Today, many businesses wish to create their very own eCommerce sites. It is a popular trend that is being practiced by lots of organizations. But, sadly, more than 60% of all the organizations that create their online stores close within a couple of years. So, what can be the reason for so many businesses to shut down their eCommerce stores?
A dominate player with a significant market share in a highly-fragmented market. There is substantial evidence Amazon is responsible for at least 40% of sales that are happening on the internet. It is a big number and the majority of online stores are not even close to this number. These smaller stores do not benefit from the economies of scale that Amazon has established, thus they can’t competitively compete with the Giant Gorilla in the market place.
To successfully compete against Amazon is never about price, small businesses will never survive being the low price provider. They have to offer something unique that meets an unmet needs not addressed by Amazon. And they must execute with precision, market effectively and avoid making rookie mistakes.
Remember, mistakes are cornerstones of success. Intelligent people are those who learn from other people’s mistakes. And this is your chance to avoid making the same mistakes that have destroyed eCommerce stores in the past. It is a great learning curve that can teach you a lot of different things about the practical world.
In this post, we will look at the major mistakes made by eCommerce stores while utilizing Magento eCommerce development services. Avoid making these mistakes while running your eCommerce site. This way, you will be able to not only survive but also grow your online store.
So, let’s get started with the major mistakes made by new eCommerce sites.
Coming Up With an Altogether Unorthodox Solution
A new eCommerce brand falls into one of the two traps:
- Combining something entirely derivative.
- Coming up with an altogether exclusive solution for everything.
It is essential for you to not waste your precious time on resources for developing custom solutions for problems faced. Expect for the fact that the customization is done can have a direct and clear impact on your branding and creating a distinct USP for your products.
Always take advantage of an existing eCommerce platform like Magento or Shopify instead of reinventing an exclusive platform as the selling point of your brand.
Remember, most of the time; customers are looking for a familiar shopping experience and navigational elements. This includes your shopping carts, your shipping requirement, and virtually any other part of your online business. If it is not related to sales, let someone else take the lead. Concentrate your efforts on the essential elements that can differentiate your brand from others in the industry.
An Inconsistent Design
It has been researched and found that the design of a website plays a very critical part in determining whether the users find it trustworthy in comparison to any of the content on the site. Hence, to prove your expertise in the design part, it is vital to avail of the services from a seasoned designer. Unless of course, you happen to be a highly qualified designer yourself!
In case design is not a differentiating factor for your brand, we recommend you to employ a trusted and tested eCommerce platform with the latest theme. If the design is vital for your brand, we recommend you to invest in hiring a top talent without cutting any corners.
Duplicate Product Descriptions
One of the most common mistakes made by new eCommerce sites is to include product descriptions that are directly copied from the manufacturer’s website. In case, you are practicing this cynical tactic; chances are, your descriptions will count for nothing on reputed search engines. This will result in absolutely no traffic on your product pages.
Google views such pages as duplicates, which will get you penalty points making your product description steep even lower in the page rankings. Also, if the product description is not the same as the manufacturer ensure that it resolves the queries of the customers. Alternatively, it should directly compare your product with that of your competitor. If this is not the case, people will not have a valid reason to make the purchasing decision.
Remember, a product description page is like a golden goose which can give you rich dividends if appropriately used. If you sell a lot of products, the best thing would be to showcase the best selling products at the top of the most promising ones.
Lack of Responsive Design
Today, it is quite challenging to find a website that is not using a responsive design. With the emergence of mobile devices, most of the adults today make purchases from their smartphones, and that number keeps on increasing. One of the main reasons for this is a widely tested theme that requires minimal customizations. You can check your theme with Google’s mobile-friendly test and stress test it on as many devices as possible.
There is a reason for thorough testing on mobile devices. Many times a shopping cart will look elegant on mobile but will fail when it comes to submitting an order.
Complicated Checkout Process
Many eCommerce stores fail to address this issue and find themselves losing lots of customers due to a prolonged and complicated checkout process. Many times users leave the checkout process, especially when it requires them to spend more than a couple of minutes.
For example, If you have made it compulsory for a user to register on your eCommerce store before paying out, then he/she will not hesitate to go to your competitor’s store. This ultimately results in the loss of a sales opportunity.
One way to overcome this situation is by keeping an option of guests sign in to make the purchases. This way, the user will not hesitate to come again and again to your online store. The reason being, they will be able to complete the checkout process by using the guest checkout option promptly.
Also, ensure that you keep the buttons big enough so that they can quickly identify. In addition to this, if there are optional fields, get rid of them altogether. Never have the shipping fees come up at the very last moment of the checkout process. This is a sure-shot way to lose out on a valuable customer.
Closing Thoughts
These are some of the major mistakes made by new eCommerce sites that you should avoid at all costs. If you wish to create your eCommerce store, contact a professional Magento eCommerce development company and take comprehensive benefits of migrating to the latest Magento version, i.e., 2.3.2.
Author Bio:
Harshal Shah has countless experiences in the field of Information Technology. Also, he is the CEO of Elsner Technologies Pvt Ltd. Magento development company that offers various MagentoDevelopment services to the clients across the globe. Mr. Harshal is a huge tech enthusiastic person who has written major & genuine articles as well as blogs on topics that are relevant to various CMS platforms.
