Every year, more and more people are turning towards online shopping for everything from everyday household goods to gifts for their loved ones and friends. Let’s explore some E-commerce Mistakes to Avoid When Setting up an Online Store
Because of this increase in consumers, businesses of all sizes are finding more of a need to focus on developing an online store into their website.
Here are 5 common E-commerce Mistakes to Avoid to avoid when setting up an online store. There are many ways you can set up your online store and several tools to help you get started. Along with doing it the right way, there are also many mistakes you can make along the way.
5 E-commerce Mistakes to Avoid When Setting up an Online Store
- Not being Competitive Enough
- Poor Site Functionality
- Forgetting about SEO
- Not Developing a Plan
- Not Upselling throughout Checkout
5 E-commerce Mistakes to Avoid When Setting up an Online Store
1. Not being Competitive Enough
One of the biggest mistakes that E-commerce Website business owners, especially those just getting started, make is choosing an industry that is already saturated with competition. Whenever you enter into any industry, it is important to offer something no other company offers consumers. Whether this is a new type of product or simply a revolutionary way to do business, being unique is crucial to the success of any business. If you open an online store without this capability, you will find your business getting lost in the crowd of other businesses.
How to scope the competitive landscape for a new Ecommerce Website
- Take a look at the current market and find out what products or services other businesses are offering.
- Get feedback from customers on how they view your competitors’ offerings.
- Analyze competitors’ marketing strategies to identify opportunities and threats.
- Investigate areas where you can offer unique value compared to competitor stores in terms of pricing, product offerings, delivery options and customer service.
- Please pay attention to how competitors use technology to differentiate their services.
- Research the overall trends of the market to identify new opportunities or potential pitfalls in entering this arena.
- Develop an understanding of industry regulations, standards and best practices for operating an ecommerce business.
- Review data from marketing campaigns such as website traffic, customer retention rate and average order value to identify where improvements can be made.
- Look for ways to add features or expand into new segments that will set your business apart from the competition.
- Stay on top of current trends in the market and find ways to leverage those trends in your business.
- Analyze customer feedback and use it wisely.
2. Poor Site Functionality
When a visitor arrives at your site, it is crucial for them to have the capability to move from one page to the next as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Many online stores make this process difficult by making pages that are difficult to navigate through. Having a difficult process the customer must go through in order to buy the product is also a huge mistake many stores make. Finally, it would be best if you also looked to improve the speed of your website. Shoppers are more likely to leave your site if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
Key signs your Ecommerce Store has poor site functionality
- Slow page loading time
- Difficult navigation
- Complex checkout process
- Unintuitive user interface design
- Not Optimizing for Mobile Devices
3. Forgetting about SEO
SEO is important for any website, but it is especially crucial for websites with online stores attached. This is the process web designers go through to ensure search engines will list their site among search results. This is the driving factor behind visitors of your site. If you are not investing in this tool, you will probably find you are not receiving the volume of traffic you had expected. To perform it properly, you should focus on having content that is keyword-rich, backlinks to your site and links to other authorities within your industry. Doing these things properly will help you to be highly ranked when it comes to search engine results.
Why SEO is critical for your Ecommerce website
Having an ecommerce store is no small undertaking. You’re not only managing product inventory and customer service, but also keeping up with the latest trends in website design and web development. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those critical elements to success for any online business.
SEO helps ensure that your website is seen by search engines, which in turn can help bring more visitors and customers to your page. That said, SEO isn’t a one-time thing; it’s an ongoing process that requires continual effort. To get the most out of your ecommerce website, you need to focus on creating effective content that is keyword-optimized.
4. Not Developing a Plan
Planning is everything when it comes to building an online store. You should know everything you can about your target market, including where they spend their time, what their likes are and what drives them to buy something. Having this information allows you to build a plan to increase the number of sales you see from your online store. Without this plan, it is difficult to measure the success of your website and to know when you need to make changes to it.
5. Not Upselling throughout Checkout
While your customers are going through the checkout process, you should always have a way to offer other products they may be interested in. Unfortunately, many online stores completely skip this step. When they do, they are missing out on a fantastic way to increase revenue. When you do incorporate this into your online store, make sure you make the process simple. Customers should be able to add items to their carts with minimal effort; preferable with only a click or two.
The success of your online store depends on the amount of planning and effort you put into building it. It is extremely easy to make these mistakes when you are building an online store, but by knowing about them in advance, you will be able to avoid them.
Partnering with a firm to help you through this process is also a great way to ensure you are not making any crucial mistakes.
To learn more about how we can help you with this process, be sure to contact us.
Take your online store business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Ecommerce Website.
Check out some of our latest Ecommerce Website Design projects.
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