9 Strategies Online Entrepreneurs Can Grow Their Profit While Spending Less

“Money begets money” is a statement that a lot of business people readily agree with. (And for good reason.)

While there is certainly some truth to the statement, there are also some strategies that you can employ to get more money (sales), while spending less.

In this guide, that’s what we’ll cover.

If you’re dead serious about growing your online sales despite experiencing financial struggles, then this guide is for you.

Let’s hop right in.

1.       Optimize Your Site’s Speed

Unknown to most online entrepreneurs, a website’s loading time greatly affects its overall ecommerce revenue. According to statistics:

• Over 47% of internet users expect websites to load within 2 seconds. 
• 40% of them exit the browser when a website takes more than 3 seconds to load. 

This means that a single delay in your website’s loading time can really cost you in terms of sales. You can use tools like GTMetrix to check your website’s loading speed and find ways to make it faster.

Depending on the report you’ll get from GTMetrix, you might be able to improve your website load speed without having to spend for anything.

That means you’ll be able to grow your online sales by improving your site’s load speed — without having to shell out money.

2.       Use Time Tracking Tools

One of the key things to consider when looking to grow your profit is time management. As the saying goes, “time is money”. 

When you manage your team’s hours well, you get to increase your team’s productivity and output, all while making sure that the hours you’re paying are worth it.

One of the easiest ways to succeed with managing your employee’s hours is by using a time-tracking tool.

Track.ly is one of the most reliable, and feature-packed, employee-monitoring tool that you can use to track your team’s hours and activities. The platform has online timesheets, activity screenshots, project views, etc.

As your employees increase their productivity due to the time-tracking software you’re using, you’d be able to finish your deliverables quicker, therefore, reducing the amount you spend on manpower hours.

Track.ly even has an easy-to-understand dashboard that shows you your project summary, earning, hours worked, etc.

(Image Source: Track.ly)

3.       Invest in Quality Product Images

Online shoppers rely on your product’s photos to have a sense of the actual merchandise — that’s how important product photos are.

Even if you have the best product in the market, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to close the sale if you have tiny product thumbnails or poor-quality product images.

Fortunately, all you need for great photos is a decent camera or smartphone, a tripod, a white backdrop, and a good image editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Facepixelizer.

4.       Offer Money-Back Guarantee

Sometimes, what prevents people from buying is the inner desire to avoid a potential financial loss. The loss they can suffer when your product gets delivered and it doesn’t work. 

To make them overcome this fear, consider offering a money-back guarantee. 

According to a study on Quick Sprout, a money back guarantee leads to a significant increase in an ecommerce businesses’ sales. 

Just the simple thought of getting back their cash when they are not satisfied with your product will make them feel safe enough to buy them.

5.       Offer Guest Check Out Option

You will agree that filling forms and following a long list of procedures on websites can be quite frustrating. 

Some buyers are annoyed if they are required to fill out an entire form before they can even make a purchase.

If your audience wants to make a purchase, without having to sign up, you should give them a guest checkout option.

That way, they can just head straight to the checkout page to complete the payment process. This will help improve your conversion rates.

Here’s an example of an ecommerce store that allows a guest checkout option.

6.       Provide as Many Payment Options as Possible

To increase your sales, you also have to provide your buyers with different options to pay for your products. 

What if you discovered a customer really wants to make a purchase but can’t complete the checkout process because you don’t accept their only payment method?

When you offer them with more options, you are making i

t easier for them to buy from you.

It might be more time-consuming to set a payment process that accepts various payment methods, however, you the value you get out of it is massive.

You’d be able to cater to customers who have limited payment options, which means you can close more sales.

7.       Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment

According to recent studies, the average shopping cart abandonment rate for ecommerce stores lies somewhere between 60% and 80%. 

This shows the majority of ecommerce store visitors who add products to their shopping cart just leave before completing their purchase. 

The figure is quite telling, isn’t it?

Can you imagine what would happen to your sales figures if you managed to cut your cart-abandonment by half? Your online sales would skyrocket!

To help reduce your cart abandonment rate, you can use an exit-offer. Add a pop-up giving your audience a discount (or what ever offer might appeal them) if they exit your add-to-cart page.

8. Use Product Videos

According to recent studies:

• Video viewers are 64% to 85% more likely to buy a product online after they have watched the product’s video. 
• 50% of marketers say that compared to other marketing methods, video has the top return on investment.

Here’s the thing…

Creating product videos can be expensive. And if you’re looking to get more sales while spending less, then creating product videos might not be a good direction to take.

So here’s a compromise.

Instead of creating a video for every single product that you create, you should just create a video for your top selling ones — or those whom you think would have a good chance of going viral and getting bajillions of sales.

9.       Showcase Your Customer Testimonials

At this age and time, customer reviews and testimonials are very important. These two have a great effect on how buyers will view your products and brand.

The fact is, buyers tend to trust customer reviews more than even the best-written sales copy.

That is why you need to showcase your customer reviews and testimonials.

Doing so won’t cost you a penny, but it can have a massive positive impact on your sales.

Check out how Amazon even employs this strategy to help their sellers with selling their products.

While the value of online reviews can never be underestimated, it’s worth pointing out that you should never use fake online reviews.

Doing so is unethical and can wreck your brand image beyond repair if you are caught by your customers.

What’s Next?

What are some of the most effective, yet affordable, strategies you can share with our readers to help them get more sales?

If there are strategies, tips, or comments that you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section below. Cheers!