Do You Make These 11 Most Common E-Commerce Mistakes?

It is now a widely accepted fact that e-commerce has taken over the world big time and is here to stay. It has created exceptionally amazing opportunities for online business enterprise owners and the scenario is only going to get better with passing time. Research also has proved that an average individual is spending whopping sums to buying their products online and more consumers are going to do shopping online every day.

However, if you already have an e-commerce store, and you are not getting all those positives, then you need to act fast because the competition is lurking. Run a thorough check-up of your website to get an insight into the existing problems and the potential pitfalls that prevent you from converting shoppers.

Working with several different clients, our consultants have come across a couple of critical mistakes in online shops. Here are the 11 top reasons why your e-commerce website may be failing to convert:

1. The visuals are boring

You should make an effort to make your e-commerce website look attractive with colorful images and pictures. Do not use commonly seen stock photos. If your store is related to fashion industry, consider to hire an expert photographer to get original high resolution images which will make a strong impact. Also, people get more convinced when they see things directly. You also could add videos that are highly informative and give a complete picture about what you are offering. So, adding videos will help to convince the customer into buying a product.

2. Lack of required functionality

If the website is not user friendly and does not provide the required functionality such as:

• product images are broken
• shopping cart is not well optimized
• page loading time is too long
• product links are broken
• search option is not available

then you are surely going to miss out on interested customers.

3. Missing product reviews

Most of the decisions related to purchase are made based on the reviews of the product that have been left by previous customers. If your e-commerce website does not accommodate this feature, then you sure are going to miss out on a segment of the market that takes its decisions depending on the reviews given by other users.

4. No enabled on-page SEO

If your website is not SEO friendly there’s no point in running a website today. You won’t get the visitors who are in search of and willing to buy what you are selling. Add Meta tags, Heading tags, Social graphs and schema tags so users can find you not only in search engines but also on social media platforms. If you want to improve the performance of your website on search engines, seriously consider hiring a digital marketing team that can take care of all your SEO needs.

5. Website is not responsive

Smartphones are the devices through which the majority of the people are shopping today. So, it has become requisite that your ecommerce store must be responsive and it should be adaptable to any screen size without compromising on the resolution and experience of the website.

6. Call to action is missing

You may have a fully functional website. But, what is the use of visitors just coming and going without performing the desired and necessary action? Do not forget to have the call to action and make it obviously click-able. You should definitely use A/B testing for your call to actions — not only while you develop the site but continuously, as user behavior is changing constantly.

7. Not targeting a specific group

Your website should target specific user groups. Just imagine you are selling premium clothing for women and your website looks as if it was for people who are bargain hunting. The appeal of your online shop has to match the expectations of your target group. A mismatch can spoil your brand. Take hints from your competitors and apply best practices.

8. Content quality is not proper

Content will always remain king, your content should represent the brand and it should convey the main objective of your e-commerce store. The content on your website should be able to engage your target audience and drive them to visit your store again and again.

9. Too much information on your website

Anything that is short and sweet is highly appreciated and very well understood. Ensure that your content is written in an easy to understand language.

10. Hard to find shopping cart

This has happened many times. After carefully choosing all the products, you fail to see the checkout button. Ensure that the shopping cart is at a traditional location which is the top right hand side on all website pages. If visitors do not find it, they will not convert at your store, but will choose another provider.

11. Key pages are missing

There are two main pages that are considered to be extremely important for service as well as e-commerce website which are ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact Us’ pages. Research has shown that visitors first visit the ‘about us’ page and then see how they can get in touch with the people behind the business by clicking on the ‘contact us’ page.

The main success of your e-commerce store will lie in the ability of the website to entice the target audience, inspire them and convert them to buyers. Make sure to avoid these common mistakes and succeed.

Originally published at www.guided-selling.org.