Hello there!

So, you decided to start selling online this year, take your business digital, upgrade, all of that, so you signed up on Bumpa and got a free business website. Yaay 👏👏

And it’s a successful mission because, truly, you now look professional. You have your own business website, people can now find you on Google, and you can even send receipts to your customers with Bumpa. 

Perfect! Are you now small in the atmosphere ni?💪

But there’s a problem. After all the paparazzi, you’re not really making sales with this website. 

1 week, 2 weeks pass. Zero activity, izz only mosquitoes that are visiting your website. Wuzz going on?

In fact, the funny thing is that your customers come to your Instagram dm, Whatsapp or your physical store to buy things, but your website is like a graveyard. They are not showing you love there. 

Don’t worry. I’m here to help.

What we are going to do in this article is to look at :

1. Highlight the benefits of your customers using your website.

2. Show you reasons why your customers may not be using your website.

3. What to do to drive people to your website and make them buy from you.

The Benefits of Customers Using Your Bumpa Website.

You can’t sell what you don’t believe in, and I think one major reason sellers don’t get customers to use their website is that they themselves don’t fully understand the benefits of the website, and I’ll show you.

• Every order in your store is automatically processed and recorded.

This basically means that when a customer buys anything from your store, the sale is automatically recorded, so you don't have to go through the stress of recording it on your Bumpa app. 

Your customers also receive automatic notifications that their order has been processed, and their receipts are automatically created.

This is a great time saver, especially if you have a lot of customers and you have other things to do.

• It will make referrals easier.

Imagine if I was your customer and I know you have an active website. When I need to refer you to my friends, all I need to do is to share your website link with them. 

• It will save you time & money.

You know that thing where you list products on your Instagram with the price, but customers will still come into your dm to ask for the same price of the product or what colors are available? 

Using your website saves you all of that. They go to the website and pick what they want with any spec they like without disturbing you.

•  Customer Targeting. 

When people visit your website but don't eventually buy, they automatically get emails that remind them to clear their cart and pay for the product that interested them. 

Compare this to an Instagram page, where they just bookmark or like an image but forget to come back and purchase. There’s nothing to remind them of that product unless you possibly run an ad. 

• SEO/Advertising. 

You can integrate a Facebook pixel & Google Analytics on your Bumpa website What this means is that you can run Instagram, Facebook, and Google adverts with your website. 

The way it even works is this: as Facebook & Google push your products to different people, maybe when they are watching a YouTube video, searching the internet, as they are watching an Instagram ad, they can see your website and instantly buy products without having to disturb you or wait till you are online.

Also, the more people visit your website, the more your website becomes visible to more people around the world when they search for your business online.

• Customer Management

When your customers use your website, their details are saved on your Bumpa app, and this means that you can always reach them anytime you need. 

For example, Whatsapp DMs get full all the time, and you may forget a customer’s number or their name and that's the end of that relationship unless they come back to you, but if they use your website, you always have their contact details, and it can not get lost.

• Fast Order Processing

When your customers buy your products on your website and pay online, you are able to confirm the payment immediately and reduce the order fulfillment process. Additionally, you won’t have to manually add the Customer’s details or record the sale. 

Now, let’s move on to why customers may not be using your website.

Why Your Customers May Not Be Using Your Website.

There are many reasons why your customers might not be using your website, but I’ll try to highlight a few.

• They don’t know it exists.

Some business owners create their business website on Bumpa, and they just leave it like that. Piun. 

They just think that by having a website, the customers will find it one way or the other like Dora the Explorer. It doesn’t work like that. 

Just like products, a website will not market itself. Good products need marketing and visibility, same with great websites.

How often do you share your website link? Is It on all your social media bios?

Your Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc? 

Your promotional materials, such as your business card, branded packaging etc., is your website there? 

How do you want people to know about something you don’t even talk about? 

• You don’t treat your website as a priority.

For example, when you have new products, where do you share them first? Your Whatsapp status, Instagram, or your website? 

Your most active channel of sales will most likely attract more customers. 

• You don’t use your Bumpa app well.

Some sellers don’t update their websites adequately, and I will explain. 

The way the Bumpa app works, you can record sales you make from your website, your Instagram, Whatsapp, Jumia, or even your physical shop on Bumpa. 

Now, imagine that when you uploaded a product on your website, you wrote that you have 10 in stock, but because you don’t record your offline sales on the Bumpa app, someone comes to your website to order. 

The order goes through, but because your stock quantity is not updated, you can’t deliver as it is now out of stock. 

So, they will rather come to your DMs to place their order next time.

• You don’t give them a reason to use the website.

If you are reading this article, my bet is that your customers are already used to buying things from you through WhatsApp and other channels.  How do you get them to use your website instead? There are ways around it, and I will share it below.

How To Get Customers To Buy From Your Website

• Give them a reason to visit your website.

As they say, if the mountain does not go to Mohammed, Mohamed will go to the mountain.

You can sell your products cheaper on your website than on your other channels. So, let’s say a bag costs 4500, you can display it for 4400 on your website and let them know this price difference when they come to buy from you. You will be amazed at the number that will start buying on your website.

The hack to this is that you include it in your social media bios, header, or content that prices are cheaper on your website.

• Create a reward system. 

You can create a reward system where you set it up that after a customer buys for the 3rd or 5th time on your website, they will get a 1000 naira discount on their next purchase, or they will win a gift on their 4th purchase. Something like that. This will make more of them go to your website.

In fact, you can create a reward system for referrals. If one of your customers brings a new customer that buys something from your website, you can offer them a 500 discount on their next purchase, and you will be surprised at the number that will start using your website more.

• Share your website link often.

Another way to get customers to actually visit your website is to share it everywhere like stew. Share it on all your social media bios. In fact, if you are sharing specific images of your products, share them with the product link, and you will see that customers will buy from your website.

• Run sweet deals on your website.

There are many ideas here. For one, if it's a first-time buyer, tell them there’s a first-timer coupon code they can only use when using the website. I promise you, more of them will go to the website. 

Additionally, you can run pre-order sales on our website. Pre-order sales are basically sales of products before you actually have them.

It can be a case where you have ordered the product from the manufacturer, but it has not arrived yet.

You can let your customers know that you are running pre-order sales, sell it at a cheaper price than when the pre-order is over, and watch how people will buy from your website. 

Also, if you always direct your people to your website when you have new stock, you will get more website visits and sales.

• Run special sales exclusively on your website.

Asides from the fact that selling on your website is the easiest way to run any special sale because of the traffic, how its easier to use discounts there and how much easier it is for you and your customers, another thing you can use to get your customers to use the website is to only run sales on your website. 

Your Easter sales, Black Friday sales, December sales, New Year Sales, Mother’s Day Sales, etc., run them exclusively on the website.

 They will have no choice but to use the website to enjoy the awoof prices.

You can still post the products on your social media, but you should always redirect them to the website. 

Conclusion

Getting your customers to do what you need is a gradual but consistent game. Think of it as a training system.

You have to coax them, give them incentives/benefits and they’ll dance to your tune. 

I hope you have learned a thing or two. You can also share some of your tips with me at [email protected]. Keep selling!