With so many affordable, accessible and customizable platforms, it’s never been easier to create an online store or even sell through established marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon, which provide their permanent supply of vendors and traffic. Yet it’s just as easy to overlook the essential details that can hold your online store back.
If you have big dreams to grow your e-commerce business, check out these six critical e-commerce mistakes to avoid when selling online.
- Choosing the wrong e-commerce platform
Whether you are just starting your e-commerce business, or you’ve been running an online store for some time, your e-commerce platform can make or break your business.
Not only that, your ecommerce marketing agency, determine how to present their products and sell to customers, but also plays a role in how you attract users, and how you change your business over time. Once you have a business plan in place, you will need to consider several factors when choosing an e-commerce platform such as:
- What products are you going to offer?
- How do you plan to measure your activity?
- How much do you need to have on your site?
- What tools should your platform integrate with your given budget?
- Whether you want a templated design or a custom design
- What experiences your customers are looking for
- Avoid costly mistakes
The last thing you want is to choose a platform that limits the growth of your business, does not integrate with your existing systems, or does not offer the level of control and customization that you want.
Choosing the wrong e-commerce platform can lead to several problems, such as loss of income, lower conversions, traffic reduction, security issues, bad design, and much more.
This critical mistake could mean that you have to invest even more time, money, and energy in updating the platform, or completely migrating to another.
Make sure you take your time and do your research when choosing the right e-commerce platform for your online store.
- The content of the website is not professional in quality, nor SEO-friendly
If your e-commerce business depends on organic traffic to drive customers, then the content of your website should be written with the user and SEO in mind.
Many companies make the mistake of treating their content as an idea— not understanding that every piece of content has the ability to drive traffic and convert customers. From the homepage to the product descriptions, you will need to offer content on the site, tailored to your target audience, that is well optimized for search engine traffic, and to convince users to purchase their products.
Regardless of whether you work with an SEO agency or follow the DIY path, it is worth investing in content that is SEO and CRO-friendly. This means using the right high-quality keywords for your niche and writing sales materials.
- Complex navigation and poor UX
Your e-commerce site should be a happy medium between functionality and design. Not only do you want your website to look good, but you want to convert users to paying customers.
If your website has confusing terms, or content that is hard to find, or if some features do not work correctly, users will get frustrated and go somewhere else. If you want to avoid that, work with an expert in UX to optimize your website to give a smooth experience to your customers. This will help users find the information you are looking for faster, which means increased sales for you.
- Avoid these common e-commerce bugs to sell extra and grow online
You want to rise above your competitors and get to the top of your industry. To do this, you need to learn from the mistakes of others and at the same time keep your eye on the cost. By realizing the most common pitfalls that other entrepreneurs experience in e-commerce, you can avoid unexpected costs and wasting time in your business.
Not only that, you will be sure that your website e-commerce is optimized for success, and you will create a following of happy, loyal customers who are excited to buy your products again and again.
- Poor Customer Service
Customer service includes many different things. It can include how you respond to user messages through your website. That’s how you answer questions and comments on social media. It is a way to deal with customer complaints by phone and email. It is the interaction you have with the customer that requires your attention and support.
Lousy customer support, including slow response time, impatience, non-offering refunds, etc., is the safest way to lose existing customers and prevent getting new ones. And of course, you want to avoid that. You can consider hiring specialists from call centers in the Philippines in order to get customer concerns addressed right away and meet customer satisfaction.
Be There When They Need You
You should be responsive to the user and customers at every stage of the sales process, from getting information to checking in following a purchase. This will ensure that you do not have problems, or if so, you can solve them quickly and professionally.
If you take forever to respond and rely on automatic replies, only send one-word answers, or they have a “bad luck” attitude, you will frustrate your customers and probably receive bad reviews.
Your clients are the life force of your business. Not only is it informal and more profitable to keep an existing customer, but the probability that they send more business your way increases when you offer extraordinary customer service.
Image Credits: Daily Nouri
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