Every potential entrepreneur is faced with a frightening statistic: 1 out of every 12 businesses are doomed to ‘fail’ according to the Startup Genome report. This is not all that too comforting to hear when you want to start an e-commerce business.
While a business failure is subjective in the grand scheme of things, your business should not fail if you know beforehand how it might fail in the first place.
That is why in this article, we will be discussing the major reasons why an ecommerce store fails and the type of solutions that you need to know about tackling such an issue.
Let’s look at some of the top reasons why your e-commerce store fails within the first year of its inception. We will discuss both why this reason causes it to fail and how you can solve it:
Imagine arriving at a store where products are scattered randomly and checkout lines are confusing; that’s the same frustration a poorly designed website can cause. Your customer’s first impression is important. You only get one chance and it can be the entire reason why they might shop at your online store for years to come or click off within the first 10 seconds.
So to address this, you need to ensure a clean, intuitive design where customers can navigate the online store easily. You should also ensure website loading speeds are as fast as possible by optimizing image sizes and codes. Make sure to regularly update the design of your website to match the theme of the season. If needed, hire a professional web designer so your website design matches your brand image.
You might have the best store in the world, but it would be rendered pointless if no one is able to find the website. Ineffective SEO practices can lead to your website not ranking on search engines. A weak SEO strategy can bury your store under competitors, making it hard for potential customers to discover your products.
For this, you need to start from the basics. Conduct comprehensive keyword research to identify what your customers are searching for. Integrate these keywords naturally into your content, including product descriptions and blog posts. Optimize meta descriptions and title tags to be clear and compelling. You could also tap into influencer marketing to help build high-quality backlinks to raise your store’s visibility further. While doing all of this, make sure you are not neglecting your website speed and quality.
One SEO practice that stands as its own reason for ecommerce stores failing is neglecting mobile shoppers. With more people shopping on their phones, ignoring mobile optimization is a costly mistake. A non-responsive site can be challenging to use on smaller screens, causing frustration. Customers want a seamless experience similar to the desktop experience on their mobile devices and tablets.
One thing is a must: you have to ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes via a responsive design. Therefore, you need to test your website on various devices of differing sizes to make sure everything is performing well. This means all the buttons are working as intended and you are able to deliver the desktop shopping experience to mobile phones.
Good SEO practices ensure search engines are regularly showing your website against certain keywords. Another way that you can increase visibility to your store is through marketing effort. Store owners do not conduct proper research into their audience, which translates to a lackluster marketing campaign that fails to attract the right customers.
Investing in marketing is a must because it is how you can reach customers more effectively. It is also one of the few ways that your customers get to interact with your brand and you need to make a good impression on them.
So develop a comprehensive multichannel marketing plan to reach a broader audience. Engage with potential customers on social media platforms to promote your products and offers you have in your store. You can also use email marketing to provide personalized deals to loyal customers, so they are more likely to make repeat purchases.
Use email marketing to keep existing customers informed and offer personalized deals. Invest in paid advertising to boost your visibility. Marketing is a continuous effort so make sure you are on top of all the trends in the industry to get the best out of your marketing efforts.
Another way that customers get to interact with your business is through customer support. Most startups and first-time e-commerce entrepreneurs fail to provide a quick customer support service, which turns off potential customers from shopping at your store or you having a high product return rate.
To help solve this issue, you need to have dedicated support ready on hand to deal with the customer’s grievances. Offer multiple support channels, such as live chat, email, and phone. Train your support team to be responsive and empathetic. Implement a ticketing system to manage inquiries efficiently and have a detailed FAQ section to help customers know all the necessary information before they make their purchase.
The regular ecommerce checkout is lengthy. First you need to add the product to cart, finalize the cart to head to checkout. Then the customer is prompted to give their contact information, add coupons if they have any. And then finally, the customers are supposed to add their payment options. This is unnecessarily complicated and might cause customers to not want to shop at your store.
Simplify the checkout process by reducing the number of steps needed to complete a purchase. Instead of multiple clicks, give the customers all the necessary fields to fill out in one step. Also, you should offer a guest checkout option to avoid mandatory account creation. For those that do create an account, it will be good to have your website remember their address to help quicken the checkout process.
Every e-commerce store has unique selling points (USPs) that differentiate it from the competition. However, many stores fail to highlight these key features effectively. If your potential customers can’t quickly see what makes your store special, they may opt for a competitor.
To address this, identify and clearly communicate your USPs throughout your website and marketing materials. One way you can do this is by highlighting points of how your product is able to solve their problems instead of focusing on the features of the product. It creates empathy with the customers and makes it more likely they will buy the product.
Behind the scenes, an e-commerce store needs to have inventory management in place. If you are showcasing out of stock products on your website that customers are buying, it will frustrate customers and put them off from shopping at your online store. Many e-commerce stores fail in doing this, causing them to lose business quickly and eventually close up shop within the first year.
Implement an inventory management system to track stock levels in real time. Along with that, plan ahead on a seasonal demand basis so you have enough products in hand to meet surging demand or know when customers will buy less of your product. That way you can reduce how you are spending and help get customers their products on time and without delay.
Many e-commerce startups do not care for data and analytics. But it also becomes the major reason for their downfall. Data is important because it allows you to visualize who your customers are, how well your store is performing, and where you need to improve.
While it might be costly, you need to set up data and analytics trackers on your website so you are updated in real-time about your store’s performance. Then, you need to review these metrics and identify where you need to optimize your website and come up with refined marketing strategies to market your products to the right customer segments.
The eCommerce market is highly competitive, primarily due to the low barrier to entry. This means the stay-at-home mom and your fully functional team of marketers are in competition. If your store isn’t unique or memorable, you quickly get buried in face of the competition.
To overcome this challenge, focus on differentiating your store from the competition. Identify your unique selling points (USPs) and highlight them prominently on your website and in your marketing campaigns. Whether it’s exclusive products, superior customer service, or a unique brand story, make sure these elements are clear to your customers so they know exactly what makes your products different from others.
Starting an e-commerce business can be daunting, especially with statistics suggesting a high failure rate. But don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Every e-commerce success story began with someone taking the leap despite the risks. The online marketplace is vast, and there is always room for innovative ideas and unique offerings. Make sure you know of these pitfalls and you are more than likely to succeed in your e-commerce venture!