Online shopping has become the go-to way for many of us to buy everything we need. From daily necessities to luxury goods, the undeniable lure of convenience boosts online sales to never-before-seen figures... and we all want a piece of the pie. How can you make online purchases easier for your customers?
Ways to Sell Online
Depending on the kind of merch you're selling, you might want to get yourself on more than one of these platforms - but do make sure that you focus on the platforms that your potential customers are on. Here are some of the common ways where people sell their merch online and their pros/cons:
Social Media Platforms (Instagram/Facebook/TikTok)
Community Marketplace Platforms (Carousell) Pro(s): Free to set up, exposure to different customer segment, clearance sales for discontinued merch/selling off your unused/leftovers when changing materials/crafts Con(s): People might lowball you, not suitable for regular merch sales
Major E-commerce Platforms (Shopee/Lazada) Pro(s): App campaigns, official platform, search engine optimization Con(s): Extra fees, requires you to send out items within 1-2 days, requires customer reviews/extra marketing costs to help visibility, money on hold until order is processed
All-in-One E-commerce Platforms (Shopify, Etsy, Carteapp, Cococart etc.) Pro(s): Customizable, different price plans, manage orders and payment in one platform, belongs to you (can get a custom domain)
If you're just starting out and have no customers/steady volume of sales yet, the easiest way to start selling is to post a catalogue on your social media platforms (business account) and state that you accept orders via direct messages (DMs).
When Do You Need an Online Shop?
Before you set up an online shop, or sign up for any paid subscription plans, here are some factors that you should consider first:
how many orders do you currently have on a weekly basis?
how many items do you have for sale?
why do you want to set up an online shop?
what kind of payment details are you able to accept?
do you have the extra time/budget to manage an online shop?
do you have customers asking you to open an online shop?
While having an online shop might help you to sell more things, you shouldn't rush into it because setting one up means you might have extra costs and another platform that you'd need to manage.
If you're just starting out and would like to experience what it's like to have an online store, look out for free/cheap options with little to no commitment where you can try that out before going all-in on subscription plans.
Getting Your First Online Sale
Let's say you already consistently showcase your art/creations and behind-the-scene processes on social media (if you haven't, please go do that first), how do you get your first sale?
If you want to make a sale in the shortest time possible, you need to make as much information available to potential customers as you can in the least number of steps. Here's how you can do so:
if you're a digital artist/illustrator and sell things in multiple quantities (eg. you manufacture your artwork into merch), you need to post actual photos/videos of your products (NOT just the digital copy of the artwork) so people know what is available for sale. Post a catalogue on what you have for sale and leave it pinned in your profile/saved in your story highlights for easier reference of all your products!
if you're a traditional artist/crafter and sell things in limited quantities (eg. you draw on paper/canvas, crochet, or other handmade creations), you need to make individual posts of each of your creations so people know what you have/are able to make. Keep it simple and just post clear photos/videos that show your creations within the first 2 seconds (people have short attention spans, they will scroll away if you don't go straight to the point) as well as other information such as product dimensions, pricing, whether you can do customizations, and how people can order (even if it's just a simple "DM me to order!".
You need to talk about your business to have a business. While posting reels with trending audios might help you reach out to more people, you have to make sure you're also showing people what you're selling in posts (photos) - because nobody has the time to watch 100 reels to find what they're looking for. If you're only posting digital artworks without showing them as actual products, people who are interested in your art might not know that they can actually buy them as merch = you might get DMs asking if the artwork you posted is available for sale if you're lucky, but most of the time people just scroll away.
Running Sales, Does it Help or Hurt Your Business?
When there's something to celebrate, like reaching a milestone, a birthday, or festive occasion, you might be tempted to run a sale to thank your customers for their support. On the other hand, sometimes you might have products that you might want to discontinue, or times you want to run a sale because you haven't sold anything in a while... Here's a word of caution for you when it comes to running a storewide sale.
Yes, having a limited time sale might help you to achieve all of the above, but if you have sales too often, you might run the risk of customers delaying their purchases or thinking that your products are no longer as valuable because they already see a pattern and know that you'd be having another sale soon. Some customers might also feel like they were "misled" because they might have supported you thinking it was a "limited time only" sale, only to see you posting about a different sale every other day (think about some retail stores that you see having "moving out/clearance" sales every time you pass by, but the store is still there months after.
Here's some things you can do instead of running a storewide sale:
If you want to thank your customers for their support (eg. hitting a follower milestone/anniversary), how about having an exclusive freebie with minimum spend within a limited time period?
If you have products that you want to discontinue/run a sale for, you can either do just a clearance sale for those products - or turn them into mystery blind bags to be sold at a lower price without officially having to call it a sale (if you have a variety of products you want to clear).
If you want to boost your sales, consider lowering your prices at your physical booths instead of lowering your online ones to create an incentive for customers who took the time to drop by and support you at events.
You can still have storewide sales online, but try to limit them to maybe 3 times a year - and have them at unpredictable/random times so that customers aren't able to predict when the next sale would happen.
After all, having a sale simply means that customers can get more out of their money = you don't always have to do a direct percentage/dollar off sales, explore different kinds of sales that you can run!
Keeping Inventory
When you start selling merch, you need to keep an inventory/stock count so that you don't risk selling more than what you have. While most platforms have automated systems to help you keep track of online sales through their platform, it's best practice to keep your own inventory on Google Sheets/Excel Spreadsheets so that you have a "master list" where you can keep track of sales on various platforms/the overall stock count.
There are many ways you can set up your own inventory, but here are some things that you might want to include in your spreadsheet:
categorize it into sections based on merch type (eg. keychains, stickers, art prints etc.), you can just leave an empty row between different merch types and highlight the headings for each section in different colours
have columns for total stock count, quantity sold and remaining balance (you can use the formula function to automate the calculation for the balance, and separate the quantity sold by month so you can keep track of your monthly sales too)
if you're consistently selling on many platforms and find it hard to keep count, split and separate your stock count into different columns for each platform (eg. 15pcs = 5pcs for sales on Shopee, 5pcs for booth, 5pcs for website), and then use the formula function to automate the calculation for total/remaining stock count
set conditional formatting to automatically highlight remaining stock count into different colours so you know what to restock/mark as "sold out" when your stocks are running low
include other details such as dimensions, cost price, supplier etc. that may come in handy in future when you're restocking/finding a new manufacturer (can be on a new separate spreadsheet on the same document)
update your spreadsheet whenever you have an event/sale so that the list is always kept up-to-date (you can write down/take photos of your sales for events separately and then do the stock adjustments after the event)
do a stock take every month/quarter of the year to ensure your list corresponds to the actual number you have and allow you to see which items are selling better than others + do a restock if necessary
While it may seem tedious to do so, you'd thank yourself for starting early when the number of products expands, or when you are thinking of taking up a consignment.
Temporarily Closing Your Online Shop, Yay or Nay?
Sometimes life gets busy - school/work piles up, back-to-back physical events and a looming deadline makes you question if you should close your online shop (temporarily) so you can focus on your other commitments first before you open it again. However, even if your website is down/platform is not accepting orders, you're likely losing money because you're probably still paying for your domain, subscription plans and (prepaid) marketing - and you'd also be losing out on potential sales if customers visit your website and see that it's down.
Before you put your shop on temporary closure, here are some things you can consider:
do you have a high volume of orders coming in everyday? If not, would putting up a notice that orders would take a longer time to be processed be something you can consider instead of closing the shop so that customers can still see your products and send in their orders if they want to buy something?
if you're worried about things getting sold out/selling more than you have (if you're boothing at an event), could you put items on a pre-order basis instead? A few sold out/unavailable items is better than blocking off all potential sales.
Whenever possible, try not to close your online shop as you'd never know when you'd lose out on a sale - people are always looking to buy things, whether it's for themselves or for their loved ones, and you'd want to be ready to get their orders when they do. If you really have to, make sure you still have another way that customers can see your products (eg. a catalogue posted on social media), keep the closure as short as possible and leave a notice of when you'd be back/alternative ways people can buy from you during that time.
Key Takeaways
Don't rush into opening an online store, look out for signs that you need one and opt for free/cheaper options with little/no commitment to start.
You need to talk about your business to have a business. Post photos of your merch and information on people can buy them.
Explore different ways of thanking your customers, and keep storewide sales to a minimum wherever possible.
Keep an inventory of your products, automate and update it regularly so you can keep track of when to restock/mark items as "sold out".
Avoid closing your online shop as much as possible - if you must, make sure customers can still see what products you have, know when you'd be back and how they can buy something in the meantime.
Thank you for reading
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