Building an Ecommerce site can be a mammoth of a task, especially if it’s your first. Luckily for you, we’re here to help. We’ve comprised a list of some pitfalls to watch out for.
We will look at seven of the most common mistakes new ecommerce business owners make and how you can avoid them. Here we go:
1. No Logo
Having no logo is a disaster, how is the customer supposed to recognise you? A company with a great logo usually gets attention first. You’ve paid for advertising but are still being overlooked, no calls. On the other hand, one of your competitors are receiving phone calls on a daily basis. They are first choice, and they haven’t paid a penny extra for their advertising, but they do have a logo which stands out.
Differentiate yourself from your competitors, don’t use generic imagery, don’t use the same colour schemes. Set your logo apart from the rest and make that first impression count.
2. Social validation
We all know that social validation can help with conversions. Social validation does just that it verifies your business, displays trust, and builds confidence in your brand. However, many people get this wrong they either overlook the importance of it is being implemented wrong having an undesirable negative effect.
Let’s take a look at several ways you can implement social proof wrong and why it does more harm than good
Good Reviews, Bad reviews, No Reviews?
It’s great to be able to boast great customer reviews for your products and you should do so when possible, but let’s face it, from the offset its more than likely you will have little to now reviews on your products. You may want to hold off until you have some customers you could ask for a few reviews to get started. This is especially important if you have a larger catalogue of products.
Similar to yourself when shopping online, visitors will buy based on reviews of other customers, it validates their decision to purchase from you. So why are there no reviews? Has anyone purchased this product before? Is this a genuine shop? These questions are all raised when a customer cannot find reviews. This acts in the exact opposite of social validation causing customers to question if they should purchase from you at all.
Prominently Featuring Social Accounts with No Followers
Similar to the effect of reviews, many online shoppers use social media as a trust indicator when purchasing from a store for the first time. You can be on every single social network but if you have no followers and engagement, it may end up doing more harm than good.
So what’s the solution? Instead of prominently displaying all of the wonderful social networks you’re a part of, start with one and work on building up a decent following. As this media grows display it, as another grows display that, but from the very beginning you probably won’t have a lot to display. Don’t get disheartened these things take time.
3. "I’ve built it now wait" Mentality
If you’ve just built your site and are waiting for customers to just turn up, they won’t. Building your customer base takes time, marketing and effort. The internet has about just over a billion websites at this very moment. Take a moment to think about that. When you create your store you will be joining last on that list. How are people going to find your site?
Building the most beautiful site and filling it with great products won’t make customers come, the work doesn’t end there, that’s just the beginning. When you start a business, you have to realise that launching your store is just the first step in a great journey to building your business. There are however many steps that come after launch.
4. No identity
A lot of store owners end up underestimating the sales potential of their about page. Don’t fall into this trap, it’s an important page, one customers will turn to to find out who you are and if they can trust you. Your homepage, about, and contact page will more than likely be your most important and most visited pages on your ecommerce.
Ensure all your details are on there, otherwise how do your customers contact you, know where your based, or get simple queries answered?
Maximise your sales potential, tell your visitors who you are, what you’re company is all about and provide them a way to contact you.
5. No SEO consideration
From the offset it’s easy to overlook SEO and its importance, many people trying to implement after their site has been built. While you can do it this way, don’t, it will prove costly.
SEO can prove a powerful tool to generate free revenue, good SEO is practically free advertising. It may take a while to climb to the top of google on competitive key words but it will be worth the time and effort.
Pick out 10 keywords and target them.
6. Focus
A successful business is comprised of many, many different areas requiring time and energy which you need to focus on. A half-finished project often goes on to be forgotten about neglected. Focus your attention on one area at a time, finish and perfect that area before moving onto the next, it will pay dividends in the end. No successful empire was built over night, it takes time.
7. Explore different marketing channels equally
This last point is one of the most significant, many new ecommerce entrepreneurs do not dedicate an equal amount of time, energy and money into each marketing channel.
There are many different avenues to generate traffic to your store, explore them all.
Whether its search engine optimization, telemarketing, digital marketing or google AdWords, they all require the same time and effort in order to be a success. Not all of these will be an overnight success, you may have to change target keywords, reconsider your target demographic or change your approach. Don’t give up, given the necessary attention to understand the platform each has its own unique set of customers to be converted into sales.
Take on one marketing avenue at a time, pick out one you feel will work best and utilise it, slowly building towards a plethora of strong marketing avenues. This will build strength in adaptability and attract more customers
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Conclusion
No-one said running your own ecommerce was going to be easy, but I’m sure you already knew that. Take the time, have patience, stay focused and you will be on the path to success, it may not happen overnight but you will get there.
We understand not everyone has the time and resources to dedicate towards delivering a successful ecommerce store and we are here to help. We are Identity Web Design, we have been delivering web based products and services to customers since 2008. We pride ourselves on working closely with businesses to help them grow.
View our website: Identitywebdesign.co.uk
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