E-commerce is a sector that offers great opportunities to easily meet with buyers and sell products. The absence of expenses such as rent, personnel and cleaning, as in a physical store, significantly reduces costs and provides great convenience to entrepreneurs. Opening an e-commerce site and making sales is very economical and easy when compared to a normal store. However, failure to meet certain responsibilities may result in failure of the initiative.
Everything does not end with just opening an e-commerce site. When starting this business, vigilant planning should be done and some factors should be considered. Otherwise, the opened e-commerce website may turn into a site that is not visited by anyone, which means that all efforts are wasted.
So what are the things to consider when setting up an e-commerce site? What factors can affect the success of an online sales site? In this post, we’ll try to cover the things that one must avoid in order to make an online store thrive.
Things to Avoid When Setting Up an E-Commerce Site
Pre-planning and market research is crucial when setting up an e-commerce website. If you have already decided to create your own ecommerce store or if you already have one, it is very important that you take into account and avoid the following common mistakes that can harm the success or prestige of your store.
Not having Different Payment Methods
Consumers in the digital age like to have options above all things and at the crucial moment of making the purchase it is essential that you do not limit the options of payment methods.
The most common payment methods include payment by credit or debit card, PayPal, payment at convenience stores, etc. Remember that the more options you give people, the more likely they are to complete their purchase.
Not Providing Confidence to the Potential Clients
There are many customers who are still afraid of making purchases on the Internet, as they fear that their payment cards will be cloned or that it will not be the official page of the store. However, to avoid these setbacks, we can build confidence in the potential customer through elements, such as SSL certificates, provide return policies, transparently detailed costs, etc.
Not Giving Information about Shipping Costs
Many companies avoid including information on shipping costs so that customers do not have a high perception of the final price of the product or service they are purchasing. However, it is a deadly trap, because the user does not want unpleasant surprises when paying. In these cases, he prefers to abandon the purchase than to inquire more about the shipping costs.
Not Creating a Marketing Plan
Only with the store open you will not be able to recover your investment. You must reach people and have a clear strategy to do it. Testing ads here and there is not going to make your brand relevant to your target audience.
Many entrepreneurs do not realize the importance of having a good marketing plan as they avoid hiring professional services. Ecommerce web development services and other marketing plans are vital in order to grow an online store and boost its sales.
Hire the Cheapest Platform
There are several platforms designed to set up an online store, both with free and paid versions. Obviously, the free ones have much less functionality.
To choose one or the other, it is not advisable to be guided only by the one that requires the least outlay. There are many factors that influence the proper functioning, including the quality of the design of the templates, the number of products, categories and sections that your store will have, the payment gateways, and the shipping system. Perhaps you can start with the most convenient option. But you must make sure that when your store grows you will be able to implement new functionalities.
Bottom Line
If you have come this far, you will realize that all this effort to develop a business plan and launch an online store does not mean that the project will turn out well or badly. The process and steps to create an online store is relatively easy, but being successful and being able to live from it is much more complicated. One must avoid the aforementioned myths in order to grow and succeed.
