In the last blog, I shared about how and why it’s necessary to have a successful e-commerce presence. Now it is time to take a step further. I was dazed with the boom in online marketplace. It was clearly reflected in the increasing numbers of online sellers.

Selling online offers an avenue to your product being exposed to a larger audience. For instance, the estimated monthly traffic of retail giants namely Flipkart, Amazon, Ebay and Shopclues are worth your attention! According to the estimates, Flipkart topped the charts with over 62 million visits in the month of April followed by Myntra with 59.5 million, Amazon with 27.6, Ebay with 22.6 and ShopClues with 8.2 million!!

So if you have something unique to sell, consider online shopping because it’s just a matter of giving your smartphone screen a couple of smart taps!!

Choosing an actionable online marketplace online is eternally worthwhile than selling it at an offline store. This is because more than 80% of the consumers ask online before they purchase. To such a degree, analyzing the purchasing needs on social media by learning the solutions pitched to online buyers is the perfect solution. On that account, selling your product online even without having an e-commerce website is a more desirable game plan than selling it at an offline store, which may eventually result in achieving too little!!

What Have You Got?

When time is money and you need to focus on the core business, researching on what documents are to be submitted could seem a backbreaker. But once you assess what documents are required, it’s not burdensome as it seems. It follows that most marketplaces ask for common documents though some require additional records. During the seller on-boarding process, most marketplaces ask a vendor to furnish common documents such as the ones below:

• GST No.(for selling taxable items)
• Cancelled cheque.
• PAN Card copy.
• Copy of trademark registration certificate (If applicable).
• Images of the brand logo (If applicable).

Sales: Do you see over the seas?

Which online niche are you wooed into going back again and again to shop more? Though each marketplace has its own pros and cons, gaining a good reputation by selling your product in the Indian online marketplace helps you leap globally without any hitch. Choosing a space in the international online marketplace works mysteriously with a good seller’s rating!
One of the most important factors related to this is your product’s pricing in terms of both supply and demand. Success in selling your product in the Indian online marketplace gets you skyrocketing into the international online mega malls with ease. NASSCOM reports say that the Indian e-commerce industry will touch the $100 million figure by the year 2020!

Choosing the perfect online marketplace

There are many factors you need to consider before you choose to subscribe to a particular online marketplace like size, the competition involved, the payout period and popular product categories. So for this, you need to analyze your product first. A good online sales structure helps you:

• Create product listings
• Achieve a strong customer base.
• Provide logistic assistance.
• Provide mediator roles during the transaction adhering to their rules and procedures.
• Assess competition involved among the online retailers.

Kickstart your sales

Identifying your target market and learning the ins and outs of selling chiefly from the most dominant online retailers helps refining your selling strategy and to kickstart your sales.
Booming marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon, require the seller to furnish a brand approval and for this, they require the seller to produce documents such as the brand authorization letter/ registered trademark copy and that is if you are a manufacturer and on the other hand, a reseller or a distributor is required to produce the brand authorization letter alone. eBay, on the other hand requires just the bank account details, contact information and identification credentials. It lets its third party sellers have an ‘exporter’ position, providing them an exemption from tax and customs. Yet another platform named Shopo asks for no documents from sellers at all.

Flipkart and Snapdeal do not need a subscription from its sellers, neither does it ask for any payment gateway fees or charge for product listing. Amazon and eBay allow self-shipping. Flipkart does not offer packaging assistance though their shipping charges are lower than the rest. While Amazon provides free account opening in India, they require the seller to have a paid account to list their products online, as it aims at the 25 million Indians living overseas which is noticeably, a viable target market!!

How unique is your product?

The quickest way to get into online retailing would be to sell unique products. When there are innumerable sales channels providing multiple products at different prices, and with the onset of cheap smartphone technology, what would you do to make your product feel solo?

Amazon and Flipkart are the online megamalls commonly used to buy products from. In this account, Brand image has a huge role to play. Being a nameless provider do not ease sales. For instance, Amazon recently allowed its sellers to operate their dedicated website to process transactions through their Amazon accounts. These helped sellers keep their brand image intact.

Subscription costs are also to be considered while subscribing to an online sales channel.

Online Marketplace Reputation favors sellers as much. When anything and everything under the sun is available to buy from the now available online retail megastores, reputation earned by one that has a strong customer base is better to opt than having your own online store.

Factors like Seller Ratings and Product Photographs contribute a lion’s share in sale success.

Having a high ranking in listing your products at Amazon are a great way to raise your sales. Amazon uses an algorithm named A9 which keeps you informed about the product ranking according to keywords searched for. Amazon uses high volume keywords for your product because your sales matter a lot on these promising keywords.

Incorporating High-quality images and videos in your product description also attracts a buyer’s attention. Amazon customers look at the image and product title first and hence to optimize the product listing page, Amazon gets in line to know their customer behavior by using CTR(Click Through Rate) and CR(Conversion Rate) for certain keywords and thus attain high conversion rate.

Using Sponsored Product-Ads helps you gain more visibility by creating a purchase space.
Logistics Support is another major characteristic involved while deciding to subscribe. When deciding to start your own online store, you have to start from scratch especially with providing the logistics like enquiring about where the warehouses are located around your store and the transportation as well. Flipkart provides low shipping charges than the rest of the online retail stores.

Shipping charges are hence an important factor that needs to be considered.
Customers always look forward for amazing deals, discounts and vouchers and this enhances your product lists in to smart conversions by increasing the visibility of your product and gaining good reviews!

Bounce Rate and Time on page need to be measured so that you understand that the buyer is interested when he spends time on your page and also that he is not interested when he bounces from your product page.

Readable Content, Infographics and attractive meta description can help you push a buyer to spend some quality time on your page. For instance, the average conversion rate on amazon’s main page is 13% which means that there are 13 people out of every 100 sure to purchase.

Trying Repricing tools in the market, like FeedVisor and Sellery gives you control over how your competitors price similar products.

Amazon optimizations get a 320% increase in sales in less than 10 minutes!

Two sides of the same sale!

Amazon offers two solutions to its delivery process. FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) and FBM (Fulfillment By Merchant).

By FBA, Amazon offers its buyers the option to manage their inventory, take responsibility of the shipping and also customer care. Here, sellers ship their products to the Amazon fulfillment centre, where the products are stored until a new order arrives, and then in packing it and shipping it directly.

FBM solution lets all the inventory, stock and shipping to be managed by the seller, where the seller has to arrange for his own resources and take responsibility of the entire process.

• As it is, 82% of Amazon sales that hit the Buy box is fulfilled through FBA and hence attain higher conversion rate by its ability to manage high sales volume.
• FBM sellers on the other hand attain higher profit margins than FBA sellers. However FBM sellers do not have a free access to ‘Prime’.
• Prime-eligible product listings – Most FBA items are listed as Prime products on Amazon.
• Higher rankings for product listings – Amazon gives FBA sellers preference in rankings.
• More Buy Box listings – When prices are the same, FBA sellers go in for the Buy Box.
• Trust matters! – When buyers requirements are fulfilled by Amazon, they trust it arrives as expected.
• FBA makes your products eligible for Prime free 2-day shipping.

As to who wins the Buy Box, it’s not a chicken or egg situation!! In view of the fact that it’s all about succeeding in managing customer grievances, delivering without delay and offering your products at the best prices!

Humble beginnings into Happy Sales

You have done your best to get into the best of its kind online marketplace and list your products successfully.

What next? How to increase your sales after product listing depends mostly on attaining a good review!

“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will” – Bob Hooey.

The power of Customer reviews are beyond compare especially reviews that include product images. Around 90% of customers do not leave a review. Amazon uses a program named Feedback Five that helps increase the volume of feedback or reviews submitted.

Improving your SEO is another tactic to improve customer ranking. Amazon suggests including brand, description, material, size, quantity, colour and so on as keywords within its limit of 500 characters. Amazon’s Autocomplete service enables you to find long tail keywords, which are awarded a score from 1-10.

Pricing is yet another important factor to get into the buy box. 55% of Amazon’s sellers demand a profit margin of above 20%.

Sponsored Advertisements will enable your product to be listed on search results in the detail pages.

Discounts, Deals and Vouchers open up the high possibility of buyers undoubtedly landing on your page. Significant deals lead your product to be listed as #1 on the product category.
Outside Amazon sites namely Hubpages and Isnare provide you a platform to gather articles around your product, which can link back to your online store.

Popularity helps your sales bloom. Web Retailer recently reported Amazon to have 4 times sales for people in achieving millions compared to eBay.

Quality content are necessary for qualified leads. Blogs, Social media marketing like Facebook and some viable tweets on twitter could bring on the bang in selling your product at an increased rate.

Describe your customer clearly. This includes their age, gender, requirement and other vital information to track the right customers for your product.

“Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service”-Brian Tracy.

Gaining customer trust is crucial. Shoppers research nearly double the times on Amazon than they do on Google. Amazon merchants also use Amazon Pay on their Shopify and also on BigCommerce stores.

“Make a customer, not a sale”-Katherine Barchetti.

Listing on multiple online marketplaces improves your product to be known and seen more and thus improve customer access and thus improve your sales. For instance, Amazon is home to over 310 million active accounts.

Online modes to Success- Create a Business Plan

Businesses take efforts in the establishment and the same holds true for online marketplace. It may be hard to get your very first sales, but continue to put more efforts in the right direction till you strike it. A proper strategy and an effective business plan will help you keep yourself motivated.

One among them is Christy Treesa George who struggled initially later has been successful in selling her products online via Amazon. Her products include typical Kerala products like pepper, cardamom, rice, bamboo, chips, so and so forth. Her business model involves buying products from small-scale producers, packing them in Amazon cartons and selling them. Her monthly revenue stands Rs 10 lakh a month, with customers returning to her with repeat orders. Christy’s advice to sellers stands out promising as ever-“Even cow dung is being sold online successfully!” encouraging more and more customers to sell online.

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is quintessential to any business. And, with e-commerce, people like to explore just like window shopping before making any purchases. Low cost, free shipping and offer deals are the foremost consideration when it comes to customers’ loyalty. Another factor is the convenience of visiting the website and the user experience. The authenticity of the information, comments and reviews available on the website is significant. Other attraction similar to low priced deals is offering something for free.

Hence, a customer’s loyalty is subject to choice, distinctiveness, experience and value. These things should be foremost when you are considering survival in the rat race of e-commerce competition.

Need a buzz around your product?

Have you ever wished you had a crystal ball in hand to know your customer’s need? Well! We, XakBoX could read it out from the ball to you.

Undoubtedly, the tasks of planning marketing strategies, creating inventory, tracking orders, handling social media marketing can be daunting to the core in today’s competitive world and ever competitive online retailing business.

Figuring out the best price for your product from the rest in the online marketplace needs an intense review on the existing market trends and this involves spending more time researching. Understanding a client’s reach and mind is equally important. We help you fill the gap between the buyer’s problem and the seller’s solution. Factors like repricing, product listing, and figuring out how to work out the strategies in a way that works out for you and your customers is a fraught subject. Since these are not the only distractions in your life that you have to grapple with, we could save you time and energy that you could spend on your core business.

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”-Henry Ford.

We do the hard part of the job for you by helping you sow selling seeds so that you reap the sales benefits!