A sale happens when a desirable product is encountered by a buyer who is looking for exactly that product. That sounds simple enough, right? Not necessarily! Although I believe this to be an essential truth about making sales, the actual selling of that product is a complex process comprised of many components. I don’t have the magic solution that will guarantee sales. However, I have had some success selling and I’m willing to share some insight from my own experience and some wisdom gained from other successful sellers. If you’re serious about selling you need to get serious about selling…

Let’s start with your shop. You only have one opportunity to make a fabulous first impression. It’s absolutely essential that your photographs clearly present your items. Taking quality photographs is both an art and a science. The science part is fairly easy and it begins with learning how to use your digital camera. Developing some basic photo editing skills is also fairly scientific in nature. While mastering the science of photographing your items, you also need to focus on the art side of the process. By art, I’m referring to the composition and lighting of your photographs as well as cropping and other editing options. Backgrounds, props, lighting and camera angles can make or break your photos so be careful. Don’t include anything that distracts from your item. I rarely state absolutes but I will here–absolutely do not use out of focus photographs of your items. With digital cameras, there is no excuse. Retake your photos until you get them right!

If you have a Premium Zibbet shop, you have the ability to customize your shop’s color scheme and to add widgets. When selecting custom colors I suggest that you use your banner as your starting point. Make sure that everything works together and that the color you choose for text and links is legible. Avoid distracting color combinations or colors that make people feel anxious or nervous–you want people to be relaxed as they browse your shop so that they stay long enough to make a purchase. For assistance with choosing colors, conduct a Google search for “color theory and marketing” or simply “color theory”, and you’ll find more information than you need!

Your banner is important. If you don’t have a banner then you need to get one. Your banner helps establish your brand and should be carefully designed so that your brand is obvious. You can create your own banner or employ the services of a graphic artist. There are quite a few very talented people right here on Zibbet who can create a banner for your shop for a very affordable price. Conduct a Zibbet search for “banner” to get started.

The primary purpose for adding a widget to your Premium shop is to add functionality. However, widgets also contribute to the look of your shop. Consider how a widget looks as well as what it does before installing it in your shop. As with your photographs and color choices, you don’t want your widgets to become distractions to potential buyers. Speaking of distractions, if you are serious about selling from your Zibbet shop, carefully consider the ramifications of installing widgets that advertise your other selling venues. Although Zibbet allows us to do this we should also use some common sense–just because we can doesn’t mean that we should. Personally, I think the best use of widgets is  for surveys, newsletter subscriptions, and linking to your social networking pages and to your other Zibbet shops if you have them.

A well stocked shop shows potential buyers that you are a seller who is serious about selling. Buyers like to have choices and it is our responsibility as sellers to give them those choices. If you have a Basic shop you should list 50 products. You are much more likely to make a sale with 50 products in inventory than with just a few. If you have a Premium shop, then I strongly encourage you to list as many items as you possibly can and to list new products regularly. A sparsely stocked shop gives the impression that it is neglected or has been abandoned. Buyers seem to be reluctant to purchase from shops that are perceived as not being tended properly. Regardless of the type of shop you have, the more items you have listed the more likely you are to make a sale.

Use sections to organize your products into logical groupings. Keep the names of your sections simple but descriptive. Be careful not to over organize your items. A few meaningful sections are better than many narrowly defined ones. When you’re organizing your items, take a look at shops that you find easy to negotiate as well as some that you find difficult to get around in. Use that experience to help you decide how to organize your shop. Ease of use should be the rule. If you have a Premium shop, definitely use the rearrange feature every week or two to keep your shop’s FP looking fresh and new. If you’re having a sale I’d suggest that you make sure that you have several sale items at or near the top of the page to help draw attention to your sale. Being able to rearrange items can also help you feature a group of similar or related items which could lead to the sale of multiple items to the same customer.

Finally, what you say and how you say it is very important. From your shop’s welcome message to item titles, descriptions and tags to your profile and shop policies, every word counts. Your words are important to both Zibbet searches and SEO. I know I’m stating the obvious, but if you want to sell your items people have to be able to find them when they search.  Zibbet has provided sellers with a venue that is definitely SEO savvy. It is our responsibility to fill in the blanks in our shops with well written SEO and Zibbet search friendly text. If you offer the same items on multiple venues, for SEO purposes it’s critical that you do not have duplicate content. The wording of your shop intro, item titles and descriptions, seller profile and shop policies should not be identical across venues. For help with writing for success, check out these Success on Zibbet articles:

SEO 101: The Basics
SEO 102: Your Zibbet Shop
SEO 103: Item Titles and Descriptions
What’s in a Name?
Tagging Revisited
Taking Care of Business
Make It Personal!

I hope that I’ve given you some things to think about today regarding your shop and your products. Come back next week for a look at how to go about finding that buyer who is looking to buy one or more of your wonderful products.

Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!

Zibbet.com Buy Handmade button by Portable Graffiti on Zibbet

No Sales? Hmmm… Part 1 Your Shop | No Sales? Hmmm… Part 2 Social Networking | No Sales? Hmmm… Part 3 More Online Promotion | No Sales? Hmmm… Part 4 Putting It All Together

Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of three Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls and A Stitch and a Prayer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.

Tags: Color Theory, Digital camera, Graphic, Photo editing, Photographs, Products, Shop Banner, shop customization, social networking, Widget