The promotional products industry is growing by leaps and bounds. In 1998, the industry had $13.2 billion in sales. This nearly doubled to $23.3 billion in 2017.
If you are part of this expanding and highly competitive marketplace, you are constantly looking for better ways to get your promotional products into the hands of the brands that use them.
While trade shows and mailed flyers are sometimes effective, an online store is even more effective.
Promotional product company stores are always open, provide a fast and easy shopping experience for busy business owners, and will provide your business with the perfect venue to market promotional products effectively.
Yet starting an online store seems to be too big of a challenge to many distributors and retailers who sell promotional products.
Thankfully, modern tools make it easier than ever to set up and run an ecommerce store, and if you sell promotional products, you need one. Here is a closer look at what you need to do to set up an online store to sell promotional items.
Five Steps to Launch Your Promotional Products Online Store
Step 1: Create Your Storefront
Your storefront is the place where people will purchase the items you have for sale. This can be hosted as a section of your company’s website, or a separate ecommerce store that is hosted separately from your online store.
Your storefront should be a simple site that hosts your online store, so do not make it too complicated. If possible, work with a company that has templates you can easily customize for your needs, but that do not require too much design expertise.
Step 2: Prepare to Take Payments
A secure payment processor is critical to the success of your online store.
Your customers need to know that they can trust your site to keep their information safe as they purchase promotional products.
This is where the ecommerce software you choose is critical.
Look for a shopping cart tool that is easy for you to manage and easy for your customers to use.
The shopping experience should be as simplified as possible, so you do not lose potential customers somewhere along the way.
Next, consider a shopping cart that is highly secure.
York customers are trusting you with their credit card and financial information.
If you fail to protect it well, you are going to lose their trust and hurt your overall brand.
Finally, choose a shopping cart that connects to an online payment processor of your choice.
Before making your final selection, analyze the fees that you will pay per transaction, and choose one that offers affordability combined with exceptional security.
Also, make sure it is a payment processor your customer will recognize and trust.
Step 3: Build Your Catalog
Your online store will have a catalog that showcases and sells your products.
In the case of promotional products, your catalog will also show your customers how the items can be customized with their branding information.
The organization of your online catalog is an important factor for your selling success.
Can your customers easily find the types of promotional items they want?
Do you have search functionality or an easy-to-navigate menu that will land them on the exact products that will meet their needs?
Make sure you set up a catalog in this way, then organize it well so website visitors will naturally land on the right products.
The images of your items are also a critical part of your catalog.
If you do not already have them, invest in professional images of your promotional product.
If possible, show each product with more than one logo or theme on it, so your customers can see an idea of how it will look with their images.
Step 4: Branding
Promotional items are all about helping your customers with their branding.
Promotional product company stores need to embrace branding as well.
Customize your storefront and catalog with your logo, color scheme, and motto throughout, so each page is clearly designated as part of your store.
Website visitors should know, at a glance, what company they are working with when they land on your stores pages.
If you are going to use an ecommerce platform look for one, like SellersCommerce, that offers customization and designer tools that can create a store quickly, but with the personalization you need.
Step 5: Optimize and Market Your Site
Once you have your site up and running, the hard work of marketing it begins.
Thankfully, the sites design itself can help with this.
Choose a platform that creates search-engine optimized pages, then incorporate keywords into the page titles, item descriptions, and other content throughout the site.
Learn what you can about SEO, and incorporate those tips and strategies throughout your site.
If you have current customers, offer them online discounts to start using the store.
Consider offering a small percent off if they share your store on their favorite social media platform.
These types of promotions will cost you little, but will add up to big increases in traffic.
The more traffic you have to your store, the better your overall sales will be.
Choose the Right Ecommerce Program for Fast Store Setup
Setting up an online store is not as difficult as you might think, but it can be time consuming.
Partnering with the right ecommerce platform can save you time and frustration, helping you launch your store more quickly so you get an edge up on the competition.
SellersCommerce is an ecommerce platform designed specifically for the needs of Promotional Products.
The platform has built-in features and functionalities designed specifically for a fast launch.
Our ecommerce stores are easy to set up, simple to navigate, and mobile friendly.
They are also easy to manage on the back end.
With the help of Sellers Commerce, you can launch your store quickly and manage it effortlessly, helping you capitalize on the demand for online promotional products.
Learn more about SellersCommerce today, and see how easy it can be to launch your own promotional products company store.
