For

THE INDIAN
SELLER

The T E
ULT I M A
U I D E To
G NLINE
BOO ST O
SALES
Introduction

Who are we?

 Find Out How To
Stay Connected
1 by Using Social Media Wisely
Content

Rank Higher on Google

2 with Search Engine Optimization
Increase your Facebook Reach
3 Using Paid Ads
Target Relevant Customers
4 Via Google Ads
Engage and Sell to Window Shoppers
5 Using website interactions
Woo Shoppers by Distributing
6 Gift Vouchers & Discount Coupons
Sell to People on the go with
7 Mobile Marketing

8 Sell More by Listing on Popular Marketplaces

Drive Traffic
9 by Listing on Product Comparison Sites
Promote your Products
10 by Sending out Regular Newsletters

11 Boost Brand Image by Promoting Offline

Increase your Reach

12 by Getting Featured on Other Blogs
Maintain Relations with Customers
13 by Keeping a Personal Touch
Help Shoppers Complete Purchases
14 by Avoiding Abandoned Carts
Maintain a Business Blog
15 & Interact with your Audience
STAY CONNECTED BY USING SOCIAL MEDIA WISELY

There is a great hype about using social media for your So from the all the social media platforms, you can
business and it’s not vain. Social media can help you harness the power of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
interact with your audience like never before. and Pinterest for your ecommerce business :)

How to make Facebook work for you?

The deadliest sin of Facebook marketing is being
boring. To gain fans’ attention and keep it, marketers
need to create novel campaigns, or put a unique spin
on familiar techniques. Otherwise, brands’ efforts are
largely ignored or used by fans to score free stuff.
What’s the secret to marketing campaigns that garner
results?
Combine strategies that incorporate Facebook’s viral
features. Lets see how.
a) Say it with a picture: What grabs your attention?
The poster with the quote or the status update with
Doing business needs to be personal. Your customers the quote?
don’t just want to buy from you, they also want to
talk to you. They want to know what you do and why
you do it. And there is no better platform than social
media, to talk to them about it.
Don’t be apprehensive as handling social media is
fairly easy. Once you get into it, it’ll just be like second
skin to you. Just like you may already are active on
Facebook and or Twitter, extrapolate the effort just a
little. Lend the same voice to your brand’s pages and
you’re done!
But are you still wondering where to start and what The poster, but obviously. People love images and
to do? Just read on, and by the end of this post, we they love sharing them; there is no denying that. So
promise to: whatever you post on FB, make sure you say the same
with a relevant photo.
1. Have quashed all your reservations about using
social media. b) Ask a question: When in doubt, ask your fans.
2. Given you ideas to start with. Questions are a great way to have a conversation
3. And made you ready to take social media head on with your fans. But before you ask them a question,
for your business. ask yourself this: “Will I take time to answer this
question?”. If your answer is Yes, hit Post!

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c) Give away discount coupons: Why should a customer 2. What to post on Facebook?
come back to your page? Apart from giving him good
Here are a few ideas to help you get started:
content, you also need to engage him. Incentivize his
visits to your page. And nothing catches a customer’s
• Offer a tip a day
interest more when they get free stuff!!!
• Share an anecdote
• Tell them a story
• Make a video about an upcoming event
• Share a funny picture
• Tell them about an interesting article
• Share with them about what’s happening in your
industry

e) Give them a sneak peek into your products: Create

regular photo albums, say for every new collection that
comes in and share product photos with your fans.
Make it easier for your fans to buy the products by
giving them a link to your online store. It will increase
your customer interaction (when they comment and
share) and drive more sales to your store.
e) “Share this, like that”: Give your fans a definite call
to action, about what you want them to do. Like when
you post a quote, instead of simply asking them to
share the post, try this “Please share this message with
someone who needs to hear it.”
f) Have fun: You don’t need to sound all business like
and professional. People are on social media to have
fun. If you can playfully promote your brand, you’re
sorted. Keep it simple and light.

3. When to post on Facebook?

There are lot of posts that will tell you when you
should put up posts on FB to maximize returns and the
frequency of your posts. But does the same apply for
you? You have to decide what works best for you. Go
and explore your page’s Facebook Insights. It will give
you a lot of feedback regarding when do you get the
most visits, how many people viewed your posts, the
virality of your posts, etc. So then you can decide when
do you want to upload your photos, videos and other
updates, what content is giving you best interaction.

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4. How soon to respond to customer queries? Content board: You can give tips and information
about something related to your products. One such
Respond to customer queries and criticisms with equal
example is the board by a fashion store whatwhenwear.
interest. And add humor if you can. Don’t keep your
in, which has pins for ready tips on how to string a bead
fans waiting for a response. Make sure you respond to
necklace together.
Facebook messages and wall posts within 12 hours.
Take a look at this infographic which lists 64 different
ways to you can use Facebook to your advantage. You
can create a campaign around each of the pointers and
you can get over 4 million campaign ideas!

Why should you consider using Pinterest?

Pinterest is not one social media you’d want to ignore.
Trust us on this. Although relatively new, Pinterest has
already become the third highest traffic driver.
Pinterest is all about creating a visual content. And it The beauty of Pinterest is the ease of curating good
may become a better engaging tool than Facebook for content, no matter what you sell on your online store.
you, if you are a brand that has a lot to showcase in To populate your content board, you can share relevant
terms of photos and portfolios. pins from various pinnable sources across the web. The
1) Engage your customers with different kind of boards user just needs to click the pin on your page, and they
will be directed to the relevant website!
With Pinterest, you can organise your posts by grouping
them in different kind of boards- the most common 2) Reach your niche audience easily and increase your
ones being product and content boards. sales
Product board- Since you are an eCommerce store Unlike Facebook, Pinterest allows users to search
owner it is but natural to have boards to display the items based on particular categories. It can act as a
products on your website. Product boards can be giant store. If your product belongs to a niche category
classified into different categories like boards for- such as ethnic Indian jewellery, your users will get to
1. Shoes, clothing, accessories and different kind of popular and trending pins in that category. The best
products you feature on your website. part- most people interacting with your pins will be
2. Latest products and hot trends in the industry. relevant audience!
3. Products which are on sale and mark downs.
Check out the board for Kraftnation.com to see how
they have created separate boards for different items
on their website.

Pinterest has rolled out some new features to increase

visibility for all people who have registered their
business on Pinterest. Setting up a business account
will help your boards be visible to people who may be

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searching for related categories. For instance, if a person
is looking for clothing, categories like apparel, shoes and
handbags will also pop up.
You can make use of this feature, by linking your pins
directly to your website. You can either make your
pictures clickable, or in basic accounts just add the URL
to the product page.

4) Manage your stock based on the demand

As an online store owner, managing your inventory can
be a daunting task. Did you know that with Pinterest
you can actually assess your demand and supply? Start
by adding new product pins regularly from your e-store
and add the Pin it button to all of your product/brand
pages. Now, you can track the engagement your product
pins are generating. Let us see how to go about it.
Pinterest has a tool known as Pinterest Analytics.
Through analytics, you can get the average number
of pins from your website, how many people pinned
from your website and the number of re-pins. You can
also sense of the reach of your pins and the number of
visitors on your online store via pinterest.
3) Get your customers to easily promote for you While analytics can show you the engagement on your
page, keeping a tab on your notifications can give better
Did you know can you can add a Pin it button to your
insights. If you see that a select few product pins are
product pages on your online website? Casual strollers
trending and driving traffic to your e-store, means that
on your website can pin the item to their accounts. Your
people love them. You can capitalize on that love by
product will now get the ‘eye-falls’ of all of your lovely
customer’s followers too. This will increase number of • Increasing your stock based on the demand.
relevant visitors to your website. • Keeping enough stock of a product which people
are continuously pinning.
• Using popular products to show off your stores
collection.
With Pinterest, there is a simple flow- more pins trend,
more visits to your site, more brand awareness and
eventually increased sales.
To add the ‘Pin It’ button to your product pages, you With a large number of players entering the eCommerce
can use a social media sharing app known as Markerly. sector, social media is playing a very big role. The number
If you are a Zepo store owner, you can activate the of Pinterest users are rising in the country. Now is the
Markerly app on your Zepo dashboard by following best time to get a strong footing in the platform and
Zepo> Dashboard> Settings> Advance Features> capitalize on its impact in social media marketing. So,
Markerly>Turn on. go ahead, set up your business accounts, jazz up your
profile and build engagement.

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Use Instagram to ‘Click’ With Customers

A quick fact:
“Posts with visuals receive 94% more page visits and
engagement than those without.” – Wishpond
In fact 90% of information transmitted to the brain
is visual. Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the
brain than text.

Nike’s Hugely Popular Instagram Profile ( Image Sub-

text)

Is it fitness? Is it shoes? Is it coffee mugs or is it cool DIY

projects? It is very essential to identify your market in
the very beginning to reach out to potential customers.
As an experiment we just made a small visual for the
fact we just stated in the second line of the blogpost. 1. Do a hashtag analysis:
It is open to your feedback which format caught your
attention. We did nothing but put the same information Hashtags are one of coolest things about instagram. It
in the form of a visually attractive piece of graphic. lets you group and post your pictures amongst thou-
sands of others in a thread of your choice. Analyse your
Visuals and short messages are the very reason why audience to know which are the common hashtags pop-
mobile and internet users love Instagram. In January, ular among them. Iconosquare is one such tool to search
2015 Instagram announced that 300 million people use hashtags based on keywords.
the app every year. Making it bigger than Twitter. Now Everyone who posts or follows these hashtags are a
that makes it a platform you as a seller just can’t ignore. potential audience for you. Thus you can define your
There are a few more reasons why you can’t ignore Ins- target audience. Nike encourages its audience to post
tagram as a medium to reach out to customers. pictures using the hashtag #JustDoIt

So when it comes down to building up your Instagram

presence how can you start off?
In this blog post we give you 7 steps to pump up the
game when it comes to building your brand’s presence
on Instagram.
#JustDoIt Hashtag Promoted by Nike

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2. Complete your own profile and share your interests :
This is one of the most crucial steps and this is where
you can connect with your audience in a more personal
way by sharing your interests. You can also share links of
your blog and other social accounts.

Decathlon India’s Instagram Profile Regularly Generates User

Contributed Content

5. Work Towards Attracting Your Competitor’s follow-

ers:
Instagram Profile of Popular Blogger Akanksha Redhu You can use this cool service called Crowdfire to find
your competitor’s audiences and engaging with them by
liking or commenting on their photographs.
3. Start Promoting Your Products:
Start sharing good quality product images with your
fans along with relevant hashtags. Make sure to time
your sharing in periods which are found to have the best
engagement rates during the day. To begin with you can
try the 8.00PM to 11.00PM timings. Of course, keep
Crowdfire Application
experimenting with the posting times.
For Example: If I am an online store selling fitness prod-
ucts, I would search for Nike and “Copy” its followers
to get in touch with all fitness freaks out there. Then I
would reach out to some of them and suggest them to
try out the latest nutrition products which I am selling.

6. Reach out to Influencers:

Every segment has influencers. For example, if you are
an organic product seller, a single Instagram post by a
popular fitness blogger mentioning your product, may
The Ever Colourful Chumbak Products on Instagram result in a barrage of traffic from people interested in
healthy eating and living. Reach out to such influencers
4. Promote a hashtag : via email or a comment if they would like to try out your
product and write a product review.
Now that you have established what your brand stands for,
start promoting a hashtag. For example: French sports-
gear maker Decathlon which entered the Indian market
in 2009 promotes the hashtags like #TrekkingIsLife.

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 1. Time – “Hurry Up!! Last two days of Offer!”
2. Limited supplies- “Hurry Up! Stocks running out
like chocolate cakes!”
3. Offer added benefits- “Get CCD coupons free with
every recharge of 100Rs!!”

With all these social media tools, entice and engage

your customer in a friendly yet persuasive manner. To
sum it all, it comes down to this quote:

“Best way to sell something: Earn the awareness, respect

and trust of those who might buy.” ~ Rand Fishkin, CEO
and Founder (SEO MOZ)

Popular Bloggers are Known to Influence Buying Decisions of

Consumers

7. FINALLY, MAKE THAT SALE !

We know as an e-commerce seller your time is precious.
You can do a million things which MIGHT get you sales
at the end of the day. But YOU on the other hand have
been spending your valuable time to work on promoting
your brand on Instagram. So we understand that this
channel must give you sales at the end of the day.
See how one of our clients- Cakes and Closet got their
customers interested in buying their cool mobile covers
with this Instagram post.

Making Sales through Instagram

To convert your Instagram followers to finally make a

purchase, one of the strategies which has been known
to work for brands is creating a sense of Urgency. Ur-
gency can be of 3 types:

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RANK HIGHER ON GOOGLE WITH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

So you’ve gone ahead and created a store for your

brand, set it up on your custom domain, added all your
products, customized the look and feel of your store
front to make it look appealing to visitors, integrated
your payment gateway account with your store, and
are all set to deal with the flurry of online orders that
you were expecting. Everything is in place, except that
you have started noticing that there aren’t any visitors
coming to your online store! Let alone orders coming in!
Now what? You go to everyone’s favorite answerbank,
Mr. Google, type in your website URL and are shocked
to see that it doesn’t even show up in the search results!
What could have possibly gone wrong, that even the
omnipotent and omnipresent Mr. Google cannot find
your website?
This dilemma is not an unusual one to have, and we
come across a lot of store owners who have the exact
question as posed in the example above. The most So here are some the proven best practices on SEO
likely cause is that some elements of your store have that have worked well for many of our stores:
probably not been set up the way Google likes to see
them. 1. Register your website through Google Webmasters
The truth is that while SEO is considered to be Tools
a specialized area, which requires engagement of This is probably one of the first things that one must do
SEO specialists (read ‘Incur More Cost’), there after setting up the website/store. Google Webmaster
are a variety of simple things that can be done Tools is a free toolbox that Google provides. All you
right at your end as a store owner, without having need to use it is a valid Google account (your Gmail ID
to incur any more costs than you already have. will work just fine).
While these best practices that I’m about to share won’t Just visit the Webmaster Tools page, login using your
tell you any secret formulas that will automatically rank Gmail ID, add your site, and verify it using the simple
your page right at the top in Google search results, steps on the page. It could take about a day or two for
following these guidelines will definitely make it easier this to happen after you have registered your website.
for search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing to start And as time goes by, and you will have more visitors
relating relevant keywords to your website or products, connecting to your store, either directly or through
and improve your brand’s listing on the results page. other links or search results. And Google starts
recognizing the relevance between those links and is
able to better connect search queries with your online
store.

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2. Generate, upload and submit your XML Sitemap 4. Enhancing searchability through the “About Us”
field in the footer section
Once you have verified your website through the
Google Webmasters, the next best thing to do is create
In addition to the Title tags, Google also looks for
an XML Sitemap for your website. Sitemaps help
other keywords or relevant terms on your website, to
Google to discover pages on your website that may not
be able to link it to what users may be searching for.
be discoverable otherwise. In the simplest of terms, a
What you enter here gives Google a summary of what
sitemap is a list of pages on your website, much like
your site content is all about. It is always a good idea to
an index at the start of a book. And when you create
include keywords unique to your brand, along with a
a sitemap, you give Google an index of all your pages
brief description of your brand name or product range.
which makes it easier for the Mr. Know-it-All to show
Again, it is important to take care that you don’t add
you up in the relevant search results.
too much or too little text.
Well, we’ve already taken care of the “too much”
Step 1: Generate an XML SiteMap for your website
problem for you, by having a limit of 400 characters
using any of the SiteMap Generators.
:), so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.
Step 2: Upload the sitemap (.xml file) on your Zepo
Keep in mind though, that this description needs to
dashboard under Advanced Features » Google
be written keeping your potential target audience in
Webmaster SiteMap.
mind, and not Google, as Google is just the bridge that
Step 3: Find your sitemap URL at www. custom-url connects your audience to your store, by linking what
.com/sitemap.xml. they are searching for to the content on your site.
To add a description for your brand, log on to your Zepo
Step 4: Submit the URL to your SiteMap to your
Dashboard, and look for the “About Us” section under
verified Google Webmasters account, to complete the
Content » Manage Footer.
process.
Click here, for steps to guide you through submitting
5. Promoting your Store through Social Media
the URL to your Google Webmasters Tools A/C.
Networks & Blogs back-linking
3. Create a Unique & Accurate Title Tag for your Another key area, which a lot of people don’t exploit
Store fully, is the power of social media and blogs. While
most links to your store/site will be gained gradually, as
This is one of the most important things that helps
people discover your content through searches or other
Google relate search keywords to the content on your
ways and link to it, Google understands that you would
store and is also probably one of the aspects which
also like to let others know about all the great stuff you
most store owners overlook. The trick is to ensure that
have on your store. Effectively promoting your brand
the title tag is brief and unique, but descriptive of the
through your Facebook page or Twitter Stream, would
content on your store. Using generic terms like “Buy
lead to faster discovery by users who are interested in
The Best T-shirts online” does not help Google relate
that subject.
the search word to the content on your store.
Also, start writing a blog for your brand. Having your
The Title Tag appears next to the page title on your
blog on your sub-domain helps in better discovery of
browser tab, and is a brief one line description of your
your brand and your URL.
store/brand. When creating this tag, keep in mind
though that if it is too long, Google will only show a For e.g. Adding a link to your store or website on
portion of it in search results, which is not helpful, as your brand’s Facebook page & vice versa increases
users are more likely to click results where the complete the chances of users linking back to either your store
title and description is visible. or your FB page. New announcements being made
regularly on your FB page or your blog is a great way to
let users know that you have added something new and
want them to come check it out.

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6. Register your physical store on Google Maps It is advised that you target your keywords within the
title tag, alongwith your brand’s name at the end of the
If you also have a physical store, like some of our existing
title.
store owners, adding your store details to Google
Maps, as well as embedding your Google maps location
b) Meta Descriptions: Meta description is a mini
on your store is an excellent way to reach customers
ad about your product, that will show up in search
through Google Maps as well as Google search.
engines. It gives your customers a quick overview about
the product. Search engines only index around 156
7. Your Product Names and Descriptions
characters.
Again, an important aspect, which will help Google Write compelling and clear product meta descriptions,
identify and link search terms to your store and as this is what will get a prospective customer to click.
products. And while it may not be absolutely necessary
to have uniquely named products, provided you have c) Keywords: These are the keywords people are likely
done a great job on your Title Tag and About Us (and to enter to search for similar products. As a store
another aspect which we will see in the next point) it owner, you want to target exactly these keywords so
would certainly help enhance search results. that your product shows up in the search results. For
Write detailed information about your products and example: Blue Kurta, Blue Men Kurta
add relevant tags for all your products. These tags You can use the Google Keyword Tool to find keywords
will help specifically identify your products for search around your product. Keep a balance between high and
engine results. Your product descriptions on your Zepo low competition keywords.
dashboard automatically convert to Meta tags for SEO
of your online store. d) ALT Tags for Product Images: ALT stands for
nothing else but “alternative”. So in short, this is the
For e.g. Try searching for “Aum Kurta” or “Blue Mojari” text that will show up just in case your image does not
or “Dabbang Soft” in Google and you would see that show. From an SEO point of view, Google or any other
the Zepo stores these p roducts are being search engine can’t read an image. And that’s why ALT
featured on would be listed on Page 1 of the Search tags for images help. To tell search engines what the
results page. image is about.
Now Try searching for “Car Signs”, which is a far more Keep your ALT tags short and sweet and you can ignore
generic term than the ones cited above, and you will unwanted words like “a”, “the”, etc. For example: White
see that the results page still lists the Zepo store where Round Color Tshirt
these products are sold. To know how, move on to
Point 5. e) Custom URLs for Product Pages: You now have the
liberty to customize your product page URLs to give
8. Your Individual Product Pages you better search engine results. Page URLs are the
key element for search engine optimization.
We recently rolled out a complete new SEO section
Keep your page URLs short, get rid of unwanted words
for Upload Product on Zepo. Which gives you utmost
and keep it keyword rich. Insert your most important
control over search engine optimizing your individual
keywords in the URLs.
product pages.
Along with your Search Engine optimized store, there
So what is this new SEO module? You can now are more ways to attract the online crowd to your store.
define the following for all your products, with a brief So next up in the series of internet marketing gyaan, we
description of “how-to” do it and why is it needed. bring to you, Off page SEO.
For all those wondering, What in the name of god is
a) Title Tags: Title tag is the clickable headline that you Off page SEO? Well, there are two types of Search
see in search engines. It’s a 70-character-long selling Engine Optimization. First is, On Page SEO which is
pitch of your product and the most important part of the optimization done on your web page and the next
optimizing your product pages. one is – Off Page SEO which is text and inbound links
from other web pages to your site’s pages.

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Ever notice how with higher ad circulation and views, the
footfalls to your store goes up, similarly, a website with
more links directed to it from industry peer sites gets a
higher page rank and so dominates the search results.
So how does Off Page SEO technique help grow your
online business? It offers two vital aspects which any
online seller would die for.

1. Credibility
More than anything else, Off page SEO techniques
lend huge credibility to your Online store. Search
engines nowadays have increasingly penalized sites with
spam inbound links from dummy sites. So links coming
in from a trusted popular website carries more weight-
age for page ranking. This is true not just for the Search
engines but also for potential clients. When people see
links from quite a few sources, they are more likely to
check your site than the rest.

2. Traffic
The best part is obviously the traffic generated by off
page SEO techniques. With inbound links from multiple
sources, your page rank increases. Also links from
popular forums, blogs and websites create a lot of buzz
among the online aam-aadmi and they won’t be able to
resist the temptation to check you out!
And we all know 1+ 2= Sales!!

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INCREASE YOUR FACEBOOK REACH USING PAID ADS

Facebook is a community that houses more than 1.1 For simplicity’s sake, we divide the article into 2 parts.
billion users across 213 countries in the world. That In the 1st part, we talk about the following topics:
would make it the third most populous country in the
world if it were one! This means it is one of the best • Different types of ads you can create.
platforms for any business to push its products to new • The different options you have to define and target
customers, create a brand name and build a personal the people who see your ads.
relation with its customers. If you have an online store In the 2nd part we dive deeper into the topic and
and are looking to advertise your products to the right explore the following points:
people, Facebook is THE platform to do so.
• How to understand and use the Facebook ad
When Chumbak started out in 2010 as a store that sold interface.
cool and funky accessories with an Indian touch, they • How to analyze data and track your ads’
used Facebook advertising to catapult to popularity. performance.
They used Facebook ads to get users engaged with the • How much you should spend on Facebook.
brand, drive new people to the page, increase traffic to
its product range and to promote offers and discounts. So let’s get started!!
As a result, 25% of their online revenue now comes
from Facebook. The Return on Investment is as high What types of advertisements can I run on Facebook?
as 5 times the total spend and 30%-40% of their total
website traffic comes from Facebook. There are many types of ads one can create using
Facebook. There are too many to go through in such
That is the power of Facebook paid marketing. In limited space, so let’s stick to the ones that can benefit
this article, we go through everything you need to an eCommerce website the most!
know about advertising on Facebook to take your
e-commerce store a couple levels higher and boost Domain Ads: Click on an ad and be redirected to an
those sales figures. external website! These are what domain ads do. Divert
interested customers to your e commerce website and
help you close a sale right there and then. Running a
special sale or promotion? These ads can come very
handy. You can see them on the right side of your
Facebook page.

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Tip: Eye Catchy content = Higher Response for the Ad! Facebook lets you define a list of parameters to
That’s ‘cos you don’t get a lot of characters to work with! decide which people can see your ads. Choosing the
parameters wisely is the difference between a failed
Promoted Posts: You must have seen those posts on ad that bleeds money and a successful ad that gains
your Facebook News Feed from pages you’ve never acquisitions for you! The major parameters are the
even heard of? And somehow, a couple of your friends following.
seem to be recommending it as well! How does that
work? Location: Specifying a location to run your ad is
mandatory for all Facebook ads. If you plan to provide
Well, that is what a promoted post is! These types of shipping of electronics only in Mumbai, why waste
ads let posts from your Facebook page pop up on the money advertising your products to a gadget freak in
news feed of people, even if they haven’t liked your Delhi?
page yet. It basically tries to emulate word-of-mouth
marketing for your brand and it more or less appears Age & Gender: Many a times a product may be suited
like a post from any other page liked by the user. for a certain gender or age group. There is no point in
advertising jewelry to men or shaving kits to women.
Choose the appropriate age and gender that your ad
should target and reap the benefits.

Interests: While creating your ad, you can select

interest fields and users who fall in that category will be
shown the ad. If you are selling a T-shirt about a famous
rock band, you might want to target people who have
liked that band’s page on Facebook. It’s simple as that.

Re marketing Ads: Have you ever searched for a

product online and then been flooded with ads of
those very products on Facebook? Well, you just
got re-targeted! These ads are shown only to people
who have at least once visited your website.These ads
perform well because the target audience is likely to
already know about your company and the products
you provide.
Connections: You can choose to show your ad to people
By offering an exclusive discount or offer to such an depending on what relation they h ave to your page.
audience, you may just help them choose your products You can either show it only to the people who already
over your competitors’! You can get started and create like your page, or specifically those who haven’t.
re-marketing ads by using 3rd party websites such as
Adroll.com. Custom and Look alike Audiences: Suppose you have
a list of a thousand subscribers who have shown some
Whom Should I Target the Ad At ? sort of interest in your brand or products. Using their
contact details (email IDs, Facebook IDs or mobile
You’ve made your ad, but who gets to see it? Do you
phone numbers) you can choose to display your ads
want college students lazing away in their hostels to
specifically to people with matching information on
see the ad or do you want to target housewives only in
Facebook. This is known as a custom audience targeted
metropolitan cities?
ad.

13
Using a custom audience, you can create a list of people We now bring to you the rest of the details that’ll help
with similar interests to that audience and then choose you through the process, along with a few words of
to target them with an ad. This list is called a lookalike advice you should keep in mind while creating Facebook
audience. To use custom and lookalike audiences, you ads.
first need to use the Facebook Power Editor. Power
Editor is a free browser plugin created by Facebook In the 2nd part of our guide, we go through the
that lets you bulk-edit your ads. It works best with following topics:
Google Chrome.
• How to understand and use the Facebook ad
Does this mean, I am all ready-set-go to advertise on interface.
Facebook? • How to analyze data and track your ads’
performance.
To sum it all up, we can say that Facebook does offer a • How much you should spend on Facebook.
wide variety of options to choose from when it comes
to the types of ads and the targeting options. You need Where Do I Run My Ads From?
to know which type of ad to use when, experiment a
little and try to click with your customers. Creating your First Ad

So far you’ve picked up quite a lot, but you’re not quite As discussed in Part 1 of the article, a user can choose
ready to get started as yet. There are still a few more from a variety of ad types. You can go through them
points to run through before you can begin advertising and what they do here.
your brand to the masses on Facebook. Head over to So what do you want to achieve with your ad campaign?
Part 2 of our Facebook Marketing Guide for Indian Increase purchases on your e commerce website or
Online Stores and read more about using the Facebook advertise your brand? Whatever your needs, choose an
ad interface, analyzing your ads’ performance and how ad type accordingly, say a domain ad or a sponsored
much you should spend on Facebook ads! post. For domain ads, head over to https://www.
facebook.com/advertising, click on the ‘Create an Ad’
button and you can get started with your first ad!
The heading of the ad can be no more than 25
characters long, while the body has to be limited to 90
characters. Keep the content short and informative yet
catchy to generate a good response!

Facebook Paid Marketing is a tool that, if used properly,

could bless the fortunes of an online store. But that To create a sponsored post, simply choose the ‘Boost
is something that is easier said than done. There are Post’ option under the desired post on your Facebook
many aspects involved in choosing the right strategy page.
and budgeting for your business and in this article we’ve
tried to break them down for you to apply.
In the 1st part of our Facebook Marketing Guide for
Indian Online Stores, we talked about the different
types of ads a user can create and the different options
he has to choose his target audience.

14
Choose an Image You’ll be able to check detailed statistics about how well
What is the first thing that catches your eye in an your ad is performing in the ‘Ads Manager’ section. Here
advertisement? The image(s)! Even before you read the you have access to details like In-depth performance
ad, half the message is conveyed by the image itself. and demographic information, response graphs etc. You
can also keep a tab on the total amount spent on each
campaign and pause and start ads.

How Do I Know If My Ads Are Performing Well or Not?

So you’re done with creating your ads and publishing
them. But your work doesn’t end there! How do you
know how well your ads are doing? A lot of work goes
into tracking your ads’ performance and optimizing it
accordingly. There are many stats you need to keep an
eye on after your ads start running. Some of them are:

Impressions: An impression is nothing but how many

times your ad has been shown to a Facebook user.
Clicks: This is the actual number of clicks on the ad. A
click is also counted if someone ‘Liked’ your fan page
right from the ad itself.
Remember, don’t try to squeeze in more text by adding
Cost per Click (CPC): CPC tells you how much each
an image with too much text on it. Facebook will not
click on your ad cost you. A good CPC is something
approve the ad if text occupies more than 20% of the
under Rs. 2, while anything over Rs. 5 for one click
area on the image.
would mean you are paying too much. CPCs usually lie
To check if your image crosses the text limit, you can in the range of Rs. 2-5, but if you do well, you can easily
use Facebook’s own grid tool for advertisers. Just visit pull it under that range.
https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay and Click through Rate (CTR): This is a measure of the
upload your image to verify whether it is fit for approval number of clicks per impression. It is calculated by
or not. dividing the number of clicks by the total impressions.
This is a very important metric to track, as the CPC of
Choose Who Sees the Ad & How Much You Spend an ad is dependent on its CTR.
All you now need to do is enter the relevant target
information and move on to budgeting and pricing of
the ad. You will see that you have the option to set a
daily budget, or you can specify a ‘Lifetime Budget’ for
the entire campaign. After this, just set a ‘start’ and
‘end’ date for the campaign and place your order.

Remember: Facebook rewards ads with a better CTR by

lowering their CPC. Similarly, ads with poor CTR cost
higher for advertisers.

15
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): It is the amount spent
How much do I actually spend?
on ads for every successful conversion. It is calculated
by dividing the total amount spent by the number of How much you actually want to spend on Facebook
conversions through advertisements. The lower the depends on the size of your business and the number
CPA is, the better you are doing on Facebook! of products that you want to sell. You should always set
a realistic sales target and spend accordingly. If you aim
How Much Should I Be Spending on Facebook Ads to sell products worth, say, Rs. 10,000 through ads on
Facebook, then you shouldn’t be spending more than
How much does it cost to run an ad campaign? around Rs. 3,000-5,000 on the ads themselves. Also,
you should always keep your total ad spend under 10%
How much it costs you to run a Facebook ad depends
of the total sales that your store generates.
on a lot of factors. The major ones would be how many
people you want your ad to reach and how many visitors In the end, the success of your ad depends on a number
you require. You need to submit an ideal bid, which is of factors, including a little bit of luck. You must have
neither too low to be stifled by competition and nor too a clear idea about what type of ad to use for which
high to cost you too much. purpose, which type of audience to target and how to
monitor and optimize your ads’ performance. A lot of
Remember, sometimes it takes a bit of time for ads to
the learning actually comes through experience. Every
start performing, so you need to be patient. But that
aspect involved is important and needs to be taken care
said, you should also not hesitate to kill ads that are
of.
under performing and costing your company valuable
money. Constant monitoring is required to keep the If you can use the power of Facebook advertising to your
Facebook ad-spend at an optimum level. benefit, it is safe to say that you will see a noticeable
spike in activity on your website. More people will be
talking about it online and word about your business will
spread fast. So use your options wisely and watch your
business boom!

16
TARGET RELEVANT CUSTOMERS VIA GOOGLE ADS

When the two brothers Vaishnav and Vishnu started So basically when we are working on our brand
selling their innovative wooden mobile phone cases on awareness there are two ways to do it.
Otimber.com they did not have many takers. Was it
• Organically or for free via Search Engine
because their product was mediocre and not liked by
Optimization.
people? Certainly not! Their sales were low because
• Inorganically or through Paid Ads.
people had no idea that something like that is being
sold online in India! Be it chappals made of recycled Among paid ad channels we have Google Ads and
tyres, or ipad cases made of bamboo or organic honey Facebook Ads. So let us first understand How to Use,
made in the hills of Himachal, there are thousands of Optimize and Budget your Facebook Ads. This is a two
unique products which are being sold online today in part series where we have highlighted in detail about
each and every category. But the catch is to make how to run your Facebook ad campaigns, get users to
people aware about all the awesomeness out there. engage on your Facebook page and also direct traffic
to your online store to make purchases.
So when YOU start selling on your online store- How
do you ensure people know about it? How do you By the end of this post you will be able to setup your
create the initial traction and have visitors flock in? first Google Adwords campaign to advertise your
So lets introspect a little and get the answers. What products on your ecommerce store.
are sites which majority of us use almost around 10
times a day? Introduction
It does not require a genius to pinpoint that is most Google ads are arguably the easiest and the most cost
likely Facebook and Google. Well if your customers effective way to advertise. The performance and the
are spending most of their time on these platforms return of investment are highly measurable.
then why not reach out to them there?
Starting Off
Lets say you own an online book store. Would you not
like your ad to pop up when someone searches for 1. Prioritizing your top selling products
“Buy Books Online.” on Google?
If you were an offline seller then you must already be
knowing which products are most in demand. If not,
then you can use a bit of experimentation with your
product line. Essentially the goal here is to drive traffic
to your website through ads created for the most
popular products.

17
2. Creating Your First Campaign To promote your ecommerce store
Choose this option to kickstart your first marketing Create an interesting proposition highlighting your
campaign in Google Adwords. stores salient features in the most exciting way possible.
Tip: Think from the point of view of a consumer. What
Once you create a campaign you can further create
kind of ad would you like to click on?
different ad groups for different products.
In the image you see below, we have created multiple
ad groups like coffee maker, cas tops as well as a store
promotion ad group called ‘Buy Kitchen Appliances
Online’.

Also, remember to create multiple copies of ads. Google

will automatically run the different ads and check the
performance of each of them. Once it gauges the best
performing ads it will automatically push the best ones
so that you get the best bang out of every buck you
spend. Like the ones shown in the image here.

To promote your products

To promote your products create ad copies which talk
about the great features of your products.
3. Creating Ad Copies for your Store and Products
Here we should ideally create two types of ad copies.
One to promote your store in general and another to
advertise your products.

18
4. Creating a list of keywords that would trigger your ads
For this you would need to navigate to Tools>Keyword
Planner from the top menu. Put in details of your
product and service, landing page and product category.
Navigate to Keywords ideas and have a look at the
6. Finalizing the budget and setting off
suggested keywords for your product category.

There are two things to set up when it comes to

budgeting your adwords campaign:

a) Maximum Per Click

This decides how much you are ready to pay per click
on an ad directing to your website. By default the
bidding strategy is set to ‘Focus on Clicks’ which means
Adwords will automatically select the best budget for
your ads to show. However, it allows you to select the
With the help of Keyword planner curate a list of maximum amount when you are ready to pay for a click.
keywords which users will use to search for products As you see in the the Kitchen appliances campaign, we
that you are selling. The catch here is again, thinking selected Rs 8 as the maximum we are ready to pay.
from the customer’s point of view.
b) Daily Budget
This is how your keyword list should look like once you
are done with the selection of keywords. Adwords lets you decide the amount of money you
want to spend on advertisements on a daily basis. You
can choose it here-

All Campaigns>Settings> Daily Budget

Click on Enable and your ads are ready to take off!

Adwords needs to be constantly monitored, as you

need to keep an eye on where your money is going. The
campaigns that are giving you the maximum returns
need be optimized more than the ones which are not.
So go ahead, plan a budget, start your ad campaigns
and drive visitors to your online store!
5. Type of keyword matchings
The matching options when used with your keywords
decide when your ads are shown. The right matching
type will give you the best return on investment. Refer
the chart below for the types of matching types.

19
ENGAGE AND SELL TO WINDOW SHOPPERS USING WEBSITE INTERACTIONS

What’s the first thing that happens when you walk in Zopim is one such live chat application which easily
to a physical store? The salesman asks you if you need embeds on your online store and allows you to have
any assistance. He/she helps you go through the wide real-time conversations with your visitors.
range of products so that your shopping experience
gets better. But, how do you entice and engage the 2. Show Targeted Pop-ups
random browser on your online store. Well, just like
A person browsing through a brick and mortar store,
everything else, this task has been made very easy,
can be nudged to buy by a discount offered by a
with a lot of features and tools you can put to you use.
salesperson. But how do you get the attention of
So go ahead and find ways to convert those window
your customer on your online store? Why not show
shoppers to long lasting customers.
them a pop-up? The beauty of pop-ups compared to
a static message is that you can play around with the
1. Integrate Live Chat Feature
timing and the type of the pop-up. Let us look at a few
When a visitor comes to your website, he/she may be options of pop-ups you can show.
looking for something specific. Now, if they are lost,
Time based Pop-ups: Say a customer is browsing
how do you go about helping them? Do you know that
your store for around 5 minutes and has not made
online chat acts pretty much like a store attendant in a
an attempt to purchase. Showing him a time based
physical store? From improving customer interaction
discount pop-up such as get 20% off on all purchases
and customer satisfaction, to helping the visitor find
before midnight might just be the nudge. If you feel
his/her way around the online store, and building a
that a pop-up shown during browsing can be intrusive,
rapport with your visitors – the live chat will help you
then you can show him an exit browser pop-up. So
sail through all of this. So, to charm all your visitors
once the customer clicks the exit button, he will see
into loyal patrons of your brand, install the live chat on
a targeted pop-up from you about a discount, sale or
your store now.
latest collection.

20
Feedback based Pop-ups: Pop-up can be a feedback something, he does through research and comparison.
form taking their inputs and email IDs. Try to make Now imagine that a customer comes to your website
the form as short and easy as possible. Don’t pester which for instance sells exercise gear. He really like a
them and don’t try to oversell. Give them their space pair of track pants and has almost made up his mind to
and reply to their queries while dropping in some purchase it. When he looks that the product had 4/5
suggestions time to time. Try not to repeat the same star ratings and has some god customer reviews, he
suggestion. You can use this form not only for feedback, may just purchase the item! Also, he will get a chance
but also for lead generation, as you can use their email to review the item himself. These reviews will not only
IDs to send them some good marketing emails. benefit your customers, but will also give you chance
to hear directly from people and understand how your
products are faring.

By using certain tools like WebEngage, you can set up

timed pop-ups and feedback forms.

3. Dynamic messages on your page

Sometimes you release a new collection or have a very
Certain tools such as Yotpo, will let your customer
special product and you just want your customers to
review and rate products and share the same on
know about it. With a pop-up, they will see it as a flash
multiple social networks, just adding to the virality of
message, but you want it to remain there! Why not
the most celebrated products on your store.
have a stationary, non-intrusive banner on top of your
website? With this you can direct your visitors to certain
5. Analyze your customer traffic
pages on your website or promote your most important
content. Instead of a popup, you can add a simple sing- One of the biggest problems of an online store is
up form and use it to capture leads and build your email analysis of customer traffic. For a physicals store, more
signups without obstructing your customer’s browsing. than 75% of the time you know that your customers
Another advantage such a stationary banner is wishing are coming from a region near your store. You can
people for festive occasions and showing them sales arrange your fashion accordingly. For instance if you
and discounts for the same. sell clothes, you will sell more winter outfits if you are
located on the north and more summer wear in hotter
climates. But with an online store how do you find out
where most of your traffic is coming from. Well, now
HelloBar is one of the best tools for this purpose. you can. Certain tools like Lexity, can give you a map
You can just integrate it to your website, change the of the number of visitors on your website day to day,
content and turn it on or off as required. where this traffic is coming from, how many people are
buying your products and how many are just browsing.
4. Customer Reviews and Ratings It is essential for online business owners to monitor
these patterns and customize your website accordingly.
It is common knowledge that a customer is getting
This will help you channelize your marketing efforts to
more and more aware. Before he decides to invest on
cater to your target customers.

21
 With an inviting and easy to use store, you will see the
number of visitors converting to customers slowly and
steadily increase. Whenever you add a feature or use
a tool, make sure to analyze the results and run A/B
testing. This will help you optimize and keep improving
your store.

6. Website Interface and Environment

When a customer enters a shop and he sees that the
store is over filled with a lot of products, the lighting
is not appropriate and the response time of all sales
people is very slow as the store is very crowded, would
he be interested in hanging around the store for long?
Probably not. The same scenario can be replicated in
an online store. If you are showing too many products
at once, product pictures are not up to the mark, or
your website response is too slow, then your customer
will leave your website. Make sure that you make your
user experience as simple and pleasing as possible. To
ensure this some tips may be helpful.
• Have clarity in product categories and placement.
• Make sure you have a fully functional search bar
and alternative sorting.
• Your product pictures and descriptions should be
accurate and attractive.
• Do not clutter your webpage with too many
products.
• You can add background music if it does not affect
your website’s download speed.

22
WOO SHOPPERS BY DISTRIBUTING GIFT VOUCHERS AND DISCOUNT COUPONS

The use of coupons and gift vouchers can be a powerful extra newsletter subscriber.
tool for your online shop and can attract new visitors
as well as returning customers. In the end, it’s all about
creating those extra sales you’re looking for. Like all
powerful tools, you need to be careful and set up the
right strategy for you and your shop in order to take
full advantage of what the coupon industry has to
offer. So lets see the best how-tos and tips for using
the power of these coupons for your online store.

1. Increase order value

If you already know the average value of an order
places on your store, or the most popular order, then
you can use a coupon to get customers spend more.
3. Improve tracking of offline and online campaigns
For instance, if a customer usually spends between
Rs. 420 to Rs. 480 per transaction, then you can How much good impact have you seen come from
introduce a 5% discount coupon for orders that meet your online or offline campaigns? Initiatives like this
a minimum spending requirement of INR 500. are hard to track, but if you make sure to add a unique
coupon to go along with them, you can measure how
If you see interest pick up, you can then decide to up
often it is being used and how often your campaigns
the ante by creating similar coupons for a range of
are given exposure. To that end, the attractiveness of
transaction amounts. Like, for an average transaction
your ad will also increase the number of consumers
of Rs. 850, a 10% discount coupon for order values
who respond to your campaign.
that meet a minimum of INR 900 may work. This
way you can steadily increase the average amount a
4. Increase of consumer range
customer spends on your store.
Coupons are a great addition to your marketing
2. Turn visitors into members activities and can attract a new niche of consumers.
You could increase the reach of your exclusive
Everyone likes discounts – it doesn’t matter if you
coupons by making them available to different kinds
are young, old, dumb or smart- people tend to go the
of websites who tailor to different crowds you wouldn’t
extra mile for that extra discount. That’s why leaving
usually expect to see on a traditional coupon site. Look
your email address for a newsletter subscription isn’t a
for websites which attract certain kinds of audiences
hassle for most of us.
and get extra exposure there through a blogpost,
Visitors who are turned on by discounts are just as or become active on forums where consumers are
easily turned into members of your online shop once enthusiastic about sharing news on recent deals.
you make an association between the two. Therefore,
Affiliate marketing also opens up the possibility for
give them a reason to subscribe to your newsletter
you to get published on various coupon sites. It doesn’t
by promising to deliver a coupon code with a much
get more relevant than that, and these coupon sites
welcomed 5% discount. This way, you’ll win over a
are estimated to have 15 million visitors a month which
satisfied customer, see an increase in sales and gain an
could be really interesting for your online shop.

23
5. Set up your own strategy
You need to think through what your goals are for your
online shop. Do you want to increase your market
value, gain more newsletter registrations and increase
spending on your site? Perhaps you’re more interested
in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty to
your brand. With the correct use of coupons, you
can manage these goals pretty easily. However, like
most things in this line of business, patience is just as
important as taking the initiative to try out different
marketing strategies.
Once you begin the process, it’s important not to stop
halfway on account of your first attempt not being
the success you anticipated. It takes a well-structured
and preemptive plan to measure which kind of coupon
(a percentage or fixed amount/with or without a
minimum order value) works best for your brand name
and clients. Remember: consumerism doesn’t happen
overnight. Most people need time to adjust to change,
which means that you can’t expect everyone to respond
positively to your new plan immediately.
So,give your new strategy some time to settle within
your business and trend setters will surely follow!

24
SELL TO PEOPLE ON THE GO WITH MOBILE MARKETING

Traditionally smartphones were used only for research

(with the transaction being completed on a desktop or
offline), but consumers are increasingly comfortable
with making the transaction on mobile itself. This
trend is driven by faster mobile internet connections,
better trust and more seamless experiences.
Unfortunately, 95% of today’s Ecommerce sites are
not optimized for mobile and tablets. For small and
medium e-tailers to follow the growth pattern of the
Ecommerce giants such as Snapdeal, Flipkart and
Myntra, they need to ‘optimize for mobile’ as well.
“Fifteen months ago, 5% of Snapdeal’s sales were
made by phones. Today it is 65% — growth of 3,000% How do you “optimize for mobile”?
in the last year. My sense is that over the next two
years, over 80% of orders will be on mobile phones,”
says Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal. 45% of the
transactions from mobile were made via the app, while
the remaining 55% were made from the mobile site.
Mobile is increasingly the go-to device for online
purchases. Flipkart expects sales from mobile devices,
which is currently at 20%, to surge by more than 50%
in a year. Myntra expects its mobile sales to soar from
the current 50% to over 70% driven by the launch of
their mobile app.

1. Load fast: Mobile shoppers are impatient and

demanding. To address their impulsive purchase
decisions and their expectation of instant gratification,
the mobile site needs to load quickly. Research shows

25
that for every 1-second delay in page load time, there is 2. Category hierarchy support
a 7% reduction in conversion rate.
2. Look good: Ecommerce merchants need to build
trust with their customers. Customers are unsure if the
merchant will deliver on time, whether he will charge
the right amount, whether the product is genuine and
several other such uncertainties. One of the most
impactful ways to build trust is by having an appealing
mobile site. The cross-page experience needs to be
consistent, the text and images need to be pleasingly
aligned and the navigation needs to be intuitive.
3. Seamless checkout flow: One of the biggest inhibitors
for converting traffic into sales is the checkout flow. Is
the “Add to Cart” button prominent? Does your cart
page allow modifications? Can the user checkout as
a guest? Does the payment page look trustworthy?
These are all questions that could be potential barriers
for your customer to make a purchase.

Mobile Sites: The Bare Essentials

1. A universal floating menu that can be accessed from
anywhere in the site

3. Filter & Sort in the category pages to enhance

product discovery

26
4. Swipe-based image display on the product page 6. Consistent cart and checkout page

Mobile is a very promising channel for growth in sales,

but it is also challenging to build a site that addresses
whimsical mobile shoppers.

5. Clear CTA and Pricing below the product image

27
SELL MORE BY LISTING ON POPULAR MARKETPLACES

Whether you follow the news regularly or not, List of Popular Marketplaces in India
names such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal
have become common in every household. With Homeshop18 Fabfurnish IndiaTimes
the immense media coverage they have garnered Ebay Craftsvilla Aporv
in the past year customers are flocking to these Art For Everyday Infibeam Flipkart
online portals. For a person who is planning to
Tradus Egully Fashion at
establish a good online presence for themselves, Click
why not harness the power of these marketplaces?
Red Patang Unwrapindia Nethaat
Did you know that Chumbak - one of the most 3 Closets: Curators Shopclues Shop Inonit
famous brands for kitsch products used to only sell of Fine Fashion
through online marketplaces before they opened Rediff Shopping Mirraw Rangiru
their online store? This generated a lot of buzz around Nineteen Pepperfry 6Y Collective
and that is how they built their brand visibility. Its Handmade Koovs Storrz
This is when they launched their own online store.
Young Republic Style Tag Tadpole Store
So, apart from selling through your own website, you High5Store CraftVille 48Craft
need to be visible at a lot of other places too. Selling Buy the Price Zaarga
your products on online marketplaces will help you
achieve 2 very essential things as an entrepreneur.
1. It will increase your brand visibility and
engagement.
2. And it will keep getting you new customers time
and again.
There are large number of online marketplaces in India.
Some of these marketplaces for instance Flipkart and
Amazon, sell a wide range of products, whereas some
cater niche sectors like Pepperfry for furniture. To
make things easier, Zepo has curated a list of a number
of popular market places in India.
Out of this list, we have reviewed the top 6 most popular
marketplaces. This review is based on the parameters-
Pricing, Shipping, Packaging, Payout Period and
Marketplace Size. So make sure you identify minimum
2-3 marketplaces to sell your products on.

28
 Review of Online Marketplaces
Marketplace Amazon eBay ShopClues Tradus Snapdeal Flipkart

Subscription Fee INR 499/ INR 499/ Free Free Free Free
Month Month
(For Basic
Store)
Listing Fee INR 10/ Free for Free Free Free Free
Sale first 100
Pricing products
Payment Gateway None 4.5% Paisa None None None None
Fee Pay Fee +
12.36% ST
Comission (Depends 5%-15% 1%-7% 4%-20% 4%-20% 4%-20% 4%-20%
on Product Category)
Self Shipping Yes Yes No No No No
Shipping Provided Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Use Ful- Powership Use EKart

fillment by
Amazon
Shipping
(FBA)
Cost of Shipping Rs 40 to Rs. 40 – INR 45/ Not Dis- INR 40/ INR 35/
Rs 45/ 49/ 500 500 gms for closed 500 gms 500 gms
500 gms + gms SCVB (approx.) (approx.)
1% of Item
Value
Packaging Provided? No No Yes Yes Yes No

Only for Only for Provided for

FBA; PowerShip SVB
Handled by customers
Packaging Amazon
Cost of Packaging NA NA INR 3 – 9/ Rs 230 INR 3/ NA
Order for 100 Order
Tradus
polybags
Shipment On Every Friday Product Dispatch Tier-1 Seller:
Confirma- Shipment for all orders Delivery Date + 3 Dispatch
Payout Period tion from Confirma- Completed + 7 Days Weeks Date + 7
customer + tion from the previous business
7 Days customer week days
2,500 30,000 12,000 20,000 1,000 Sell-
Sellers Sellers Sellers Sellers ers
7 Million 2.1 Million 42 Million 20 Million $1 Billion
Unique Active Visitors / Registered Sales 2012-
Size of the Marketplace Visitors / Users Year Users 13
Month 1.5 Million 200,000 4 Million+ 20 Prod-
450,000 Product Products Products ucts Sold /
Products Listings Listed Listed Minute
Listed

29
Marketplaces provide an established platform for
sellers to sell their products online, but give lower
margins in profit as compared to selling from an
independent online store. Also your products may
get lost in the competition and it is hard to create a
unique brand image for your store. Hence they cannot
be a complete substitute to opening an online store.
Since marketplaces are good testing ground for your
products, help to create brand awareness and add to
your revenue, it is important to sell on them parallel to
your online store.

30
DRIVE TRAFFIC BY LISTING ON PRODUCT COMPARISION WEBSITES

How many mobile phones have you compared online cr. products over 25 categories. And it’s in the
before actually making the purchase? Or even, Top 10 E-Commerce Portals (by traffic) in India.
compared car models to see which has the best features
and fits your pocket the best? Plenty of times, right. For sellers, looking to list products on Junglee, click
here.
With everyone in a great hurry nowadays and over that,
the itch to find the best deals on a purchase, people
2. Naaptol
are flocking to product comparison websites. And not
only do the shoppers get a chance to checkout multiple
products under the same roof but also compare prices
and buy what suits their pocket the best.
Naaptol, since its inception in 2008, has grown to
What’s in it for you, as a retailer? be India’s largest comparison based social shopping
As an online retailer, you need to make sure that portal. For merchants and retailers, you first need to
you are always discoverable and visible when your register yourself on Naaptol using the contact form
customer is looking for you. Be it on search engines, (click here) providing them your company details.
on marketplaces or elsewhere. More information about how to list on Naaptol, can be
sought from the customer care officer at +91 92235
We are listing for you product comparison websites in 16148.
India, where you can upload and list your products for
free. And give shoppers another chance to know about 3. Price Dekho
your brand and your products!

How does a product comparison website function?

These websites are based on a very simple model.
Price Dekho comes from the same banner that
You register with them as a seller and you upload you
created the more popular, CarDekho.com. It boasts
products on their website. After which, all interested
of providing comparison and listing of over 3 million
shoppers will be redirected to your online store to
products from over 1000 local and online retailers.
complete the purchase. And you will be charged on a
For retailers and sellers, you can e e-mail them at
Pay Per Performance basis. Important thing to note
[email protected]. Or you can call
here is that, the product comparison website will not
them on +91 9001566888.
and does not act a point of sale. And that it will redirect
all traffic to your online store to complete the purchase.
4. Where to Buy
1. Junglee

Where-to-Buy is India’s largest shopping search

engine. All you need to do is register yourself for free
Junglee is Amazon’s first venture into India. It is a
and list your products on the website.
product comparison site which boasts of listing over 2
For vendors looking to register, click here.

31
5. Tol Mol 9. Shop at India

Tol Mol is a another product comparison site where you

can list your products for free and the shoppers can Shop@India is a shopping-related platform which also
buy from your directly. Once you have started listing provides details of local businesses and where one can
your products on Tol Mol, you can track your leads & get those products and services.To find out more about
inventory and pay for only qualified leads & referrals. them or to get your products listed, shoot them an
For more information on Tol Mol’s seller centre, click email at [email protected].
here. And to add you store, click here.
10 . PriceRaja
6. Shop Mania

PriceRaja is a price comparison site mostly used for

ShopMania is a price comparison system and a shopping comparing prices for mobiles, tablets, laptops and other
portal which is based on the Pay Per Performance gadgets online. To get your products listed on their site,
model; which means that you only pay them when they you can give them a call at +91-124-4091111 or mail
refer a potential customer to you. You can find out them at [email protected].
about their rates here. And for more information on
how to go about listing your products on the site, you 11. Price Tree
can visit their Merchant Page.

7. Prices Bolo

Price Tree not only allows you to compare the prices of

products across online stores, it has a coupon section
As of now, Price Bolo is operational only in Bangalore. wherein you can get the best discount offers across
For more information on how to go about listing your many online sellers. Pricetree allows comparison of
store on the website, you can give them a call on +91- products like Mobiles, Regfrigerators, Computers,
080-22114675 or email them at [email protected]. books, cameras, etc. You can contact them by filling
out the form here.
8. Compare the Bazaar
12. Find Yogi

ComparetheBazaar connects vendors and buyers, FindYogi product comparison site, which lists
connecting both with product price comparison. Again, electronics like mobiles, laptops, cameras and tablets.
a website based on the Pay Per Performance model, Even though it is relatively new, it has grown at a steady
you will have to pay them only for the leads to your rate and caters to a good number of online shoppers. To
store. Otherwise, uploading and listing your products is get your products listed on their website, you can drop
free of cost. You can find out more information about them a word at [email protected].
their Merchant Model here.

32
13. Compare Raja

Compare Raja lists and compares products in various

categories such as electronics, clothes, accessories
and more between major marketplaces. They have an
accessible mobile app which increases the ease of use.
They also offer discount coupons on many products.
You can contact them via [email protected].

Now since you have plenty of comparison websites to

work with, why not pick a couple that has a lot of your
niche products on price ranges similar to yours? Once
you have made your choice, add your products there
and entice your customers to choose you over your
competitors.

33
PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS BY SENDING OUT REGULAR NEWSLETTERS

When email was first introduced to the masses, it it is a generic promotional email and my chances of
revolutionized the entire world of communication. opening it go down.
People started using emails to communicate with a
Compare the two examples below. Both Jabong and
large number of people in a short time. Slowly, social
Zivame have some great offers but look for yourself
media came in and the advertising world largely moved
which one talks more to the receiver ;)
its promotional campaigns to social media to improve
the reach. But if you believe that because of the advent
of social media, email marketing has lost its value, you
are absolutely mistaken. Even though social media can
help to potentially reach a large number of audience,
it is email marketing which will precisely reach your
target customers and retain the existing ones.
As a marketer of an online store, you can stay in
touch with your customers through specialized and
targeted email marketing campaigns. Do you know
that according to Forrester, an average person in the
world receives around 25 commercial emails in his/her
inbox daily? So now, you face the challenge to really Whereas Zivame, sets a good example for a subject line
stand out among the host of emails. which I would like to open.
Let us see what are the best practices for writing a
good email that will increase its chances of being read
and followed.

1. Have a Catchy Subject line

When you open your inbox, you just skim through the
emails. After the sender of the email, the next then
you look at is the subject line.

“Hurry! Free Shipping on purchases above Rs. 500”

“Shopping is Fun! Upto 60% off on Diwali accessories!”
“Great price!!! T-shirts starting at Rs.350. Limited Period
Offer.”

Don’t these email subject lines get you all excited to

go shop! Who doesn’t love to open their inboxes to
exciting emails telling you about an ongoing sale at 2. Make your emails easy to glance through
your favourite store? So why not let your customers
Excite your audience more adding product pictures,
have the same excitement?
which when clicked, take the customer straight to the
Another thing to keep in mind is to personalize the product page.
subject line. When I look at the email, I know that

34
Checkout what Snapdeal sends as newsletters. • If you sell clothes and accessories, how about
including a fashion style for the month.
Content newsletters will give you more readership and
will keep the readers in touch with what is happening on
your store.

4. Send regular newsletters

There are a lot of competitive apps which you can use
to send regular newsletter. Almost all of them have
free pricing plans, so they don’t burn a big hole in your
marketing pocket. Below is a list of a few popular email
marketing apps, and their comparison on the basis of
their free pricing plan. You can choose which app suits
your needs the best.

All the tips mentioned above intertwined with your own

tweaks, will increase the open rate of your newsletters.
Once the customers are exposed to your irresistible
offers and products, they will be more willing to go
ahead and buy from your site!

3. Try adding useful information or tips

Imagine having your inbox filled with emails of Buy, Buy
and Buy some more! At that point you are bound to
ignore them. But, if the user is sure to get some useful
information, with every email he/she gets from you,
the chances of them opening the email will increase
dramatically!
This is where relevant content will come in the picture.
Say for instance,
• If you have a store that sells beauty products and
cosmetics, you can always include a tip of the day
for skin care.

35
BOOST BRAND IMAGE BY PROMOTING OFFLINE

Aliens have invaded our planet and everyone needs to be

cooped up in their houses for the next century. There will
be no dearth of materials as multiple drones have been
commissioned to deliver everything you order online to
your door step.

This is not the breaking news yet, and most probably

will not be in the near future.
Even though more and more people are steadily
spending most of their time on their cell phones or in
front of their computer screens, they still go to schools
and colleges, step out to visit the local markets and
events on the weekends, and hang out in restaurants
Figure 1- Celebrities donning Spirit hoods
with friends and family a couple times a week.
So what should a good marketer do to grab the attention Here I am trying to state a very obvious thing- ‘The
of people in the offline word? Take a megaphone, cheapest way to get yourself great publicity is by
stand in the middle of the street and yell about their getting it associated with someone who already has it’.
brand? Umm, probably not. There are more subtle
You can take inspiration from Spirithoods if you are
and obviously smarter ways to do the same. So, check
into apparel business but what if you are into, say food
out some ways by which you can promote your brand
products? Then reach out to prominent food bloggers
offline, without incurring too much cost.
and have them taste your delicacy. If they like it then
they write about it for their thousands of readers.
1. Get celebrities and influencers in your business
Similarly, you are into, say sports goods retail, then yes,
domain try your product
you guessed it right- find the most popular sportsmen
Gone are the days when you had to shell out millions that you could. Take a click and then share with your
to get a hotshot celebrity to endorse your product! existing customers for them to know that how their
The budding fashion designers are now reaching out ‘liking for you’ is shared by celebrities as well. Can you
to celebrities and gifting their creation to them. If imagine that the thousands of fans of the blogger or
the celebrity likes it then he/she wears it, get clicked celebrity could now be your customers! I mean who
by the camera and the designer starts hearing good does not want the same things as the people they
news from then on. Just imagine a celebrity wearing admire!
your designs! Take the instance of a Los Angeles based
Apparel Company called Spirithoods, which reaches 2. Sponsor college and school events
out to anyone and everyone, just to get its product
There can be a separate post on why you should
worn by the celebrities. Their success list includes
sponsor a college or school event. Sponsoring a college
the likes of Snoop Dogg, Pete Wentz and Heather
event gives you the opportunity to directly interact
Graham.
with your target audience. Infact I would go on to
recommend sponsoring a college event over a regular
local event. Why? Only in school and college you find
the folks who have relatively more time than all of us

36
to talk about your product or brand. Teenagers from Stock your Products at Stores Near You
college tend to try so many things as they are yet to
There are many brick and mortar stores which showcase
establish a permanent taste like oldies. So it is relatively
various kinds of products from different brands. When
easier to market to school and college goers than any
you stock your products, make sure you brand them
other crowd and with a college event you can directly
properly. On the packaging or label (in case of fashion
impact the grass root.
wear) mention your website address. You can offer
Plus, associating yourself with an educational institute discounts if customers buy from your online stores.
wins you credibility in the market. You can also request the store owner to put a banner
on your name. Do you know how beautiful your
3. Tie up with Offline Businesses products can look when arranges tastefully in the shop
of a famous Stockist!
Do you sell chic crockery of coffee mugs? There are a
number of cafes and restaurants which keep popping
up in all parts of a city. Why not tie up with them
and give your crockery or costars at low rates? If you
get creative, how about the décor or furniture? Find
relevant businesses, identify their needs or create one
and come up with a relevant mutually beneficial deal.
Be creative with your ideas and you may end up finding
your niche markets at a lot of places.

Sell at Flea Markets and Exhibitions

We cannot even emphasize, how important it is to sell
at flea markets and exhibition for your brand. If you
don’t have an offline store, then these are your best
outlets to get to customers. Flea markets are fun
environments which attract a lot of customer from 4. Start branding from home
various backgrounds. If you buy a stall at these flea
Below is the image of John Devlin with his car. Care to
markets, which are usually in the range of 5000-
guess John’s field of business? John runs an Easigrass
15000, you can sell enough material to not only
franchise, a firm that provides artificial grass installation.
procure your costs but also make profits. Being an
online store owner, it is your chance to interact with
your customers personally and make them aware of
your products.
A popular flea market Sunday Soul Sante, attracts
thousands of customers every single time!

Let’s check out this superbly innovative packaging

material from a mega store- Gortz to promote its kids
section. Gortz could have easily done it with a cuboidal
corrugated box, like everybody else, but where is the
fun in the convention.

37
 There could be 999 more such examples, all brilliant
than these, but what is so common in them?
All these people chose not to opt for the convention,
rather, they displayed amazing innovativeness to sell
their brand. They decided to convey their USP through
everything that goes out to their audience, and that
got them stand out of the crowd.
With the above methods, you can give your brand a
good offline presence and grab the attention of your
target audience in a sly yet effective way. All these
methods are to get your audience to check out your
products and buy from you. Once they like what they
see, they would want to keep coming back to you again
and again and again!
This is business card of hair stylist Yuki Suzuki. Do you
think that with this business card Yuki needs to prove
her expertise in hair styling in front of anyone?

38
INCREASE YOUR REACH BY GETTING FEATURED ON OTHER BLOGS

One very efficient way to increase your sales is to Why get featured on Blogs?
spread the word about your store. One way is via a good
They Provide Credibility to your Products
public relations strategy such as influencer marketing.
Imagine that a popular blog or an e-magazine features These blogs are usually written by common people who
your idea, store or products in a positive light! The are experts in their fields or are very passionate about
authors of such blogs are known as influencers. it. Lets say that you have a fashion apparel website .
Featuring your products or store on their blog will A lot of your target audience, say college going girls,
surely direct a huge percentage of their followers follow a fashion blogger who talks about urban style
your way. It can do wonders to create a positive image casual fashion. Then if that blogger talks about your
of your store in the public eye. It is an indispensable products or your website, then you will direct most of
method to attract more people to visit your website, his blog traffic immediately to your store.
popularize and buy your products.
They Have a Good Social Media Presence
India has various blogs which share information, ideas
and concepts that may relate to your business. Some Most of the good bloggers are known as influencers
of them especially feature innovative startups in all as they have a large number of followers on their
spheres, while some blogs are restricted to particular respective blog and social media platforms like
categories such as fashion, food, art, technology etc. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Their posts have a
So getting featured on a blog which caters to your kind huge reach and a lot of fans share their content. So if
of audience, can work wonders for your store. So let they feature your store or products, it will attract the
us see why you should definitely include these blogs as attention of a wide range of audience.
a marketing channel and how to go about increasing
your chances of getting featured on them. Influencer Marketing is the Best Way to Reach Your
Target Audience
In online selling, reaching your niche audience is the
most lucrative and effective marketing strategy. Like
we saw in our example of fashion apparel store, the
readers of an urban fashion blogger and your target
audience overlap. Getting your products featured on
the blog, is the best way for you to reach your potential
customers.

For Building a Sense of Trust and Loyalty

‘When you advertise your products, its called
marketing, but, when an influencer endorses them, it
becomes social proof.’ Readers trust the bloggers they
follow. If a blogger showcases your product, you gain
the automatic trust and loyalty of their followers.

39
How to Get Featured On a Blog?
Dont’s
Now that you are convinced about the ‘Why’, its
time to move on to the ‘How’. Famous bloggers and • While it is advisable to send emails to multiple
influencers, get a lot of requests from website owners. influencers, DO NOT copy paste the same email
So, it is upto you to stand out. So lets see some ways to everyone.
you can get into the good books of these bloggers. • Do not write a very long overbearing emails, as
readers tend to ignore them. Similarly, very short
Identify the Right Influencer ones may make you look disinterested.
• Do not adopt an overconfident or impolite tone.
If you are selling a special kind of food product, say
exotic cheese, then it does not make sense for you to
Send Free Samples of Your Products
contact a blogger who writes recipe for ethnic South
Indian food. So you need to identify a blogger who Whenever we go shopping, we usually try the outfits,
writes about the particular product(s) you sell. sample the food or test the fragrance of the perfume
before purchasing it. While shopping online, the
Initiate a Good First Contact customers do not have the option for the same. In such
scenarios, they will rely on the opinion of the person
‘The first impression can make it or break it’- is not a
they trust, which in their case might be the influencer.
myth in the online world. The most effective way to
It is always advisable to send a few samples of your
contact a blogger is via an email. But these bloggers
products to the influencers to test it out. This solves 2
receive multiple emails every day from many sellers.
purposes
So you need to make your email catchy and unique.
It is almost like sending a good persuasive email for
1. If they like your product, they will be more
your most important client. Listed below are some to
motivated to feature it on their blog.
do’s and don’ts which you need to keep in mind while
2. They will be able to write a more realistic description
initiating the first contact with an influencer
of something they have tested for themselves.
Dos
Maintain Your Relations with the Blogger
• Personalize the email for every influencer you So you managed to do all of the above steps well and
contact. the blogger agreed to feature your product! Now what?
• Clearly state your purpose. Firstly, you need to do a joyous dance, as it is a big feat
• Introduce your store and explain a little bit about you have accomplished. Next, you need to thank the
your products. person. Since, he/she is now in your good books, it only
• Explain clearly about the relevancy of your products pays off to maintain good relations with them. This can
to his blog. be done by

• Update them regularly about the new products you

launch and send them samples for the same.
• Try and keep up with their blog and interact with it
from time to time.
With a good blogger to endorse your products, you are
already a step ahead of your competition. So go ahead
and get that powerful influencer on board, and watch
the sales of your e-store shoot up!

40
MAINTAIN RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS BY KEEPING A PERSONAL TOUCH

Remember your birthday when you went out for never hurts to go that extra mile. When a customer
lunch with your friends and the waiters gave you a buys something from your store, you can pick up the
complimentary cake and sang happy birthday for you? phone and ask them whether they like the product,
Sweet gesture, wasn’t it? Hell yeah, it was! is everything as they expected. This will not only give
you an idea of how your products are received, but
Now, why shouldn’t your customers deserve the same
that gesture, will truly remain with your customer. If
treatment from you?
you are thinking that a call may be too intrusive, then
Welcome to ‘Make it Personal’ where we show you may be a personalized SMS message may also work.
how to connect with your customers on a personal
level. And worry not! It isn’t as difficult as you might 3. Social Media
be thinking it is! Just a little bit extra as a kind gesture,
That awkward feeling when you put up a nice status
to leave a mark on the heart.
and nobody replies…
As an entrepreneur, you should consider that as a
loss of business. Make sure you reply immediately
whenever anybody puts up anything on any of the
social media sites or other forums, preferably within
24 hours. If you are unable to answer to a query
immediately, let the customer know that his worries
are being addressed and give him a time frame within
which to expect the reply. No matter what the nature
Let’ go about it already, shall we?
of the query is, do not delete any post. Even if there
are negative comments, find out the root cause of the
1. Personalized Emails
problem, address it and apologize to the customer. You
Do you know that discounts and deals are not only for reply should have the power to change the opinion of
new customers but also for the existing ones? If they the customer and win his trust again. One unhappy
have bought something from you, motivate them to customer, can influence many.
buy from you again by offering them a discount which
is absolutely impossible to refuse. Keep them informed 4. Offline – Thank You Notes
and up to date about your latest collections so that
“Thank you, Priya for picking out shoes from
they stay in the loop. Make the email fun to read!
SoleShoes.com! Look forward to seeing you around!”
Caution: Refrain from sending too many emails. No There, was that so hard?
one likes a pesky acquaintance spamming their inbox.
Nothing says you love your customers better than a
One email every 2 weeks should do the trick!
thank you note. Someone orders a package from your
store and waits eagerly for it to be delivered. And as
2. Keep in touch via phone
soon as they open the contents, they find a beautiful
Do you know that a lot of companies, have the bad handwritten note thanking them for shopping with
reputation of just selling? You may be thinking, that you.
wait, isn’t that why I have an online store in the first
A small gesture like this can go a long way in building
place. Well, not really. When you are starting up, it
an amazing customer – brand relationship.

41
5. Special offers for Their Special Day
How about a special discount for the birthday boys
and birthday girls? Like a one or two day offer that’s
exclusive only for them to avail! Other than birthdays,
people can forget their anniversary but a Happy
Anniversary Offer won’t be forgotten. Wish your
customers on their anniversary. Send in a lovely card
and some flowers, if possible. How about a coupon
giving them a sweet deal to buy something for their
better half?

These are some of the few ways you can reach your
customer and make a personal connection with them.
This way you can make sure that they that they remain
loyal to you. Always.

42
HELP SHOPPERS COMPLETE PURCHASES BY AVOIDING ABANDONED CARTS

You’d almost never walk into a super market, pile stuff Reason #2: “I had to fill out too many details!”
onto a cart and walk out without making a purchase.
While it may benefit you to know the gender and
But things change when you shop online. Customers
birthday of your customer, some buyers simply don’t
often browse through an online store, select items they
have the patience to fill out a long form. They probably
like, add them to their shopping cart, and then simply
chose an online shopping mode because they have
stop midway without completing the transaction. At
time constraints. Asking them for too many details
times they return much later to finish shopping, or
may simply lead to more abandoned carts.
simply forget all about it.
Solution: To avoid such a scenario, make sure you
However, there are plenty of ways to deter customers
follow these guidelines.
from abandoning their online shopping carts. Let’s
take a look at some of the common reasons that cause a) Allow Guest Checkouts: Always give customers
abandoned carts, and find viable solutions. the chance to “Check out as guests”, which allows
them to quickly enter a delivery address and complete
Reason #1: “That costs way more than I expected!” the payment. You can encourage them to sign up with
your website by providing incentives like discounts &
A lot of times people reach the payment stage of the
loyalty points, but certainly do not make it mandatory.
shopping process only to realize that their total bill is
more than they expected. This happens when hidden b) Easier Checkout Process: On a related note,
costs like taxes, delivery charges or conveyance fees customers turn away if the check-out process is
are added to their total amount. too confusing, so stream-line your process. Offer
customers a range of different of payment options, so
Solution: Here is how to make sure that you do not
that they don’t have to turn away for lack of choice.
shoo the customer away in such a situation.
a) No hidden costs: Try and include taxes in the marked Reason #3: “I can always come back later and finish
priced, so they aren’t intimidated by a lump sum on shopping.”
their bill. Use banners which say “Shipping free only
A lot of times customers are distracted by a phone call
within Mumbai” or “Free shipping over Rs. 500” as is
or a knock at the door, and they stop shopping midway.
relevant to your store. If you surprise customers with
They prioritize other activities because they feel like
these costs just before they pay, they are more likely
items in their cart will wait for them indefinitely.
to turn away.
Solution: Completing a transaction often just requires
b) Easy edit options for cart: A lot of people shop on
a little sense of urgency, which you can introduce using
a budget, and like to reduce a few items from their
a few of the following methods.
carts just before checkout. Make sure your website
gives them a chance to easily add and subtract items a) Limited period offers: One of the easiest ways
from their cart just before paying. A customer who has to ensure customers complete their transaction is to
removed an item for his cart is likely to feel like he/she reinforce the idea that sale items and offers aren’t
has ‘saved’ a little money, which makes him feel a little valid forever! For example, a grocery store can remind
better about spending. customers that certain fruits are sold at a “daily price”
which is likely to change.

43
b) Countdown timer: Introduce a countdown Lastly, if you lose them, attempt to win them back!
timer once customers confirm their order and begin
As a store owner, you may follow all the preceding steps
the payment process. You can allow them unlimited
and still be left with an abandoned cart every once in a
time to shop of course, but allow them only 8 to 12
while. Don’t fret, there is hope yet! If a customer has
minutes, for instance, to actually fill in credit card or
entered in their email address before abandoning their
net banking details. Customers are more likely to finish
cart, you have a way of getting in touch with them.
the transaction quickly, before they are distracted by
something else. It would be nice to send them a message to remind your
customers that their shopping cart is waiting for them,
or ask why the left midway. You could also inform them
when a certain item in their cart is almost out of stock,
or remind them that an offer is about to end. But don’t
bombard their inbox with too many reminders, just one
or two well-timed messages should do.
In the future, you could send them newsletters or
notifications about offers on products which they
might like. Go a step ahead and send a personal email,
letting them know what exactly makes your shop so
special.
Hopefully, this will be enough to woo them back to
their abandoned cart & to your e-store sometime in
the future.

44
MAINTAIN A BUSINESS BLOG & INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

If your brand were a human with a personality and an Do’s Don’ts

attitude, then your brand’s blog is the voice! Create interesting and Don’t just put in just
shareable content. facts and figures in your
Your blog is the one place you can communicate with blog and make it sound
your audience and create engagement. like another Wikipedia
“Consumers like to buy products from business owners article.
who are relatable, and a blog for your business is the Tackle your readers’ Don’t write about your
perfect venue for this.” problems and give them life story or sell your
solutions. brand.
Now answering one of the many questions in your If they want to know
head, the reason why you should write a blog for your about your business,
brand is simple – to keep your existing customers they can find it on your
engaged and informed, and to generate more business website.
by acquiring new customers.
Give examples, write Don’t write for the sake
anecdotes and share of filling content.
interesting stories. If you can’t find time to
blog, hire a ghost-writer.

Create value by writing Don’t be inconsistent.

about stuff that matters Set realistic goals for the
to them. number of posts you can
manage in a week.
Write regularly. Decide Don’t post copied con-
on the number of posts tent. Be original.
you can do in a week
(say 2 a week), and stick
So the importance of writing a blog for your business
to that.
is clear, but where should you start from? You may
have a lot of questions and reservations about starting Ask questions. Encour- Don’t write very lengthy
your blog. Below we have answered some of them for age discussion. or word heavy posts.
you, so that you find yourself a starting point. Hope it Have conversations. Be concise and precise.
helps!
Keep it current and rele-
1. Whom are you writing the blog for? vant to your business.
If you are sharing some-
Picture your audience in your head. Pick one person one else’s work,
in your mind and write the blog as if you are having a make sure to credit
conversation with that person. them and inform them.

2. How should you write the blog?

The do’s and don’ts of writing a blog for your business:

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3. What should you write about? 5. How to track traffic on your blog?
Here is a list of topics to get you started on your blog. Writing a blog isn’t enough. You should be able to
track growth of your blog, to see where majority of
1. Top 10 lists
your traffic is coming in from or which of your posts
2. Dos and Don’ts
are doing best. Google Analytics lets you tracking your
3. Interviews
blog on popular platforms. Follow the link to integrate
4. Pick 20 common problems and write a how-to-fix-
Analytics with your blog.
it blog of 500 words on each.
5. Your industry trends 1. Blogger
6. Upcoming events in your industry 2. Tumblr
7. Tips and tricks 3. WordPress.org

4. What more can you do with your blog? Related articles:

There are a lot of innovative things you can try with 1. 5 Must-Measure eCommerce Blogging Strategies
your blog, apart from keeping it all text and writing. 2. Bad Blogging Practices, Part 1 | Part 2
Here is a list of some ideas you can try implementing 3. Blogging tips from the pros
on your blog.
1. Invite guest posts
2. Build ad partners
3. Run contests on your blog
4. Back linking with other blogs: Ask a blogger in your
niche, if they’d be willing to put a backlink to your
blog and return the favour by doing the same.
5. Promote your blog: Update about your posts on
social media like Facebook, Twitter. Include the
blog in any newsletters that you send out. Include
links in your forum discussions. Add links to new
blog posts in your email signatures. Have your blog
mentioned on your business cards, flyers, banners
at events, etc.

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Hope you had fun in learning the basics of how to market intelligently and increase the sales on your Ecommerce
Store.

If you have any suggestions or questions you can mail them to us at : [email protected] mentioning “Ebook Query”
in the subject line.

This is the decade of eCommerce in India, and we at Zepo are helping shape up the future of the industry. With
Zepo, our dream is to see every small business in India using this wonderful medium beneficially. Treating it as just
another medium to take orders, like a telephone.

We help people take their businesses online in a jiffy, by providing them the entire framework required to sustain
an eCommerce business. With Zepo, you get a beautiful eCommerce website with 100+ themes to choose from,
a free payment gateway to accept online payments, logistics support to ship your orders and marketing help to
promote your website.