Other Applications for Sales Principles – Part 1 – On the Internet

Many people know sales in terms of selling a physical product. However, many of the sales principles can also be applied to other situations.

Internet sales, for example, have become increasingly popular over the past decade. It is not face-to-face communication like direct sales but has many similar qualities.

E-commerce is very good at proliferating in the niches. This gives the customer specialized care in what they need to rid them of their pain. Customers don’t have to be hounded by salesmen and they can simply look what they need by themselves to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Elasticity also goes well with e-commerce in that companies don’t even need the workers to stretch into sales roles; the website does most of the talking (or lack thereof, which can be beneficial for the sale). Talk about big companies doing more with less.

Just like good salesmen, e-commerce websites need to be flexible and client-oriented within its system. The websites shouldn’t spam the user with pop-ups telling the user to buy a certain product. Rather, the websites should “listen” to customers by giving the easiest path to a sale, providing choices like wide selection of products, colors if applicable, shipping options, etc. that the customer can decide by clicking. They should provide good images, upfront pricing, and succinct details that give just enough information to inform the user about the product yet not so much information that it scares the user away.

The user interface (UI) of the website needs to be user friendly in order to do well. I cannot stress that enough. Being a computer major, I’ve taken many a computer design class about UI and the biggest takeaway that I got was that UI is a VERY emotional entity. Good UI makes people happy. Not only will it make the sale but also the customer will spread praise about your website to everyone they know leading to potential future sales.

Bad UI, on the other hand, makes people very frustrated and angry. People like what they are familiar with. If your site’s menus are wonky or payment is confusing or if something is off, you’ll lose a sale. Customers are unforgiving to bad UI and the repercussions from it can potentially last a very long time and can devastate future sales. It would be if a salesman made his customer jump through hoops just so the customer can buy the product. If you don’t like it in real life, you won’t like it online either.