you have a sound Sales Strategy in place to ensure that you make it through this crisis ok and even better than before?
In my last post, I talked about how important it is to have a Strategy around your BRAND. You need to understand who you are and how you want that image to be portrayed to your customers. In this post we will discuss the second question you need to answer to ensure that you have a sound Sales Strategy:
Do I have plans in place to increase traffic to my online store on a regular basis?
Your online presence has now become a vital part of your Boutique’s success. Even with stores starting to reopen, you still need to have an online store that attracts and retains customers so your overall business stays profitable.
People still need a safe and more accessible way to shop and engage with you.
If you are Online only, this season has been extremely important. How do you stay competitive?
Well, first you need to answer and have a plan for last week’s question “ Who are you as a brand?” Having this insight will be the starting point for how you come up with a plan to increase traffic to your online store.
To craft your plan you need to understand:
WHO do you want to attract?
Who exactly is your target customer online? What characteristics do they have that would make them a perfect fit for what you sell. How would you convey this on your online store so they are attracted to it?
What can YOU do to make your brand stand out in all of the online noise?
What is your "Secret Sauce"? With so many online stores and boutiques out there, what do you offer or sell that keeps you apart from them that your customers want? This has to be CLEARLY communicated in your ad messaging and when customers visit your site.
How effectively am I using my email list to engage with my customers?
Because you are online, ( and especially if your brick and mortar is closed) you have limited exposure to your customers. You need to ensure that you keep the lines of communication open to stay connected to them. Emails will help to keep your online boutique top of mind with your customers and when they are ready to shop, they will think of you.
This is also a great inexpensive way to market to your customers and keep them aware of upcoming sales and member-only events.
Am I just using Social to do “pretty” posts… or am I using it as a selling AND engagement tool?
Social Media for an online boutique is not just to be "Social". You need to leverage your access to your followers to talk about you and your business. This is another way to keep your brand top of mind with your customers as well as attract new ones. Make sure that you use Social Media to do the following:
Show your products
Sell your products and lead them back to your online store
Engage with your customers to give them sneak peeks into your brand.
Now it's time to take some action. What’s one simple tweak you can make to your Social Media plan that will help you attract more customers? Really think about what you are currently posting and how it is or isn't helping to grow your sales online.
If your need a more streamlined approach or you don't know where to start, check out my latest podcast interview on the Style of Business podcast on apple podcast. I go over the key elements on having a sound Merchandising Strategy to grow more sales for online Boutiques as well as for brick and mortar ones. Check it out here!
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Nichole
