Taking your Online Business to the Next Level, An Ecommerce Study

If you are in the Ecommerce field you know that there are a lot of variables that come with your business. Getting it up and running is one huge leap of effort that is followed by similar efforts to move the thing along in sales. Sometimes you can face roadblocks that are like giant green monsters sitting in the road. You are not quite sure what to do about them and sometimes they just don't want to move. Getting your business to grow to the next level can be the rut you are in now. It was for me and I would like to explain some techniques for taking it to the next level.

If you look at this diagram you can notice a typical growth chart for online business. For the first year sales increase at a fairly steady rate. Then after the Christmas rush is over, things slow down and you really cannot get any considerable growth. You may have hit a plateau with your business both with sales and plans. You want to be in one place but you cannot seem to get it to go any further. I experienced this once last year and it took some very interesting out of the box thinking to move forward.

Scenario

Ecommerce Site, dropship based

Website finished

Keyword optimized

Aggressive linking campaign in place

Adding content to site for better rankings

Steady orders but no real increases

No new products to add, more or less have tapped the market

Technique #1

The first thing we did was try some out of the box thinking. We really could not find anymore credible vendors that were willing to dropship for us. Quality has always been an issue, so we started to think about how to add a quality product to the line without jeopardizing our reputation. We came up with several scenarios.

1. First instead of trying to find certified "wholesalers" or dropshippers, we had a break through thought. Why not create our own set of rules and find businesses that carry products we desire and ask them if they would be open to selling their products on line at our site. We started out to make it organized by making a spreadsheet with the names of all potential vendors, their addresses and products. Then we drew up three emails in word format.

• A) The first looked like this: I am interested in knowing if you would consider carrying your products on our website. We currently rank #1 for this keyword and that keyword and we are thinking that if we expanded to include your product line it would be a win-win situation for both of us. I would be willing to expand on my idea if you are interested. Please check our site which I am sure you will agree performs well.
• B) The second email has more details like "here are some more details" etc
• C) The third goes into deeper details and includes phone numbers.

By keeping these organized in the spreadsheet, it helps you not to get confused. We looked for smaller mom and pop sites that were no where near the first two pages of Google hoping they would be impressed with our abilities to rank so well. We have had a very good return rate on this method.

1. We focus on one product at a time. It's easy to get wrapped up in adding a whole new line, but if you go at it one at a time, the results add up. Take the time to rewrite the product descriptions so that you do not have a duplicate content problem. I have often found that I end up selling more of their product then they do since I was better at SEO than they are. This is usually encouraging to them since they are moving product.
2. Once we get the new products in line, its time to start integrating them into our linking campaign and adding content to support them. By and large this helps us move to the next level since there is now more ways for our customers to stumble across our website.

Technique #2

Since you have a system set in place, why not make yourself a product supplier? This is a bit out of the box but it works excellent. Why count on someone else, now would be the time to either produce your own product or import one and supply it yourself.

• A) Begin by brainstorming which product type you really need on the site. There

is a good chance you already know what exactly you need.

• B) Once you figure it out, you can research where to buy this part or product in the USA. It will cost more here in the states, but the idea is to get one started even if the margins are lower. Then work on how you can either get it cheaper or finding a better source.
• C) Thirdly think about importing. Most people are afraid of it because they do not understand it. There are a lot of good references out there that discuss it. I personally like this Importing article here and the resources they use.
• D) Go to a site like http://www.globalsources.com/ and start looking through the products that different vendors carry. Soon you will find something that shows a lot of promise and you can begin arrangements to bring it over. It's really not that hard.

Technique #3

This particular technique is not really in any order but it is a fairly easy alternative that you can add on at any time. In this technique you will want to create some Loss leaders for your site that bring traffic in. Loss leaders are products or services that you either break even on or even lose a bit on. These generate excitement and the mentality of what I call "the power of a deal" People love deals and word will spread on how you have one. Once you get them to the site you can do all the things you do to try to up sell them or sell on the back end. I love doing reports or EBooks about certain products on the site. Free content also helps you with your rankings.