In the first part of the article on boosting online sales, we looked at navigation, content and the use of images, and we also spent a few words on optimising and advertising your website. This time, we present the remaining 5 tips for boosting your online sales.

6. Integrate social sharing buttons

Social networks are extremely important nowadays. They are used by practically everyone, both younger and older generations, to communicate with others by sharing their thoughts, pictures, videos and web links, thus broadening their horizons and passing the time. The most important social network is certainly Facebook, as there are few individuals who have not yet created their own profile. However, other social networks such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and the like are also being increasingly used.

Due to their high popularity and widespread use, it is essential to integrate social sharing buttons in your online shop to boost sales. Often we see that the buttons are located at the very bottom of the page, which is not optimal, as they are rarely noticed there.

If a visitor shares the link to your product on Facebook, their friends will see it, and if they like it and share it further, a very large number of potential customers may find out about your offer. And for free!

7. Activity on social networks

In the previous point, we already stressed how important social networks are today. They are used not only by individuals, but also by many companies that are well aware of their potential to boost sales. If you have not yet presented your business on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, you are missing a very big opportunity.

Create a profile as soon as possible with all the details of your company or online shop, make sure your page looks attractive and start publishing short posts and presenting your sales programme. Don’t overdo the latter, at least not at the beginning, as you need to build up a large number of fans/followers first.

And how to get more likes? It is essential to regularly publish posts that people will be happy to read and share. This means that you should not only promote your products and services, but mainly post useful links, nice thoughts, interesting sayings and of course sometimes funny pictures or video posts. You need to serve the readers of your posts with content that interests them, and you need to make a genuine connection with them.

When it comes to Facebook, it is highly advisable, at least initially, to devote some resources to advertising. Do not see this as an expense, but as an investment that will pay you back many times over in the long run. Be original when creating your adverts, highlight your strengths and maybe even offer a special promotion. To boost sales even faster, it is also extremely important to choose the people who are most likely to be interested in your sales programme as the target audience for your adverts.

Social networks are the biggest source of traffic for many online shops today. If you’re not active enough on them yet, make sure you spend more time on them as soon as possible!

8. Building your email list

Fortunately for you, the vast majority of online shops are not yet aware of the importance of building an email list. People who have already made a purchase from an online shop are statistically much more likely to make a repeat purchase in the future. And this likelihood is greatly increased if you can keep them informed about your great offers here and there. The easiest way to do this is to send them a personalised email telling them about a great offer that might be of interest to them.

So how do I get potential customers’ email addresses? From those who have already bought from you, you most likely already have them, but otherwise the easiest way to get them is to offer them something in return for their email address. This could be a practical gift or maybe just an interesting .pdf document that your visitors will be happy to read. Various tips and guides work very well. It makes sense that these are thematically linked to your sales programme. Staying with the example of fireplaces, a .pdf could present all the advantages that fireplace heating offers compared to other heating methods.

All the most successful online shops are using it to boost sales by sending personalised emails to potential customers. Start building your email database at the very beginning of your journey, but if you missed it, don’t bother and make sure you implement it as soon as possible.

9. Top-notch web hosting

What good is a great online shop with great sales content and high quality images if it is not available when an online visitor wants to browse and perhaps make a purchase?

Your online shop needs to be available all the time – 24/7. It must therefore be hosted on a reliable server that is constantly connected to the global network. But a reliable server alone is far from enough these days, especially when it comes to online shops, which are much more demanding than simple websites. The hosting provider must provide fast and responsive servers, as the speed of a website has a major impact on sales.

One of the most effective and easiest ways for an online shop owner to boost sales is to switch to a hosting provider that will make their online shop run faster. Many studies have been done, and they all come to the same conclusion – a faster website has a positive impact on traffic, the time it takes to visit the site and the sales realised.

At NEOSERV we can offer you hosting of your online shop on highly responsive DELL servers with the latest NVMe SSD drives, which allow much faster performance than traditional ones. Modern servers with top specifications are complemented by a direct connection to the Slovenian backbone of the World Wide Web. And of course, along with all this, we also offer ongoing support free of charge. Try us out!

10. SSL certificates

An SSL certificate is an electronic document with a digital signature that contains information about its holder and issuer. It is mainly used on websites where a high level of security is required for the transfer of data between the server and the client. You can quickly see from the description that the use of an SSL certificate is more than recommended for online shops where sensitive data is transferred between the website and visitors – from personal and banking data to passwords and credit card accounts. Online shops that allow credit card payments must have an SSL certificate installed.

This security protocol, which encrypts the above and all other data, increases the security of the website and increases the trust visitors have in the website. If you have a certificate installed on your website, visitors will be able to make a purchase without fear of their sensitive data being misused. Visitors will be able to see the certificate you have installed through the HTTPS secure protocol – so your website will be accessible over an HTTPS connection rather than a traditional HTTP connection. You will also have a security lock icon displayed on the left-hand side of the URL bar.

Speaking of the use of SSL certificates, we cannot ignore Google’s recent announcement to the public that it has included the presence of a security certificate on a web page in its search result ranking algorithm. What does this mean? If a website is accessed via a secure HTTPS connection, it will rank higher for search queries than it would have done if the site did not have an SSL certificate installed. The use of a security certificate therefore has a positive impact on website traffic, which is essential for driving sales.

If you have an online shop, we advise you to get an SSL certificate as soon as possible. At NEOSERV, we have prepared different types of SSL certificates at a good price and we will be happy to help you choose the most suitable one for your website. Contact us at info@neoserv.com or call us on +386 59 335 000.

Don’t let it be just a matter of reading advice!

Have you made it through all 10 tips? Congratulations, you are one of the 1/3 of visitors who have read the article in full. It’s up to you to be among the 1/3 who, after reading it, stopped wondering how to increase sales and instead took action!

Probably the most important piece of advice in the whole article is not to tell yourself that you will take action tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or maybe for the weekend when you have more time, but to get into action right away. Take a pen and a piece of paper and immediately make a short plan of how you are going to go about boosting sales. Define your goals and objectives and set deadlines by when you will complete each task.

We are confident that you will succeed. If there is anything we can do to help you on your way, just get in touch.