Don´t Let These Mistakes Affect Your eCommerce - Learn How to Solve Them
The beauty of e-Commerce is the opportunity to be everywhere at all times, and to operate with a degree of flexibility. With so much freedom, there are obviously pitfalls many e-Commerce companies are encountering on their journey to success. Let’s explore a few of the most common mistakes e-Commerce businesses make, and how to mitigate or solve them right away!
E-Commerce Platform Pitfalls
Don’t fall into the trap of becoming overwhelmed and picking the first e-Commerce platform that seems like it will meet your needs. This might be your most important decision, and you want to make sure you don’t invest it all in a platform with some hidden issues. For example, choosing a platform for it’s looks and payment options is great, but have you researched the customer services they offer or asked if they are optimized for mobile? Read through the customer reviews on the site to get an idea of what other businesses are dealing with, or even look up other businesses reviews’ of the platform for some in-depth research.
Poor Website Design
Websites are not all created equal, and you often get what you pay for. A cheaply designed website might look OK, but many find themselves dealing with customer service, reliability and crawlability issues. What is crawlability? It indicates how easy it is for search engines to navigate your site. Poorly designed websites will be recognized by Google’s sophisticated algorithms, and your site will be moved to the bottom of the search list before you even know it’s happening.
Limiting Payment Methods
When considering and implementing payment methods, it’s important to remember that more is more. The beauty of e-Commerce is the ability to go beyond your local community, and attract customers from outside your area, or even country. Limiting your payment options means that you are reducing the number of potential customers who might only be comfortable with a few different methods. For example, not allowing certain credit card payments can be frustrating to customers, while offering payment plans or bank transfers might attract new customers who use these payment options. All in all, deploying as many reputable payment methods as possible is the key to a high-performing e-Commerce business.
Unreliable Shipping Options
Shipping is often the last contact with the customer, and is also most often handled by a third party. It’s important that you use shipping partners that customers trust. For example, consider the benefits associated with the USPS Shipping Calculator, which shows customers how much they will be paying, and links them to valuable tracking resources. Working with unreliable shipping companies will leave a bad taste in the mouth of your customers who are wondering where their packages are, or why their order was delivered battered or late.
E-Commerce Platform Pitfalls
Don’t fall into the trap of becoming overwhelmed and picking the first e-Commerce platform that seems like it will meet your needs. This might be your most important decision, and you want to make sure you don’t invest it all in a platform with some hidden issues. For example, choosing a platform for it’s looks and payment options is great, but have you researched the customer services they offer or asked if they are optimized for mobile? Read through the customer reviews on the site to get an idea of what other businesses are dealing with, or even look up other businesses reviews’ of the platform for some in-depth research.
Poor Website Design
Websites are not all created equal, and you often get what you pay for. A cheaply designed website might look OK, but many find themselves dealing with customer service, reliability and crawlability issues. What is crawlability? It indicates how easy it is for search engines to navigate your site. Poorly designed websites will be recognized by Google’s sophisticated algorithms, and your site will be moved to the bottom of the search list before you even know it’s happening.
Limiting Payment Methods
When considering and implementing payment methods, it’s important to remember that more is more. The beauty of e-Commerce is the ability to go beyond your local community, and attract customers from outside your area, or even country. Limiting your payment options means that you are reducing the number of potential customers who might only be comfortable with a few different methods. For example, not allowing certain credit card payments can be frustrating to customers, while offering payment plans or bank transfers might attract new customers who use these payment options. All in all, deploying as many reputable payment methods as possible is the key to a high-performing e-Commerce business.
Unreliable Shipping Options
Shipping is often the last contact with the customer, and is also most often handled by a third party. It’s important that you use shipping partners that customers trust. For example, consider the benefits associated with the USPS Shipping Calculator, which shows customers how much they will be paying, and links them to valuable tracking resources. Working with unreliable shipping companies will leave a bad taste in the mouth of your customers who are wondering where their packages are, or why their order was delivered battered or late.
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Ignoring Data
You might find, as an e-Commerce vendor, that you suddenly have data coming at you from everywhere. While it might be overwhelming, if you can harness this data, you are well on the road to success. If you choose to ignore data, you are giving up your biggest advantage in the world of e-Commerce. Some businesses are choosing to overcome their aversion to data by deploying technology to do their data tracking for them, or working with a marketing agency to optimize their website and material for the biggest return on investment. Poor Writing It’s important to put emphasis on how you present your product on your website, on social media and anywhere online. |
Writing poorly organized articles and descriptions with typos, misspellings and odd grammatical mistakes will quickly lose you customers. Some businesses fall into the pitfall of getting too technical or complex with their writing. Remember, just because you CAN write your own material, doesn’t mean you SHOULD! Consider investing in copywriter services when putting together your website, product descriptions and even marketing email blasts, to ensure your company and company material looks professional and polished.
With so much information out there on successful e-Commerce strategies, it’s easy to forget to research the losers. You can learn as much from those who have failed, as those who have succeeded. Following these tips won’t make you unstoppable, but will at least put you on the right path forward in your e-Commerce journey!
With so much information out there on successful e-Commerce strategies, it’s easy to forget to research the losers. You can learn as much from those who have failed, as those who have succeeded. Following these tips won’t make you unstoppable, but will at least put you on the right path forward in your e-Commerce journey!
