How to promote online store and problems selling online

The internet opened up a whole world of new possibilities not least in the realm of commerce.
Accessing a global audience was something which had never been possible until the last few years with the advent of the internet and its worldwide distribution.

To start your online business, you could proceed by submit your products to marketplace like Ebay, Lelong.my, mudah.my, forum, and blog. Just create an account, upload your products and the chance are your items will get sold.

After you submit your product to potential marketplace, the next you will think how do you promote your product and increase your sales? Following is the problems you may faced when selling online.

1st Problem: Getting visitors
The number one complaint of online retailers is they are not getting enough visitors.
Many choose to get visitors the same way their competitors do. Online retailers try search engine placement, pay-per-clicks, banner ads and other marketing tactics.

2nd Problem: Low conversion rates
Turning visitors into customers is the second biggest problem that online retailers face. This becomes a greater problem when retailers sell items that people prefer to see and touch before buying, such as clothing.

Do you know the answers to this question:
What percentage of your visitors become your customers?
That percentage is your sales conversion rate. This number is one of the most overlooked and most impactful numbers in online marketing. It’s overlooked because website owners often think that more visitors is the route to more customers.

What if their marketing is bringing lots of visitors but their website is sending them away?
Websites can send visitors away in many ways, from frustratingly slow download times to poor sales copy. Visitors in general complain of having to download plug-ins to view the website and confusing navigation.
Most ecommerce businesses are getting 1-2% sales conversion. A small change in your conversion rate can have a big impact on your bottom line.

Let’s say you run your numbers and find that you have a 1% conversion rate. Applying marketing know-how, you make some changes to your website that makes customers more likely to buy. Next week you test your sales conversion rate and find that it’s 2%. You’ve doubled your sales, without spending more money marketing!

Once you get your sales conversion higher, your marketing budget performs better. The same money that was bringing you 1% sales conversion is now bringing 2% sales conversion.

While a small change in your sales conversion rate will have a great impact on revenues, most website owners are unaware of this and are losing sales.


3rd Problem: The proximity of the competition
In less than a minute, your visitors decide whether to continue viewing your pages or click away.
How many of your competitors are online? Find out now by going to your favorite search engine and typing in keywords prospective customers would use when looking for your business. How many options do your potential customers have?

Even if a visitor wants what you offer, he is tempted to comparison shop. It’s very easy to click and go to another site. Are you doing everything you can to get customers to buy from you?

4th Problem: Price-shopping
If you sell something exclusive, price-shopping wouldn’t be a problem for you until competition shows up on the scene.

However, if you sell products that other websites offer, then you’ll find intense pressure to lower your prices. Search engines give prospective customers a list of options.


Promote your store to submit your product link to following directory:
Following is the shopping directory links where you could submit your product to increase your product visibility and sales:
http://www.revozon.com
http://shop.malaysianbabes.net/
http://www.hotfrog.com.my/Products/Shopping-Directory
http://www.a1webdirectory.org/Regional/Asia/Malaysia/Shopping/
http://www.onestopmalaysia.com/directory/shopping/supermarket/
http://www.701pages.com

Best Products to sell Online

Selling Online?
Before starting to sell online, most people get stuck when trying to find the best products to sell. Just ask yourself 3 questions to deal with this issue. Have you decided what you want to sell online? Do you want to sell physical products? Do you wan to sell software or informational goods?
There is certain criterion that is concerned with the top products to sell online. You could refer to the point below:

1. Good Demand
A product that people want or need is ideal. A product that people want and need, even better!

2. Niche Products
A niche product is a product made and marketed for specialized uses. Instead of throwing yourself into the surf with the sharks, find a product category without a huge amount of competition and one you can stand out in.

3. Easy to Ship
The product or products you offer will need to be shipped to the buyer.
Look for items that are:
o    Non-perishable (perish- “to die or to be destroyed, especially in a violent or untimely manner”- need I go on?)
o    Light (reduces shipping costs)
o    Sturdy (prevents returns on broken items and the effort put forth in packing the fragile objects)

There are products that fulfill the 3 points above. They are:
Books
DVDs
Compact Disks
The reasons why these 3 products can make you a fortune because
·         Massive Demand
·         Plentiful Supply
·         Inexpensive to Acquire
·         Diversify Your Income Streams

These products are just some idea for you. You could choose other products that fulfil the 3 points above.

Places to Find Products
1. Online
(Type a phrase below into a search engine and see what comes up)
o    Drop shipper Directories
o    Wholesaler Directories
o    Importer Directories
o    Exporter Directories

2. Offline
Have you ever seen a great product somewhere and wondered why it wasn’t online? Or, have you ever had to travel to get a product and wished that you had the option to purchase it online?
If you’ve answered yes to either one of these, be the first to put those products online. Offer to sell products online in exchange for a percentage of the profits made.
Some places to look:
o    Local Crafters
o    Local Businesses
o    Trade shows

Trade shows can be a great place to find products. You can search through products that interest you, products you feel comfortable recommending and products you feel will make the sale. You’ll also be able to meet the vendors and get price sheets to figure out your costs.


Can You Make Money?
This problem is determining whether you can actually make money selling your product. The key is to not get too hung up on any given idea because if the target market is not big enough, your product may not be worth selling.

Finally, the biggest problem is that even if you manage to choose a product or a set of products you want to sell, where the heck are you going to source your products from? How and where do you contact the manufacturer so you can get wholesale pricing?

Store Promotion:
As a service provider, we provide a shopping directory for users who had ready store from Ebay.com.my, Lelong.my, mudah.my and other marketplace sites.

You could submit your URL HERE to allow your products to reach higher visibility.



Reference:

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-products-to-sell-online.html
http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/tips-on-choosing-and-finding-the-right-products-to-sell-online/
http://mywifequitherjob.com/find-products-to-sell-online-create-a-profitable-online-store-part-2/