Using your website to sell your products can be a great way to boost business income. With minimal setup costs, you too can create a virtual store online and sell to everyone everywhere with very low overhead.
Although similar to starting a physical store, simply starting a website won’t guarantee sales in and of itself. Some people assume that operating an ecommerce store will be a walk in the park, but there are many things that can go wrong that require contingencies that website owners don’t necessarily think about.
Below are 7 of the most common ecommerce mistakes you should do your best to avoid.
1) Lack of Customer Service
Even though consumers will be purchasing online and not speaking face-to-face with a sales rep, customer service is still important. Make it easy for consumers to get their questions answered, speak to a person (if they want) or file a complaint. You also need to be prepared to take returns and process a variety of payments, including refunds if necessary.
2) Insufficient Product Images
The only way for consumers to truly understand what they’re buying online is through product images. They cannot pick up the object or test it out, but must infer from the images you choose that it is what they’re looking for. Make sure to offer more than one product shot, preferably from multiple angles. If the product comes in many different colours, make sure to include pictures of those options as well, or at least switch the colour of your existing images.
3) Insufficient Product Descriptions
These are just as important as the product images. You want your product description to cover all of the selling points, but also answer questions about how the product is made, what it does or how it works. Whenever possible, include a listing of the materials used to make the product, any manufacturing processes or techniques and if it comes with an automatic warranty.
4) Complicated Checkout Process
Once a purchasing decision has been made, the customer should be able to make their purchase quickly and with as few clicks as possible. Make sure to offer a “checkout as a guest” option so that people who don’t wish to create an account don’t have to. If possible, keep your check-out process to one screen.
5) Lack of Delivery Options
All consumers like to have options, and this is especially true for shipping. Do your best to offer a variety of shipping methods in terms of delivery time and price. It’s hard for a customer to justify making a purchase from you if there’s only one shipping option and it costs as much as the item they’re buying.
This also helps you, the business owner, because different shipping providers offer different perks. Diversifying your shipping options also helps in the event of a natural disaster or other work stoppage; even if one carrier is effective, you might still be able to fulfil orders by switching to a different vendor.
6) Inadequate Search Capability
If you have a multitude of products, it’s important that customers can search using a few keywords and find the information they need. It’s estimated that customers who use on-site search to find a product are three times more likely to purchase.
With this type of conversion rate, you don’t want to miss out on these customers because of a faulty search engine. Most website platforms offer a search engine plug-in, but make sure you’ve optimized your product descriptions with keywords and tags as well.
7) Lack of Social Media Presence
It’s just about impossible to conduct business online in 2015 and not use social media. This is especially true for ecommerce. Sites like Pinterest and Instagram can act as veritable catalogues of products, giving people the chance to share their favourite products with their followers.