Starting an eCommerce site is very easy; all you need is a product to sell and a website. All of this could be completed in as little as a day, but being successful is a completely different story.
You have to know which products are the most profitable, find ways to advertise your site, as well as find ways to convert people into buyers once they get there. This can all be difficult to manage for someone who has just started. This is also when it’s most common for people to make errors. Here are some common mistakes that are made when starting an eCommerce business.
Starting Too Big Too Fast
One of the greatest mistakes that you can make is starting to invest too much in your advertising campaign at first. You first have to work on your material to make sure that it converts and that the people enjoy the user experience.
Something like PPC can be used on a small scale at the beginning to see what works and what doesn’t. One thing you shouldn’t do, however, is bid the absolute minimum on keywords. This ultimately means that your ads will see less visibility, have a lower click-through rate, and get pushed back even further as a result. Go for high bids, but low daily budgets instead.
Being Scared of the Phone
Many eCommerce business owners tend to shy away from taking phone calls and would rather deal over email alone. While some sites do operate that way, it doesn’t mean that you should.
First, you don’t need to answer calls yourself. You can have a personal assistant do it for you, or outsource it. You could also use your phone number as a tool to market your business. You could get a 1-800 from a service like kall8.com and make your website look like a national retailer. Don’t be afraid to take calls as it will have a direct effect on your conversions.
Not Personalizing Their Offers
Having regular specials is a good thing, but it works even better when you send deals that will be specific to your clients. You have to find ways to get abandoned carts back by sending them to follow up offers on the items they were trying to buy. You could also use list segmentation to send offers to people who made specific purchases.
Trying to Do Everything Themselves
Another mistake that you can make is trying to do everything on your own to cut costs, but they don’t realize that they’ll end up paying for it in lost sales. One study found that a site’s design had more of an impact on visitors than the actual content of the website when it came to building trust. So, if you can’t hire a professional, you need to go with at least a reputable platform. You should, however, always have a plan to upgrade this to a professional website at some point.
These are some of the mistakes that eCommerce owners make at the beginning. Make sure that you avoid them at all costs if you want to succeed and keep losses to a minimum.
