The 3 Biggest Ecommerce Mistakes
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Ecommerce is a business endeavor that seems so simple. You find a product that people want to buy, and you sell that product to buyers all over the world, using the internet as your selling platform. There’s no need for retail space and the overheads that can involve; ecommerce is quick, simple, effective, and incredibly popular. What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, many ecommerce entrepreneurs quickly learn that a lot can go wrong. While there’s doubtlessly a keen interest from the public in regards to shopping online, that doesn’t mean your fortune is just a few clicks away. After all, if ecommerce were as simple as it appears from the outside, everyone would be doing it.
If you want to ensure that your ecommerce endeavors are as fruitful as possible, you’re going to need to ensure you avoid these four classic mistakes…
MISTAKE: Selling what everyone else is selling
To an extent, this idea makes sense. If an item is popular and sales are high across the industry, then choosing to also sell that item seems like a sensible idea— there’s clearly a market for it, and you want to be able to enjoy a slice of the successful pie.
However, if a product is already successfully being sold by a number of stores, why would customers change their mind about where they shop? Unless you can offer something different to all the other retailers — such as free shipping or a hugely discounted price — then customers have no reason to deviate from stores they know and trust. Sometimes, you’ll do better with an original product that is tough to find rather than one that is popular and ubiquitous in other stores.
MISTAKE: Poor site functionality
If you’re going to sell products online, then the store from which you are selling these products needs to work well. If you have a poor site design, dead links, missing images, and an unreliable payment processor, you’re going to struggle.
Think of the design of your site as your digital equivalent of a retail storefront. Would you go into a retail store that had dust on the shelves, doors hanging off hinges or a broken cash register? Of course not. Tech errors and poor site functionality are the digital equivalent of these problems, so the usability and functionality of your site always need to be running as smoothly as possible.
MISTAKE: Lack of promotion
You can have the best site design, showcasing the best products at the best prices, and your site will still flounder if you don’t promote it effectively. Customers need to know your site exists, and promotional efforts will likely take up far more of your time and budget than you initially planned.
However, the extra effort in regards to promotion is necessary. If your site is going to flourish, it needs to be easily found by customers, and you need to know how to target the demographics with your advertising, marketing and social media usage. If you’re not sure how to do this, outsourcing to an expert agency might genuinely be your best choice.
In conclusion
Ecommerce can be simple, but only if you ensure you are not committing the three mistakes above. By avoiding these, you can be certain that your ecommerce store will be able to go from strength to strength.
