10 Counter-Intuitive Mistakes E-Commerce Business Owners Make

As the market is growing by the day, and so is the competition, e-commerce is surely becoming the future of retail.

Due to COVID-19 a lot of brick and mortar businesses will be transforming online, meaning added competition. If businesses want to stand out in a crowd of retailers selling the same product, they need to focus on digital marketing.

Today, everything is online: ordering apparel, makeup products, medicines, undergarments, home appliances, furniture, luggage, groceries and more. People purchase online in record numbers, choosing convenience over physical exploration of a brick and mortar store.

10 E-Commerce Mistakes Every Business Owner Should Avoid in 2021-22

If you are running an eCommerce business, a single mistake may cost you thousands or millions of dollars. Every business owner’s worst nightmare comes true, mainly because the business landscape is becoming more competitive day by day.

During the learning stage, businesses undergo a lot of fine-tuning. But wouldn’t it be better if we all can speed up the learning process and avoid making huge mistakes?

Here is a list of some of the most common business mistakes to avoid succeeding in e-commerce:

Poor Customer Service

Customer support plays a significant role in providing an excellent online shopping experience to people. As it is one of the crucial factors influencing the audience’s behaviour, not taking it into account leads to problems.

Some of the mistakes for the customer support to avoid are:

• Poor representative attitude.
• Not responding to inquiries.
• No refund for negative experiences
• Not listening to the customers.

When you buy a product through an e-commerce platform, you have no physical interaction with the salesperson. Also, no aesthetic factor pulls you towards an online store, as in the case of a brick and mortar store.

That’s why a business owner needs to emphasize more on after-sales and customer support services.

Not Using Marketing Tools

Many online marketing tools are available for business owners, free of cost or at a nominal rate. The major ones are your customers’ social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Reddit, or Snapchat, which offer excellent opportunities for businesses to interact with their potential customers directly.

Not Sharing Product Reviews & Testimonials

Having a fantastic product on your website would do nothing if you do not promote it. Promotion doesn’t have to be on a larger scale. A cost-friendly and effective marketing method is reviewing, which makes people trust the product’s authenticity.

You can build a separate review section on your website or ask people to share the product reviews on social media. Another strategy would be to add reviews & testimonials in your Paid Advertisement when your customer is in the Consideration Stage of the buying process.

Not Collecting Customer Data

Collecting customer demographics is another way of expanding your business. You can do so by requesting your customers’ names, gender, age, and email addresses or asking them to sign up.

An email list allows you to inform the customers about new discount coupons, big sales, and throwing events. As a result, the customer will visit your website even when they are not thinking about your product. Who knows? You might even score a sale!

Limited Shipping Options

It is a fact that people love free shipping even if they have to spend a little more on buying an extra item they do not need. They may not be willing to pay for expedited shipping, but they want to have an option.

Not offering a free shipping option is another mistake that many e-commerce businesses make. Business owners need to understand that not offering this option may cost them future sales.

No Shipping Insurance

Buying something from overseas or even local carries the risk of theft or damage; that’s why shipping insurance is essential. If such an event occurs, your company may be liable for the replacement or refund of the items. That may be the reason why many businesses avoid giving this option.

Additionally, when purchasing a high-value item, people like getting it insured to stay protected if something happens during delivery.

Poor Branding

Branding is not only about a logo or a tagline but also includes a website, SEO marketing, social media presence, unique domain name, and consistent internet presence via Social Media. Often, e-commerce businesses fail because they do not focus much attention on any of these points.

Consistent Branding & Brand message gets the point across and helps recall you when they are ready to make a decision.

Complicated Purchasing Process

Once the purchase is final, people want to check out as soon as they can. But some websites make this final step complicated and annoying. They may ask the potential customers to provide unnecessary pieces of information or reviews that, at this point, they leave the cart.

So, make sure to keep your check-out process convenient and straightforward.

Not Offering Multiple Payment Options

Do you know how lazy we are to pull out a credit card and enter those numbers onto a website? Offering Credit Card Payments is great, but can cause some leaks in your checkout process. Offering multiple ways to pay ensure that you are offering convenience to the customers.

Payment options like Paypal, Apple Pay/Google Pay, Buy Now Pay Later Services like Afterpay, Zip etc can greatly improve your conversion rates.

Not Optimizing for Mobile & Speed

According to a survey, at the beginning of 2021, at least 80% of smartphone users purchased something online. As this number continued to grow, business owners realized the need for a seamless e-design that works and works fast on all devices.

With plenty of online shops available nowadays, potential shoppers do not think twice about choosing your competitor over you if they face any issue with your website. That’s why it is vital to properly optimize your website to meet and exceed your potential customer’s expectations.

Failing to Stay in Touch With Customers

If you are not reaching out to your customers, you are missing out on some tremendous opportunities. From SMS to emails, plenty of options help you stay connected with your target audience. So, start building a strategy that will effectively let you interact with them.

Not Using Google Analytics & Facebook Pixel to Track Data

For any business, the ultimate goal of an ad campaign is to generate lucrative opportunities that eventually convert into paying customers. With the increasing competition, businesses now measure their performance with different Website Analytics Tools that also helps in improving their services and products.

Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel are two leading Analytics Tools used to manage user data on the website. They also help you track user activities on the website, conversions (think e-Commerce Sales /Leads) and generate metrics to understand the behaviour of these users, Once you get these, you can utilise them to run targeted ads to your potential customers.

If you still haven’t used these tools to track and understand your customer’s behaviour, online content, user experience, and more, it is high time to do it. It does not matter whether you have an eCommerce website or an informative site, you need to understand the behaviour of your visitors to deliver better results.

Conclusion

Mistakes are a part of an e-commerce business but learning from your mistakes is not always the only way. You can understand and learn from the mistakes of other business owners. It will help you save time, money and stay competitive. Learn from the above lessons as many times as you need to, to focus your eyes just on your goal and avoid unnecessary hurdles.

Our eCommerce Specialist in Parramatta, Sydney, Gosford, Melbourne & Adelaide are fuelling the Digital Transformation Phase for Aussie Businesses, We have been able to consistently improve Return on Marketing Dollars for our clients.

SIMBAA has expertise in managing next-gen marketing strategies that can help you tackle obstacles hindering your online growth, Speak to one of our eCommerce Consultants to start your Growth Journey.