5 Ways to Increase the Bottom Line of Your Online Business

by Contributing Author

It can be hard to pinpoint additional methods of gaining more sales or making changes that will be profitable to your business. However, even if you feel you have exhausted all the available options, you are likely to encounter some that you may have overlooked or were completely unaware of.

For instance, getting certain procedures in place to capture information can mean that from now on, you will not slip into the habit of letting potential sales get away from you and you will be able to effectively nurture your customer relationships to be much more profitable.

#1 Sell more products to existing customers

Most businesses focus their efforts on gaining new customers without a second thought to those customers that have already brought from them before. This is unfortunate as it is these customers who it is easier to sell to repeatedly – if you have provided a quality product and service during your previous interactions with them.

The first step on this path is to capture contact details like their email address. High-street stores, for instance, may find this a little tricky if they do not have a loyalty card system. However, online businesses will have their customer details already in their systems, and all they will require is permission from the customer to send them future offers and information. This can be gained from the customer when orders are placed or even when a potential customer visits your website, just by including a pop-up on your website asking for permission and relevant data entry or providing a tick box on your order forms.

#2 Get more traffic to your website

Undoubtedly, another way for your business to become more profitable is to drive quality traffic to your website. This can be achieved with the addition of some SEO – however, for best results, you should leave it up to the professionals to engineer. This is because SEO can be punishing if you do not know how to do it, and you can pour time, effort, and money into an area that you think will work for your business – only to find that you have not got the right wording or are aiming at a slightly wider target than you should.

SEO agencies such as Click Intelligence can help you find the right keywords and create backlinks that endeavor to provide quality traffic for the businesses that they are working for. These tactics can also provide higher rankings on search engines such as Google.

There are other search engines, like Yahoo and Bing, but this is the main search engine that most people use to search for products and services that they want.

#3 Promote your product on social media

There are different methods of promoting products on social media platforms. You can try your hand at promoting them yourself, either by posting adverts or by creating informational videos about your products and how to use them. Unless you are particularly professional and know how to interact with your target market, this could do more harm than good. However, a more beneficial method that is likely to get you fast results is to hire the services of a social media influencer.

Of course, the influencer that you choose will have to operate within your business’s niche market, so do your research. They should also have a following that reflects your target market as well as be happy to showcase your product to their followers. They still have the final decision of whether or not they run with your product or not and it is not up to you. This service is not going to be free of charge, and you will most likely have to pay them a percentage of your sales that have been made through using their services.

#4 Offer flash sales and coupons

Aside from this, you can also offer flash sales to get your potential customers, as well as current and past customers alike, to make additional purchases. This is a great tactic if your business seems to be going through a slow patch or when you want to create more interest in your products.

If you are uncomfortable with offering a flash sale to all, adding the encouragement of a coupon to your customer’s next order should they purchase over a designated amount could be favorable. The coupons you offer can be anything from a discount, or free shipping, to a freebie gift. 

#5 Decrease overheads

Although it is important to concentrate on getting additional orders in, you should not forget about trying to decrease your overheads when making your business more profitable. If you are able to get in place effective finance strategies early on, it could really benefit you.

Utility costs

For a start, you can think about switching your utility providers. From time to time, utility providers like to offer deals that will encourage new customers to move from their existing provider to their own service. As all utility providers are competing for the same customers, these deals can be well worth the effort involved in switching. Of course, it does take time to research every deal that you could be offered; however, to reduce this time, you can use a comparison site to gain the same information.

Staff working patterns

Another area where savings can be made is in the working patterns that you offer your employees. Office employees do not necessarily have to work on-site, and changing the way that they work either to hybrid or remote working will save your business money on electricity bills as well in other areas around your site. You may have to increase your cybersecurity levels if you have employees accessing your system or cloud while they are working elsewhere other than in your building.

Look at your shipping rates

Undoubtedly, with all the additional orders you will be getting in, you will need to adjust your shipping priorities. More shipping could put your business in good stead to get optimum shipping rates and provide savings which you can, if you want, use to provide discounts or keep for your business.