Creating a downright online store is not that hard when there are plethora of platforms available including Magento, Shopify to WooCommerce or Zencart. However, considering the fierce competition in the eCommerce segment, starting an online venture is more about building credibility and making things perfect to boost conversions. For online retailers, success is a sure instance only if they know how to fetch new customers consistently and fill all the gaps on the website. At every step, they have to be careful not to fall prey to the costly mistakes that most retailers make and ruin their scope for earnings.
Whether retail merchants wish to launch an eCommerce store or get their existing store optimized, here are the most-obvious mistakes that they should be aware of to offer exhilarating user experience to their visitors.
# 1 Not having a proper plan for targeting
For an eCommerce site, one does not need a formal strategic plan, but still a simple plan on how to proceed and target the specific segments. You do not need a business plan as a roadmap for success but simply be aware of who are your customers, what they like, what you can sell to them and what customers are willing to pay for the products offered by you.
# 2 Not having a definite value proposition
Research identified that most buyers stay for some fraction of seconds on any online site before deciding whether they will purchase or leave for another shopping destination. The only thing that can affirm their decision to stay is a Unique value proposition of your store. Your value proposition will make you different from the rest sellers and exhibits what you have in offer for them. More strictly, the value proposition is a promising prospect from the retailers' end to deliver specific benefits to the customers and telling them why they are the best.
# 3 Hiding product details and information
Most online retailers make the mistake of hiding a lot of details like the complementary items added to the product, rebate or discounts, certain less-important features or the surcharges needed for delivery. They think that customers will love surprises and may get exhilarated after placing the order. But, the truth is customers feel tricked down in the instances where they have to pay more and did not know about it. So, even if you have best intentions of hiding some information, do not go for it as people like you to be straightforward especially about shipping and prices.
# 4 Ignoring after-sales customer treatment
You just can not forget the customers who have bought something or other from your store because they might be the one to return for their next purchases. Thus, make sure you offer them good experience even after the product sale. For this, retailers need to promote some prominent way of interaction with the customers afterwards like email, messages, push notifications, live chat and so forth.
# 5 Not emphasizing on SEO strategy with understanding of the market
SEO for eCommerce or any website predominately involves studying the competitors in the market and what are the keywords or key phrases that are targeting. You must not act silly and consider only keywords relevant to your business but should consider those quality keywords that can elevate your ranking in search engines above your competitors.
It is always better to learn from the mistakes of others than your own. These above illustrations are to make you and every aspiring retailer aware of the pervasive mistakes that might happen in eCommerce development. This will probably let your mind buzz with different ideas on how to avoid these mistakes and improve the scope of revenues for your store.