Guess what? The first e-commerce sale was made in 1994 through a sale of sting CD. A 21-year-old, Dan Kohn, sold Sting CDs on a website called NetMarket. This was the first time that a transaction also took place on a credit card for the amount $12.48 plus shipping costs. Since then, e-commerce business has come a long way.
According to recent studies, it is estimated that roughly 1.92 billion users use e-commerce shopping websites by the end of the year 2019. Furthermore, the U.S Department of Commerce says that e-commerce has seen a 49% growth and is not going down in the future. According to Statista Data, e-commerce will have a growth of $707 billion in the U.S by the year 2022.
In the present fast-moving time, it is a must to keep your e-commerce business and the website up to date. As there is a saying, mistakes make a man perfect. But, do not repeat them frequently. Especially in the digital era, mistakes cost you a fortune. Mistakes happen but you should try to fix them and give a better version of your business.
In this article, we will discuss the most common mistakes that most of the e-commerce websites do and simple steps to avoid them in the coming year 2020. However, there are no concrete rules written anywhere, it is just a process of trial to check the efficiency and then follow the tips. However, there are few tips to follow to attain faster results.
Before going into detail, the first and foremost thing for an e-commerce business is the website’s security. To have a fully protected e-commerce website is a must to meet one of the targets in the business. The solution for overall protection is an SSL certificate and if you are having multiple subdomains then, wildcard SSL certificate is essential to secure the primary website under a single wildcard SSL certificate.
Now, let us get into the topic on the common mistakes that e-commerce website mistakes to avoid them in the year 2020.
Choose the wrong Platform: First things first. Choose a platform where you will meet all the requirements required for a web store. Your platform is the deciding factor for the website performance, audience reachability, website appeal, website landing page, the loading time of the website, are the main aspects for the success of the e-commerce website.
Therefore, you cannot afford to lose the first impression as soon as the audience visit your website. Moreover, there are many CMS platforms available which do not require any lines of coding. It is easy to install and use right away. But it is always advisable to hire a professional to improve and make it user-friendly.
Poor Image Quality: The backbone of the website is nothing but images. Using poor quality images do not appeal to the audience. It is a matter of fact that no one spends time going through all the content you have provided. The audience has a quick look at the images. Including the logo, high-quality images, brand and a brief introduction about the company always attracts the visitors.
Insufficient Product Description: As mentioned above, apart from the images they would like to read about the product. However, this doesn’t mean that you should write essays on the products. Give a short and crisp content about the product that the audience can understand well.
This way, you can increase the conversion rates. All you need to add is a few lines about the products you are selling, its features, benefits, color, size, weight, refund policies or exchange period in simple language.
Reasonable shipping costs or hidden costs: It is not always necessary to give free shipping for the delivery. Mention clearly, the shipping costs for each product. Customers feel annoyed with the hidden charges that add up extra while checkouts. Do not irritate the customers such a way that they will stop shopping from you.
You can simply, display the amount before checking out so that it is up to the customer to continue or not. Always be transparent in shipping costs. Do not bluff the customers with additional charges or the hidden costs.
Also, mention strictly and the return eligible dates or refunds information. Remember, shipping address mentioned should be the priority. Do not mess with the delivery date and the address mentioned by the customer. It is always a safe option to leave a message regarding the product delivery date and time to the customer. Following these simple yet effective tips will take the e-commerce business a long way.
Lack of SEO strategy: Here comes the toughest part of the website. It is basic to implement SEO on your website so that it ranks top on the search engine results page. SEO is not about adding keywords and crawl into search engines. It gives an idea of what to add, the rich content will boost the website when to publish and many more. SEO takes care of all the fonts, caption sizes as Google can only recognize plain HTML text.
No optimization for Mobile Phones: It is a known fact that almost 65% of e-commerce sales are through mobile phones. As the e-commerce business owner, you should make a smooth environment for all mobile phones. Make sure you design a responsive design for the smartphones. Building mobile-optimized e-commerce websites are the need of the hour. Thereby increasing your revenue and customer leads.
Lack of proper customer care service: No matter how many features you provide, all goes vain if there is no proper customer care service. Customers will call you regarding any doubts or claims. Always be ready to listen to them first, then assure them that their issues will be solved.
Conclusion:
Well, the list will continue but to be precise these are the most common and basic mistakes to avoid in e-commerce business. As we all know, success does not come overnight but we can carefully design and plan your website so that it will fetch the maximum productivity.
Implementing the discussed tips would bring the expected positive results. Finally, a little alertness while designing the websites and providing a great shopping experience drives you a long way!
