10 Critical eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Online

The internet is an incredible space to build as well as grow business. Online businesses have certain advantages, such as low overhead, fast setup, and wider reach; that motivated many entrepreneurs to set up e-commerce stores.

And the number of such entrepreneurs is steadily increasing. At the same time, the trend of consumers shopping online is becoming more and more popular with every passing day.

Running a successful e-commerce business is akin to a rock climber, who needs the right set of tools, a good strategy, and a firm determination to reach their goals. Any deviation in these imperatives would mean the climber is likely to fall—so is the case with e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Despite the advantages of online business, many entrepreneurs fail because of the mistakes they commit knowingly or unknowingly.

From choosing the wrong e-commerce platform to ignoring customer service, you can commit several such mistakes that would hinder your business. To restrict obstacles and steer your online business along profitable lines, you can take the help of TIS India, one of the best web development companies, based in Noida, India.

With dedicated software professionals, skilled in Magento development and digital marketing specialists, TIS India has been successfully helping several entrepreneurs to set up, manage and grow their online businesses.

Figure out if you are committing any (or all) of the following 10 mistakes, and if you do so, avoid those to weed out impediments against your e-commerce business.

Top 10 Critical eCommerce Mistakes

#1 Wrong e-Commerce Platform

Choosing the wrong e-commerce platform can wreck your business. And that is a costly mistake. You use the e-commerce platform not only to sell products but also to attract and retain customers. The platform also plays a decisive role in scaling up your business. So, do not choose your platform in haste, devote time to choosing a platform that suits your business model.

You should consider the following factors before finalizing the e-commerce platform:

• The products you are going to sell
• Your scaling-up plan
• Tools to integrate
• The budget you formulate
• Whether customized or template designs
• The values you want to share with your customers

A wrong e-commerce platform can entail lesser conversions, a reduction in traffic, security issues, lower revenue, and other hindrances. So, invest time to figure out the platform that fits into your business model.

Specializing in Magento e-commerce, TIS India can help you in choosing the right e-commerce platform.

#2 Failing to Understand Your Target Audience

Simply having the right e-commerce platform and populating it with your products will not work in making your online business venture successful. Defining as well as understanding your target customers is the key to success. Only when you understand them properly, you can create a user experience that is in tune with their tastes and preferences, and that will entice them to return to your e-commerce website again and again.

So, conduct thorough market research to understand:

• Consumer segments having a need for your products
• Mode of communication with them to make them understand your products easily
• Marketing tactics you will adopt to put your target customers at the center

Many times, business owners tend to push aside the need for understanding their target customers and so it takes considerable time to figure out what makes them tick. Avoid this mistake.

You can understand who could be your ideal customers by conducting market research to figure out:

• Their pain points
• What solutions have they tried in the past, and what did not work
• The values do they prefer
• How do they engage themselves with online content
• What solutions do your products offer to them

#3 Un-scalable Website

You should not think small when it comes to designing and structuring your eCommerce website. Ensure that your website can accommodate a wide range of products and include complex features, so that, you have the flexibility of growing your business.

If your website is not scalable then it will hamper your business growth. So, make sure that your e-commerce website can handle the increasing number of products to make your business grow.

#4 Poor UX

Your main objective is to convert website visitors into customers. So, you need to provide good UX without complex navigation features.

If your website is cumbersome, the visitors are likely to discard your website and go to some other website. And this would mean that you will lose customers.

So, avoid confusing navigation features on your website and hard-to-find content to ease visitors in browsing your products.

You can consult a Magento development company, such as TIS India, to optimize your website for smooth navigation and a good user experience.

#5 SEO Unfriendly Content

For e-commerce websites, content is the king as your business relies on the quantum of website traffic. If the content on your website is not SEO-friendly, then visitors will not be able to find your website as it will not show up in search engine results.

Content on every page of your e-commerce website has to be written in SEO-friendly ways so that your website attracts more and more customers and that is the foundation of your business to operate successfully. Making your website visible among more and more visitors helps in enticing them to buy your products.

Many times, online business entrepreneurs commit the mistake of ignoring the need for optimizing content for search engine results. They somewhat fail to understand that every content on the website bears the potential to fetch business.

So, get in touch with an SEO agency to optimize the content on your e-commerce website for search engine results. You can get in touch with TIS India, which has carved out a niche of its own by running successful SEO campaigns for a large number of e-commerce businesses.

#6 Cumbersome Check-Out Processes

It is often seen that e-commerce websites host a lot of abandoned carts. And the underlying reason in most of the cases is—a complicated check-out process. Quite understandably, visitors tend to give up their purchases at the last stages due to the frustration arising out of the complications associated with the check-out process.

So, keep the check-out process as simple as possible. One of the best ways of easing the check-out process is to eliminate the need for the customers to register themselves before buying.

#7 No Brand Image

If you are under the impression that your products will get sold because of their quality alone, you are terribly wrong. You need to cultivate a strong brand identity for your online business so that consumers get attracted and become loyal customers.

Based on your market research, you should be able to understand what values your would-be customers look for, and figure out how you would send messages to them in sync with their aspirations. Your values should be discernable in your content, branding, and marketing.

# 8 Slow Loading Website

If you did not optimize your website to load fast, it will break your business. Consumers do not like websites that take too much time to load. According to a survey, 47% of online consumers expect an e-commerce website to load within two seconds. If your website takes too much time to load, consumers are likely to discard it. So, optimize your website to load fast.

You also should include a Call to Action (CTA) on every page of your e-commerce website to send the message to the consumer to take an action immediately. Having a CTA will help you not to miss out on a selling opportunity.

You can delegate the task of optimizing your e-commerce website to TIS India, which has a team of expert Magento developers to accomplish your task to the best of your satisfaction.

# 9 Ignoring Customer Service

If you fail to properly service your customers, then the likelihood of them returning to your website is questionable. With the large volume of transactions happening over your e-commerce website every day, you are prone to forgetting the customers who make purchases. It is needless to say that the customers are likely to return to your website only if they undergo a good experience. So, make sure that you build up some sort of communication channels with them, such as online chat, email, or telephonic call.

At the same time, devote ample time to monitoring the social media posts and reviews related to your business. And be active on social media.

#10 Not Having an Email List

Email marketing is a powerful way to get customers. So, you need to have a list of email-ids of prospective customers to whom you should regularly send updates on your online business offerings.

Many online business owners tend to ignore the idea, often forgetting that the subscribers could become the best customers.

Send emails to your subscribers promoting your products and updating them on special offers to entice them to make purchases.

Conclusion

In order to surpass your competitors and be at the top in your industry, you must learn from the mistakes that others make and focus on improving yourself for your own betterment.

If you are well aware of the most common errors that the other entrepreneurs are making in eCommerce, you can avoid unexpected expenditures and absurdity in your business. By doing so, you will have an optimized website and create a following of happy, loyal and content customers that are always keen to buy your products.

Perhaps the best way to stay ahead of your competitors is to delegate the task of maintaining your e-commerce website to TIS India. With dedicated and skilled professionals, TIS can boast of running successful e-commerce projects for several years, entailing clients’ satisfaction. Why do you not leverage our experience?