4 ways to make your first ecommerce sales

Every ecommerce entrepreneur has dream of launching their online store and getting a ton of traffic coming from organic searches, so they follow SEO guides and start optimizing their site. Nothing. No traffic at all. They go over the SEO guide again and again to make sure they did everything. Checked Google Analytics and no sign of organic search traffic. To get tons of organic search traffic, you will need to be on the front of search engine results page (SERP) for keywords that have high search volume. But this doesn’t happen overnight. It requires time and a lot more marketing effort. Before you start giving up on your online store, here are 4 things you can do to get your first ecommerce sales.

#1 List products on marketplaces

This is a great way to build the momentum while you wait for your SEO efforts to kick in. Online marketplaces already have lots of traffic. By listing your products on these platform, your products will get exposure without having to put in additional marketing effort. But keep in mind that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Some of them will charge you to have your product listed on their platform and some will take commission on every transaction. I suggest going for those that take commission rather than listing fees such as 11street. Sellers using EasyStore can easily sync their product info from their online store to 11street. This takes out the hassle of uploading product info again. After you start getting sales, make sure to convert them to your online store.

#2 List products on shopping comparison sites

This is another way to take advantage of platforms with ready traffic. Shopping comparison sites like Shopbot, help bring qualified traffic to your online store. The online shoppers on these platforms are already at a deeper buying stage and are ready to purchase. They just want to do some comparison before deciding. Unlike online marketplaces, shopping comparison sites do not restrict the transaction to take place on their platform. Instead, they will direct the traffic to your store to complete the checkout process.

#3 Start building a presence on Instagram

You may be thinking, “why Instagram and not other social media channels?”. The reason is because of the nature of how Instagram works. One example is the search function. Unlike Facebook’s search, Instagram allows users to search for profiles outside of their network and also search for hashtags. You can use keywords as your profile name and hashtags to get more exposure. Another reason why you should get started on Instagram is that you can in a way choose your followers. Check out who are following your competitors and you can get them to follow you too by following them, liking or commenting on their photos. This will sure get their attention. Make sure that you have the link to your webstore in your bio. You can even offer discounts to your Instagram followers. For more tips on getting more followers, you may read this: 21 ways your business can get more followers

#4 Paid ads

Google and Facebook provide a great advertising channel for you get targeted traffic to your site. If you have some capital to work with, set aside some budget for advertising. It’s a great way to reach out to a huge pool of your ideal audience in a short amount of time and with less work. Related: Facebook Ads vs Google AdWords: Where to spend your marketing budget?

Conclusion

SEO is a great online marketing practice and will continue to be so despite the updates by search engines. People will continue to ‘Google’ for what they are looking for. But this doesn’t mean that you should put all of your effort on SEO. It doesn’t happen overnight and it can kill your momentum if you don’t see results. So while you build your SEO strategy, you can rely on other channels to keep your momentum going.