Be aware of e-commerce mistakes that might put off prospect customers. These mistakes can have severe impact on revenue generation. It is necessary to make tweaks in your strategy and put in measures to identify any mistake that might hamper growth of an online business enterprise.
Highlighted below are some of the mistakes which an e-commerce website needs to address and fix without any delay:
1- No Sight of Targeted Audience
Wondering why Ad campaigns or SEO tactics do not yield productive results? Failure to identify right audience can be one main reason. You know your existing strategy is not targeting right audience if an online visitor logs-off in mid of customer buying journey or there is decent website traffic yet low conversion rate.
No sight of targeted audience can be because of:
- Failure to identify market trends and current service requirements.
- Irrelevant Content marketing strategy.
- Failure to promote your blog. It is necessary to understand the tricks of how to promote a blog effectively in order to generate more targeted web traffic.
- Strategy focused more on reach than target.
- Unable to provide clear CTA.
- Inefficiency to market service message across all channels.
How to fix it?
To identify your targeted audience in order to improve revenue generation you can:
- Employ e-mail marketing to know likes/dislikes of a prospect customer.
- Ask for feedback or reviews to your existing audience.
- Use SurveyMonkey conduct surveys.
- Make tweaks to your existing strategy by observing customer reaction on social platforms.
- Use QR codes in print marketing material to drive traffic.
- A comprehensive market research to identify your targeted audience.
- Segment your existing customers on based on shopping patterns.
2- Trust Deficit amongst Customers
Trust has to be established at very moment when a prospect business client lands up on a website. Even absence of minute parameters such as product authenticity or validation can easily hamper growth of an e-commerce business enterprise.
Reasons for trust deficit can be due to:
- Not being able to recognize audience worries or insecurities.
- No brand validation seal or approvals.
- Absence of genuine reviews or feedback.
- Poor brand visibility.
- Too many re-directs to other websites.
How to fix it?
The attributes of a trustworthy e-commerce website are: transparency, delivers on promises, no hidden agenda or motive. Even a slight modification in product description as “money back guarantee” can improve conversion rate by great magnitude. Establish trust amongst your audience by following below mentioned points:
- Add trust badges or seals as shown below in the screenshot wherever required for product certification:
- Improve brand visibility on social platforms such as Facebook or twitter.
- Integrate social reviews or feedback into website content.
- Avoid unrealistic promises or deals and provide with fresh, rich quality content.
- Address visitor queries with prompt reply.
3- Failure to Monitor Important Metrics
What people do not realize is that ROI can be greatly improved by monitoring e-commerce metrics such as:
- Conversion Rate.
- Retention Rate.
- Customer lifetime Value.
- Customer Acquisition Cost.
These metrics play a significant part to give an e-commerce advertising campaign a clear direction. How many leads did the previous ad campaign provide or how effective the content marketing strategy is to drive traffic. An e-commerce website must be aware of the strong as well as weak points of their strategy with respect to audience reaction. With the above mentioned providers the efficiency of the strategies put in place can be monitored.
4- No Mobile Compatibility
Unable to cash in on user excitement at various points of buying journey can have direct impact on revenue generation. E-commerce websites optimized for mobile users are ranked higher on search engine results with boosts online reach.
Many e-commerce business enterprises fail to recognize growing e-commerce market with smart phones. It is necessary that an ecommerce website be optimized for mobile users.
How to fix it?
Check out the picture below which emphasizes the need of mobile optimization for e-commerce websites. According to the survey conducted by e-Marketer, user engagement over mobile phones has increased with every year.
For Mobile optimization make sure to:
- Get rid of unnecessary data that does not contribute to revenue growth.
- Provide with only relevant information which concerns user query.
- Use drop down menus for elaborate information as shown below in the picture:
- Improve the loading time with HTML localStorage specification.
- Add images which can be viewed on mobile without any compromise on quality.
- Get rid of pop-ups and side bars.
For mobile optimization go for:
1- Responsive website design:
Responsive website is aimed at providing readable information with ease of navigation for users irrespective of which device user access information with.
2- Accelerated Mobile pages:
AMP is just like your normal website pages only difference being that it is the truncated HTML pages. These cater to precise user query and present mobile users with only information that is relevant to their search query.
To preview how a website will look on various mobile devices use Mobiletest.me. Just enter the website URL to view the mobile website results.
5- Complicated Billing Process
Complicated billing process results in loss of potential business for a digital business enterprise which thrives with online sales.
The ideal approach is to get rid of unnecessary distractions once a product has been added to the cart. Unnecessary up-selling, cross-selling or lack of transparency leads to loss of business.
How to fix it?
As an e-commerce business enterprise to drive revenue it is essential to:
- Provide with multiple payment gateways.
- Assist the non registered shoppers with Guest Login.
- Easy to sort errors. Check out the screenshot below here in Spotify makes it easy for a shopper to identify the wrong characters of a card number.
- Keep the checkout page consistent to that of the overall e-commerce website design.
- Ask for as little information as possible. Keep the checkout page form concise.
- Trust badges or seals should be displayed according to product requirements.
- Provide real time data and billing receipt through e-mail or SMS.
With streamlined payment process the conversion rate can be maintained and improved by working on other aspects of digital optimization.
Even a simple mistake can result in loss of revenue. Considering the magnitude of competition which exists on digital platform it would be wise to improve conversion rate and brand authority by addressing above mentioned mistakes. Incorporate appropriate measures mentioned above to streamline your strategy for better Brand authority as well as retention rate.
