Creating a successful e-commerce business is no easy feat. An e-commerce site will not immediately help you generate revenue and acquire customers. Still, you can benefit significantly from your online business with exemplary commitment and appropriate marketing strategies. Let’s see what the main mistakes are to avoid so as not to put our business at risk when we decide to open an e-commerce site.
Wrong E-Commerce Platform
You need to understand which platform best suits your needs and business objectives. This choice will, in fact, impact company costs and the complexity of management and maintenance processes. You need to consider the store size, how many products you want to offer, and their complexity.
If your project includes a wide range of categories and products, using platforms with more features and customization opportunities, such as Prestashop, Magento, and Shopify, will be appropriate. For even more excellent performance, you can opt for a proprietary CMS, entrusting the entire development of your e-commerce to professionals.
Don’t Define The Target
It is not enough to have a product or service to sell; we must also have a clear idea of who our product or service is aimed at. Identifying your ideal customer is, therefore, a necessary operation. How do you create an image of your typical customer?
It is necessary to carry out a profiling analysis that takes into account various factors such as socio-demographic information, the objectives of your ideal customer, the obstacles he encounters in their pursuit, his lifestyle and interests, his purchasing behavior, how he collects information, as well as the criticisms and objections he may have towards the offer.
The person must perceive your company and products as the solution to his problem. Not defining your target is a grave strategic mistake that could impact sales. After identifying your target, studying the most suitable channels and content for communicating with your audience based on the different profiles is a good idea.
Be On All Social Platforms
In addition to being a waste of resources, trying to maintain a presence on all social media platforms is an ineffective choice for your business. It is also not uncommon to see many companies open their accounts on various social media platforms, only to then not publish content or do so without a clear, objective-oriented, and integrated editorial plan. It is, therefore, not enough to be present on social media; we must be strategically active on the different platforms, optimizing and coordinating the different channels on which we have decided to be.
How Do I Choose Which Social Media To Be Active On?
- You need to identify your audience and understand which platforms they use most.
- Remember that the people who make up your target are different. Think about strategic communication that considers your audiences’ different methods and levels of interaction and participation and creates specifically designed content.
- Choose the platforms that fit well with your brand to enhance it and communicate its values. For example, if your e-commerce deals with selling shoes in Italy to a young and fashion-conscious target audience, Instagram will represent a better solution than Pinterest.
Poor Or Complex User Experience
If site navigation is slow, content is difficult to find, or certain features don’t perform properly, users will become frustrated and go elsewhere to find the products they need. Improving the browsing experience on your e-commerce site will allow you to work on keeping users on your site and will also increase your chances of sales.
More generally, with the advent of digital, the consumer has become increasingly demanding, selective, attentive, and capable of making more thoughtful choices. He compares himself with others, reads reviews, and makes comparisons before purchasing. Within this context, improving the interaction experience with one’s potential customers represents a winning strategy so that our product or service is chosen over another’s.
Designing your e-commerce based on user needs means working on the emotions and perceptions generated around the product; in other words, it means developing a cheerful disposition towards the company and its offer by responding to consumer expectations. If your company wants to build an effective business strategy that puts consumers’ needs at the center, relying on a UX designer represents the best solution. The UX designer works on the user’s concrete needs by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure of using a product or service.
What Can A UX Designer Do For Your E-Commerce?
- Design a sales-oriented e-commerce site.
- Design a responsive e-commerce site capable of automatically adapting to the different devices on which it is viewed.
- Design a strategy aimed at increasing the value of your brand and capable of responding to user needs.
Lack Of A Visual Identity
Creating a visual identity adds competitiveness to your marketing strategy, gives a clear image of you and what the customer can expect, and allows your store to stand out and emerge within the digital landscape. Not having a well-thought-out logo and, in general, a visual identity limits customer loyalty processes and creates a weak image of your brand.
Don’t Invest In Advertising
Focusing exclusively on techniques through which to generate organic traffic is limiting. Faced with so much competition, it becomes necessary to invest in paid advertising to stand out, segment your target audience more effectively, and understand whether you are adopting a strategic plan suited to your objectives. The main channels through which to generate paid traffic are:
- Paid traffic channels generated by SEM (e.g., Google AdWords)
- Social traffic channels generated by social media (e.g., Facebook ads).
Not Taking Care Of The Customer
People always expect something from you; they won’t recommend your product, share your social content, or sign up for your newsletter without getting something in return. Once you have acquired a customer, you must also be able to keep them. Doing so is not only easier but also highly profitable. Companies that can increase their retention rate by 5% see an increase in profits of 25% to 95%.
As much as 80% of profits come from the 20% of customers who have already purchased. We must, therefore, find harmony between retention marketing and acquisition marketing activities, working on both fronts. How to keep your customers: Make them feel special, listen to them, communicate with them, offer freebies, samples, discount vouchers, fast and free shipping, and activate loyalty programs (e.g., collecting points).
Personalize the shopping experience, make it easy for them to search for products, and offer a reserved area on your e-commerce site to access order history and the latest products viewed. Take care of all emails, not only promotional ones but also those relating to the purchase process (e.g., registration emails confirming the order and shipping the product).
Poor Customer Service
Why is it essential to have good customer service? The answer might seem banal: it helps build trust around the brand and helps people perceive it as severe and reliable. Your customers must be able to contact your company at every stage of the sales process, including post-purchase. In this phase, a lasting relationship of trust is built with your customers. A happy and satisfied customer will also be more likely to recommend your product to others spontaneously.
Not Asking For The Right Help
One of the mistakes to avoid in e-commerce that many companies make is not relying on professionals in the web marketing sector and trying to do everything themselves with the idea of saving money. In the long term, this attitude leads to the dispersion of energy and resources.
Building a serious communication and marketing strategy requires skills that cannot be improvised. To save time and money, seeking advice from a web marketing agency is advisable. While this requires an initial investment, it is a method that will help your business save a lot of money in the long run and get results.
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