Frequent E-commerce Website Mistakes and How to Fix them
E-commerce has witnessed a surge in recent times as users shift their attention from market shopping to online shopping. Having an e-commerce website is not the same as running a successful e-commerce application that caters to your user’s specific needs.
To achieve your desired results from your e-commerce website, you need to have some necessary tools that help you avoid rookie mistakes during its launch. Customer interaction and invention are crucial in the retail industry. Be it running a physical store or an e-commerce website. Let us look at some of the e-commerce mistakes made by retailers frequently and understand how to correct them.
Lack of incentives
Why would a user opt for your online store if the offers and rates of your products are the same as physical stores? Setting an online store requires thorough competitor analysis of other online store competitors and the physical stores selling the same effects as you. The concept of an online store is different from that of a physical store.
While e-commerce websites save time and energy making goods available to your customers at the comfort of their homes, they lack trust. It is crucial to offer incentives in the form of lowered product pricing and various offers. While physical stores opt for print media such as pamphlets, posters, and billboards, online media stores opt for different marketing strategies such as video advertising. These factors lead to a difference in the price that increases conversion rates and lures customers to your e-commerce website.
Wrong Ecommerce Platform
The first step to creating an e-commerce website is choosing the right e-commerce platform. Your e-commerce platform is responsible for attracting users, sales, and the expansion of your online business.
You can avoid making this common business mistake by ensuring your e-commerce platform has all the necessary tools and features. It offers leeway of customization and control to grow and market your brand. It is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis and explore various platforms understanding the features and tools they offer before making your choice.
Misleading Product Information
Product description enables your customers to picture the product in their homes. With the help of quality pictures, descriptive product information, you can increase your conversion rates. Once you provide accurate product information, how do you sell it? As a seller, you need to provide all information regarding your product to your prospective customer. Graphic elements and AI offer a better user experience and boost sales.
For example, if you are buying furniture, you can use features like “Try Me” that enable you to click a picture of your living room and display chosen products against it, providing a realistic picture. By making all the information available to your customers, you help them make their minds to purchase it.
Copying your competitor’s product descriptions word for word is one of the most common mistakes made by e-commerce retailers. Authenticity is the key when it comes to conveying the benefits of your product to potential customers. It also shows your customers your willingness to put in effort, originality, and enthusiasm, which helps in boosting sales. Dull, boring, and fluffy product descriptions drive traffic away from your e-commerce website as they are uninformative.
Difficulty during Checkout
Consumers have gotten extremely sensitive to slight glitches and turbulence caused during their online shopping journey. To smoothen their online shopping experience on your e-commerce website, you have to offer the possibility of buying without the need to register. The more hoops and hurdles attached to your checking out process, the less likely it is for your customer to stick around and make a purchase. By reducing the hassle of registering, you can enhance your conversion rates and increase sales dramatically.
Once you have gotten users to explore your website and add products to their carts, the only thing that can be a turn-off for your customers is a complicated checkout process. Suppose the checkout process for your e-commerce website has unnecessary fields such as limited payment options and unclear shipping and duty charges. In that case, it will frustrate your customers, making them leave without completing the process.
Poor Customer Service
A comment system is required to facilitate your users to reach out to you with their queries, grievances, and reviews. A “contact us” form is not just an ornamental feature of your website because your competitor has it or an ‘in’ thing.
It gives customers assurance that they can expect a response to their questions, making them feel important. Making your customer feel valued is crucial in enhancing the sales process and increasing brand reputation. It is a typical business mistake, especially if you are a small business with inadequate staff and managing everything manually; providing customer service can be difficult.
This can result in losing customers due to bad reviews that make it difficult to acquire new customers. Your business’s success depends on being responsive, attentive to your customer’s queries and concerns, answering their questions promptly, and issuing refunds/product exchanges when necessary without dragging the process.