If you want to make your eCommerce store the best it can be and deliver an excellent experience for your target audience? You’ve come to the right place.
As a store owner, you would be aware that eCommerce is not all about packing a box and shipping it — there’s a lot to get right.
From lost earnings to downright failure, a silly mistake can cost you dearly if you keep on repeating it.
Here are the eight common eCommerce mistakes to avoid when making money online.
1. Going for the Wrong Platform
Choosing an eCommerce platform that is just right for your business is imperative. With the wrong choice, you will get off to a bad start, thus having strong adverse ramifications for your online business.
To avoid making the wrong choice, make a list of all essentials that the platform should provide.
For example, you will want to think over the level of control you have over design since this is essential for branding. Some eCommerce platforms give less control over design but are very user-friendly. Others provide high level of control over design but are harder to use. You will thus have to find a platform that strikes the right balance between control and user-friendliness.
Also, you will want to look into your budget. The chances are that you will be starting small and will thus need an eCommerce site that provides affordable plans for newcomers. Hence, it will not be wise to go for eCommerce platforms geared for large online businesses. You will be paying big for several features that you dont need at this point.
2. Failing to Understand Your Audience
It takes time and effort to understand your audience and know what they want. There is a temptation to just skip over this step and assume their likes and dislikes. Making such assumptions would be a big mistake, though. Others don’t need to agree with what pleases you. You cannot assume that there is rising interest and demand for something without asking people about it.
For example, it seemed at one point as if tablets would really take off. They were light, affordable, ultraportable and could do most things that computers are capable of. But tablets are seeing declining sales and on the verge of being phased out.
So don’t assume anything about your audience. Get on social media, talk on forums, use Reddit, Quora, StackExchange and others to find out what your audience really wants.
3. Poor User Experience
Many factors could contribute to bad user experience—poor design, confusing navigation, lack of functionality, etc. For example, customers want to locate products in a flash. You should provide filters and categorize your products so that they can quickly find what they are looking for.
Likewise, a cluttered website that looks overwhelming may put off users.
4. Not Paying Full Attention to SEO
It is amazing how websites don’t even follow the basics in SEO in this day and age. For example, most websites still don’t have proper meta-descriptions. You can see this in Google search results quite easily.
However, this presents an opportunity for you. By paying attention to SEO, even the basics, you can take the lead over others.
SEO is free and provides excellent returns over the long term. The only downside is that it requires a lot of effort and time. But if you give SEO the time and effort it deserves, you will likely see good results sooner rather than later.
5. Complicated Checkout
Protracted checkouts are a major reason for abandoned carts – the bane of online entrepreneurs.
Every single abandoned cart represents a serious loss since a customer was serious about buying from you but then suddenly changed their mind, probably because of some problem with checkout.
Don’t make checkouts long and complicated. It is always better to show how many stages there are and what stage customers are currently on. So if there are five steps to checkout and the customer sees that they are on step 3, they will know that there are two more steps to go. This is far better than not knowing how many steps remain.
You should set up an automated email response inquiring into their sudden change of heart for abandoned carts. Make it very friendly, caring and polite. Show genuine concern for them and assure them that you will do all that you can to improve your service quality.
And please don’t nag customers into first signing up before they can buy. Just complete the transaction and leave the account sign up for a later time.
6. Subpar Content Quality
Your content quality should be first-class, and product descriptions should be easy to read, relevant, detailed, and accurate.
There should be no fluff that users aren’t interested in. Likewise, high-resolution images are necessary so that visitors can clearly see what the product looks like.
A lot depends on content quality. So give due regard to how useful your content is for visitors.
7. No Testimonials
If you are a beginner, then you may not have testimonials. Besides, even for established businesses, getting testimonials from satisfied customers is hard.
But it is something that must be done at all costs. Customers testimonials foster confidence like no other. Most visitors first want to see testimonials before they can trust you.
So reach out to your customers via friendly emails and tell them to give their honest opinion that will be displayed on your website.
8. Not Displaying Trust Badges On the Home Page
Like testimonials, trust badges are absolutely paramount for creating customer confidence. Customers should have a good reason to trust you. The trouble is that they don’t know about you. So to gain credibility and present yourself as a legitimate business, you should get trust badges. You will want online security badges in particular since customers want to make sure that their data is safe on your site.
Bottom Line
You must avoid the eight common eCommerce mistakes to keep your business safe from massive setbacks.
