Despite how it might look from the outside, running a business is no easy endeavour. The truth is, those who have experienced success in the eCommerce world have undoubtedly made mistakes along the way - and plenty of them.
In this post, we’ll explore common ecommerce mistakes that both new and experienced business owners have committed, in the hopes that you can avoid the same problems on your own journey.
Let's start with the most important.
Is it clear what you are offering? If not, a potential customer will likely go elsewhere. That’s why having a clear, concise value proposition is more important than ever.
A good value proposition defines exactly what you’re offering and how that product solves a specific pain point.Without proving why your product is unique, you'll have a difficult time competing against others in your market.
The purpose of a home page is to capture the attention of your visitors. period. This largely comes down to your homepage’s mix of copy and design. Consider that an attractive site design coupled with poor copy - or vice-versa - won’t be effective in engaging visitors. But vibrant, clear copy matched with high-quality imagery is enticing. There should be just the right amount of text, imagery, and multimedia, as is expected by your target audience.
Users won’t check out the rest of your site if they have no idea how to get around. While you want them to peruse different pages, you want them to do so with purpose. Mindlessly clicking around and allowing them to figure out where to go will most likely result in them bouncing from your site.
Product description is incredibly important because from behind a screen, customers don’t have the advantage of interacting with your product. With a description of the benefits to the customer and the objective features of the actual product, a product write-up should explain to the consumer exactly what it is they’re purchasing. The only thing worse than not having a product description, is reusing the same description for similar products. Take the time to make your products shine. All your product descriptions should be unique.
Have you ever heard the expression ‘you need to spend money to make money’? There’s a lot of truth in that statement, but as you can imagine, many new business owners are wary of spending money when they may not yet be earning steady sales OR they spend too much money on design and save zero or little for marketing. The truth is, thinking you don’t need a marketing budget is a dangerous mindset. The purpose of marketing is not only to inform and engage users, but also to capture awareness. Content should focus on nurturing potential clients along their buying journey and prepare them for conversion. Think about it: how can a client buy something from your site if they don’t even know you exist?
Identifying your target audience is critical. It allows you to focus on who your customers are,what their needs are, and how you can effectively reach them. The right people won’t just “show up” to your website simply because you’re offering a product they might find valuable.
Learning to distinguish between different audiences and establishing a target, allows you to direct your resources and effortsto those with potential for sales and loyalty, rather than to blindly market your products to an undefined group who may have no interest in what you’re offering.
Knowing your target audience is not enough. You also need to know how best to connect with them. Do they use Twitter? Are they active on Instagram? Do they read email newsletters? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, the right people won’t see your products, no matter how useful they may be.
If your website pages are all over the place, your users are not going to know where to look and will most likely get frustrated and leave. That’s why it’s essential to organize your products with an appropriate hierarchy, allow for easy navigation, and provide additional information to keep your visitors engaged in a way that encourage them towards conversion.
An About Us page gives visitors the opportunity to get to know the company. It’s an important chance to explain who you are, what the core values of the company are, and what makes the company special. An effective About Us page should inspire trust, speak the same language as the target group, and be engaging.
Also it should be noted that connecting through users through your own story can be extremely effective. Let them connect with you on an emotional level.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic through organic search engine results.
To carry this out effectively, you need to have a thorough understanding of what people are searching for online, the keywords they’re using to search, and the type of content they’re interested in. Knowing these answers will help you rank higher in search engines and allow you to connect with the right people.
Practicing effective SEO also improves the user experience and usability of a web site. While paid advertising, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the majority of online traffic is driven by search engines.
SEO might seem complicated, but it's really not. You just have to understand the basics.
References:
https://www.coredna.com/blogs/ecommerce-mistakes
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-target-audience-consumers-37173.html
https://www.kunocreative.com/blog/good-value-proposition-examples
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Did you know that email lists decline by 20-30% each year? This means that up to one-third of your subscribers will never even open your carefully crafted emails or click on your call to action. In other words, it’s high time you clean your email list.