Top 10 Ecommerce Website Failures
Starting an ecommerce website can be relatively easy, fast, and doesn’t require a huge investment, at least most of the time. However, it could be very hard to manage the website and be successful at what you do, especially when what you do is being an online marketer. As an ecommerce website owner or marketer, you will have to manage a lot of different aspects to make your website successful, from social media marketing to product presentation and more. With so much to juggle with, no wonder ecommerce website startups find it difficult to succeed over the long term, and around 75% of these businesses fail.
But, there is still hope. With more than 70% consumers wanting to shop online, ecommerce is an industry that keep seeing huge growth and gains each passing year. So, if you own and operate an ecommerce website, or planning to enter the industry real soon, here are the top 10 commerce websites failures that you should be aware of in order to take your business in the path to success.
Poor Quality Images and Product Descriptions
As you know, ecommerce revolves around face-less transactions, which typically means that consumers don’t really get the opportunity to touch or feel the products you sell. Therefore, using good quality images and comprehensive product description, together known as product presentation, is extremely vital for any online business.
Include photos that show different angles or views of the product (zoom-in, rotating images, etc.), and make sure that the images are always high in quality. Also, be sure to include detailed descriptions. If you need more help, visit the top performing ecommerce websites in your niche and look at their product presentation to get an idea.
Missing Contact Information
Imagine yourself as a customer; wouldn’t you get frustrated if you look around an entire ecommerce website and find no contact information or any means to contact the team? Switching is common with online shopping; customer would rather prefer to leave your website if they don’t find a reliable means of contact. In fact, contact information is one of the first things consumers look for on an ecommerce website. Therefore, if you wish to build trust with prospective customers, be transparent with your contact information.
Complicated Checkout
As customers of ecommerce websites, people are always looking for faster and easier checkout. Nobody wants to spend time filling in too many details and going through a series of different steps before they could purchase their items. Customers find a complex checkout process highly frustrating. So, what you need to do is make the checkout process on your ecommerce website short and simple. Give your customers the option to register, for further purchases on your website, or simply to checkout as a guest.
Hidden Fees
This is a big NO. There should be absolutely no hidden fees on your ecommerce website, and this includes shipping fees as well. Share the information right at the product selection stage rather than keeping it hidden until checkout. Remember, hidden fees is a major contributor to cart abandonment, so act wisely.
Big Screen, Small Screen
Optimizing your ecommerce website for mobile use is extremely essential, because mobile is now becoming more and more important than desktop. Many ecommerce websites fail to check the responsiveness of their mobile website, which is actually an absolute necessity. Hence, you should optimize your website for mobile and make sure that its design works well with small screens as well as with different operating systems to enhance user experience.
Customers Don’t Know What to Do
The next important step is to guide your customer every step of the way and tell them what to do. Even when they land on non-product pages, they should be directed to where they can potentially make a purchase. To achieve this, firstly, you must be clear on what you want the visitors on your site to do. For instance, you can force a sale by adding an urgency statement like, “Order before noon for next day delivery”.
Online Marketing
Even if you have an outstanding ecommerce platform and have the perfect infrastructure in place to provide excellent customer support, your business will still not be successful if people are not aware of it. This is where online marketing comes into play. Unlike a brick and mortar store that can gain traffic simply by setting up a physical location, an ecommerce website should focus exclusively on online marketing to attract potential customers. For instance, you can make your brand accessible through the various social media channels.
You’re Not Engaging Your Customers
Of course, customers do not like to be constantly bothered with sales-related discussions, emails, etc. However, ignoring them totally is a sin and can affect your business in every way possible. Therefore, take steps to engage your customers whenever there is a perfect chance. Once again, you can use social media to keep your customers engaged with your brand. Retargeting is another aspect ecommerce businesses should focus on.
You’re Targeting the Wrong Audience
Let’s say you have everything sorted out, from finding your niche to online marketing and everything in between. But, are you really targeting the right audience? Yes, this is one question that you need to ask yourself and find the answer to in order to make sure that your business ends up being profitable and successful. To do this right, or let’s say, to find the right target audience for your brand, you need to do a lot of research. You should also review your strategy constantly and make adjustments wherever necessary.
Your Pricing is All Wrong
Unlike with the usual brick and mortar businesses where it could take a long time for people to compare prices offered by different brands, people who shop online can easily compare prices within a matter of seconds. Hence, the way you price your products is of utmost importance for your success. Keep in mind to price your items neither too low nor too high. If there is shipping fee involved, keep it at bare minimum, and offer free shipping every once in a while. Researching the pricing range of your competitors and analyzing what your target audience are willing to pay will help you find the right pricing spot eventually, of course, with some trial and error.
