Top 15 Biggest eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid and Their Solution!

Introduction

Ecommerce stores that check all the right boxes are the ones that survive in the long run.

Mistakes will happen; it is part of the process. But most eCommerce marketers are unable to differentiate these mistakes based on severity.

Some mistakes won’t impact your revenue much. But others can severely affect your site’s user experience and sales.

You must avoid or sort out those mistakes at the earliest.

Read on to find out the top eCommerce mistakes to avoid and the solutions to fix them so you can increase your sales and revenue.

Not Performing Detailed Research

Just because you’ve launched an eCommerce store doesn’t mean people will start purchasing from it. You need to understand your products and the section of audience they will attract.

Let’s take next-gen smartphones, for example. The target audience for these devices is the Millennials and Gen-Z. So, your marketing strategy must revolve around them.

If you don’t perform detailed market research, you’ll end up promoting smartphones to Baby boomers.

Solution

1. Understand your products and perform market research to know the audience it will attract, which will help you increase your sales

Not Creating Buyer Personas

Buyer persona is a fictional depiction of ideal customers. It reveals customers’ interests, preferences, demographics, and pain points, which will help you target your marketing to the right customer.

Without buyer personas, you will promote ‘Skipping ropes’ to people in their 60s.

Solution

1. Define your buyer personas and segment your audience based on them; you can target your products to the customer who needs them, resulting in better sales

Choosing the Wrong Platform

One of the major eCommerce mistakes is choosing the wrong eCommerce platform.

Don’t choose a platform just because it is cheap; there may be hidden costs later. You know your products and the quantity you’re about to sell, so select a platform that caters to your requirements.

A poor eCommerce platform can result in poor sales and security; in some cases, all your data might be vulnerable to hackers and theft.

Solution

1. Ask your friends and experts for an opinion

2. Look for reviews and testimonials

3. Use eCommerce communities in social media to clear your queries

4. Choose a platform that can meet your demand; WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce are some prominent platforms you can use

Poorly Optimized Product Pages

Using low-quality product images, product descriptions, and not including social proof are some common product page mistakes that will push customers away.

Product descriptions must convince them to purchase, and customers prefer personalized product recommendations on the product pages.

Solution

1. Write compelling descriptions to persuade customers

2. Use customer reviews and trust badges to make customers trust your store

3. Upsell/Cross-sell products on your product page based on customer’s search and purchase history

Low-Quality Visual Elements

Product images are a major deal maker, and customers make their purchase decision based on them. Lackluster banners and non-attractive product images can put them off.

Using fake or stolen images will not deliver a reliable customer experience and lead to negative user-generated content.

Solution

1. Design the best website banners and illustrations to grab customer’s attention

2. Hire a professional photographer for your product photos; 75% of customers rely on them to make purchases

Complicated Navigation

Having a poor user interface will lead to a poor customer experience. Customers prefer shopping at stores that are easy to use. They must be able to reach desired pages in two clicks.

Making them navigate too much will push them to exit your store.

Solution

1. Provide redirection to all your pages and category in your header dropdown menu

2. Use breadcrumb navigation for a better experience

3. Include all available page links in your website header

Long Checkout Process

One of the major reasons for cart abandonment and poor sales is the long checkout process. Once a customer has decided to purchase, they prefer to complete the checkout process sooner.

Having a complicated, poorly optimized checkout process or using too many fields without auto-fill will frustrate customers, pushing them to exit without checking out.

Solution

1. Make the checkout process simple

2. Confine all the form fields to a single page

3. Use secure payment gateways for quick payment

4. Use breadcrumb navigation for a better customer experience

Mandatory Signup

There are a few eCommerce stores where the visitors have to signup even to browse through the products, which is a major mistake.

It will only lead to low conversion rates, low site traffic, and a high cart abandonment rate.

Solution

1. Keep your website open to visitors for casual browsing

2. Allow guest checkout to avoid cart abandonment

Lack of Offers and Discounts

This is probably the only ecommerce mistake in this list that eCommerce stores have almost fixed in recent years.

Customers prefer discounts and special offers. That’s one of the reasons why they prefer eCommerce stores.

Not providing discounts and special deals during holiday seasons will result in a negative customer experience and low sales.

Solution

1. Use discount plugins to offer storewide discounts

2. Set dynamic pricing in your store

3. Run special deals for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and more

Lack of Social Proof

93% of customers check reviews before making a purchase. Social proof can convince your customers to purchase more than any traditional marketing method.

A lack of reviews and testimonials will make them feel skeptical, and they will eventually leave without purchasing.

Solution

1. Include reviews on product pages and testimonials on the homepage

2. Offer points for writing reviews

3. Send follow-up emails to improve social proof

Not Including Trust Badges

Security is a major concern for customers. Customers want their personal information and payment details to be secure. They also prefer to know if they can trust the products from your store.

So, you must assure them of the quality and security.

A major example of trust badges is the ‘Hallmark’ trademark you can see when purchasing jewelry. Displaying trust badges in your store will instill confidence among your customers and urge them to purchase.

Solution

1. Secure your store with Mcafee, Norton, and such

2. Display trust badges like Google trusted store, Powered by Stripe, Norton Secured, etc. throughout your store, especially at checkout

Not Investing in Marketing

Your store will not be visible to most of the audience unless you promote it. Marketing is necessary to reach a wider audience, build a loyal customer base, and increase brand awareness, website traffic, and revenue.

Solution

1. Use marketing automation tools for omnichannel marketing

2. Include email marketing for personalized engagement

3. Run social media ads to expose your store to a wider audience

Focusing on The Wrong Metrics

Most marketers only check the sales and revenue insights. This is not a proactive practice and won’t help you enhance your eCommerce strategy.

Likewise, relying too much upon on-site traffic won’t help you either. Many stores have high traffic and low sales.

Solution

1. Optimize if your traffic rate does not align with your sales

2. Check your bounce rate to enhance the customer experience

3. Focus on click-through rates

4. Check cart abandonment rate; if it is high, optimize your checkout process

Poor Optimization for Mobile Devices

Did you know that eCommerce stores get the highest traffic from mobile devices?

Not optimizing your store for mobile devices will only result in a negative user experience and poor conversion rates.

Mobile devices provide better accessibility than desktops. You can skyrocket your sales if you have a mobile-optimized store.

Solution

1. Develop a mobile application or your website should be mobile friendly.

2. Use a shorter checkout process for smartphones

3. Enable breadcrumbs menu

4. Focus on core web vitals

Poor SEO Practices

We saved the high-priority eCommerce mistake for the last.

SEO has become a necessity for eCommerce stores in 2022. A website with poor organic traffic will not stay relevant in the market for long.

SEO plays a major role in increasing organic traffic. Not focusing on SEO will lead to poor SERP rankings, and you’ll lose your potential customers to your competitors.

Solution

1. Optimize your website for search engines

2. Improve website crawlability and make it easy to index

3. Use keywords in your product descriptions, alt tags, and header contents

4. Optimize title tags and meta tags

Conclusion

Mistakes are part of the process, and they help your eCommerce store grow but only if you can find and fix those mistakes.

We covered 15 top eCommerce mistakes made by eCommerce stores. These are common mistakes marketers make that can impact your store greatly if you don’t act quickly.

Follow our solutions to check all the right boxes and increase your eCommerce sales.