While it may take some effort to set up your online store for success, once it’s built, it becomes a great secondary or even primary source of income. Online sales are growing year after year, with the younger generations fueling the consistent growth. This makes digital sales a very valuable avenue to explore; one which especially your younger clientele will be right at home with.

Product Differentiation

There are many things you can sell online but, to be competitive, you have to differentiate your product selection. While you can sell products that many sports stores carry for your parks and recreation programs (such as yoga mats, soccer balls, and gym bags), by creating a unique product, you can more effectively boost sales. Branded tees that are popular can be a big hit; you can focus on either technical or functional, fun, design-oriented, or a combination.

The best way to create unique products is to focus on a movement that can help boost your community.  Customers can purchase sporting goods at many places but if purchasing products from you aides in community building and is considered buying local, sales should noticeably increase, along with your exposure.

Imagery Sells

Clear, high-quality and attractive images make your products seem more tangible to your potential customer, while acting as a powerful sales tool. Getting high quality images can be rather expensive, however. If you have someone in-house with studio shooting skills or have a pool of passionate volunteers, you might be able to get this done without breaking the bank. Using community created images on your social media platforms can be a great way to drive engagement, as long as you watch out for the license of your images and always remember to credit the creators.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Another route you can take is to slim down your product offerings. While this may be counter-intuitive, having a more focused line of products can help you sell a lot more. Too much choice can make it difficult for people to purchase anything at all. By having a well-chosen group of select offerings, you can ensure your descriptions and product information is set up in a way that is much more conducive to sales. You can devote more product information and more copy, in this case.

Copy That

Make sure your sales copy is written by someone with experience. Your copy is what establishes credibility and, while parks and recreation organizations are trustworthy enough to purchase from, copy can be the tipping point for whether they end up purchasing or not. Where appropriate, customer testimonials do a great job, but their placement should be done strategically.

Don’t Forget Mobile

Mobile is important in both the present and the future. Your online site needs to be not only mobile-friendly but also optimized to look great and function properly on mobile devices. If not, many sales opportunities will be lost. Especially with younger visitors, they could be waiting for a bus, a friend or be killing time and be on their mobile devices. As clients and potential members spend more time on their mobile devices, this becomes more and more important.

However you decide to run your online store, we can help you build and maintain it so you can free up your time for your core business. See what Xplor Recreation’s recreation management software can do for your online shop. With a specific POS and Online Store feature, you'll be easily able to sell products online, get help with inventory management, as well as run custom reports. 

What have been the biggest obstacles you’ve faced to get your online shop at the level you want? Let us know on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, to stay up to date with all of your Xplor Recreation news.