Building an enticing Online Shopping Store can be difficult, especially if you are new to the Internet marketing field.
Notably, developing a popular money making site like Amazon.in, Flipkart.com, Cartcafe.in that are known to sell a wide range of products can be challenging.
There are several marketing channels that work behind an ecommerce store.
Every Startup has big dreams and excitement. Particularly,
When they launch their product store with the most beautiful template theme and filling it with great products, expectations take a leap.
But there are a few common eCommerce mistakes done by them, which ruin their product sales and customer base.
#1.Product Pages Full of Duplicate Content
Beware of the duplicate content must be a policy that must be followed by every startup.
Unfortunately, these companies do not adhere to the above policy and make use of the copied product descriptions from other competitors sites
And paste it on their site to increase categories and product display.
Indeed!
It becomes the biggest ecommerce site errors on their end that restricts their growth.
The presence of duplicate content hampers the SEO ranking and traffic of the portal for the content or item description that appears at more than one web address,
And makes it difficult for Google to decide which version is more relevant to a given keyword query.
According to Matt Cutts, 30% of the web is duplicate content.
If other sites are duplicating/copied your articles or blogs without permission,
You can fill a request under the DMCA Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Search Engine rewards uniqueness. If your site pages are full of duplicate content,
Then fresh them all with a unique piece of content or hire a professional writer to do the job for you.
Do a plagiarism check for your content over the Copyscape Tool. Just paste the content or URL in the box for making a check.
#2. Losing Customers Over Checkout and Payment Option
If your site’s checkout page has unnecessary information fields, then your customers are likely to close that page without initiating any purchase or action.
Putting buy with Registration or Guest account options on the checkout page helps to attract the attention of the consumers.
Registration is a very lengthy process.
So use one checkout page which easily allows your site visitors to fill their shipping details, billing details, and credit card information.
Once you fix this option, the visitors can make their purchase quickly.
With payment option, you can also add Cash on Delivery option with a payment gateway. 60% of sales are made by cash on delivery in India.
#3. Bad Navigation Can Reduce the Credibility of an Ecommerce Site
The impact of bad website’s navigation on the success of the business can be observed in the traffic flow of the portal.
It is one of those eCommerce website mistakes that determine the success or failure of a website.
For an easy browsing experience, it is necessary to get it right. It is challenging yet not impossible.
Here are a few navigation practices to be avoided for a better user experience:
- Drop-down menu – There are a few eCommerce websites where a drop down menu is missing. Believe me, the absence of drop-down menu restricts the visitors to find the desired product with lesser clicks. Obviously, it is a necessary development to be made for saving time of the users and narrowing down their search
- Filters – With filters, the customers can refine their search. Filters allow them to directly reach the desired product based on price, availability, and specifications. Again, the absence of this feature reduces the user-friendliness aspect of the website.
- Clutter of items in navigation – Truly, it is an awful thing as too many items in your navigation menu make it difficult for the users to remember the items. Limiting it to 6-7 is the best strategy to follow to enhance the traffic of a website
In a whole, a concise and descriptive navigation with a contact link is a key to get it right. Keep it simple to make it user-friendly.
#4. Slow Loading Website Hampers the Flow of Incoming Traffic to a Site
Nobody likes to stop by a website that loads slow, isn’t it?
Truly, a website that loads fast is an exemplar of an ideal eCommerce site that allows the visitors to navigate through different products and categories.
Even if your site deals with a huge range of products, slow loading reduces the flow of traffic to a great deal as the users are only concerned about the speed.
It is one of those eCommerce mistakes that can ruin the sales of the online store.
In the online world, even a loading page delay of one second may prove to be a huge blunder.
Maintaining an online store means the inflow of a massive traffic on a daily basis.
A limited capability CMS will obviously hamper its speed. Understanding the need of a website is necessary to determine the loading speed.
Points to focus on for managing a consistent loading speed of a website:
- Make it a point to use images that are less than 100 kb as larger images take time to load and hinder the site’s speed
- Also, make it sure to reduce the size of the banners used in the home page. It is a good strategy to keep up with the pace
- If the CSS and coding of a website is heavy, it affects the speed of a website to a great deal. Focus on minimizing these aspects and maintain a simple website design for it to work in a desired velocity
#5. Duplicate Product Meta Titles Avoids Offering a Distinct Identity to a Website
While optimizing your site for SEO, the importance of product meta title cannot be overlooked.
The hard truth is that optimizing an eCommerce store to a WordPress site is far challenging.
There are thousands of eCommerce sites with an endless number of products over the web.
One of the common eCommerce mistakes done by the portal owners is that they copy the content from the competitor’s site.
Unique content and meta title helps in avoidance of offering identical values to the page.
A unique meta title contributes to the creation of a web page that has a special value and makes it easy for Google to recognize it as a distinct identity.
Duplication of meta titles is an E-commerce mistake to avoid to help your website flourish as a different individual.
Also relevancy of the title matters. If you own a web store that deals with Branded Shoes,
meta title like “Shop New Branded Shoes Online at Lowest Price” or
“Buy Branded Shoes Online at Cheapest Price” sounds relevant.
#6. Ignoring LSI Keywords
Indeed! LSI terms helps to maintain the flow of a content in a natural way without keyword stuffing.
Related or LSI keywords are necessary to avoid the repetition of similar keywords and help search engine recognize the subject of the content through the use of synonyms.
One of the major eCommerce website mistakes is the use of a same keyword throughout the product page.
It is an example of poor-quality content that search engines hates and results into the degradation of page ranking.
Focusing on the strategy of using Latent Semantic Index is a way to come out of the flying colors in the competitive world of online marketing.
#7. Not Using SSL – Your Site is Running the Risk of Phishing Attacks
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer, is a technology that helps to hide the initiated communication between the web server and the user.
Undoubtedly, it is an incredible platform that maintains the desired privacy and prevents hacker attacks.
Unfortunately, many eCommerce sites are not using SSL and are running the risk of getting hacked.
As Hacking = stealing of information, the site becomes an insecure place to hail around.
Therefore, proves to be one of those eCommerce website mistakes that can ruin the integrity of your online store.
A page protected by SSL contains padlock icon and provides assurance to the visitors that the site is a secure place to shop.
So if you are not using SSL, get it done today and enjoy the inflow of thousands of visitors every day.
#8. Hiding Social Profile Buttons From Website – A Major Mistakes to Avoid
Certainly, the impact of highlighting social profile buttons on a website is a way to attract more number of customers to an online store.
Social media buttons offers an impression of active profile of the site owner.
Also, they get to know regular updates on the site’s performance through these channels.
Absence of the same creates an insecurity among the visitors about the credibility of the owner and results into the degradation of traffic flow.
So if you have not added it to your website, you must do it today itself for boosting the Trust towards your site.
#9. No Customer Reviews on Product Page? One of The Significant Blunders Not to be Overlooked
You must have seen that most of the big names in the eCommerce world allow customers to add reviews for their products.
It is necessary for several reasons.
Firstly, it allows the other visitors to get an idea about the product’s benefits and loopholes.
Going to the next, it helps the visitors to get an idea about the quality of the product as well as the service of the portal.
Most of the users look for the reviews before buying a product.
A product page without customer reviews discourages the sale of the product as nobody wants to be a first customer to try the product because online shopping is a mere gamble.
So please manage generic customer reviews for the product for it to perform well.
To manage reviews for the product, you may ask a customer to leave a product review who might have bought it in the past.
For that send them a request form and offer a discount coupon or a purchase voucher as a token of gratitude.
Apparently, even a single product review can accelerate the sale of your store.
Without a doubt, working on this eCommerce mistake can do wonders to the sales figure of the product.
#10. Poor Quality Products
Nobody wants to invest money after a product that is of low quality.
If you are selling poor-quality products via your store for fulfilling your selfish means, you are actually spoiling the scope for reaping long term-benefits in the future.
It should be the topmost concerns of every online store owners to win long-term clients than concentrating on short-term profits.
There should be a precise return and privacy policy of every ecommerce store based on quality parameters.
#11. Ignoring Chat Support? Find Out What You Are Actually Missing
It is a basis of maintaining a sound relationship with customers as their queries get sorted out through the assistance provided by the company’s support team.
Make it a point to stay available to clarify their doubts or follow up with their messages and emails.
Remember it is a fantastic way to attract and engage the customers to your website.
Hence, the equation stands as Attract + Engage = Leads.
If you don’t have a provision for the same, make arrangements for it today.
Overcoming this issue helps you deal with this common online shopping error preventing you from generating leads.
Undoubtedly, working on the same will contribute to creating a strong customer base.
#12. Using Faded Product Images
Faded images never give clarity on the actual appearance of the product.
Nobody wants to buy something that looks so dull and unclear in a picture.
So please take a clear view of the product before posting on your website for sale.
Working on this eCommerce mistake will help you win more loyal clients for they will surely buy your product and will also leave recommendations for the same.
#13. Poor Web Design and Color Ruins the Scope of Generating Higher Traffic
Needless to mention that dull color and unattractive design of a website cannot ignite interest among many visitors towards your portal.
So if you run an online store and want to sell off your products fast, you need to focus on a strategy of attractive design and color scheme.
Hope you remember an old saying, “The first impression is the last impression,”
And in the dynamic web world, it just takes a 1/10th second to leave that lasting impact.
Such a little time it is, but good enough to let your visitors form an opinion for your eCommerce site; either positive or negative.
So work on this eCommerce shopping errors for your online business to do well and generate more traffic for higher leads.
#14. Ignoring Mobile Users – One of the Major Errors in Ecommerce Websites
I hope you all must be having an idea on this.
More than 80% of the internet users own a smartphone, so you never know when they will make use of their handy mobile device to go to your website.
In fact, according to the latest research, almost 48% of consumers start their search with search engines with the help of a mobile phone.
Therefore, you must aim for developing a mobile-friendly or a responsive web design to manage your smartphone generated traffic.
If your web design does not adhere to this requirement, you are jeopardizing your eCommerce business.
#15. Are You Ignoring PLA Shopping Campaigns?
Find Out What Harm Are You Doing to Your eCommerce Business.
Apparently, you are making a big mistake by ignoring PLA Shopping Campaigns.
PLA or Product Listing Ads has been specifically designed for eCommerce business as it helps to generate higher traffic and ultimately results in greater leads.
Many newcomers in the market are not aware of the concept of PLA advertising and hence tend to lose many potential consumers in the near future.
Product Listing Ads are the sponsored ads that are highlighted by Google in the search engines for leaving a striking effect in the minds of the consumers.
Also, the ad is relevant to the search terminology.
For example, if a person searches for ethnic Indian Sarees, the image of a saree with price
And buy now button appears on the top or side search results.
It is a tactic useful enough for attracting the attention of the visitors.
At least one out of 10 visitors click on the link and get redirected to the eCommerce portal of the highlighted ad.
To enjoy the benefits of PLA, the marketers need to register with Google Merchant Center,
And place ads with the help of Google AdWords as both the accounts get automatically linked.
The great thing about these ads is that it is cheaper than search ads & display ads and also enhances the CTR for the website.
Even the Cost Per Click is lower compared to other forms of advertising.
So it’s time to register with Google Merchant Center to start with your PLA campaign rather than ignoring it to save a little money.
Ultimately, your prospects for earning gets brighter with this strategy.
If you don\’t know how to run Google product listing ads campaign then opt for our 15 Days PPC Training.
#16. Using Adsense Ads
It is one of those bitter facts that is not known to many online retailers.
A lot of them are under the impression that AdSense helps them to generate a cumulative income,
But actually, it distracts the audience and persuades them to click those ads and land to other eCommerce websites.
In the course, they are compromising a high income that can be generated if their product’s sale gets initiated after a petty revenue paid by Adsense for a mere click.
So think before incorporating the Adsense revenue program in your website.
#17. Failed To Build Loyalty & Trust
When I talk about building trust among customers,
I mean those security signals that most of the sought after eCommerce sites concentrate on.
You must have noticed security signals like a 7-day-return policy, 100% buyer protection,
100%money back guarantee or 100% money back assured mentioned on most of the eCommerce sites.
Such signals offer confidence to the buyers that if the product that they ordered is not up to the mark, they have complete liberty to return it and get back their money.
So they don’t mind ordering products from such sites. Just hail around big websites like eBay, Snapdeal, Flipkart or Amazon and you will realize why these eCommerce platforms are doing better than others.
