You’ve done the buying. You’ve set up your online boutique. And now the sales start rolling in, right? Oh, if only things were that easy.
Today is all about making your first online boutique sale.
Many years ago, when I set up my first online boutique (that was 2006), it was like the dinosaur ages of building websites. Ok, not quite – but when compared to how easy it is now to get your very own boutique up and running, I can’t believe how much time was spent on designing my own website from scratch.
It also was a lot easier to get traffic and sales to your website. I mean, really easy. All I had to do was put the products up on my website and somehow people found me through Yahoo or Google without me having to do anything special to get that traffic. And I didn’t even have to pay for it! At the time, I really had no idea how that stuff worked.
Fast forward to today and things are constantly changing in the world of SEO and online advertising. I am constantly taking online courses to stay up on my game of this ever-changing world and it’s really the only way to keep the sales coming in in the online boutique world.
Today, I’m going to go over my top 3 ways that I get traffic to my online boutique and make sales. These are the exact ways that I have personally used or currently use to make sales in my online boutique.
As a side note, I suggest choosing just one of these 3 ways to get started and once you have that going and have made your first few sales, take on another strategy to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
1. BLOG POSTS
Having a blog on your online boutique website is a great way to get traffic organically (and it’s free).
You will want to come up with various topics to write about that could ultimately bring traffic to your website and get you that first sale!
For example, let’s say you have an organic baby clothing online boutique. Some of your topics might be why organic cotton is better than regular cotton in baby clothing, the process of making organic cotton, or the latest fashion trends in organic baby clothing.
I’ve seen some great results with sales just from writing blog posts on an online boutique.
The more of a niche product that you can write about in your blog posts, the less competitive it will be for you to get traffic.
So, instead of just deciding to sell baby clothing in general and trying to write general articles about baby clothing (which isn’t going to work very well) you will want to sell something more specific like organic baby boy’s clothing.
Remember, the more specific and niched down you can be, the better when it comes to online boutique sales.
The down side to writing blog posts to get your first sale is that it may take more time than you would like to get that first sale.
First, you have to write all of the content, then post it, and then wait for Google and other search engines to crawl your site. This all takes time and will not be the way to go to make a quick sale.
But if you are looking for longevity for your online boutique for years to come, the articles you write will be on your site for as long as you’re open for business and will continue to bring your website traffic (and hopefully those sales).
2. PINTEREST
Pinterest is one of the greatest ways to promote your online boutique (and is also free to use!).
You can post your blog content in addition to your products on Pinterest. You can even use multiple images from one product to post multiple different pins, thus increasing the chances of your product getting repinned and bring more traffic to your online boutique.
I recommend having styled product photos instead of just a white background with the product by itself. If you don’t have the means to have a styled photo shoot quite yet with all of your products, pinning the product with the white background will be sufficient to get started. I still make plenty of sales with basic white background photos. J
Make sure your Pinterest profile is a business profile to follow your analytics and also that you have a professional looking Pinterest page. Potential customers want to see that you are a legit brand and most likely won’t click through to your online boutique if your page looks less than professional.
Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to make sales. My websites receive thousands of visits just from Pinterest alone.
3. FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS
Facebook and Instagram Ads are probably one of the quickest ways to make your first sale, but also one of the most expensive.
There’s definitely a learning curve when it comes to running these ads, but once you have figured out what works for your online boutique, they can end up being quite lucrative.
The unfortunate thing about running ads is that things are constantly changing. What works one month for sales, may not work again the next month and you may need to try a new ad with a new audience.
It took me about $1,000 of investment on Facebook and Instagram ads to have figured out what worked for my online boutique. So, this will be an option for you if you have the money to invest and don’t mind testing out ads that may or may not work and don’t get frustrated when your one ad doesn’t make a sale after spending $10.00. That’s definitely not how these ads work.
Once you’ve learned how to use online ads in your favor, there’s no stopping you from getting your very first online boutique sale.
Remember, it’s all about testing, testing, testing and finding out what is going to work for your online boutique and your customer.
There are many different routes you can take when working on getting your first online boutique sale. It’s important to consider your budget, time you have to invest, and in general what strategy that you think will work best for your target customer.
Make sure you choose one strategy to get going so you do not get too overwhelmed and start to see some sales coming in before you move on to another marketing strategy.
Has your online boutique gotten its first sale yet? If so, let me know what strategy worked for you!
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