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In 2017, U.S. e-Commerce websites had a 16% sales increase amounting to $453.46 billion, contributing 13% of the total $5.076 trillion earned by retail sales that year. E-Commerce performance is only getting better since then, after all, most people prefer ordering their groceries, medicines, and even clothing, online.
With these numbers, it is easy to get lured into starting an online store. You wouldn’t have to worry about paying for rent and utilities that come with brick and mortar businesses, you just need to make sure you are able to maintain the performance of your website. However, with this enthusiasm comes the risk of overlooking how difficult it is to actually run an online store.
Here is a rundown of e-Commerce mistakes that you need to avoid once you start your own venture.
No branding uniqueness
Buying a domain name for your website is one of the first steps in e-Commerce. You must choose one that is unique enough to stand out from thousands of stores and easy enough to remember. However, just because you were able to buy its .com extension doesn’t mean that your branding stops there.
There is a big chance that someone else have thought about it and has bought a different extension for that name. Once you are done with the domain name registration step, use the WHOIS Lookup and see if there are websites with a similar name as yours. If there are, consider contacting the website owner and negotiating prices so you can own it. The goal here is to slowly get all the extensions for your domain name so that it will only be uniquely yours.
Lack of customer service
Your customers may be buying online and you wouldn’t get to see them personally, but they do need assistance from time to time. You can provide good customer service by first making sure that all the necessary information they need are on the website. Information like product descriptions, on-going promos, frequently asked questions are helpful and can influence their buying decision.
You should also provide a contact form just in case they have queries that they cannot find in your website content. Take it up a notch by installing a chat system they can use to talk to one of your community managers so they can get assistance immediately.
Poor image quality
Images are the only way your customers can view the products you’re selling. Make sure that you are able to upload high quality images, showcasing the products in all angles so that they get a good idea of what it looks like in real life. There is nothing more disappointing than receiving an item that doesn’t look like what it was on the photo, more so if said photo is very low quality.
Remember that while putting the specifications of the product on the website helps, not all people know what the dimensions mean. So help them understand what they are buying. In fact, you can also upload a video of people using your product so that they can see the scale.
Complicated buying process
People are buying online for convenience. If you have countless form fields they need to fill out and it takes five minutes just to make one purchase, then it will definitely drive customers away. Make sure that your buying process is as easy and seamless as possible. Maybe reduce it to three steps only so that they can checkout quickly. E-Commerce stores are the future, and budding entrepreneurs have a chance to make good money from it. These E-commerce statistics are a great example of it. Avoid these mistakes and make sure you are able to provide good service through your website to fully benefit from e-Commerce.
