Starting and building a business may seem like a daunting task, but with the feverish development of e-commerce platforms in recent years, it’s become easier than ever to set up an online store and start selling.
While there have certainly been worse times to be an entrepreneur, running a successful online business isn’t a walk in the park, and there are many rookie mistakes people make when starting an e-commerce business.
Here are a few of the big ones to avoid…
#1 Adopting a “Build it and They Will Come” Mentality
While this old saying may have been true a few decades ago, the internet has changed all that.
There are millions of websites and billions of landing pages out there, and with all that competition, a proactive approach to your marketing is going to be a non-negotiable necessity.
Even if you have an absolutely beautiful website filled with the best products in your niche, you need to put in some extra effort to get the traffic and conversions flowing.
Don’t leave marketing out of your long-term business plan, and don’t execute a marketing strategy that’s too thin on the ground.
#2 Not Putting Enough Resources Towards Web Design
Okay, we’ve established that the quality of your website isn’t everything.
However, it’s still a very important factor in your overall success and one which you can’t afford to neglect if you want to sustain a healthy profit margin.
400;”>Standards in web design have been on the up for some time now, and with the majority of consumers so used to high standards, you can’t afford to let your website fall behind.
Platforms such as https://www.shopify.com have made it easy to design a professional-looking site, but after that initial work, you’ll need to worry about maintaining functional navigation, fast loading times, and other things that will affect the user’s experience.
#3 Clumsy Social Proof
All good entrepreneurs know that social proof can work wonders for conversion rates. However, it’s not generally a lack of trying that many new entrepreneurs are failing to leverage it properly.
In a lot of cases, social proof is either being implemented clumsily or forced. Reviews can certainly lead to increased conversions, but if they’re implemented the wrong way, they also have the potential to hurt your conversions instead.
When looking to leverage social proof, make sure you have a keen understanding and aren’t committing any major blunders. You can read more about this at https://blog.kissmetrics.com/
#4 Featuring Social Accounts with Small Followings
A lot of reviews, many consumers will use social media accounts as an indicator of whether or not they should trust a brand before making their first purchase.
You might have a presence on every major social network, but if those accounts have the very little following or engagement, it can easily wind up doing much more harm than good.
Instead of linking to every social account you have, start with one or two, and work on gaining a decent following on those. This will give your brand a more trustworthy image, and allow you to perfect your social strategy on a certain channel.
This will give your brand a more trustworthy image, and allow you to perfect your social strategy on a certain channel.
Are you planning to start an e-commerce website? What kind of mistakes have you made and what have you learned from them? Share your thoughts and comments below.
