How InstanteStore Helped Sagiri Dayal Launched A Successful Online Store With Immediate Sales

The team at InstanteStore are passionate about helping merchants sell online.

We’ve been helping merchants sell online since 2001 when our founder and CEO, Charles Tang started InstanteStore due to the overwhelming requests to create online stores by merchants from around the world.

Recently, we had the privilege to help another international client get her business online with immediate results making it a successful online store.

About Sagiri Dayal Jewellery

Meet Sagiri Dayal, a jewellery designer based in Hong Kong.

She specialises in Jade and Chinese Knotting, combining these elements with traditional Indian jewellery from her heritage.

Sagiri has been holding shows all around the world – Hong Kong, London, New Delhi and New York, showcasing her jewellery pieces.

Though the road shows were very successful, she found it hard to reach out to her customers and updating them whenever she’s got a new line out.

So last year, together with her daughter, Keya, she decided to take the leap of faith and bring her business online.

It was a very daunting move for her as she’s not particularly tech savvy.

Understanding Our Customer Needs

Through a series of Zoom calls, the InstanteStore team got to know more about her business goals (increase sales!) along with the challenges she faced.

Among some of the issues she faced with the current offline business model were:

Limited Reach – Audience is restricted to the locations of the road shows and their physical location or brick and mortar store.

Limited Customer Engagement – Limited opportunities for continuous engagement with customers after road shows. Once a purchase is made, the customer may wish to purchase additional pieces but do not know when or where the new products are made available.

Lack of Analytics – Gathering customer data and insights for targeted marketing can be challenging in an offline setting making it difficult to analyze customer preferences and tailor products or marketing strategies accordingly. In other words, many merchants would not know much or have any information about their customers – their preference, products they purchased, what they are interested in, budget or taste preferences.

Lack of Technical Know-How – As Sagiri is more of an artisan / designer, she is anxious when it comes to technology. Many artisans, designers do not have the technical knowledge on how to run an online business as they usually spend the bulk of their time focusing on designing and creating their master pieces.

Payment Challenges – Accepting only cash payments for designer pieces may limit sales as some customers prefer digital payments. And because artisans / designers sell their products at physical locations, customers may not have enough cash to purchase if the merchant do not accept other forms of onlnie payment like credit cards or e-wallets.

The Solution? InstanteStore White Glove Service

After listening to Sagiri’s challenges, the InstanteStore team came up with a targeted proposal to help her business.

Though InstanteStore is a Point & Click ecommerce platform that allows merchants to quickly and easily set up their own online store, for Sagiri, due to the tight timeline till launch date (1 month to get it all done!) we suggested the White Glove Setup Service.

With the White Glove Setup Service we will handhold you right from the beginning, coming up with a customized webstore design, help you to populate your store products, set up shipping, payment and run through the testing stage to ensure that the whole buying experience on the store goes smoothly.

InstanteStore Ecommerce Features That Helped Get The Sales In

We advised Sagiri and Keya to set up a pre-launch campaign where they set up a temporary page to start collecting customer emails for those who were interested in their products. These customers who get first dibs when the site is launched plus a 10% discount!

Newletter Module – this allows for early bird sign up on her online store as we wanted to help her reach out to those who signed up during the pre-launch. The idea was to give her customers a taste of what is to come and to build anticipation.

Automatic Discounts – We helped her create pre-set automatic discounts which were to be applied by her customers only for the pre-launch dates. This gives customers an incentive to come to the online store knowing they will get a special discount when they make any purchase on the specific pre-launch date.

Integrated Payment – we helped her set up quick and easy online payment option for her customers to pay with online. A smooth checkout process is a good customer experience.

Downloadable Keys – these are digital gift certs which customers can purchase from Sagiri’s online store that is easily downloadable upon purchase which can be a gift or even an incentive to customers to come back for repeat purchases.

Store Launched With Immediate Sales!

It’s the final stretch! We worked tirelessly with the team at Sagiri Dayal Jewellery running tests on her website to address and deal with any issues as well as answer all of Sagiri and Keya’s questions to ensure that it was a smooth buying process.

For the Pre-Launch and Launch Day Sales, there were a total of 170 subscribers with 43% Open rate and 28% Click Through rate which led to steady sales as soon as the store was launched.

Listen To Sagiri’s Testimonial Here

“Last year, I decided to start an online business and I was introduced to Charles & Sui Sim and it was the most wonderful thing that could have happened! I was really nervous as we had a really tight launch date but they held my hand every step of the way and they made it happened! They were also very responsive and just alleviated all my fears…”

Sagiri Dayal – Founder & Designer
Sagiri Dayal Jewellery

“Up until last year, we have only been selling jewellery at in person shows around the world. In 2023, we had ambitious plans to build an online website. Initially we thought we would go with a large online platform such as Shopify but then we got introduced to the InstanteStore platform. I’m really happy we went with IES, it has gone off completely flawlessly! During the launch, people were just buying off our site without a hitch. Even for ourselves, the backend was so easy to navigate…”

Keya Lamba – Co-Founder & Designer Sagiri Dayal Jewellery

The InstanteStore team are truly honored to be part of their online journey to help them GROW their business further.

InstanteStore is not just another ecommerce platform, more like your partners who only want the best for your business and helps you to achieve it quickly, efficiently and at very affordable prices.

We take the time to listen and understand your business challenges and help you to work through them with the InstanteStore platform. The InstanteStore platform is built in-house by our very own InstanteStore team, which makes it easy for us to customize the modules to your business needs. We are here to help your business grow and streamline your process. We allow you to do what you do best – MARKET your store and leave the tech to us!

Need a revamped customized online store for your business?

Contact us for a FREE consultation today!

Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is just around the corner (two days from today) to be exact. Is your e commerce store ready? Are your campaigns planned out to the smallest detail? Yes? No? If you are ready then you can sit back relax and skip this article. However if you’re not, not to worry! You have landed yourself onto the right page. We have put together some helpful tips that will help you maximize your revenue this holiday sale season.

Cross Selling

Cross sell is when you persuade your customer to purchase an additional product that will compliment their current purchase before they check out. You could create combos of 4-5 complimentary products that will match well together and offer the whole package to the customer at a discounted price. An example would be, if you are a fashion e commerce store and a customer buys a dress from you, before checking out you could bundle up accessories, bags and shoes that might go well with that dress and cross sell it to them. Most customers who are shopping during the holiday sale season is a bargain hunter and a bargain hunter can not refuse a good bargain. Not to mention that the Christmas is also right around the corner and many people are doing their Christmas shopping too. Combo promotions like this often work very well during big sales such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when people are actively hunting for a good deal!

For InstanteStore users make sure that your cross sell feature is turned on.

  1. Enter “Cross Sell” into your admin panel search bar.
  2. Click “Here” to see if the cross sell has been activated. Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Cross Sell
  3. If it has not been turned on, tick the “turn it on” button.Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Cross Sell
  4. Once it has been activated, you can start adding products that you would like to cross sell to your customers. Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Cross Sell

 

Pop Up Lead Generator 

Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Pop Up Lead Generator

A lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest is you company’s product or service. An example of lead generators are offering coupons for new customers in exchange for their email addresses. Have you ever entered a website and a pop-up pops out as soon as you enter offering you a “50% Off Your First Purchase”? This is a great way to get new customers to shop with you. New customers are often unsure about your business and your products. Offering them a discount will give them that extra push to take a leap of faith and make a purchase from you this holiday sale season.

More on how to customize your Pop Up Lead Generator with InstanteStore.

Cart Abandonment E Mails 

Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Newsletters

Set up a special Black Friday and Cyber Monday automated e mail that will be triggered when customers decide to abandon their cart. Don’t just let them get away that easily. Sending you customer follow up e mails will only remind them of your presence and drive them back on to your site to complete the purchase.

InstanteStore has a bunch of new newsletter templates that you can choose from to help you promote your products better this holiday season!

Discount Codes

Last Minute Black Friday & Cyber Monday Tips Holiday Sale Season Discount codes

A great feature to add to your holiday sale season campaign. If there are items that you are looking to quickly sell this is a great way to give your customers the extra push to buy it. You can give your customers tailored coupon codes that will only be valid for the span of your sale period. In addition to that, you can also offer your most engaged subscribers or top purchases a deal specially for them. Offering your regulars an exclusive deal is guaranteed to have them buying from you and even maybe telling their friends.

To all InstanteStore merchants here is a step to step guide on how to generate gift certificates and discount coupons.

Update People On Items That Are Selling Fast

During the holiday sale season, send out email updates to let people know how many of your top selling products are left in stock. This will create an urgency for customers to quickly go on to your e commerce store to grab it quickly before its gone. If you can trigger someone’s fear of missing out, then this will definitely help boost your sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Help Increase Sales

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Holiday season is just around the corner, can you smell the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks already? Mmmm.. Retailers are all gearing up for two of the biggest shopping events of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is when most retailers earn back their yearly profits. Also, these two sale days are perfect for people who are looking to save some money on their Christmas shopping. Here are some tips to help your business stay competitive in this very popular sale season:

Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly

People today enjoy shopping from the comfort of their home, instead of lining up outside a mall right after Thanksgiving dinner. More and more customers are shopping online and on their mobile devices today. With the most recent Singles Day Sale just passing, Alibaba reported that 90% of its sales came from mobile devices which is higher compared to 82% in 2016 and 69% in 2015. According to an article by Forbes, they have predicted that smartphone and tablet visits to retail sites will account for 54% of all visits.

As you can see purchasing through mobile is a familiar option to many shoppers today.  Because of this, a mobile friendly site will play a huge part in helping online businesses benefit the most from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday traffic.

Whether they are waiting for the train or riding in a bus, there’s plenty of reasons for them to buy stuff online.  So, with more consumers than ever before planning to make the shift towards mobile this holiday season, be sure not to ignore the mobile commerce wave! InstanteStore is already mobile commerce ready. All you have to do is ACTIVATE it. If you haven’t done so for your store, it’s pretty easy.

Here’s how:

Login to your admin, search for Mobile Commerce.  Next step: Click on Activate and your mobile store is ready to go. Simple! Anyone could do it.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Related Posts:

Don’t Forget The Mobile Phone Shoppers!

Is Your Site Mobile Friendly With Responsive Design?

Offer Your Customers Free Shipping 

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

E commerce giants like Amazon are offering its customers FREE next day delivery or same-day delivery if they were to order before a certain time. They have definitely spoiled the market for other businesses. Customers today are expecting the same level of convenience from the other retailers. At the end of the day everyone loves free stuff! This will give your customers that extra push to make a purchase during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

Here’s how: 

  • Offer your customers free delivery with no minimum purchase for the holiday sale season or an option to pay less for next day delivery as an incentive to get them to buy more.
  • If you have a brick and mortar store, give your customers a click and collect option with same day pick up.

Treat The Black Friday Sales and Cyber Monday Sales Like A Product Launch

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

With all the hype that is created when it comes to discounts and offers during the holiday sales season, more companies all over the world are joining in every year. It is easy for customers to get lost in the shuffle.

However, if you take a different approach and treat the sale like a product launch and build excitement around it, this will definitely set you apart from your competitors.

Here’s how: 

  • Send out newsletters to customers who you want to be the first to hear about the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales . Offer these special customers a head start on the discounts before everything is sold out!

Instantestore has a feature where you can customize who you want to send your emails to.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

  • Create excitement around the launch of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale with a countdown clock or calendar on your e-commerce site.
  • Create a social media campaign around your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale  and get your customers to share what they bought on their social media sites.

Related Posts: 

Email Newsletter Ideas Which Won’t Frustrate Your Subscribers

Use Live Chats To Your Advantage 

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Live chats are especially great during holiday sale seasons. Why? Because there are going to be customers who have never bought from you before entering your website with no clue about your your business or your products. An online chat system will provide these customers an immediate access to any help they need. It is much more convenient compared to a call center. Also, customers can multitask when waiting for a reply.

It is great to have someone online who can immediately walk them through a sale if a customer becomes confused or has a question that could potentially make or break a sale. A live chat will help eliminate shopping cart abandonment this upcoming holiday sale season.

InstanteStore has its very own free live chat software that can be downloaded and applied onto your e commerce store.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Get Started Quick: Installation

  1. Download the InstanteStore free live chat software from https://www.instantestore.com/livechat_software.cfm.
  2. The Microsoft .Net Framework is required for the installation. Windows Vista and Windows 7 should already have this installed. Some versions of Windows XP may require you to install this separately, though. If you have any issues installing or running the live chat software, then click here to go to Microsoft’s website to download and install it.
  3. Once installed, double-click the InstanteStore Live Chat icon at the desktop, or click on ‘InstanteStore Live Chat -> InstanteStore Live Chat’ from the Programs folder to launch the live chat application.
  4. The first time the live chat software launches, the LiveChat Signup page will be displayed. Just fill in the necessary details and click the SIGNUP button to register your Live Chat username.
  5. Once you’ve signed up, an email containing the activation code will be sent to the email address you used to register. Copy and paste this activation code into the Activation Code field at the live chat window, then click on the ACTIVATE & LOGIN button.
  6. At the Install livechat code page, copy the displayed code.

For InstanteStore Users

  1. Go to your store’s administrator control panel, and go to ‘Manage Your Store -> Design/Customization -> Customize Template’.
  2. Click on the Click to Edit button at either the left or right border of your store’s template, depending on where you want your live chat icon to be displayed.
  3. Click on the Additional HTML tab at the following page.
  4. Select the Add Extra HTML: radio button and paste the code at the appropriate text area, depending on whether you want the live chat icon to be displayed at the top or the bottom of the left/right border.
  5. Click the PUBLISH CHANGES button to finalize your changes.
  6. The live chat icon will now be displayed at the appropriate location on your store template. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.

For non-InstanteStore Users

  • Just paste the livechat code from Step 6 above at the appropriate location at your website.
  • The live chat icon will now be displayed where you’ve placed it at your site. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.
MORE Free Live Chat Softwares :

Tawk To 

My Live Chat

Pure Chat 

Related Posts:

Introducing Free Live Chat Software from InstanteStore

Use All Your Marketing Resources

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Retailers who invested in a marketing strategy which includes mobile, email and social media last year did 30% better compared to their competitors who didn’t take advantage of all their marketing platforms during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

However, its not all just about the number of channels used. It is more of how you use these channels to reach your audience. It is important to know where majority of your audience are, which platform they are using and from there pursue them. Your goal here is to consistently message your followers and remind them to buy from you this holiday sale season. According to research, it takes at least three repetitive marketing posts to capture someones’ attention.

How to: 

  • Use your existing followers/audience to spread the message
  • Offer your followers incentives for helping you share the messages with extra discounts or promos.
  • Make sure all of your marketing channels are sharing the same message and is following a strategic flow.

 

 

 

Mobile Commerce Set To Skyrocket In South East Asia

My previous article mentioned China’s ecommerce and mobile commerce spending power which they showcase to the world come every November 11th during Singles Day making more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

South East Asia Is The Next BIG Mobile Commerce Powerhouse

Not far behind with tremendous huge growth and development status would be South East Asia (SEA) which is made up of 11 countries (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

SEA have a total population of 648 million (and growing fast!).

The top countries in this region that is leading the way in massive digital ecommerce spending would be Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Here’s a glimpse of their digital population. If taken as a single bloc, SEA’s large population of digital users can stand in comparison with leading global markets like US, Europe and China for all digital activities (internet, social media, mobile and mobile social) :

According to eMarketer, digital ad-spending for these 6 countries will increase by double digits in 2017 and 2018 while mobile ad spending will more than double during the forecast period surpassing $2.20 billion and accounting for nearly 69% of digital ad expenditures by the year 2021.

Heavy Smartphone Adoption Spurs Mobile Commerce Growth

Thanks to heavy smartphone adoption, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam will see the strongest growth in mobile ad spending among SEA.

Why are companies willing to invest so much moolah into mobile ad spending in SEA? Because the region has such a HIGH volume of mobile users which presents a HUGE opportunity for mobile commerce, hence the massive amount allocated for mobile ad spending.

Mobile commerce is skyrocketing in South East Asia as more consumers there are getting more familiar to spending online with their mobile devices.

It’s no wonder that Alibaba bought over Lazada (SEA’s largest ecommerce marketplace) for $1 billion. And not to be left out from a piece of the SEA ecommerce pie, Amazon recently launched in Singapore.

With such tremendous ecommerce growth opportunities, many online businesses have been scrambling to improve their mobile site experience and to ensure that their business is omni-channel to cater to the growing consumer segment from developing countries.

Omni What?

Omni-channel. It means having a multi-channel sales approach providing consumers with a smooth integrated shopping experience.

The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device where they can easily locate the product from your site or social media with the ability to make payment seamlessly.

With omni-channel, your online business is available and integrated with your brick and mortar (if you have one) where customers can call in to place an order with the phone or complete the checkout process via social media like FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

The omni-channel sales experience is crucial to ensure that your customers have a good buying experience be it in person, mobile, desktop and social media.

What Do Businesses Need To Do?

For a start, make sure your online business have a mobile friendly and responsive site so consumers can have a good mobile shopping experience with your site.

Ensure that your business is found on social media like Facebook where visitors can complete their purchase directly in FB without being bounced all over in the checkout process.

If you’re selling items that are :

Fashion related stuff : clothing, accessories, sport wear, eye wear, watches, jewelry, etc
Beauty : skin care, cosmetics
Food & drinks
Baby products
Pet products
Crafts
Consumer electronics
Auto accessories
(I may have missed out some other categories as these are the main ones)

Please have an Instagram and Pinterest account to upload images of your product being worn and used in every day life scenarios to make it easily shareable.

 

The new generation of mobile shoppers rely on image heavy social media recommendations from friends.

And they love to share and communicate via mobile.

We have a WhatsApp share feature where visitors can easily share your site and product page to their friends on WhatsApp which is great tool for product recommendations.

If you need help getting your online business to be mobile friendly, omni-channel with a good marketing strategy, contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help.

From the team at InstanteStore to you, Happy Selling as you prepare for the holiday shopping crowd.

3 EASY Mistakes : E-Commerce Businesses Make

EASY MISTAKES- E-commerce Businesses Make

3 Mistakes E-commerce Businesses tend to make. Building your own e-commerce store might be easy, however it does involve quite a bit of thought and dedication. This blog post will show you the 3 main mistakes people tend to make when starting up their online business.

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Discounts and Offers: Can It Be An Advantage To Your Business?

How Offers and Discounts Can Be An Advantage To Your Business Instantestore

Everyone loves a good discount, I know I do. You’re probably wondering how offers and discounts can be an advantage you. Yes, your profit might not be that much. However, at the end of the day you’re still profiting (at least a little) from the sale. Which is not completely a bad thing! And here’s why…

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Drive Customer Engagement – Get Reviews On Google

Google Search Results for InstanteStore

Customer engagement is something that many merchants try to avoid like a plague…mainly because they have no idea how to go about engaging customers. Engaging your customers is a good way to remind them that you’re still alive and kicking and provide products and services that they might want or need. Lazada, AirAsia, Google Maps, Facebook Reviews and Booking.com are just some of the site’s which frequently try to engage me. Some of their strategies are pretty good and some are borderline spammy. Find out what works and what doesn’t and what does the image above have to do with this article.

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How Instagram Can Help Online Selling – Malaysia

how to integrate Instagram onto your ecommerce website

Instagram is a great social media platform to use when it comes to marketing and online selling – Malaysia and of course other parts of the world too. What’s cool and unique about Instagram is that it allows you to share as many pictures as you’d like with captions on your mobile device with your followers. Also, according to an article written based on a survey by the Malay Mail Online, Malaysians are the most active Instagram users in Asia Pacific.

This article will tell you how you can use Instagram to help benefit your business.

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Sneaky Target Keyword Hack

Google Target Keyword Search Suggestions

A decade or so ago, some people would try to optimize their pages with their main target keyword in all sorts of ways to try to game Google. They used to pepper their pages with their targeted keywords within articles which didn’t look they were written for humans. Search terms looked like they were forced to fit into page content. Target search terms were also stuffed into pages and then made invisible (to the human eye) by making the font color the same as the background colour. And the list goes on. But Google caught on to their tricks and those sites paid the price.

Fast forward a decade and Google’s algorithm has changed quite a bit. Google does not just look at keywords per se anymore. It looks at context. So how does one optimize a page based on context?

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