Mistakes make man perfect, but why repeat the same when in this digital era you can know what are they and how you can avoid them (until you are making a new one, then you're an exception). Jokes apart, ecommerce is not just your signature thing today, there are millions of sellers online with their own flavors but how you are serving the customers is common and what matters the most.
Mistakes happen in any business and it may happen that in spite of knowing what and where could go wrong, we fall for it. Thanks to the internet today, knowing those common eCommerce mistakes and correcting them so that they don't cause harm to the business or staying aware, have become easy. Hence, we will discuss today, what are the top 7 common eCommerce mistakes that you must jot down to not commit them later. Ready? Here are they;
Don't be in a notion that people buy anything that is available online. The market is intelligent and they have options if not you. Hence, burying your head into the market study is the first and the foremost thing you must do before getting ready to launch your online business.
What to do: Market research will help you figure out whether what you are preparing to sell has the market for it or not. Instead of jumping with a parachute, spying on your competitors is a good idea to avoid your eCommerce from turning into a big flop. Talk to experts, dig out some histories and analytics, work on stats and plot some strategies if you want your online business to live for long years.
A customer wants everything quick and easy today and if your website fails to do so, they take the exit right away. Within a split second of time, your customer can move on to your competitor if what they are looking for is not easily found or takes too long to load.
What to do: Make the navigation of your online store, simple and easy. The sooner they find what they want on your website; more are the chances of them buying it at the instant. For that, categorize your products precisely; give them filter options at the search bar so that they can narrow down their search. And avoid too much graphics or animation on your site which takes up a lot of time to load and keep the customers waiting which they hardly do.
Improve your site speed by visiting Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to discover what is taking up too long. Also, get your site hosted with a trusted service provider that uses high-performance servers that are optimized for website hosting.
Customers not just simply fall for high-quality product images and buy the product, but they do also read about the product. If you fail to describe your own product in a manner that the customer can understand, forget conversion rates then. Now when we say description, don't write an essay praising it.
What to do: A couple of crisp informative lines will do the trick. Mention the features and benefits in short layman language with accurate details such as size, colour, weight, etc. without bluffing.
In a quantitative study of reasons for abandonment showed that 28% of users found the checkout process too complicated while 37% of them abandoned during checkout as they were asked to create an account. Forcing a customer to register or making them fill a long list of details will only urge them to close the tab. Similarly, a poorly-developed shopping cart may make the customer abandon the product forever and never return. Guess what, the global average abandonment rate of the shopping cart in 2017 was recorded to 78.65%.
What to do: Never force a customer to register, instead ask them to leave their email and later sent a password to their email using which they can create an account later. This will not hinder their checkout process. Also, avoid showing unnecessary products and offers while they are making the purchase as distractions will make them leave the checkout and chances are they will postpone the purchase or forget about it.
Get a persistent shopping cart developed at the hands of an experienced shopping cart website development company which will help the customer shop the abandoned items easily as it will stay in the cart until and unless they buy or remove it.
Surprising customers with hidden shipping costs at the end is a bummer. When the extras add up, the customer will definitely bail out. Some businesses have stringent return policies that annoy customers to the extent they neither shop nor will allow their friends and relatives to do the same.
What to do: Whatever you are charging, display all before checking out so that the customer can shop accordingly. It is not necessary to offer free shipping but let them know the minimum amount of checkout. Taking about return policies, make it clear to them how long are they eligible to return, when and where.
Pampering customers only for the sale of the product is not a good strategy. Many of the businesses make no effort in interacting with the customers once their sales target is achieved.
What to do: Customers must always be valued before and even after the sale of the product. Take feedback; ask them to write a review or share suggestions and experience, this will build a good trust factor and bond between you two.
A mobile app is often considered as an extra and unnecessary cost. Approaching an online e-commerce store app creator is often ignored fearing the cost. Well, this can be a big mistake as today mobile shopping is preferred more than desktop ones.
What to do: Your eCommerce business may be doing well on the web but it can do better with an application of it. Consumers using their mobile devices, phones and tablets, to acquire goods and services have reached $1.4 trillion and is expected to touch $3.5 trillion by 2021. You can guess the need for e-commerce mobile app by now. An app investment will only bring the flow of sales, revenue and business growth and double your return in no time.
Common eCommerce mistakes can still happen, it's not that perfecting all above you will be safe but don't panic, learn from your mistakes and look out for solutions as there's always a way out.
