We all make mistakes, but in the highly competitive world of ecommerce even a small error can have serious ramifications.
Here are a few of the most common mishaps that befall fledgling online stores which you may already be suffering from yourself. Armed with a better understanding of where you’re going wrong, it should be straightforward to fix these issues outright.
Not Capitalising on Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is a universal issue for ecommerce sites, with higher rates seen on mobile than desktop.
While there are some ways to tweak your site and combat this, an equally impactful tactic is to send out emails to customers who add products to their ecommerce basket then leave before completing a purchase.
This is something that the experts recommend and it can act as a handy reminder to shoppers that they have an opportunity to place an order with you. It also serves other purposes; for example Drip’s strategies include asking customers if they encountered an issue at the checkout, or problems with payment, to find out the reasons behind the abandonment via this message.
Falling Short with Product Descriptions
When you are starting an ecommerce site it may be tempting to copy-paste manufacturer descriptions of the products you stock, rather than creating anything unique and compelling of your own for each item.
Of course it is much better to go all-in with these descriptions, providing as much detail as possible while also choosing your words carefully to engage with your target audience. This is not just about improving SEO, as it will also convince potential buyers that you know what you are talking about.
Amongst these great ideas for getting started with an effective online store, you’ll learn that including customer testimonials and even third party reviews on product pages can help bolster trust in your brand and secure conversions with a higher success rate.
Ignoring Social Media
Sure, it makes sense to take SEO seriously and try to maximise the amount of traffic you generate from your carefully chosen keywords. But in the age of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, plenty of people will be more likely to encounter brands on a social media platform than on a search engine.
Because of this, ecommerce sites should endeavour to offer a good reason for people to follow them on the hottest social channels. Engagement levels can be very high, especially for posts that contain images and videos.
Instagram is arguably the most influential platform for social at the moment, with higher engagement rates reported since its Stories feature was introduced. Being able to create short-form content that encourages interaction from audiences gives brands of all types a new way to get customers onboard with their offerings.
As long as you remember not to get too bogged down in the shady influencer marketing scene, your organic and paid efforts on social media should be immensely rewarding.
Overlooking User Experience
You can spend a lot of time working on the underpinnings of your ecommerce site to ensure it can cope with the strains of operating during busy periods. But if the interface is not intuitive and the journey that customers go on to get to the checkout is poorly optimised, all of this hard work will be for nothing.
This is where testing becomes important, as you can identify the deficiencies in the design of the site and enhance the user experience rather than allowing it to turn off anyone who lands for the first time.
Be honest with yourself, see whether any of these mistakes are being made with your site at the moment and be sure to remedy them sooner rather than later.
