by Rob Eberhart, Direct Communications, Inc. (DCi)

Here's a checklist of ten simple tips that can help you sell online.

1. Product content is king. The right content can increase sales of a single part number up to 700%. I've seen it happen many times. Just the addition of a photo or descriptive copy can suddenly increase sales of an individual part number. Shoppers want the answers to their questions before buying. Try it yourself—select a part number, add good photos and descriptive copy and measure the results, before and after.

2. Add-on sales: the key to huge profits. Add-on sales include related items like gaskets or mounting kits. They increase profits because the customer's already buying from you and you've already paid for any cost-per-click advertising. You're just getting them to spend more, say $200 instead of $150. Add-ons can increase sales 5%, 10% or more.

3. Increase sales with a 'sticky' site. When your web site is "sticky" customers return on their own. You can increase repeat traffic by 10% to 40% which in turn increases sales. Features like blogs, customer reviews, inventory status, or new products are great ways to build return traffic, and are now simpler to do than you might think!

4. Site appearance. If your site doesn't have the right "look" you might be losing sales. Recent research by SEMA documented how if your site doesn't have the right look it stops shoppers from buying. So how do you get the right look? Professionally-designed graphics, well-planned navigation and easy to find contact information all contribute to having the look of a reputable online business.

5. Live chat: It's no longer a technology just for the largest retailers! It's easy to add to your site and greatly helps close sales and reduce shopping cart abandons. Live chat gives customers a boost of confidence to place an order. Give it the same hours as your normal business hours to make it manageable, it doesn't need to be 24 hours a day. 

6. More part numbers = more sales. It's pretty simple, the more part numbers you have, the more you'll sell. The more selection on your site, the more an average customer will buy from you…this is a documented phenomenon that large retailers have known about for years. And, with more part numbers, your online business will show up in more Google searches, so more shoppers will find you. 

7. Credibility. Create instant credibility when your product descriptions or year/make/model references are accurate. Make sure you have correct model years listed, not just "2007-up." Have accurate make/model descriptions, not "full size Chevy pickup." That will all increase sales. Each month, thousands of part numbers have changes to vehicle makes, models and engines, and if you keep up you'll look like an online pro.

8. New products. Retailers sell more by having all the newest products first, it's a proven fact. In 2009 an average of 769 part numbers were either released or updated every day, 7 days a week, and that adds up to hundreds of thousands of part numbers in a year. When you have these new products first your sales will go up!

9. Navigation and search: If your customers can find it, they're more likely to buy it! Poor results for search is one of the biggest reasons shoppers do not buy from a web site along with search that is difficult to use. On the other hand, well-designed search is one of the most popular ways for shoppers to find and buy a product, and sites with well-designed search functions have seen sales increases of 10% to 30% or more.

10. Repeat purchases: One of the profit "secrets" of experienced online retailers is effective marketing to past customers to get them to buy again. A past customer is twice or three times more likely to buy from you than a new customer, so marketing to your past customers makes a lot of sense. Retailers that aggressively go after repeat business generally have profits 20%-30% higher than companies that don't! Don't leave these dollars on the table, these are your customers to market to.