The Biggest Missed Opportunity In Ecommerce

 #1 Range Of Products

Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash

One of the worst mistakes you can make is not having an extensive range of products. Clients/customers tend to like more of a variety of products to choose from, and not having that may keep them from purchasing from your business. So, having more variety and ensuring that you are offering the right styles will keep customers happy. As tempting as it may be to keep your range to a limited amount of items, having a larger range can increase your chances of satisfying your consumers. Consider broadening your horizon and even expanding your portfolio by reaching out to other brands. Don’t forget that the products you sell should also match your company’s ethics and morals.

#2 Not Evolving To Trends

Photo by Artturi Jalli on Unsplash

Trends tend to come and go, whether it’s fashion, food, jewellery or furniture. So, having the ability to constantly readapt is key. Throughout the year, Google will often change its algorithm, so staying up to date on search engine optimization content is important. If your product information isn’t retooled often, then your products aren’t going to appear in search results online. Subsequently, that will result in fewer purchases even if your product does meet the purchasers criteria. 

#3 Hidden Fees

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Encountering extra costs at checkout leaves most customers frustrated. For example, extra shipping costs. According to a study, 25% of consumers have cited that shipping costs are the primary reason they have been put off of purchasing from a website. If lowering your costs isn’t a viable option, try and fully disclose them on your website, or on the product page instead. Transparency is the key factor for building a successful customer base. 

If you’re finding that your shipping prices are too high, then consider factoring them into the price of your product instead. By adding the cost to your product, you can then offer your customers free shipping, which is becoming the new standard in the eCommerce world. Or, if that isn’t a viable option, offer a yearly subscription for customers to get free shipping all year round for a certain price.

. 

#4 The Influence Of Social MediaPhoto by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

In case you don’t already know, an influencer is a person, usually one with a large amount of followers, with an ability to influence their followers, aka potential customers, by promoting or recommending items on social media. 

Social media influencers are highly valuable when it comes to increasing your brands engagement. Start contacting influencers in your industry, whether they're home influencers or fashion influencers and getting them to promote your products to their followers. Influencers have established followers, who respect them and trust their opinions and recommendations. Therefore, collaborating with them and having them positively review your products to their followers will increase your brands audience and sales. 

#4 Too Hard To Checkout

Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

With a lot of customers doing their purchasing on the go nowadays, the need for quicker and easier options when online shopping is becoming a lot more common. By making the checkout process too complicated, you could be losing out on a lot of sales. For example, making customers create an account before completing the checkout process may be off putting and deter customers from continuing their purchase. 

Social plug-ins are an effective way to avoid this, because customers can then fill in the applications with information taken from their chosen social media. Or, you could add guest checkout, and make account creation optional.

#5 Poor Website Design

Photo by charles deluvio on Unsplash

Although appearance isn't everything, people will still judge a book by it's cover, even when it comes to online shopping. Customers much prefer to look at a website that is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand, than one that isn't so nice. Ensuring that your online store looks good and functions well will boost your customer base. 

Another important factor when it comes to the appearance of your product is making sure the theme of your website matches your brand and products. Another great option is to add an “About Us” section to your website.This allows customers to learn more about the brand, and the brand’s ethics. A lot of customers also look out for a review section, so they can learn more about the product before buying.

#6 Customer Service

Photo by Charanjeet Dhiman on Unsplash

Your customer service team should be accessible for all of your customers or potential customers. You should have a team, or at least one person specifically handling any complaints or issues that your customers may be having. Poor customer service is the quickest way to drive a customer away for good, so make sure that there is always an easy way for a customer to contact you or someone on your team.

90% of customers have stated that they consider customer service to be important when choosing a brand to buy from. Giving customers a memorable experience will have them returning time and time again.

#7 Customer Acquisition

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to e-commerce is a company’s lack of customer acquisition strategies. If you don’t already know, a customer acquisition is the process of enticing new customers to your business. The aim of customer acquisition is to become sustainable over time. Make sure to do some proper research into all acquisition strategy possibilities and choose one that works best for your business. 

Having a good acquisition strategy will not only draw in new customers, it’ll also increase customer loyalty to make sure you have customers that  return time and time again.

#8 Lack Of Mobile Access

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

A large majority of online shoppers are now shopping from their mobile phones, but a lot of websites are still difficult to access via a smartphone. Don’t underestimate the power of mobile presence. Making small changes to make your website more mobile friendly to ensure that customers can shop on the go could see your sales boost by a lot. Research has shown that over 7 million people are more likely to buy from their phones. Over half of all online shoppers are now purchasing via mobile devices.

Mobile Commerce systems are also secure and provide high cybersecurity to ensure that any sensitive information is kept safe and confidential. It also makes transactions a lot easier and quicker for customers.

In Conclusion…

Having a website that isn’t user friendly or is overly complicated may be losing you a lot of sales, and so can having a website that is too basic. As the digital world is evolving, your company should be evolving with it. Make sure your team has a solid strategy in place, and that you are constantly keeping up to date because there will always be new opportunities, trends and opportunities to improve. There is no perfect way to run your business, but following these tips will definitely improve your business and your customers experience. 

Thank you for reading. If you liked this blog, you may also like this blog.