The 5 Mistakes That Cause eCommerce sites to Fail

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It can be tough to make it in eCommerce. A common reason is having too many competitors and not having the resources necessary to compete. A far more lethal reason is not getting the basics right. The following mistakes can cause an eCommerce store to nosedive, which is why it’s so important that you’re informed about them.

Not Making a Good First Impression

It’s helpful to compare a brand to a person – like a person, a brand should have a personality that customers can feel excited by and at ease around. Just like with a personal relationship, however, a bad first impression can prevent sparks from flying. The look and feel of your site will cause a potential customer to make a decision on whether they like it ridiculously quickly. That’s why it’s so important that you don’t just have a good design, but one that communicates your brand. Your color and image choices need to be perfect at conveying personality properly.

Ignoring SEO

SEO is important for every website that wants to be seen, but it’s especially important for eCommerce. SEO is what will stand you apart from your competition. There are many things you need to get right for eCommerce – things like code compression, image tags and more. If you use a platform like Shopify, you might think the site you use will already be search engine optimized. You are wrong – good Shopify website designers don’t just exist to make a shop look beautiful, they exist to also make sure your store is ticking all the infrastructural basics needed for SEO.

Flimsy Product Descriptions

People want to get excited about the products that they buy. If you ignore product descriptions, or only put a minimal description, you are encouraging potential customers to look elsewhere. You need to think about the user experience and provide detailed, valuable information about products to go alongside great visuals. The description helps to take care of system 2 thinking and convince potential customers that your product is what is right for them.

A Clunky, Annoying, Frustrating Checkout Process

There is nothing that annoys users more than having to jump through hoops and terrible webpages when trying to buy a product that they are excited about. It kills all the excitement and can make a potential customer rethink their purchase and abandon their cart. This should be a priority for all eCommerce businesses. You want to provide a smooth, easy shopping experience that sweeps an interested customer off their feet and convinces them to make a purchase and come back again and again.

Poorly Thought-Through Navigation

Many sites have improved on the navigation front, but the importance of navigation is still understated. A good website should fit like a glove – a user should be able to browse easily, but also find the product or the category that they are looking for just as easily. Navigation is also highly important for SEO, as a confusing website can even impact how well search bots crawl your site.