25 Must Read E-commerce Mistakes to avoid

E-commerce Mistakes: Business is like a roller-coaster ride, ups and downs are the natural things. You face the upside along with the downside. Similarly, goes with the E-commerce business.

Sometimes, you face loss or profit as well. That said if you have secured your website with the right tools just like the seat belt, you can enjoy the business.

But issues arise when you haven’t placed your seat belt properly. Similarly, if the website has some mistakes to be resolved, you cannot succeed.

To make this right, you must avoid mistakes that affect your business journey. Firstly, you must know about the E-commerce Mistakes properly.

Therefore, we have encountered some mistakes to avoid while running an E-commerce business.

E-commerce Mistakes You Should Avoid

Choosing Wrong E-commerce Platform

It starts with which platform you choose to execute your E-commerce business website. As this is the base of taking your online store to better peaks. Whether you are upgrading your existing website or starting a new one. Choosing the right and the best E-commerce platform is the vital step you can’t miss.

It not only determines the products and services of your business but it helps in building good revenue as well. A good E-commerce platform can achieve great hikes whereas a poor one may result in bad revenue. You might have heard about so many e-commerce platforms blooming in the digital market like Woocommerce and more. But the best depends on the below factors to keep in mind:

• Choose the platform that fits your budget.
• The type of products also matters when choosing the right platform.
• You must decide on the design whether to have a custom design or templated one.
• The type of tools you wish to integrate with your website.

Not doing Market Research

Your website can’t stand in the digital market when you haven’t researched about the market insights. You should be well-known about your business market and where it stands. You must do deep research using Google, popular social handles like Facebook and YouTube and the competitors. Know well about how your competitors are dealing with the market. This triggers you to think about how your brand can qualify more than your competitors. Or how your business will create a banger image in the digital world.

Therefore, avoiding deep research into what you are going to sell should be a big mistake.

Not defining the target audience

The website you design putting all your effort into becomes worthless when you don’t define the target audience. For example, you are selling a toy to an adult which will be of no use for him. It doesn’t matter how compelling is your product or how innovatively you are presenting it. When your product is not pointed to the right person, it is not of no use.

This is where some business owners lack to stand out well in the market world. Defining the target audience is what makes your brand noticeable among them and your brand will reach more users. To define the right audience, you must ensure:

• Which audience needs your brand.
• You must offer the languages which they prefer to use.
• Developing a market strategy will help you catch the target audience easily.

Failing to understand your customers

You cannot generate leads or revenue when you haven’t understood your customer needs. Keeping your customers a priority will help your business find better heights in the digital market. After all, an E-commerce business strengthens with the high number of customers dealing with you. And this is where people can easily trust you based on the number of your active customers. But if you are neglecting their needs on your website, this is the biggest mistake you are making. You must do a thorough research on the customers as follows:

• Know about their likes and dislikes on your website.
• Look for what they are searching for often and you can recommend products accordingly.
• Know which language better suits them to be on your website.
• Figure out what type of content they ask for.

Not using engaging website design

Not going with a compelling website design is one of the biggest mistakes you are heading towards. You can be the first choice for new users if your website has an engaging design. The design of the website works as the first impression that can attract more visitors to your website. If you choose WordPress themes it will make your life easier with ready-to-use templates.

Don’t go for messy and fully colourful designs for your website. Instead, go for minimal yet clean designs that focus on your actual content. You want your customers to know about the brand well. So, make your content a priority instead of getting a lot of extensive content on it. Also, your content should be easily visible and large so that it would not strain the customer’s eyes.

Poor Navigation

The next big thing that hits your website is the performance is poor navigation. Most website’s design and appearance neglecting the navigation. This is where you are mistaken as this is the next thing a visitor watches on your website. If your website is difficult to use, then the user would leave without any extra move. A website must be a perfect combination of functionality and appearance. The good looks aren’t perfect for a website to run, it should repay with good navigation as well.

The website’s navigation decides how long a visitor will stay on your website. If the website has confusing elements or is hard to find, it will be a reason for the user to leave the website. To sort this, you must thoroughly optimize your website and make sure the vital elements are easy to find. After all smooth navigation is the key to a better user experience.

Lack of SEO strategy

Getting your website content organized well in terms of SEO is the smarter way to stay in this digital world. Most site owners don’t have an SEO strategy and this is the big mistake while deciding the content. Your e-commerce business relies on organic traffic and that contributes to better ranks on search engines. Better ranks on search engines are the direct way to acquire great traffic and credibility. So, this goes to a higher peak of developing your business well.

The homepage, product descriptions and other content should be well-optimized for search engines. Focusing on SEO means optimizing the metadata, main content, product descriptions and more. This also gives a better idea to focus on the target audience.

Overuse of Popups

Popups are great ways to engage users to stay a bit longer on your website. Or they help in multiplying the number of visitors on your website by posting ads. Also, they help in earning money by running ads and posting on different websites. However, it should be of limited use as excessive ads can frustrate the users’ finding of the actual content. It may happen that with the motive to earn money, you can even lose your loyal customers.

And this common mistake is made by many people trying to overuse popups on their website. It might hide the actual content and eventually, users will find ways to leave your website. So to avoid this, you must limit the use of popups.

Product pricing is done without research

You should be acknowledged well about the product pricing. While most sellers often set the product pricing based on how much their competitor is paying. This mistake should be avoided as it can be easily recognized. While you should match your pricing with the manufacturer’s prices and that is the best move.

Your research should decide how your product should be priced not based on the competitor. It might happen that your potential customers would like to pay you more than you have set the price. It may even happen that the customers are not happy with your competitor’s price. And your pricing is the best solution they were looking for. This is where you can create a unique yet reputed identity in the market.

Avoiding Responsive Design

Almost 60% of the web traffic comes from the mobile devices. So, a website must have a responsive design that fits perfectly on every screen size. Not using the responsive design on your website makes a poor impact on the traffic. And lesser the traffic, the less will be the SEO rankings.

Your website should be optimized for mobile devices as it can generate good traffic. Also, it helps in boosting the user experience that non-responsive websites fail to give.

Not Focusing on Security

Your E-commerce store can be a gate to threats and attacks if not secured properly. This is where site owners are mistaken in not applying security measures on their websites. You need to be very careful with the malware attacks and hacks. As this can have an immense impact on your social profile.

Not just the website data, but there is a lot more confidential data stored including the users’ data. Well, this is the most vital aspect you should imply security measures on your website. As threats are not notified or you cannot predict when it will happen. So you must be ready with the powerful security measures below:

• Get an SSL certificate to protect encrypted data.
• Keep a backup of your website.
• Use security plugins that provide advanced security features
• Keep your payments on secured platforms.

No use of social proof

Socializing your brand is the new way to get more users engaged to your brand. This is where social proofing is the much-needed aspect to grow your business. It counts on having good SEO ranks, a well-organized social media following and engaging reviews.

You are mistaken if you haven’t registered for any of these social proofing.

Not every startup has a huge following or so many positive reviews at the beginning. It is how you connect with the clients and how your services are benefitting the clients. Regular content posting and encouraging people to visit your website is the way you can boost social proofing. But it will start when you have registered your website on popular social handles or engaged users to write reviews.

Using Poor Quality Images or Videos

Getting your website filled with media files like images and videos is one engaging aspect. Media is the direct way to stick content in users’ minds. That said, it is the primary way to encourage visitors to your website.

Then, how is it counted under the E-commerce mistakes? It can be a common mistake to overload the use of images and videos on the website. Overuse of images and videos will eventually confuse users’ minds pushing them to leave.

Moreover, overusing the media files can lower the speed resulting in poor performance. This may badly impact on the user experience. Ultimately, this should not happen so, you must ensure to limit the use of media files on your website.

You can utilize fewer images that convey direct yet short messages.

Even if you are using media files, they must be fully optimized or compressed.

Lack of product description

Your online store will be nurtured using colourful product images. That’s pretty sure that users will visit your website. But have you described your products well? Have you described the usage and other details? Well, you are highly mistaken this factor is missing under your products.

How will the users know about the product? Eventually, you will lose your customers if not describe the products well. And when the product images are combined with an accurate description, there are more chances to have a purchase. The images give half of the idea and it is completed with its description. So, you should avoid the mistake of not including product description.

Not using Categories

Categorizing the products can save much time of the users in searching for the rights. While many websites don’t have categories and users need to search for hours for their desired product. This impacts very badly on the performance and user experience of the website. This should not happen, so must start including categories to make navigation easier.

And when added categories, users will easily find the right items in simple clicks. This in return will help in boosting the sales and conversions on the website.

Copying your competitors

You must strictly avoid copying every detail of what your competitors are doing. Why the customers would buy from you as you have copied the content from your competitors? You must deeply think about it and start creating unique content. Eventually, your loyal customers will lose interest in purchasing and switching to your competitors. This is a big mistake you are making by copying your competitors.

But still, you can fix it by offering fresh yet engaging content that regains your loyal clients.

Complicated CTAs

Now that you have made your customers convinced to buy your products, the next stage is the checkout process. This is the final step when users head to click on the “Buy now” button. It should be simple and obstacle-free to gain the trust of the users.

While some websites immediately introduce some other page when clicked for the checkout process. This will piss-off users mind and they will think to leave your website. This mistake should not happen so, you must cut the clutter and make the CTAs simpler.

You should not ask directly for the shopping details, it should asked once the CTA is made. Also, the CTA buttons must be clear and bigger in easily visible fonts.

Limited Payment Options

The fact that complicated CTAs are a mistake, and the lack of payment options is also a blockage for the customers. The world runs in clicks and taps where everything seems so simple including the payment options. While limited payment options may complicate the process of checkouts to purchases.

Therefore, your E-commerce website should support customers’ suitable payment options. As not every user uses the same payment gateway as you have included. This is not enough as users from all over the world use different payment options. So, it is recommended you go for a great content management system holding a wide range of payment gateways.

Poor Customer Service

There comes another vital fact that cannot be denied while running an E-commerce store. The type of customer service you provide to your clients is what builds trust and credibility. Good customer service depends on how you respond to the client’s queries and comments. Replying to the social media comments, responding to queries via email or on your website. This is where you can easily build trust and raise the value of your brand. One bad response or no response can affect the trust of the clients in you.

This mistake should be avoided as you can lose your potential clients. To keep your loyal customers intact, you must regularly have a conversation or solve immediate queries.

Not using Content Marketing

How would new users know about your brand when there are no marketing practices done? This is another common mistake often made by some businesses. The result will be less traffic and user engagement on your website.

To avoid this, you must apply content marketing strategies that raise the value of your brand. Users easily get attached to new and innovative brands that offer effective products. Applying marketing practices can even generate organic traffic and future loyal customers too. You should be consistent enough in your marketing practices to keep your audiences intact. Know well about the target audience and who you are selling your products.

Using Outdated Software Versions and Trends

Have you upgraded your website’s software version? If not, then you should correct this mistake of yours as it can highly affect the performance of the website. Outdated software is not a small thing, it can affect the speed, and navigation and create lags as well. While you must be consistent in updating the software version by contacting your developer.

The next thing is keeping your website’s content outdated also affects the range of audience. The outdated content can eventually lose potential customers of yours. People nowadays are more intended in the crisp and unique content on the websites. They search for the latest trendy content that makes them dive more into it. Therefore, you must be very punctual in delivering the latest content pieces.

Not using Data Analytics

You are truly mistaken if not analyzing your business data. Counting on to the customer demographics is one of the effective ways to succeed in business. Getting a report analysis of your customer data tells you about effective strategies. That said, you can easily detect how customers are reacting to your website brand. That results in planning better strategies.

While most website owners fail to analyse their website’s data. This is the biggest mistake you are making resulting in lower credibility. Using data analytics helps in boosting marketing and range up the traffic sources.

Fewer Contact Information

The only way to connect with the brand is through the About Us page. The page gives enough details on how to contact the team or other details like email. Most owners avoid adding this page to their website, which is again a big mistake.

Keeping your customers intact with the website can be possible with the About Us page. It tells about the brand, and their physical office address, the team and more. This in turn helps to build trust among the end users.

Not doing A/B testing

This is the most common practice to know about the customers better. You cannot neglect this as it tells you the customer’s behaviour towards your website.

You can easily know about their likes, dislikes and what they search on your website. Testing different systems and knowing which performs better is the way you can apply marketing strategies.

Not focusing on Speed and Performance

Website designing is not only a single task, tasks come in line after designing as well. Performance and speed are the vital tasks to look after. That means, your website is working well in terms of speed matters the most. While speed is the most vital thing a website must possess. It works as the first brick of the domino giving better and better results when synced well.

If you are not focusing on optimizing speed, then you are highly mistaken. It will highly affect the overall performance, traffic and SERP results. To avoid this, you must fully optimize your website to boost speed and performance.

Conclusion

I hope you are now aware of all the E-commerce mistakes to be corrected while designing an online store. So, start analyzing your website and correct your E-commerce mistakes as soon as possible.