This is part 3 of a series called “We all feel safer being part of something bigger”.
In
part 1 and
part 2
of this series I gave a total of 9 ways to make yourself appear to be a
larger company. In this, the final post of the series, I have a few
more ideas.
Become a Ltd Company
- Limited companies always make a website appear like their is a larger
business behind the screen. Even though it could still just be one man
working from his living room. However please remember the extra costs
and legal implications of registering as a limited company, the effort
and cost may not be worth the gain.
Register For VAT
- Having a VAT number listed on your website to show your visitors also
makes your business appear larger. If you have to pay VAT to your
dropshipper everytime you order it will also make financial sense to
your business to register. If you have high hopes for your business
(which you should) then it is worth noting that once your sales reach
£67,000 in 12 months it is a legal requirement to register for VAT.
Giveaway Competitions
- You could create a competition on your website. You could offer 10
products up as prizes, say your 10 best selling products, and to enter
people have to register as a member at your ecommerce website and then
complete a small questionnaire. You could then tell website and blog
owners in the same industry about the competition who might mention it
on their website for you. This will give you links to your website,
instant potential customers and new members who you can promote to. But
best of all it will give your website improved presence on the web and
only large companies can afford to run competitions like this, or so the
consumers think!
Show off Memberships
- If you are a member of business groups or ecommerce organisations you
can often get badges for your website showing you are part of these
groups. You don’t need to properly show them off but you could reference
them on your “about us” page or low down your sidebar. This will show
to users you do business properly and they can trust you.
There
you have another 4 ways to make your website appear like it is owned
and run by a large company. In total (including the first two posts)
that is 13 very good ways to improve the public appearance of your
business.
Final Thoughts
Trust is a big factor in ecommerce, if visitors don’t trust you they
won’t buy from you. No matter how good your products or prices are.
Making your website appear like it is a large company (or at least
bigger than one man in his front room!) is a key way to building trust.
So if you don’t put the tips into action listed in this series then you will be losing sales.
The great part about these tips is that most of them are free to
implement, they just require a bit of time and minimal effort - so no
excuses!
