Revive Your (Almost) Dead Online Shop in 1, 2 Snappy Steps
If by chance you’ve glimpsed at the calendar, then you know it’s May — springtime. Flowers and sunshine everywhere! So everything’s coming back to life, people are giddy with excitement and spring cleaning in high spirits. The sales and conversations at your online shop, on the other hand, are as dead as a log.
Is there still hope? You bet. That’s what spring’s all about.
Around this time, people do spring cleaning to reorganize, revive, and rejuvenate.
How to Revive Your Online Shop’s Sales & Conversions
Get to the Roots
If you cut a banana tree (although, it’s not really a tree but an herbaceous plant, thanks Wikipedia!) to the ground, you can trust it will grow back anew like it didn’t face such traumatic ordeal.
Very much like the pale sales at your online shop. Apparently, cutting it out from your line of vision hardly kills it.
So how do you get rid of the whole plant once and for all? Uproot it. Dig up and cut the roots.
Therefore, the only solution is to get to the roots – that is, to identify the root causes of the problem and take action.
Few years ago we’re stuck in the very same rut. Nobody’s buying, nobody’s converting. Pretty alarming for a startup employing around 20 developers, programmers, designers, writers, administrative professionals – all very talented people. They rely on us for a living, and we rely on profits to keep our E-commerce boat floating.
So we gathered round the table and, metaphorical shovel in hand, started digging to the roots of the huge metaphorical banana tree — our sales problem.
To get to the bottom, we asked a series of five “Why?” questions, then we mapped the solutions in a very simple grid.
By laying out all the possible solutions on a visual grid, we were able to pinpoint which solution has the healthiest balance of having a good impact on our goals and ease of implementing. Who knows? You might even go as far as discovering a brilliant, new venture like what happened to us.
Look in the Mirror, Now Talk
Pay a (real) worthwhile visit to your bathroom mirror instead of the hurried drop-by on crazy mornings. Take a long look at yourself.
What do you see?
Now, talk to that guy and try to sell him goodies from your shop.
Are you at a loss for words? Then it’s time to re-think your business marketing strategy. This means re-evaluating the effectiveness of your messaging, positioning, and your brand image.
To re-evaluate your marketing strategy, brainstorm on these questions:
Messaging: What message am I communicating to my online shoppers? Is it easy to understand? Or is it jumbled?
Positioning: How do you differentiate yourself from competitors? Why should shoppers choose you instead of others? What can you
Image: How do consumers see you? What’s their impression of your online shop when they land on your online store?
After musing over these questions, sit in front of your computer and open your e-commerce shop. Pretend you’re just another consumer. Answers the questions above from your (regular Joe) point-of-view and jot them down.
Alternatively, if you find it hard to be objective, ask somebody who doesn’t know you own this site to go through this exercise. You’ll be surprised at what you will uncover.
Finally, take a look at how to revamp your brand and creatively transform your marketing communications to a more compelling voice that arrests customers’ love. Why? Because the actual solution execution is more than just re-evaluating… it is a complex thought-process.
Share Your Flatline Experiences
We all had them at some point, amirite?
Tell us about your E-commerce near-death experience and how you survived it. We’ll celebrate your shop’s coming back to life by turning the spotlight on you. Go ahead and sound off in the comments below to get featured.
Cheby writes about live chat insights, improving conversions, epic customer service, online marketing and everything in between. She will take you by the hand in exploring how to extend your website's earning power through Offerchat's smart live chat tool, and even smarter live chat people.
