Selling your products through an online store offers several benefits. The main advantage is that it helps you to avoid the cost of paying rent for a physical store and hiring staff. In addition, having an online store also allows you to reach customers all over the world, which enhances your chances of making more sales. However, merely building an ecommerce site does not guarantee success. There are many things that can go wrong that can turn your dream into a nightmare.
Here are 6 deadly ecommerce mistakes you need to avoid at all costs:
Failing to validate product ideas
Many ecommerce entrepreneurs make this mistake. Once they get an idea, they immediately invest lots of money in mass production and marketing of the product. However, after releasing their products, they soon realize that there was no demand for it. This often results in dead stock and great losses. Therefore, before investing heavily in a product idea, take time to validate it first. You can do this by setting up a mock landing page for testing conversions.
Having an unprofessional website
Nowadays, creating an online store is very easy. There are numerous ecommerce web builders out there that can get you up and running within minutes. You can choose from a wide range of quality plugins and themes to ensure that your store looks as professional as possible. Therefore, there is no excuse for having a poorly designed website. Besides attracting visitors, a professionally designed store will also allow you to tag higher prices to your products.
Not building an email list
It is easier to sell to previous satisfied buyers than new prospects. Having an email list allows you to update past buyers on new product offers, thereby enhancing your chances of making more sales. The good news is that there are many free and premium email marketing tools that can help you start a list quickly. Most of these tools even allow you to segment your audience based on their purchasing habits. This can come in handy especially when testing new product ideas.
Not investing money on advertising
With the increase of online stores, the ecommerce industry has become increasingly competitive. Therefore, advertising is very crucial forecommerce business growth. Though it is possible to get by with organic marketing, your ecommerce business will not grow significantly without paid advertising. Advertising on platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter allows you to reach even more people in your specific target market. Therefore, be sure to include the cost of advertising in your product prices. As your ecommerce business grows, continue investing a portion of your profits back into advertising.
Ignoring customer service
One of the greatest mistakes you can ever make in ecommerce is to have poor customer service. Failing to answer queries and deal with complaints effectively will create a poor impression of your company. Bad reviews will mean loss of future customers. Good customer service will enhance chances of customers buying from you again, as well as referring others. Make it easy for customers to contact you and be ready to take returns when necessary.
Inadequate product images
Since online customers cannot touch or test your items, they only rely on the product images to understand what they are buying. Therefore, you need to provide enough images to clearly show what the product looks like. If the product is multi-dimensional, make sure the photos are shot from different angles. The images should also show the different colors available.
