6 ways to increase online sales for your business

Did you know that in 2020 online sales grew by 46% compared to 2019? Whilst that figure is clearly hugely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no doubt that online spending will only continue rise in the future due to a few reasons:

1. Convenience – Spend your money anytime, anywhere
2. Reassurance – Spending online, or predominantly in our industry, booking, gives peace of mind your spot is secure at the venue of your choice.
3. Information – Customers can find everything they need to know prior to making a purchase online
4. Information saved – All important information can be sent and saved straight to a customer’s inbox

So now that we know customer spending online is higher than ever and the reasons why customers want to spend online, how can you review your online booking process and increase customer spend with your business?

Make your site and booking system easy to use

Arguably the most important thing when it comes to selling online is that it’s easy for your customers to book at your venue. This should mean clear call to actions throughout the website which take them straight to the booking process. Once they’re at the beginning of the booking process, this should take no more than 6 steps to choose the product and make payment as any longer than this can increase the likelihood of a customer bouncing away from the process. 

Keeping this process as streamlined as possible will mean more bookings for your family entertainment centre.

Mobile first design

Our research in our customers environments showed us that an overwhelming amount of our customer’s users (65%+) made their booking via a mobile device. We factored this into our design for our latest version of our online booking system, focusing on a mobile first design, knowing that this is what would increase conversions for our customers.

In short, ensuring your online sale process is optimised for the device the majority of your customers use is essential to creating a profitable online sales store.

Make it professional & secure

Ensuring your online store has a professional feel creates a better experience for customers as your store feels validated and legitimate and in line with your brand. A poorly designed website and booking process can put customers off using you if it doesn’t look trustworthy. 

It is also important that your store has the necessary security measures in place, such as an SSL Certificate, as not having this will massively deter customers from placing a transaction through your online booking system – as you can see from the image below, your site would show as insecure:

Go easy on the text

Ever heard the saying less is more? That applies in the online world when it comes to text in most instances, as a text heavy experience can be overwhelming to customers – especially when we consider most are using smaller browser screen sizes as mentioned above.

Try and keep the text clear, concise and just the essentials of what customers need to know. Bullet points and numbered lists are a great way to break up text where a lot is required, and makes it far easier for your users to read and digest. 

You should also consider smaller paragraphs for the same reasons mentioned above. 

Consistency is key

When customers move from your main site to the transactional area, it’s essential that the two feel connected to users as it affirms the trust that the transactional area is the correct one for your business and reinforces your brand as your transactional process should match your main website branding.

This should mean that fonts, colours and imagery are the same as your main website at a minimum – the closer your online store matches your main website the better.

Upsell and cross-sell 

As well as selling your booking slots online, you should also aim to sell additional items during the booking process to bring in more guaranteed income, as well as give guests the convenience of knowing everything is ready for them upon arrival. 

For trampoline parks, this could be selling jumping socks online, or for all businesses who have a food offering you could give guests the convenience of pre-ordering their food so it can save them buying on the day. This also helps you in terms of knowing how many catering staff you may need.