Launching an e-commerce store is a lucrative opportunity. Your business can cater to millions of consumers who value convenient online shopping. But like any commercial venture, starting an online shop can come with risks. According to a report from Internet Retailing, 90 percent of e-commerce businesses flop within the first 120 days.
To succeed in the e-commerce sector, avoid rookie mistakes that can harm your business.
Here are common pitfalls to watch for when starting this type of online business:
- Uploading Low-Quality Images of Your Product
Poor-quality images can deter consumers from purchasing goods at your e-commerce store. If the product photos of your sites are low quality, they’ll get annoyed and shop somewhere else.
Make sure that you’re uploading premium-quality product images on your site. Consider tapping a product image editing services provider to fix up the product pictures that you’re going to use for your site.
- Badly Written Product Description
Besides low-quality product pictures, another mistake you should avoid is posting poorly written product descriptions on your e-commerce stores. You can forget decent conversion rates if you fail to describe your products clearly and succinctly.
When describing your products on your e-commerce website, make sure that you provide the details that your prospective customer will need. You don’t necessarily have to write an essay about the product. A few straightforward, informative lines (and tech specs, if necessary) will do the trick.
- Skipping Market Research
As an e-commerce entrepreneur, you shouldn’t limit yourself to understanding your competitors. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is launching your store without doing proper research. Your business strategy will fail if you don’t find out about the market demand.
Before you put up a virtual “open for business” sign on your website, bury your head into the market study. By doing market research, you can determine if the products you’re preparing to sell has a market. Researching your market entails analyzing the market demand and supply, digging out some histories and analytics and talking to experts.
- Working with the Wrong E-Commerce Platforms
An e-commerce platform is a tool that helps define your place in the industry. Choosing the wrong platform will negatively affect your online store experience.
If you’re unsure what platform you should use, consult with different companies that can suggest the tool that’s perfect for your business.
- Complicated Checkout Process
If you built a custom e-commerce website from scratch, you may want to look into your online store’s checkout process to see if it’s set up properly. A process that’s too complicated will make a customer abandon your e-commerce website during checkout. An example of this is forcing shoppers to create an account on your site before they can buy anything.
If you have this problem, make sure that you may account profile creation optional. Never force shoppers to register, as this can negatively affect the overall shopping experience.
- Hidden Shipping Charges and Stringent Return Policies
Surprising shoppers with hidden delivery costs at checkout is a surefire way to lose customers. People visiting your website will bail out once they find out about your unwanted “extras.”
Equally annoying to hidden fees is aggressive return policies. Stringent product return rules can frustrate customers to the extent that they’ll never shop at your online store anymore. What’s worse, they may tell their friends and relatives to stay away from your e-commerce business.
Whatever you’re charging, make sure that you display them before the checkout page. As for product returns, ditch the legal jargon, give customers plenty of time for returns and make the policy easy to find on your website.
- Awful Customer Service
A major mistake e-commerce brands make is neglecting their customer support. Dissatisfied shoppers will negatively affect your reputation. Your online business won’t succeed if you are unable to meet customer expectations.
The solution here is to treat your customers carefully. Listen to their feedback and improve your e-commerce store using your suggestions. You don’t have to beg customers to stay nor give them presents or gifts every time they buy something from your shop. Just commit to delivering stellar service.
- Poor Navigation and Slow Loading Times
An online shopper wants a quick and hassle-free shopping experience. If your website takes forever to load or is hard to navigate, your customer will move on to your competitor.
Make the navigation of your e-commerce store easy and simple. Also, get your site hosted in a trusted provider that uses high-performance and reliable servers optimized for website hosting.
Don’t let these mistakes take down your business. improve your e-commerce store and fix problems as soon as they arise.
Leave a Reply