With almost 80% of Americans now doing their shopping online each year, E-commerce offers fantastic revenue opportunities for any Small Business Owner.
But with such a competitive market, creating the perfect Online Store that sees you drawing in crowds of shoppers can be a greater challenge than you may think. Many people believe that in order to have a successful Business, it’s simply enough to set-up an E-commerce Store. Unfortunately, in our extremely competitive Digital World, this is not the case.
Just like any brick-and-mortar shop, your E-commerce Store needs to be tended to regularly, well-optimized and adjusted to the demands of your target audience. Fail to do this and chances are you’ll be seeing a lot of abandoned shopping carts.
So, if you’re struggling to increase sales and drive traffic to your E-commerce Store, read on. We’ve compiled a list of reasons why your Store might be underperforming.
Poor Quality Product Images and Descriptions
Poor Quality Product Images and Descriptions
When shopping online, customers only have one sense by which to assess your products: their eyes. They can’t pick up, touch, taste, smell or try on what it is you’re selling. This means they rely entirely on the visual image of your product and the description that accompanies it.
This makes providing high-quality images and a detailed, well-crafted product description absolutely crucial when promoting your products online. Always offer fantastic images taken from a range of angles and be sure to pair these with a unique, detailed description that provides all the necessary information about the product.
If you’re noticing that there is traffic directed to your Product Page but no one is buying, then carefully assess how each of your products is visually represented. Low-quality or boring images that are lacking in detail are unlikely to entice customers into purchasing. Similarly, don’t use generic product descriptions, or worse, fail to give a description at all! Instead, entice visitors with great imagery and detailed information.
Poor User Experience
Poor User Experience
When it comes to Online Shopping, you want to provide your visitors with a smooth, easy and hassle-free Online Shopping Experience. If you’re noticing a low number of sales, then the problem could be unclear or confusing navigation.
This means you need to make it very clear to your visitor what they need to do in order to browse and purchase your products. Non-product pages should contain an obvious Call to Action, and adding products to a shopping cart should be a simple and straightforward process.
Customers should never be left guessing what the next step is. If they get lost, can’t find what they’re looking for, or are completely confused by the whole interface, they won’t hang around for very long. And, worst of all, they probably won’t return to your Store!
So, consider your own Store and the kind of experience it offers. Is it easy to navigate? Is the next stage of the process clear? If not, then it’s probably time for a redesign.
You Can’t be Found
You Can’t be Found
You could have the most beautiful, smoothly functioning and impressive E-commerce Store on the whole internet, but if shoppers don’t know you exist, then you may as well not be there.
Online Marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay per Click (PPC), are both powerhouses when it comes to getting your Store noticed online. Each of these significantly help to make your Business more ‘findable’ when shoppers are browsing online for specific products.
While SEO is a free form of Marketing that draws ‘organic’ traffic to your Store, PPC is a paid method of advertising based on a keyword bidding system. Using these Digital Marketing Tools individually or together, will help you build a strong foundation in Digital Marketing.
You Don’t Have Social Media
You Don’t Have Social Media
With almost 20% of online purchases made after surfing through Social Media, promoting your E-commerce Store via these platforms is almost a necessity in this day and age. If you’re yet to establish your Business on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, then this could be one of the reasons why your Store is underperforming.
Social Media brings excellent opportunities for self-promotion. It allows you to connect with your customers, answer their questions and humanises your Business. This will invariably increase the level of trust between you and your potential customers, making them more likely to purchase from you. It will also significantly strengthen your branding and help with the promotion of sales, discounts and special deals that you may wish to offer.
You Could be Missing Information
You Could be Missing Information
While it might not be the first thing that springs to mind if your E-commerce Store is failing, missing information can significantly decrease a visitor’s chance of purchasing.
By not clearly identifying your Business’s contact details, return policy or shipping costs, you are essentially creating a huge trust barrier between you and your potential customers.
By shopping online, your visitors are already relinquishing a lot of trust, as they can’t see your physical product or talk to a human about it. This means that if they can’t find the information they’re seeking, or they feel like you might be tricking them, you could be losing sales by the truckload.
Ensure you are completely transparent and open with your visitors. Provide them with all the relevant and necessary information to give them complete peace of mind that you are a trustworthy and honest source.
Not Mobile Responsive
Not Mobile Responsive
It's now statistically much more likely that E-commerce customers will be interacting with your Store from a smartphone or tablet than a desktop. This means that if your Online Store is not mobile responsive, you could be seriously hindering the success of your Business.
With the highly competitive nature of E-commerce, it’s absolutely vital to provide your visitors with the best possible online shopping experience. Fail to do so and your customers will not hesitate to buy from your competitors. In fact, an incredible 40% of users will go to a competitor’s E-commerce Store if they experience a bad mobile experience.
By ensuring your site is fully optimized for mobile use, you’ll be providing the best possible User Experience and make purchasing from your Store a breeze for customers.
While starting an E-commerce Store can indeed provide a wealth of opportunity, it’s important to understand that it’s not as simple as putting up an underwhelming Store as fast as possible with little consideration to products, user experience and optimization. After reading this article, you may realise that it’s time your E-commerce Store had an overhaul. Here at Sites n Stores, our team of experts can supply you will all the service you require for a fantastic redesign that can get your Business back on track! Give us a call on 1300 796 530 to get started today!
