Provincial approach to e-commerce
In the previous article “ Experience of an online store development on free CMS ” I described the technical side of an online store for a manufacturer, which is located not even in the regional center, but at a sufficient distance from it. Now it's time to tell how I optimized and promoted the site, and what I did to increase sales.
First I want to describe the conditions with which it all began:
Location position: 80 km from the regional center.
Production: 15 employees, head of production, accountant, director.
Brand awareness: known only to employees and no one else.
Product sales: a small point of sales in the regional center, and the delivery of goods for the implementation of the points of friends.
Competition: high (only in the region there were a couple of large manufacturers with untwisted names, as well as many no name manufacturers of smaller ones).
Work online store was adjusted simply:
Accountant: checked mail for orders and issued invoices, was responsible for online chat.
Head of production: responsible for the assembly of orders.
Director: I was on the phone and answered clients' letters, I also took the collected orders to the post office or to transport companies in the regional center.
Technical nuances of the site
OpenCart was used as an engine. The product had several options of options (size, color), I decided that I had to make a choice not just with a drop-down list, as was the case with many sites with similar themes, but with switches. This has accelerated the process of recruiting goods into the basket several times.
It was also removed now fashionable option to view the image of the goods when you hover the mouse, and put the standard mode of displaying the product photo by clicking on the thumbnail. I removed this function for several reasons: incorrect display on mobile devices and customers are mostly women, they wanted to view the product in full scan, but does not drive the image and examine each part separately.
')
Before the start of the site there was a clear understanding that there is no point in promoting products in our own region and that we should go directly to Russia.
Website promotion process
A standard set of actions: registering a site in search engines and subject catalogs (they were chosen very simply, the advertised brand of the same product was taken and driven into a search engine, on all sites where there was a mention and an opportunity to register, I entered my own) Next was the registration in Yandex.cards and Google addresses, for this the address of the outlet which was located in the regional center was well suited, since the use of the address of production was not reasonable.
From SEO work on the site, you can highlight the adaptation of some pages of the site for low-frequency queries. This was helped by my friend and ideological inspirer from Germany (he knows and works a lot on the German market for SEO and Internet consulting). Advertising on Google was also launched with a sum of 1 thousand rubles, it was a voucher that came to the post office after registering the company in Google addresses. That's all the preparations that were made at the initial stage of advancement.
Terms of sale of goods were wholesale and small wholesale, that is, there was a minimum order amount. Such conditions are well suited for the concept of joint purchases on the Internet. For this purpose, all the conditions of cooperation with such organizers were spelled out on the site, which greatly helped in promoting the site and brand in the regions. I can recommend registration on thematic sites of the joint venture and offer my products there, it will increase not only sales, but also the credibility of your online store.
Brand promotion
Initially, the company had neither a logo, nor normal labels on the product. To remedy the situation, it was decided to order a logo and self-adhesive labels, with detailed information about the product, phone numbers, website, and a large company name, as well as an apparatus for printing bar codes. I understand that this standard procedure in any other company that produces something, but the production was carried out by a person who is very far from the mundane, this was not done before. Now the goods were packaged in an individual packaging package, before they simply threw into bags of several dozen pieces, and was sent for sale. To increase sales and customer interest, we introduced the ability to buy goods not packs, but individually, but with a minimum order amount of 10 thousand rubles. This sharply raised sales at the start, competitors were still selling in packs and the retail market was not mastered by them, and the wholesale market was rapidly decreasing. This combination of small wholesale with the ability to buy only the size of a particular model of interest gave a huge influx of sales. After some time, certificates of the customs union were issued, which allowed selling products to Belarus and Kazakhstan. (there is an interesting history of receiving money from another country)
I will note one feature of the provincial producers, they poorly represent the process of selling their own products, and often the department or the person responsible for product sales is completely absent. All trading operations resemble a sale on the market, that is, a casual customer saw the product and, if lucky, bought it. In such a situation, even an individual product packaging can advantageously distinguish you from competitors.
As a result, the products were 100% sold only through the site, and some time later the owners of local outlets began to contact us with a request to sell our goods to them, and this was explained by the fact that buyers began to contact them more often and ask for our brand.
Here are the steps taken at the start of the online store for small provincial production. Next time I will tell you how we began to bring up competitors and sell their products, while the buyers no longer looked at the prices.
First I want to describe the conditions with which it all began:
Location position: 80 km from the regional center.
Production: 15 employees, head of production, accountant, director.
Brand awareness: known only to employees and no one else.
Product sales: a small point of sales in the regional center, and the delivery of goods for the implementation of the points of friends.
Competition: high (only in the region there were a couple of large manufacturers with untwisted names, as well as many no name manufacturers of smaller ones).
Work online store was adjusted simply:
Accountant: checked mail for orders and issued invoices, was responsible for online chat.
Head of production: responsible for the assembly of orders.
Director: I was on the phone and answered clients' letters, I also took the collected orders to the post office or to transport companies in the regional center.
Technical nuances of the site
OpenCart was used as an engine. The product had several options of options (size, color), I decided that I had to make a choice not just with a drop-down list, as was the case with many sites with similar themes, but with switches. This has accelerated the process of recruiting goods into the basket several times.
It was also removed now fashionable option to view the image of the goods when you hover the mouse, and put the standard mode of displaying the product photo by clicking on the thumbnail. I removed this function for several reasons: incorrect display on mobile devices and customers are mostly women, they wanted to view the product in full scan, but does not drive the image and examine each part separately.
')
Before the start of the site there was a clear understanding that there is no point in promoting products in our own region and that we should go directly to Russia.
Website promotion process
A standard set of actions: registering a site in search engines and subject catalogs (they were chosen very simply, the advertised brand of the same product was taken and driven into a search engine, on all sites where there was a mention and an opportunity to register, I entered my own) Next was the registration in Yandex.cards and Google addresses, for this the address of the outlet which was located in the regional center was well suited, since the use of the address of production was not reasonable.
From SEO work on the site, you can highlight the adaptation of some pages of the site for low-frequency queries. This was helped by my friend and ideological inspirer from Germany (he knows and works a lot on the German market for SEO and Internet consulting). Advertising on Google was also launched with a sum of 1 thousand rubles, it was a voucher that came to the post office after registering the company in Google addresses. That's all the preparations that were made at the initial stage of advancement.
Terms of sale of goods were wholesale and small wholesale, that is, there was a minimum order amount. Such conditions are well suited for the concept of joint purchases on the Internet. For this purpose, all the conditions of cooperation with such organizers were spelled out on the site, which greatly helped in promoting the site and brand in the regions. I can recommend registration on thematic sites of the joint venture and offer my products there, it will increase not only sales, but also the credibility of your online store.
Brand promotion
Initially, the company had neither a logo, nor normal labels on the product. To remedy the situation, it was decided to order a logo and self-adhesive labels, with detailed information about the product, phone numbers, website, and a large company name, as well as an apparatus for printing bar codes. I understand that this standard procedure in any other company that produces something, but the production was carried out by a person who is very far from the mundane, this was not done before. Now the goods were packaged in an individual packaging package, before they simply threw into bags of several dozen pieces, and was sent for sale. To increase sales and customer interest, we introduced the ability to buy goods not packs, but individually, but with a minimum order amount of 10 thousand rubles. This sharply raised sales at the start, competitors were still selling in packs and the retail market was not mastered by them, and the wholesale market was rapidly decreasing. This combination of small wholesale with the ability to buy only the size of a particular model of interest gave a huge influx of sales. After some time, certificates of the customs union were issued, which allowed selling products to Belarus and Kazakhstan. (there is an interesting history of receiving money from another country)
I will note one feature of the provincial producers, they poorly represent the process of selling their own products, and often the department or the person responsible for product sales is completely absent. All trading operations resemble a sale on the market, that is, a casual customer saw the product and, if lucky, bought it. In such a situation, even an individual product packaging can advantageously distinguish you from competitors.
As a result, the products were 100% sold only through the site, and some time later the owners of local outlets began to contact us with a request to sell our goods to them, and this was explained by the fact that buyers began to contact them more often and ask for our brand.
Here are the steps taken at the start of the online store for small provincial production. Next time I will tell you how we began to bring up competitors and sell their products, while the buyers no longer looked at the prices.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286270/
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