Increase Number Of Shoppers
Store traffic is not a science but rather an art and will need to leverage several tools. For this marketplace, we will do a lot of the heavy lifting by showcasing your products and stores to our various social accounts as well as through our marketing strategies, which include email and printed advertisements.
This is a tricky subject and there isn’t a single strategy to increase the traffic to your individual store on a marketplace. This is true whether it’s our marketplace or any other marketplace be that online or in one of the live, in-person events.
UNDERSTAND BASIC MARKETING AND SALES FUNNELS
There are four major areas that will drive more customers to your store as well as the marketplace as a whole. They are:
- Creating awareness (or attracting customers)
- Consideration (or informing customers)
- Conversion (or converting customers to buyers)
- Loyalty (or continue to engage with your customers after the first sale)
We’ll cover each of these in detail in the following sections and share how we are implementing them. Although, the high level strategies will remain, the content and messaging will continuously change to stay aligned with your consumers.
CREATING AWARENESS
The first step in the funnel is to attract customers. Images of your product will be shared on our social platforms to attract potential customers and create awareness that you are on the MAC Marketplace. The main purpose in this initial step is to pique your customers interest.
This is very similar to being in a live, in-person event and we engage in a conversation with the shopper. The conversation online would be visual and would create a curiosity to your products. To this end, we have configured the front page of the marketplace to showcase featured products, products on sale, as well as newly created stores. We will continue to update and change this initial page based on the information we collect about the site visitors. Yes, we have installed Google Analytics as well as other website cookies to learn how the customer uses our marketplace.
By analyzing the traffic patterns, we can identify where we need to make updates to the overall page and or the base configuration of the storefront. Of course, the latter will be communicated to you prior to making changes and we’ll do our best in communicating those changes both via your dashboard as well as via your contact emails.
CONSIDERATION
Our basis is not to hard sell your customers. The practice of hard selling went out decades ago and actually drives customers and shoppers away these days. Instead of the hard sell, we are utilizing the information route and telling the story as opposed to selling them something. This creates that rapport or connection with the customer that is hard to establish, especially online.
We’ll not only talk about the MAC Marketplace story. More importantly, we’ll share your individual stories which gives your customer a deeper understanding of your handmade, hand created, and/or your hand picked products. Our goal is for the customer to understand from whom they are potentially buying.
CONVERSION
Converting that shopper to a buyer is not a formula as individual shoppers have their on ideas and desires. We are only presenting your products and your story to help them decide on their own if they want to buy your products, save you as their favorite store, follow you as their favorite seller, and more importantly, share with their friends. Keep in mind, the sale to one customer could and most times lead to sales to who they know and with whom they share. Converting a customer to buyer does take some time. However, once they are a buyer, they will most like remain a great asset for your success.
As mentioned previously, this conversion process could take many touch points before they buy. This is the customer’s psychology at work. There are also other factors they are considering such as price, how quick can they receive the product, the feedback you’ve received from prior transactions, as well as if they are ready to buy. The latter is out of your control. They will buy when they are ready.
LOYALTY
I touched on this a bit in the prior paragraphs. Loyalty is achieved when not only do they buy from you. It’s when they start to share the positive transaction they have experienced with others. It’s just like the old commercial about the shampoo where they tell two friends and those two friends tell their friends… and so on.
One would think this stage is easy to maintain. Unfortunately, it’s only as good as you’ve treated them the last time they purchased. So you have the power to keep your customers more than satisfied by treating them right. In fact, you should consider having a loyalty program for your customers. In other words, provide some incentive to keep them coming back to your shop. Offer discounts for their future purchases, or something along those lines. Lastly, keep in touch with your buyers by letting them know when a new product is dropping, or if you’re have a special sale.
SUMMARY
We’ll do our best to establish the customer’s awareness, entice them into considering your products and your store, and helping them to understand you closer to get that conversion. The loyalty to your store is primarily on you and your treatment of them. Of course, we will continue to do our part to ensure the MAC Marketplace is a safe and wholesome online shopping experience where the customers can find unique handmade, hand crafted, and/or hand picked products.