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Top Tips to Increase your Online Sales

Tag: grow revenue

Top Tips to Increase your Online Sales
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Top Tips to Increase your Online Sales

Achieving strong top line by growing online sales is one of the biggest targets for any business. Whether you are running a small shop or a complex high profile enterprise, the optimal utilization of online channels may help you immensely in achieving this target. Here are some of the pointers which you need to pay attention to for ensuring that your revenue sees substantial upside.

  1. Boost Your Leads: Leads are simply the visitors to your website who have shown their interest in your offerings. The main characteristic of a lead is that they provide you with personal data, their contact details and their consent to send them more information. If you are looking to boost your online sales, then it is important that you fully utilize the leads available to you. Some of the most important methods for accumulating such leads are through email subscriptions, online contact forms or website registration. Whatever is the source of these leads, you can use these to achieve your target of higher sales. Further, the information collected through this route may also help you in your analytics program and aid the process of making more informed marketing strategies.

 

  1. Focus on Conversion Rate: While the exact definition of conversion rate would depend on the outcome you expect, but in this case it may be described as the number of visitors to your website who actually end up purchasing the product or the service. So, while you should aim to increase the number of leads or visits to your page, you should also endeavor to convert such leads into actual revenue. This ratio will also help you determine the quality of website traffic generated by your marketing efforts. There are a number of actions you may take to improve the conversion rate. These actions include changing the layout of your website among other things.

 

  1. Control Your Bounce and Exit Rate: Analytics may help you in determining bounce and exit rate for your websites. Both these metrics point towards the existence of different issues with the shopping experience at your website. Bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave your site after visiting just one page while exit rate refers to the percentage of visitors leaving your website from a specific page, irrespective of the number of pages visited by them. Such bounce and exits are wasted opportunities which could have been converted into revenue with appropriate actions. It may be useful to undertake detailed analysis approach to unearth the reasons behind high bounce and exit rates.

 

  1. Simplify your Website: The design and layout of your website is an important factor which can have heavy impact on different metrics such as conversion rate and bounce rate. A large portion of such exits and bounces are due to confusing website layout and complicated processes. While it may seem counterintuitive, but providing relatively lesser options may help in keeping things simple for the visitors. It should also be ensured that the visitors are not required to follow complicated procedures for checking out and making payments. Simple website and checkout processes are vital for achieving high conversion rate as these are easier to navigate.

 

  1. Provide Call to Action: A Call to Action (CTA) is the element which urges the visitor to undertake a specific act or step. It may range from ‘Subscribe Now’ to ‘Buy Now’ appeal, depending upon the main aim of the business. However, in all such cases, the personalized Call to Action tends to bring about the best results. A customized CTA highlights the relevance of the product or service to the customers’ needs and therefore is more likely to be successful in achieving its target. It is important to avoid using jargons or generic CTA buttons. Such personalization may be done by changing the language or by modifying the content of the page.

 

These pointers are some of the most important steps you can take to enhance your online traffic and revenue. However, depending upon your business objectives, several other courses of actions may also be useful for you. The key is to identify and analyze the unique features relevant to your business and then work on them to hit higher targets.

5 years ago
The Rise of the Subscription Business Model
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

The Rise of the Subscription Business Model

Subscription business model is one of the most promising emerging models and involves charging the customers a recurring price at regular intervals. This model eliminates the need to make a large upfront payment for buying a product or service. While earlier this model was popular with print media and other specialized domains such as service providers, now more and more business segments are experimenting with subscription business model.

Subscription model is quite resilient and may be customized to meet the specific requirements of a business. While some models provide a fixed menu of products or services, others may offer unlimited use of their offerings for a fixed period of time. The flexibility of the model is one of the biggest reasons behind the success of this phenomenon. However, this is not the only advantage of this model. With a subscription business model, you can reap the following benefits:

  • Predictable Revenue Stream: The subscription model allows a business to make educated prediction about its future revenue and therefore is immensely helpful in planning and budgeting.
  • Customization: The subscription model is also conducive to customization of plans. You can design different types of subscription payment schemes to meet diverse demands of your customer base. Such customization also enables the business to attract new customers as they can get payment terms and conditions to suit their requirements.
  • Optimizing Costs: Since the subscription model allows businesses to predict their demand pattern, it becomes easier to design purchase plans in an efficient manner. Such planning enables the business to optimize their costs and processes.

Once you have decided that you want to turn your business into subscription-based enterprise, there are certain pointers you need to keep in mind. These points will help you in smooth transition and efficient execution.

  • The Right Pricing: Just like conventional revenue models, even subscription model requires the business to determine the right price point. Since your subscription plan will not only impact your current customer base but also the size of your potential market and future subscriptions, it is important that you pay proper attention to different factors such as the income level of your market and the likely demand to determine the price to be charged.
  • Simplify Billing: While it is important to have simple yet clear billing in any business model, the need for simple billing is all the more important in subscription-based models since the invoices are sent more frequently. The businesses should ensure that the bills provide all the details in a concise and clear manner. Reliable invoices help in creating transparent and strong processes, inculcating confidence in customers.
  • Develop Deeper Customer Relationships: Robust customer relationships form the base of the subscription model. As the customers grow, it is important that the quality of customer relationship processes is maintained and improved over a period of time. As the subscription model entails more frequent interactions with the clients, it is important that the business is sufficiently strong to take on the additional burden.
  • Measure and Iterate: The success of the subscription model largely depends on a business’s ability to measure the results and take swift actions to remedy the situation. As the model is still in the evolution phase, it allows for customization and quick changes. It is equally essential that the processes are scaled in response to the introduction of the model. Such a model may also require frequent changes as you may have to introduce more innovative plans to meet customers’ requirements.

The subscription model is here to stay as more and more verticals pick it up for boosting their customer base. While the model offers many advantages, it also has certain shortcomings such as customer fatigue, wherein, clients may grow weary of the same products and services. The model also requires the business to stick to scheduled deliveries with minimal deviation. If the supply side is unpredictable, it may not be possible for the business to maintain such delivery schedule for its customers. Overall, it is important to ensure that the subscription model is suitable for the business in question and that adequate attention is paid to different factors while designing this model for implementation.

5 years ago
How to generate funds to grow your business
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How to generate funds to grow your business

Are you an entrepreneur with a great business development model? If you are, you need to get started with generating adequate funds that will facilitate the growth of your business. Sufficient funds are essential for the expansion and growth of your company. Money is required to ensure smooth production, marketing, administration, etc. of your business. The revenue you generate will go a long way for all of these, but this revenue can be seasonal at times and money may fall short. This is why you need to have a backup plan for generating outside funds for your business. Some ways to generate funds are quite traditional while others are more creative. You have to figure out what you can work well with and find the best way to generate more funding.

The following are some of the best ways to generate funds for your business:

  1. Launch a crowdfunding campaign

Over the recent years, there have been a lot of crowdfunding success stories that might have caught your attention at some point or other. If you have the right product and can make the right pitch, you can definitely be one of them. First off, you have to create a good story for your business that people can connect to. You need to make your product look appealing to them. You should also use this opportunity to get feedback on how your product or business can improve. Your pitch should demonstrate the value of what your business offers and how it will serve people. Show them why your business requires more monetary support and how you will be using it. If you do it right, crowdfunding will provide a lot of external funds.

  1. Capital from friends and family

Statistics show that people are more willing to invest their money with someone they know or are familiar with. If you have friends or family with a lot of money, pitch your business to them. Give them shares in exchange or just borrow on interest, according to what works for them. Show them a good business plan that they can rely on. They will need to know where their money is going. You also need to be very clear about any risks involved. Document everything and move forward if this works out.

  1. Apply for loans

Loans are probably one of the most traditional ways to generate funding for businesses. Statistics show that the majority of small businesses raise capital through business loans or some form of credit. You need to find loan schemes that offer you the best rates and favourable terms. See if you meet their requirements and have all the documentation ready. If your bank credit score is bad, you might have trouble getting a loan. Be ready with your business statements like balance sheets and tax returns. If you meet all the requirements, you can get a lot of capital through loans.

There are other ways to get funding for your business. However, these are some of the most commonly used and successful ones.

5 years ago
How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss

As an e-commerce store owner, your main objective is to increase revenue in a highly competitive business environment. To do this, you have to deliver a seamless shopping experience devoid of any hiccups. On the surface, it looks like an easy feat to achieve but in reality, providing a seamless user experience is the most difficult thing an online store owner has to do. One area of focus when talking about user experience is the checkout process. While you would like to provide a seamless checkout process, there are security concerns and PCI compliance standards to worry about and finding a balance is not easy.

This article addresses how you can provide a seamless checkout process without exposing your business and the customers to security risks such as fraud. Keep reading.

The risks involved in e-commerce checkout process

Many online businesses have sunk under the weight of security lapses. While the internet has come as a godsend for sellers and consumers, the inherent security risks in data handling pose a big hurdle.  As an online business owner, you must appreciate the magnitude of responsibility on your hands once you start to take payments online.

It is a big convenience to both the customer and the retailer but there are risks of data loss, which can lead to fraud. While your initial concern is cart abandonment, you should not forget the consequences of lax security measures on your e-commerce store.

Stripping down their checkout to the bare essentials might seem like a good idea in providing a seamless checkout process but in doing so, you will expose both your business and the customers to fraud. Worse still, your brand can lose credibility in case of data breaches and it will take a lot of marketing to get back on your feet. In essence, you have to find a balance between providing a seamless checkout process and security checks.

In summary, your business risks losing revenue by relaxing the checkout process in the following ways:

  1. Fraud: Any business that loses customer data during checkout will have to refund the amounts lost. With the increasing cases of online fraud, you need to avoid chargeback claims at all costs because they can drain your revenue. You need to implement effective security systems without complicating the checkout process.
  2. Interchange costs: If you don’t provide billing address information, your business risks an interchange downgrade and associated increase in costs.
  3. Hard declines and soft declines: Hard declines are permanent while soft declines arise when the card-issuing bank can’t complete a transaction. Both types of declines lead to revenue loss and you need a payment solutions company that can advise you on how to minimize these.

Balancing seamless checkout and preventing revenue loss

The objective of your online business is to make money and to do this; you have to seal all avenues of revenue loss. If you are in the process of implementing a seamless payment system, you should also have revenue loss at the back of your mind. To find a balance, consider the following:

  1. Implement basic fraud tools: By working with your payment solutions provider, you should enable the best fraud tools subject to your security risk. Enabling these tools guarantees that you don’t expose your business and customers to fraud and at the same time, you provide a seamless shopping experience. Anti-fraud security such as AVS and CVV lower the risk of fraud.
  2. Request AVS and CVV authentication: To avoid soft declines, ask for AVS and CVV authentication for your U.S customers at least on the first transfer for each customer.
  3. Implement 3D secure system: For customers outside the U.S (Europe or in the Asia Pacific region), you should implement the 3D secure system to deal with soft declines. This system also helps solve the problem of chargebacks. This security system shifts chargeback liability to the card-issuing bank.

If you run an online store, you need to appreciate the importance of providing a seamless checkout process. It is the only way to reduce cart abandonment rates, grow revenue and build customer loyalty. However, there is also the risk of losing revenue through fraud, declines, and interchange costs. For this reason, you should find a balance between a seamless checkout and effective security during checkout. Go ahead and identify the best payment solutions provider to implement a seamless and secure checkout process.

5 years ago