10 Mistakes to Avoid While Starting Your E-commerce Business

E-commerce Marketing

Maintaining a business is filled with unavoidable obstacles and restrictions, ones that are probably going to test your understanding and resolve. Indeed, even with the incalculable number of open and adjustable eCommerce stages accessible today, there are numerous things that can turn out badly while building, propelling, or dealing with an online business.

Aiming to go on the web and making a benefit by propelling your eCommerce business site is very even nowadays, yet you should know about the normal errors or issues that an individual may face at the same time. Let us examine every eCommerce mistakes to avoid in detail to grow your business. You may feel succeeding at a time but the next day you may feel that you have lost the battle. It is all new different feeling every moment when you hit impairments that spoil your progress.

That is the reason it’s important to understand eCommerce best practices that can set yourself up for progress and at the same time also take care of the eCommerce mistakes to avoid. By dodging regular slip-ups that different business people make on their eCommerce venture, you can actually sail on the top.

Mistake #1: Selecting A Wrong Ecommerce Platform

Your eCommerce platform is the first pillar of your business. Whether you are planning to start an eCommerce business or already running a successful venture, selection of the right eCommerce platform can Make OR Break your business.

Your eCommerce platform plays a big role in attracting users, showcasing your product, and raising your bucket size for enhanced sales. It’s not a good idea to sell Raw Meat on Amazon and Smart TV on Zomato.

While choosing the right ecommerce website builder for your business, you may need to consider these checkpoints to select the right platform for your eCommerce business.

  • What products you plan to sell?
  • What are your plans to scale or rate your business?
  • How much are you planning to spend on the platform?
  • Access of control or limitations over your eCommerce platform?
  • Will a template do or you wish a customized design?
  • What kind of experience you aim for your customers?
  • Tools you require with your platform?

Mistake #2: Not Doing the Math Beforehand

The next big mistake that you may do is not managing your business money efficiently. Not everything that comes in your account is pure profit, you shouldn’t forget that this money needs to be reinvested. You would never want to dump a business that gulped all your money and now have no hope for being profitable.

Mistake #3: Business Out of Your Speciality

Before you choose your eCommerce business, you need to ensure that you know every bit and corner of the product you are planning to offer. If you have no idea about the product, and you randomly decided to sell it on eCommerce, you won’t be able to analyse your customer and the database. Just following eCommerce best practices will not work if you go out of the league.

If the product is not of your niche, it will require a lot of research and you may not be able to identify your target customers or the right eCommerce platform for the same. If you focus on a specific niche and you know in and out about the product as well as your target audience and competitor research, you are all set to sail the boat.

Mistake #4: Proper Market Research

Whenever you plan to jump into an eCommerce business, it is advised to run a thorough research on the demand and the cliental to avoid eCommerce mistakes. Running Google Trends to determine the zone where the product demand is high and where to invest in marketing. For example, if you are planning to sell Coffee in Brazil on the eCommerce platform, it will be a dead idea as every backyard has a Coffee plan in Brazil. You need to run intense research on the product, identify your prospect clients, check your competitors existing in that zone and then make a strategy on how you wish to jump over it.

Mistake #5: Not Thinking of Content Marketing

Just establishing an eCommerce portal will not suffice the business marketing needs. You will need to have a strong ecommerce marketing strategies for your business. Content is King! A perfect content marketing strategy will bring increased qualified and filtered traffic to your portal.

If your content matches the interest of your clients, then only it will work for you. Just boasting about your product on social media will not fetch you a lot of business. Perfect content will better connect with customers and build the trust factor and authority for your product and business.

Mistake #6: Lack of Social Media Marketing

The more your brand and product will float on social media, your presence on the market and buyer’s mind will lead a sale. Your brand needs to be accessible on all platforms and needs to be shared on all social media platforms to engage customers. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp or LinkedIn should be filled with your links, pages, content, images and your branding. You can hire a team or outsource work to other remote teams and connect them virtually.

You will need to join all the groups related to your niche and promote your product and the brand. If your product and brand are floating all around the social network, the trust factor and authority will be high. Your audience will relate and connect to your product site. Ensure you have enough market presence before you start an eCommerce business.

Mistake #7: Misrepresenting & Misleading Information

If you have a great vision, great product, high morals and positive mentality, your business will succeed. The greatest eCommerce mistakes to avoid is not misleading or misrepresenting your product or service on the eCommerce platform. Such false information may give you short term gains with complications but can never make you a successful businessman or a successful brand. Don’t commit less or more and stand of the commitments. don’t exaggerate information or boast your product. Let it come from consumer’s word of mouth.

Mistake #8: Focusing on Every Feedback

I wanted to make popcorn but got numerous suggestions to add diverse ingredients by dissimilar people from different parts of the world. Someone suggested adding peanuts, chocolate peanuts, pomegranate, chocolate powder, salt, sugar, curd, wine and whatnot. I implemented all the suggestions and it was not popcorn anymore. Even my dog didn’t like it!

The same goes for your product. If you will follow every customer feedback, it will no longer be your product. It will change to something else. Stick to your plan and be reasonable while implementing any customer feedback. Run a pre-launch market survey to launch the product as per customer’s demand.

Mistake #9: Lack of Payment Options

Many eCommerce businesses run into loss because they lose their clients due to lack of available payment options. What if I want to pay using American Express, Paypal or even Cryptocurrency for the sake of a purchase? The more available payment options will lead to higher revenue and bring in more successful leads. If a customer is satisfied with the product and wants to go ahead with the purchase but can’t find the desired payment options, you face a dropped sale.

eCommerce payment options in America include Visa, American Express, Discover, iTunes, Gift Card, PayPal however in Asian markets, there are other available options like Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Stripe, Visa Checkout, Masterpass, or 2checkouts. Customers are also keen about Cash-on-Delivery (COD) options in areas where they are not certain about deliveries.

Mistake #10: Ontime Delivery Options

When you plan to partner with courier companies to deliver your product from your store to the customer, ensure you run a thorough check on the courier delivery company. May eCommerce platforms are offering sufficient delivery options like free delivery, faster delivery at an increased price or optimum delivery time at the optimum price. You should have strong confidence in the delivery that either it’s on time or it’s FREE! The delivery company will bear the cost. There are a few popular courier service companies that trade internationally. DHL, FedEx, UPS, ShipBob, DTDC are a few of the reliable options. The delivery charges may be high but they ensure not to miss the Turn Around Time (TAT).

Bonus Tips: Other eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid

There are several other considerable items that you can check before starting an eCommerce business. Check the best season to launch the product, it’s not wise to launch woollen wear in summers.

You should have enough contact details visible on your site for customer service. Every missed call is the loss of a potential customer. Most of the major companies offer 24/7/365 service to offer customer support for their product and services.

Create reliable policies and features that are in favour of your business while considering the customer’s comfort and benefits. Your offerings should beat market offerings from other competitors.

The proper digital picturization is necessary on your eCommerce platform. An HD image gallery will attract more customers and will feature the product more precisely reducing customer query and increasing sales. Filthy images are one of the serious eCommerce mistakes to avoid.

Your eCommerce portal should look clutter-free and have relevant themes while following eCommerce best practices. It should not have extreme bright looks and unprofessional colour combinations.

Most importantly, there shouldn’t be any surprising fee added to the product like additional shipping cost, convenience fee or hidden charges. Check everything before drafting a product plan and pricing before you start an eCommerce business. When you want customers to supply their security payment information, you will need to understand the security concerns involved. Ensure your digital platform has the highest security. One unhappy customer can bring your customer down.

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