In the new digital age, fewer entrepreneurs who intend on becoming vendors are interested in opening actual physical stores, as eCommerce sites are not only more cost effective, they’ve proven to be equally or even more efficient.
Rather than focus on the design of a physical business offices, startup CEOs are now turning their attention to the design of quality, attractive and niche-appropriate eCommerce sites. Some business take it some steps further with super efficient digital tools and opt for which best suits the enterprise between distributed vs. cloud computing.
The sacred truth about any serious online business is that its overall design, features and the types of modern software used will greatly determine the success of the enterprise. If the outlook and visitor experience fail to appeal to the right target market, visitors won’t convert.
These are the commonest and most costly mistakes most new online enterprises make.
Not having a clear product description
Setting up an eCommerce website with no product descriptions is a huge error that’ll take your business nowhere good. How are your site visitors supposed to know what services you’re actually rendering or how you could solve their problem if you’ve provided them no detailed information.
Even if the service or product you’re offering is a popular one, it still needs a product description. In fact, regardless how commonplace a product is, with the right compelling product description, you can convert a visitor into an actual shopper by showcasing the product as something unique.
This is best accomplished by highlighting the benefits of the product or service rather than simply highlighting its physical features and dimensions.
Working with an “If you build it they will come” approach
Many ecommerce businesses that fail within the first year of startup are prone to this mistake. While the quality and look of your website will play a vital role in winning over customers, you can’t simply build a website based on what you think is good and the target market will come to it like flies attracted to a bright light.
Healthcare IT experts at Truth North ITG advise that before setting up an online web presence, such as in medicare, the site owner must thoroughly research and understand his or her target market and work closely with a skilled web developer to develop an website template that matches the persona and needs of potential site visitors.
Also, once you’ve developed a website that best appeals to your target audience, don’t just leave it as it is and expect prospects to come. You need to actively and ethically promote the online enterprise and its unique offering through proper channels.
Failing to do so could mean your online brand will become lost among the myriad of online businesses that open daily.
Absence of good and believable reviews on your eCommerce site
Reviews and other forms of social proof are important to any online enterprise, especially with even stiffer competition in the digital economy.
Reviews are an effective way of convincing your visitors that your brand can deliver on its promises as evidenced by the testimony of people who share similarities with them. This is why it is necessary that you convince (or beg if you have to) your online customers to submit reviews.
Asides from showcasing the quality of your services, customer reviews also contribute to making your website more content rich.
Not including an attractive logo
It’s very difficult to establish your brand in the hearts and minds of your shoppers without a logo. This is because a logo is often the first thing the stirs the curiosity of a site visitor.
Your brand logo shouldn’t just be decorative; it should also be able to create a good first impression. Sadly, many people launch online stores with no logos. They do this because they think creating a logo isn’t worth the hassle or getting a good one is too expensive. Well if you didn’t know, the good news is you can easily get a good one for free or inexpensively on a variety of online platforms.
Limiting yourself to only few branding or marketing channels
To get your online business the visibility it needs in 2017, you must be ready to take advantage of as many branding/marketing channels as possible, especially the social media. Limiting yourself to just one or two channels – and which are probably ineffective for your business niche – is not a good way to get ahead especially in a marketplace swarming with quality competition.
There are literally hundreds of marketing channels that you can use to drive quality traffic to your store including Facebook Ads, PPC, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Instagram marketing, and so on.
After a while of experimenting with your options, you should be able to determine what channels are most effective for promoting your brand and which will grant you the sort of visibility you desire. It takes time and patience but it’s definitely worth it in the long run.
Ignoring meta tags
Your online business pages’ meta tags are essentially a list of keywords that search engines will associate with your website. It is one of the first things a search engine will utilize in matching an internet user’s search query with your website content. Therefore, to help give your website high visibility on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), make sure to carefully craft keyword-rich meta tags.
Having duplicate content on your eCommerce site
The more content you have on your eCommerce website, the better. But remember to never compromises quality. Rich and useful content is more important than high volume but fluffy and poorly constructed content. That’s a big no-no as that can negatively affect your website’s quality and ranking. Duplicate content, especially that which is copied from another website is frowned upon by big search engines like Google and can lead to your website being penalized.
Avoiding these mistakes will do your online enterprise a ton of good this year, potentially boost your site traffic metrics and make your brand more competitive and profitable.
