ECommerce has a failure rate of about 80% and that can be attributed to many reasons. The low barrier makes it easy to set up an eCommerce store but making it successful? That’s a whole other ball game.
Making mistakes is normal when you first start out in eCommerce but if left unchecked, it can be devastating to your business. What you can do, however, is to minimise the number of mistakes that you make and learn from the failures of other businesses so that you can escape their fate.
Check out these common issues and how you can avoid them.
Top 10 ECommerce Mistakes You Shouldn’t be Making
1. No Value Proposition
One of the main reasons why eCommerce sellers fail is because they don’t pick the right products. This is the biggest decision when it comes to setting up an online store. What are you selling and why would your customers want to buy it? Also, why would they want to buy it from you?
It’s a competitive out there in the world of eCommerce so make sure that your business has a clear value proposition, one that helps define your brand and makes it stand apart from other competitors in the market.
2. Uncompetitive Prices
There’s no other way around it. Low prices attract customers. With your competitor being just a click away, you want to make sure that your customers will not be lured away if your competitors are offering the same products at a much cheaper price.
Make sure that you do your research before deciding on how much you should sell your products for.
3. Lack of a Marketing Plan
It’s very apparent when companies don’t have a marketing strategy. Take time to map out your marketing strategy and plan out how you are going to execute it. This should include a variety of mediums such as social media marketing, marketing and paid advertising for example. The good thing about marketing digitally is that you have analytics to work with and test out a few approaches before finding out what works best.
4. Poor Financial Mismanagement
Any company that is unable to manage its finances properly is bound to fail pretty quickly. For eCommerce, it is best to open up a business account especially one that is integrated with accounting software such as Xero, so that you can get easy access to your business finances anywhere in the world and on the go.
The Aspire Business Account provides you with 50% off 3 months on all Xero subscription plans so this is a great chance to get all your businesses finances in order before its too late.
5. Poor SEO Ranking
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a big part in determining whether or not your customers can find your website on search engines such as Google. You’ll want to be on the top of search engines when customers search keywords related to your website so it definitely pays to learn basic SEO skills to boost your ranking.
6. No quality content
Having a good amount of content will allow your customers to find out more about your company and earn their trust before deciding to buy from you. Your content should be built around providing in-depth information about your products such as how they were made as well as guides to help customers use them properly.
Content often includes images, videos, infographics and blog posts that persuade your visitors to add to their shopping cart. Quality content can also help you with your search engine rankings.
7. Lack of Clear Calls to Action
If your aim is to get someone to add items to their cart, make sure that the button stands out from the rest of the page. If you want someone to call in or to make an appointment, make sure that they can find your information easily.
The important thing is that you’re always telling your visitors where to go and push them towards making a sale.
8. No sense of urgency
Promotions and limited-time offers are a great way to give your customers a reason to make a purchase ASAP. If customers feel that they can buy your products anytime, they won’t rush to buy from you so make sure that they have a reason to be excited. Use a timer to countdown to your sales so that you hype out your promotions even more.
9. Poor Design
If your website looks sketchy or poorly thought out, how do you expect your customers to place their trust in your brand? Shopping online adds another layer of anxiety for visitors because they’ll be sharing all their personal details out there without knowing if they’ll actually receive the product they pay for so make sure that you create a brand and look that is strong and trusting to your customers.
10. High Shipping Costs
Shipping costs can be a pain especially if it costs nearly as much or even more than the product your customer is paying for. Successful ECommerce companies always go out of their way to offer low shipping prices as much as possible.
For example, you can also offer free shipping for premium repeat customers or those who hit a certain amount such as transactions above $40. That is sure to keep your customers happy and coming back for more.
With that being said
You’re well on your way to having a successful eCommerce business. Remember that while it is okay to make a few small mistakes but it’s even better to learn from the failure of others so that you know how to prevent it in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions
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