Today, we’re delighted to bring you the final post in this series written by Iain Butterwick, EMEA Territory Manager at MIA Member Reverb.com; the largest online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling new, used, and vintage musical instruments. In his day to day, Iain leads a team of gear experts who help sellers across the UK and Europe increase their sales online. In this article, Iain explains how you can stay in front of the influx of people shopping for musical instruments online.
The festive shopping season saw more people shopping online than in-stores, according to The Music Trades. With the presents unwrapped, the tinsel taken down, and lockdown restrictions still in place, many sellers are asking themselves how they can continue the online sales momentum in 2021.
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to continue investing in your eCommerce channels, read on for three schemes to consider to help you get and stay in front of the influx of people shopping for musical instruments online.
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Strengthen your online brand.
You spend a lot of time thinking about what your physical space says to customers—you should think just as critically about your online presence. Beyond your logo and a great “about us” section, consider other ways your personality can show through your online shop. For example, consider setting up a designated area in your shop for taking photos of your inventory—this consistency not only helps you build credibility, but can also give your photos a signature feel.
One way to build credibility on Reverb, specifically, is to maintain the “badges” that appear at the top of your Reverb Shop. Badges— like the “Quick Responder” or “Quick Shipper” badge—signal to potential buyers that you have a track record of great service. The “Preferred Seller” badge tells buyers that you’ve established a solid track record on Reverb with consistently high feedback and being a Reverb Preferred Seller comes with a number of additional benefits.
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Integrate your in-store and online operations.
There are three ways that retailers can list gear on Reverb: One at a time, through a spreadsheet import, or through an integration. My recommendation to all of the sellers I work with is to go with option three—integration—to save time and get more control over your online sales. Integrations allow you to manage your listings, inventory, and orders from one central location that communicates back and forth between your sales channels. In other words, when you sell something on your website, the item can be automatically pulled from your Reverb shop or vise versa.
Integrating your in-store and online operations is a great way to set yourself up for success online for the remainder of the year. Reverb has integrations with Shopify, Prestashop, Magento, BigCommerce and more. Plus, we have a team dedicated to helping you add these integrations. A seller we worked with just integrated their inventory and now they’ve increased their listing baseline – which is the minimum number of live listings at any point in time – by 4x. You can reach out to our team at integrations@reverb.com to learn more.
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Get your gear in front of even more buyers.
If you read the first part of this three-part “how to take advantage of online sales” series, you know that I recommend listing all of your inventory online because if you don’t list it online, you can’t sell it online. Once you’ve listed all of your inventory, there are additional sales features you can take advantage of on Reverb. For example, you can offer free shipping or combined shipping as other ways to make your shop stand out. In fact, early data even suggests that “Combine & Save” shipping rates can motivate buyers to purchase additional items from a seller’s shop.
Another way to get more visibility to your inventory is to join Reverb sales. While our marketing team is always working to drive more buyers to sellers’ shops, during sale periods, that team sends buyers directly to gear that’s on sale through email, social media, and other marketing efforts. On average, gear featured in sales gets significantly more daily views.
Even as lockdown restrictions start to ease up, we anticipate that more music makers will continue to shop for gear online now that they’ve experienced how easy it is. By taking steps now to strengthen and optimise your online sales channels, you can set yourself up for continued eCommerce success in 2021 and beyond.
