The e-commerce industry is one that has experienced a significant growth over the years and is still showing a potential of growing even larger in more years to come. This has led to the influx of individual into the industry. One thing people are quick to forget is the fact that “it worked for Mr. A doesn’t mean it’ll work for Mr. B” especially if Mr. B doesn’t know how Mr. A did it and didn’t bother to find out. Despite its features and benefits, ecommerce development platforms face that same challenge that physical shops face which is the challenge of convincing people to part ways with their hard earned money. A lot of people fail to realize this and end up blaming everyone but themselves for the failure of their establishment. Online stores have a great deal of potential to either flourish or flop. It will flourish if you follow the principles guiding it and will flip if you fail to do so. Below are some mistakes to avoid while designing an online store
Advertising through the wrong media or not advertising at all
Just like a physical store, your online stores need publicity id they are to grow. Nobody will know about your business if you just open an online store and do not create awareness about it. It will be as good as just opening a shop and keeping quiet, nobody will visit or patronize you. Another mistake most people make is the medium by which they use in creating publicity. This is one thing you need to take note of. Advertising is one thing, getting the attention of the right people is an entirely different thing (by the right people I mean people that are likely to convert). There have been cases of increased traffic in a number of websites without an increased CRO. This is most likely because the website is not visited by the right people.
Not Being Unique
When a new hotel opens in town, it tries to do something out of the ordinary. This is because the owners know that if you want to beat your competition then you have to offer what they can’t offer. The use of giveaway is no longer working as most people will only patronize you while the giveaway is available. Try some value added services such as warranty, free or subsidized repairs, subsidized delivery fee, and the likes. These are just a few of the numerous things you can do to make you different.
Not conducting a market survey
This should come first as it is actually the beginning of the failure of your online shop. This is the means by which you’ll know the prices of your would-be competition, their value-added services, their regularly ordered products and many more. This is what will provide you with information on how to get a head start in an industry already bubbling with a competition.
Poorly designed or total absence of a mobile app
Your store shouldn’t be accessible only via your website, you should have an application. This application may not necessarily contain all the features of your website but it should contain enough to serve your customers. Some individuals just create trash and call it an application because they were told they need a mobile app to support that mobile stores. It is necessary to not just have a mobile app but also have one that’s good enough to serve its purpose.
Optimization of websites
I would’ve skipped this probably because online shops are usually known to have pictures but I won’t. This is because the fact remains that nobody wants to patronize a slow loading website in the name that it has many pictures on it. In as much as it’s important to have pictures on your website, it is more important to optimize those pictures to enable the website load quickly.
Improper use of CTA
Who wants a store whether online or physical where people just walk into the store, view its products and walk out without buying anything? Nobody. That’s why it is important to review your CTA, the words you use for “call to action”, the format with which you use the words and even their color on your website or mobile app. Its necessary to know the words to use that are convincing enough but not too compulsive so as not to scare your prospect away.
