I’ve been working for approximately twelve years on expanding my knowledge and experiences in the outdoors. In my latter years, I’ve begun to share my experiences not only on social media, but right here on my blog. Now, I feel I have the unique opportunity to offer for sale my favorite and essential outdoor items to all those who visit my blog and social media pages.
Creating Your Own Online Marketplace
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a story teller at heart. What’s more, I have also always loved seeking out my own adventures and unique experiences. And, ever since I was a young kid, I have been an entrepreneur; willing to get out there and hock my talents, will, drive, and desire.
Over the years, as a writer and photographer, I have had the fortunate opportunity to make a decent living doing all of the things I love. The only problem is, I had to rely on others and their needs for my services in order to make the most of my talents. I’ve learned that working to make other business’ money by helping THEM sell THEIR products on their platforms or in their stores only brings me back a fraction of the potential profits for my efforts.
Now, I am looking into creating my own online store to sell stuff that I believe in so that I can be in control of my own destiny. The question though is, how do I accomplish this with minimal impact and strain while I maximize my personal return? The answer; BigCommerce.
Online Shopping Made Easy
I’ve worked in the marketing and social media space for more than twelve years now and have learned a lot over that dozen years. I’ve had the opportunity to sit and look over the shoulders of marketing managers as they made decisions that sometimes led to success, and sometimes led nowhere. After becoming a head of marketing, I’ve watched the founders of a leading outdoor gear company shoot themselves in the foot because they made poor and indecisive moves to improve their website, social media, and online sales capabilities. All of this was based on their choice to use antiquated sales techniques and inability to make quick changes for a dynamic market place.
As I move forward, I’ve used my own experience and the lessons learned from other peoples mistakes to seek out and find the solution to knowing how to sell stuff online. Knowing how hard it can be to build a website with built in sales capabilities, search engine optimization tools, an efficient and user friendly interface, and a customer service system that is quick and responsive is why finding BigCommerce is incredibly fortuitous. It has all the things you need and more to set up an online store… fast.
Navigating How to Sell Stuff Online
So, the primary issue I have as a man is wanting to jump into the fray as quickly as possible without having to deal with a mind numbing tutorial or rely on someone else to tell me how to get the job done. BigCommerce’s makes setting up your sales website so simple you can most likely be up and running within a matter of hours. I was sent this 55 minute YouTube tutorial made by Mike at Sentrel Media that I was able to skip through to learn how to get started.
The entire system is almost as simple as a drag and drop website and extremely customizable. Not only that, the platform is sleek, intuitive, and will help you get a highly professional looking website set up with ease. Just be ready to start moving your high quality products as soon as you are done because BigCommerce does even more than just make building a sales platform easy.
Hunting Down More Customers
Depending on how in touch you are with your potential customers, you might need extra help spreading the word about your products and services. A large business, small business, or even boutique business all need exposure to customers and BigCommerce has the answer to help you be competitive in this vast ecommerce website ocean.
One of the fantastic services or built in options they provide is a search engine optimization tool. This means that as soon as you start building your product menu, each item you list an item for sale, there is a tool that helps you optimize it’s potential search and discovery potential. This means that when a customer uses their web browser to try to find something they need, your online store will have a greater likelihood of showing up as a primary source of that good.
Building A Better Marketplace
When it comes to the decision of where to sell your products, there are a lot of sites to sell your wares. Whether an item of yours sells on facebook marketplace, you sell on ebay, or maybe even through amazon is the way of the past. If you want to start selling items and cut out the final value fees taken by these hosting style sites, then don’t get drowned out in a marketplace that isn’t built custom for you.
The main advantage of using BigCommerce for you and your customers to buy and sell is that it happens in a space built to represent you, your business’ personality, and that carries your own brand messaging. Whether you sell one product or 50 items or more, build something that says something about you and your business and draws people in to what you are all about.
Online Shopping Navigation Speed
So, aside from everything I’ve already talked about, BigCommerce makes product organization exceptionally easy. Knowing how to sell stuff online also includes knowing how to make efficient sales categories and drop downs. This process is exceptionally easy when building your online store as you add products to your roster.
It’s not just about sale price, it’s about how fast a customer can locate the product they want which makes how fast that item sells so much quicker. In the online sales world, you don’t want to frustrate a customer who is looking for something you might be selling by letting them get lost in their shopping process. The faster they can find what you have that they want the faster they can make the purchase they want.
Building the Personal Experience
Another tool that a lot of business’ are capitalizing on nowadays to gain more traffic as well as recognition for their expertise and trustworthiness is the blog. BigCommerce also provides a simple and direct template for your business to quickly build out and upload blog posts so that people can find important tips about either the products they want or maybe learning material about the activity they are interested in for which you just might have the right widget to sell the.
A blog is a fantastic way to show that your company isn’t just about listing price and transaction fees, it’s about that personal experience we forget about as we’re no longer in need of the brick and mortar stores we once had to visit. It provides your business the opportunity to build a personality and share your expertise in what ever field you are working in so that people want to not only come to you when they read your content, but they will want to return as you can provide insight into what might inspire them.
Social Media Sales
If you already have a well established social media base, BigCommerce actually makes selling through these platforms, like Instagram, seamless. This way, your following doesn’t have to visit a whole other site just to click “purchase” and get what they can see on your profiles. That is sales made fast and easy, especially for someone like me who spends most of his time sharing is story on said social platforms.
Get Out There
Learning how to sell stuff online used to be difficult and intimidating but now it’s easier than ever. If this is something that interests you, check out the BigCommerce free trial to take a peak at the vast new world of online shopping your business, no matter what size, can easily be a part of. And maybe, sometime soon, I’ll see you on there.