Please check the following topics to drive more traffic to your shop and increase your shop's revenue.
For any shop it is very important to get found by customers. Customers typically use general search engines like Google or Bing but in many cases specialized business directories or listings in related industry publications are also a very important source of traffic.
General search engines like Google and Bing will automatically detect and index your FlickRocket shop. However, since this might take some time, you might want to submit your shop URL manually to search engines. Vurtually any search engine provides links for doing so but there are also services available, which can do this for you.
Most shops are related to existing business areas which often have special publications, related websites, etc which provide listings. Some of these services are free while some other may cost. In case you should explorer ways to get listed and drive traffic to your shop.
Running paid ads on Google, Bing or other related web sites are often a great way to generate relevant traffic for your shop. It is easy to start (typically you'll even get a free starter package) and you can grow your investment in parallel to your returns. There are many good resources on how to get started with paid ads, so we'll not dive into details here.
Social networks can be a great way to attract new traffic for your shop. For most effective usage, Flickrocket shops can be integrated with your social account.
The most relevant ways to generate traffic from social network activities are as follows:
As with everything social, the most important part is to keep your social account live and attractive...
In many cases it is a good strategy to work with well connected bloggers or companies in related areas to spread the word about your shop. Just start by finding a realted party and work out what you can do with them...
If you have already a list of interested potential customers, emaling them with information offerings aout your shop can be very effective. For small shops you can probably do this with "stand alone" maling programs while for larger groups of recipients specialized services exist.
Just be sure that you have the agreement that you are allowed to send the emails as otherwise it would be categorized as SPAM, which can have huge negative consequences.
When you set up your shop, did you use FlickRocket's SEO features? While Flickrocket does a pretty good job to get SEO right automarically, based on your shop ad product descriptions, it is typcially a very good idea to go in a fine tune the data. In many cases you'll also notice that you have left out relevant information which can help customers find your store.
SEO is a big topic on it's own and we'll not dive in deep here, as there are many very good resources to be found online.
Using analytics tools is very important part to understand and grow your shop's traffic. Google analytics is already integrated with FlickRocket and only a few clicks away.
While we can't explain the details of Google Analytics (or other tools) in detail here, we can only stree that understanding your shop's traffic is key to growing sales.
Many customers are more likely to purchase if you offer special deals, discounts, limited availability, etc. You can easily do all these things with your Flickrocket shop - just get the word out.
The initial view of the shop is an extremely important factor to grow sales. Therefore the theme you use and how you adapt it to your special needs is crucial for a successful shop.
Dig you select an attractuve theme from the FlickRocket The Store? Did you use the Theme Editor or HTML editing to get the best result? If you don't have experience with web design, there are many services offring help or you can also contact Flickrocket.
Just make sure, that any visitor has a perfect first impression when you shop opens.
Visual appearance is extremely important. In additiona to a great theme, this means that you need to use great pictures. Even for products, which are not very visual (e.g. a service) it is very important to have great looking pictures in the store. these pictures are a big part of the first impression which is half way to a sale.
Another important and often overlooked parts are the titles and descriptions for your products. Always keep in mind that many things which you think of as obvious, are probably less obvious for potential customers - even if they are, some customer want confirmations. So it's better to write a bit more than not enough - and by the way, this is also a great benefit for search engines.
Depending on the number of products you offer, it can be important to categorize them into meaningful categories. Categories prive potential customers an effective way to browse your offerings based on their interest without having to know a "search term" or take the time to look though the complete offering.
Categories are part of every theme and can be defined in levels based on your need. Products can exist in multiple categories at the same time.
If your products are also available in competing shops, you should investigate their offering and based on the results, refine yours. Does the competing shop cater to the same customers? What is the pricing structure? What other products are they offering? Any special deals?
Knowing your competition is crucial for a successful shop. So do your homework..
In many cases the reason why customers refrain from buying is a problem or uncertainty with the payment system the shop offers. Therefore we highly recommend to offer at least the most widely used payment types (in most cases "credit card") and not requiring the setup of an individual payment account (as this often confuses customers).