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

Where To Sell Online??

Selling your products online can give your local small business a reach far greater than your retail store would ever allow.  Selling your products online has many challenges, Once you know what to sell, it gets easier. But you still have to figure out where to sell it.

Their is tremendous competition in the online space and getting your products to stand out and be found is a challenge. Like most small business websites, you probably do not have the “Authority” that other, better optimized websites have. Selling online requires knowledge of internet marketing. Many are easy to learn, but they do need to be learned.

Listed below are three options to consider for selling your products online. They can be used in addition to your own website and will give you an opportunity to cast a much wider net online and to help drive sales of your products.

Ebay Stores
EBay is a venerable pillar of Internet commerce allows you to quickly and easilly set up a customizable storefront. With so many people paying attention, it can be a good place to gauge demand for your product, even if you don't intend to use eBay as the ultimate solution for your business.
Think of it like setting up a stand at an outlet mall or flea market, except that major retailers also have stands set up there. Some key features are:

• You can have your store set up in a day, the website building tools are meant for “non-techy” people
• Ebay provides tools to help manage your listings
• You can promote sales and special offers on your Ebay store.
• You can track sales, visitors and product pages views

Lelong.com.my
Means of identifying Lelong.com.my is to use an international comparison that everyone is familiar with. Styled and functioning similar to the international auction site, eBay.com, Lelong.com.my powers a robust and secure avenue for trading in Malaysia.

Posting an item for sale or auction is free, however, if you want to highlight your item in front page or in the listing page, they charge a small highlight fees.

Front page - RM3.00 Per Duration of your posting
Listing Page - RM1.00 Per Duration of your posting
Listing with Thumbnail - RM0.30
Premium Listing - Up to you to pay. No limit

Mudah.my
The service allows anyone to buy and sell in his or her region conveniently in a very simple manner. Mudah.my connects buyers and sellers in Malaysia and delivers remarkable user experience. With more than 5.2 Million unique visitors a month, Mudah.my is one of the most visited internet sites in Malaysia. PRO Niaga a service specifically for professional advertisers has more than 84,000 storefronts helps SMEs and home based businesses to advertise their products and services on the internet.

Rules for advertising
Private ad
1. Private classified ads on Mudah are for non-commercial individuals who are entitled to engage in a legal contract.

Company ad
1. Company classified ads on Mudah are for companies. Mudah reserves the right to decide whether an ad resembles a company ad.

Solely marketing
1. It's only allowed to advertise sales, rentals, jobs and services. To use the ad for pure marketing purposes, i.e. not offering any concrete goods, jobs or services, is not allowed.

Services
1. Services offered or wanted must follow applicable law and regulations of Malaysia for each given profession.

+MORE

Google Merchant Center
While Google Merchant Center does not allow you to directly sell products through a specific website, they do allow you to upload your product information so that customers can find you through Google Product Search.

Google product search allows people to find products through a simple Google search. Some key features are:
• It’s free to upload your products, you just need to register with Google Merchant Center
• Google is starting to mix in Product Search results with regular search results
• It can can drive traffic directly back to your website

FREE submit Your Store URL to Revozon Marketplace after you have set up your store in above marketplace





Get Started Today!!
As you can see, there are many different ways to sell your products online apart from your own website. All of the above companies allow the small business owner a great opportunity to expand their reach on the internet.