In today’s digital landscape, having an online store has become a necessity to acquire a wide customer base, simplify business operation and maximize revenue. As consumers can easily buy anytime without stepping out of their home they no longer go shopping at a physical store, but they make all their purchases online.
Though advanced technology has created a global platform for e-commerce business, the history of the e-business world is still littered with failed startups where they were unable to sustain their business model after their initial appeal wore off.
One research conducted by a USA based e-commerce development firm shows that 90% of new e-commerce businesses fail as quickly as the first 120 days! But don’t let these statistics affect you when you are planning for the long term, sustainable vision for your e-business model.
In spite of experiencing immense growth in online shopping, a staggering number of e-commerce businesses struggle to survive let alone generate desirable profit.
What are those hurdles that come in a way to your success? Why do eCommerce websites fail? Most importantly how these failures can be avoided?
1. The complicated procedure of checkout
The checkout process is the most critical part of your website since it’s a finish line where shoppers turn into paying customers. Unfortunately, most retailers don’t pay much attention to it.
A small bump in that process can cost you loyal customers as well as revenue. A complex checkout process can be a very frustrating experience for the buyers which would most likely make them leave your site.
Following some tips on simplifying the check-out process will help you a lot to ease the frustration felt by customers.
- Streamline your checkout process
- Visually show the checkout process
- Clear your checkout page from any unnecessary distractions
- Placing trusted logos strategically in your checkout process
2. Low quality of product’s images
Product images serve as a medium of communication for the customers. Since customers can’t touch, feel or see the product practically, images are the only way of interaction with the products.
If your website is having poor quality images or offer limited descriptions, you’ll most certainly lose sales. And optimizing your e-commerce website with premium quality images will help you build confidence in your customers to purchase the products.
Try using the below-mentioned optimization tips to make your product images stand out.
- Maintain technicality e.g adding features like Zoom / magnify, Full-screen images, Photo galleries
- Consider-image format, optimize images, use of CSS and dimensions of the images.
- Multiple perspectives of your product e.g add multiple product images
3. Not displaying full contact information
Detailed contact information makes customers feel that you’re there, you’re listening, and you care about their need and experiences.
Not displaying full contact information will create a major barrier between you and your customer. They will certainly try to find out contact details before purchasing the product to ensure they are in safe hands, and if something goes wrong with their purchase they know how to contact you.
Giving proper contact information always makes you get counted on the list of genuine companies which customers can trust.
That is why you should always add this important information on your page such as
- Company Name
- Website URL
- Email ID
- Phone Number
- Social Media Account
- Address
4. Missing quality content
The content of the website has become an important factor in consumer’s shopping behaviour; not only the quality and accuracy but also how it’s delivered to them.
A website with poor content brings disastrous results to the business as the customer will hardly spend any time on the site.
Here are few tips to work with content to help it stand out, both on-page and in the search results.
- Detailed, unique descriptions in legible size and fonts
- Encourage customer reviews
- Avoid duplicate content
- Combine with well-captured photos and related images in natural and eye-catching colours
5. Hidden fees or shipping charges
Transparency and honesty are what customers expect from you while making the purchase.
Shipping charges should be shared upfront, at product selection. You should be well prepared to face their wrath in the end if you are keeping them in dark by hiding fees or shipping charges.
Additionally, providing a shipping calculator based on the items they’re interested in and their postal code will help you reduce cart abandonment. The more you maintain clarity in front of your customers, the more benefits you will have.
6. Targeting the wrong potential customers
You are needed to target the customers for your eCommerce website and business. For this, research is needed in order to select the right approach to get the right customer and generate sales.
Before starting, make sure that you are going with the right and potential customers.
7. No Promotions/Marketing
Customers will only reach your website if you are giving them a reason to do so. Lack of proper marketing/promotions of the website can also sometimes cause the failure of the site.
E-commerce store does not drive traffic by its online presence like a physical store do by its mere presence on the street. Finding marketing/promotional tools as well as online marketing agencies that perform these services is absolutely essential.
8. Not mobile responsive
With the increasing number of mobile phone users, traffic through mobile now accounts for 50% of the visits. But in spite of this growing traffic, only 40% make a purchase through mobile. This shows that maybe the ordering, checkout and other features are not properly optimized for mobile users.
So in order to turn your e-commerce store into a successful venture, it’s very crucial to optimize your website for mobile users.
9. Not engaging the customers
Whenever possible, try to engage your customers through social media discussions or some giveaways. In addition to this, you can also keep your services and products in front of potential customers through social media platforms. You must consider this reason whenever you are building an eCommerce store for your business to avoid any kind of failure.
There are so many ways to get engaged with the customers. You just need to make sure that you are going with the right platform to fetch more attention towards your website.
10. Use of poor technology
Technology is one of the key factors for a successful eCommerce business. Many eCommerce websites fail due to the wrong choice of technology in their back-end operations. The back-end platform technologies include the operating system, server type, eCommerce software platform, and others.
The eCommerce software platform (a primary factor) – if properly chosen – can lead to huge success of your eCommerce business. A poor choice of the operating system, server type, CMS platform, and eCommerce software can lead to many problems related to the speed, security, and performance.
Conclusion
So, what are you waiting for? It is time to go ahead and address any of the above-mentioned issues. Never underestimate any point since you can grab more business by correcting them.
Author Bio:
Jane Hart is a technical writer at Selected Firms, a pre-eminent source for finding the supreme e-commerce, mobile, web, and marketing companies on the web. She has 5 Years of experience in developing content and new ideas of presentation for company websites, blogs, white papers, business collateral, and case studies. Besides her passion for content writing, she is an avid fan of football and love to dance.
