eCommerce mistakes are the most damaging element to your eCommerce business! It is imperative to spot the eCommerce mistakes your business hosts and patch them to ensure greater customer retention and higher revenues!
In today’s fast and exceedingly digitizing world, eCommerce has become one of the most convenient methods of shopping and trading over the internet. At the click of a button, an eCommerce website gives you the comfort of couch shopping and doorstep delivery.
However, many eCommerce companies make many eCommerce mistakes which can be brutal on their search engine listing and customer retention!
It is true, mistakes are inevitable. Especially in the eCommerce business, many small mistakes are often overlooked during the development process, which later impose harsh damages on your business returns!
To ensure that your eCommerce website isn’t suffering the most punishing of eCommerce mistakes, which are very common in 2020, we’ve set up this post!
If you’re an eCommerce business owner ready to set your dream revenues come to life, welcome to Kaivalya.me! In this post, we’re going to explore 23 of the most common eCommerce mistakes and how you can avoid them!
Let’s jump into it!
23 Biggest eCommerce Mistakes in 2020 And How To Easily Avoid Them
eCommerce mistakes can be divided into 6 logical sections:
- Before Transaction Mistakes
- The Flaws in Web/App Design + Dev
- Search and Navigation Inaccuracies
- Faults in Product/Item Pages
- Promotional Blunders
- Checkout Page Errors
While there are many other eCommerce mistakes, these are the most damaging and most common mistakes which are likely to be found in many eCommerce business websites and apps, especially if you’ve started recently!
Let’s explore the eCommerce mistakes in each of these six sections of an eCommerce website, and see how we can fix them!
Before Transaction
“Before Transaction” period encompasses the moment a customer enters your website to the moment they hit the “buy” button in the cart.
Clearly, pre-transaction time is where the user spends most of the time, so it’s very prone to eCommerce mistakes!
Let’s explore these eCommerce mistakes one by one, and kill them all!
1. Static Content
In today’s digital world that is being powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence, users expect personalized content based on their preferences and choices.
In fact, over 75% of all eCommerce users get frustrated if they aren’t being presented relevant content (which means your website is showing static content only). You don’t want to disappoint three fourth of your customers, do ya?
To avoid this travesty (and it is a travesty indeed!), you must avoid static content - the most annoying of all eCommerce mistakes for your customers! While it would be great if you could develop your own AI-like algorithm which determines the personalization of content, you can exploit the many tools available over the internet.
Check out this post from OptinMonster which shows you 28 powerful personalization tools to integrate in your eCommerce website now!
2. Ignoring Micro-Conversions
Micro-conversions are actions which a user takes apart from purchasing items on your eCommerce website, such as subscribing to your newsletter or creating an account on your platform.
Fact is, about 99% of first-time visitors to your eCommerce business will not make a purchase.
But that shouldn’t be the most terrible thing! What would be terrible is if you didn’t at least ensure you imposed micro-conversions onto the users!
This way, you now have the email and other details of the user, and you can keep them updated each time you have a new product relevant to their interest or if you have a new offer.
Indeed, micro-conversions can pay off far greater than a single purchase from a user! It not only keeps your new visitors engaged, it creates an organic cycle of recurring customers who will forever be in your product selling cycle!
Therefore, ensure that micro-conversions isn't on your list of eCommerce mistakes!
3. Flat, Outdated Homepage
If your homepage looks exactly the same each time a customer comes to buy something, they’re going to get pretty bored of it!
You see, for an eCommerce business, the homepage is more than just fancy outlook furniture! The customer is going to search for useful products out there and they better see different, more interesting and trending products each time they visit your online store!
Something as simple as cycling popular products, changing images, and displaying fresh videos every day or at least every week can make a huge difference! Avoiding such eCommerce mistakes also give a much neater website design as a side effect!
4. Missing on Calls To Action
Call To Action elements not only ensure that you get your customers to do what you want, but it also is an element which shows your customers that you really care about them and it keeps them engaged!
Whether it is signing up or purchasing some burning stock, call to action elements increase your customer base, retention, and revenue like nothing else! Missing out on call to action elements is a huge, yet common, eCommerce mistake!
A crucial spot for CTA is right below the thumbnail of products, such as add to card, more info, buy now, etc. Another way to easily integrate CTA is to show a pop-up of “sign in” after about 1 minute of user presence on your website.
As you can see in the Amazon website above, not only does Amazon provide relevant website content on the homepage, but they also ask users to visit other links and view offers.
Bottom line with this is, you need the users to do more than just scroll down the page and buy items on your eCommerce website! Don’t miss out on a call to action!
Web/App Design + Dev
The design and development choices for your eCommerce website or app can significantly affect the way a user interacts with it and whether they find your platform engaging enough.
A small detail which you might have missed while developing or designing your eCommerce business can have a huge effect later!
Let’s see some common design and development mistakes that most eCommerce stores make, and let’s fix them!
5. Not A Responsive Design
With so many screen sizes today a user can choose from, an eCommerce business owner such as yourself would never know how the user is going to access your store. It could be a phone, laptop, computer, tablet, even a watch!
In today’s time, the highest design priority must be given to making an eCommerce website responsive and attractive no matter what screen size it is squeezed into!
The last thing you want is your buy button or CTA to go undercover because the screen size isn’t large enough!
While developing, you can use tools such as Bootstrap to ensure your website looks great in any form factor! Ensure that responsiveness is a key element while designing your online store, so that you customers are well engaged no matter which device they use!
6. Slow Loading Speed
If your website doesn’t show the first print within 3 seconds of load time, over 34% of all online users will close the tab. And that’s sad, because it means you’re only yielding 66% of your user base!
Solving one of the biggest eCommerce mistakes can reside in something as simple as using images of lower file size (by converting them to formats such as webp) and removing dependencies which take too much time to load!
You can use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights which not only show how fast your website can load on multiple platforms, but also marks critical areas that slow down your eCommerce business!
7. Vague Titles And Headlines
A user wants to know where they are, shortly and clearly. If your titles and headlines aren’t clear enough, you’re in trouble!
A headline such as “The Best Of Blue Watches For Men” is a lot more informative than “Excellent Watches”. Not only does the headline define the target audience for which the linking page is meant, it seems a lot more attractive and detailed!
8. Saving On Margins
Many web designers think that having little or no margins makes the page look more informative and attractive. Let’s get it straight: SAVING ON MARGINS IS A HUGE MISTAKE!
Countless eCommerce websites try to pack everything on the screen, and that is one of the most common eCommerce mistakes the entire world is facing!
Try to keep at least a 5% margin between each element on your webpage. Utilize more than the entire screen, try to make your website scrollable so that the user not only feels there is more content, but the website also becomes appropriately distributed!
Don’t try to pack everything together, create sections! Each section has its own heading, and all products which fall into that category are put beneath it! Neat, simple design with enough space for the user to breath!
9. Hiding Shipping Info
Transparency is one of the huge pillars on which modern society stands. We seek transparency in the government, in the school, in the sports, everywhere! And eCommerce is no exception, far from it!
A user today wants to know what’s going on with their order. How will it be delivered to them, where is it currently, who is delivering it, among a myriad of other queries!
Clearly show how the order is going to be shipped, what is its current status, and who is delivering it. It’s simple, but it makes a huge difference!
10. Too Many Options
Sometimes when we visit a product page, it simply has so many options that the product itself becomes outcast! A big eCommerce mistake, and a very common one at that!
Hitting the user with too many options not only puts too much load into their own decision, but it also takes a hit design-wise. Take a look at this example:
Clearly, the user is simply hit with so much that they would rather back off! Personally, I would almost feel burnt out by the time I’ve checked everything out!
It’s fine to have many options (as long as they are necessary), but ensure that you do justice with space and the products themselves!
Search And Navigation
A modern user won’t scroll through the page to find what they seek. They’re directly going to query it in search. What does that mean? You better nail your search and navigation options!
11. Not Prioritizing Search
eCommerce websites need to provide an excellent search and navigation interface so that users can effortlessly find what they need.
Sadly, one of the most common eCommerce mistakes is the fact that as an online shop owner, you wouldn’t put the search bar to a higher priority in a list. Although it seems that search bar can be made in an afterthought, it should rather be given the importance of a product page!
Excellent searching will already put you in the top 10% of eCommerce websites worldwide! You can use great tools for natural language processing, ML personalization, etc. and elevate your user experience to the sky!
Read this post from Shopify to know more!12. Cluttered Sort Options
Sorting is a necessary element for an eCommerce business as it allows users to filter what the want the best.
However, often the sorting options get too cluttered either because of poor design choices or simply because there is too much to sort!
A great rule of thumb here is to ensure that sorting options never cross 5 (unless absolutely necessary) and that there are either each on a new line in a sidebar, or if they are below the header, they have enough padding and clear borders to maintain a great UI!
13. Hazy Search Position
As said before, most users will first seek the search bar instead of scrolling through the page and finding what they need. One of the major eCommerce mistakes is that the search button/bar is simply not positioned rightly.
Search never comes in a sidebar or at the footer! Either place the search button right into the top-right corner of the page, or at least place it somewhere in the navigation menu with a highlighted color so that the user can instantly search for it (pun not intended 😜)!
14. Navigation On The LHS
Placing the navigation menu/button on the left hand side of a page is the least intuitive thing you could give a user!
Although this might by your try at doing something different, it would eventually cause users to get frustrated with your eCommerce website and they would leave!
To avoid this, you need to put the navigation menu on the right hand side only! It’s what everyone does and what everyone has got used to. Plus, it’s not what everyone wants to see happen differently!
Product/Item Pages
If you’ve managed to make the user read a product page, it means you’ve already avoided many of the common eCommerce mistakes blocking your way! Great job, but this is not the end.
The main juice of your eCommerce, purchasing, is still undone, and whether your avoid the eCommerce mistakes on the product/item pages determines whether you’re going to inspire a user to buy your product or not!
Let’s see what we can do about it!
15. Improperly Positioned Add To Cart Button
Add to cart button is one of the most critical elements for an eCommerce website. Users have always preferred buying products in a bulk, so they aren’t just buying each product individually!
A modern user will click the add to cart button on anything they find interesting, and it’s indeed very convenient! But you are making one of the most damaging eCommerce mistakes if your online store isn’t positioning the add to cart button at the right place!
If I were to buy a few things on your eCommerce website today, I would leave it instantly if I had to reach out for your add to cart button!
Improper position could mean the button being below the product page fold or hidden aside the image of another product (in which case the whole thing would get very confusing!).
Ensure that the add to cart button is placed right beside (or above) the buy now button, and give it some highlighted color and priority!
16. Hiding Your Shipping Policies
In case you don’t want to get stuck in any legal dispute with your customers, you better ensure that you give a clear, visible link to your shipping policies on each of your product pages!
A silly but very, very damaging of all eCommerce mistakes, hiding your shipping policies leaves a huge legal loophole on your eCommerce store. In care you wish to stay clear of the court, let your customer know your terms and conditions ⚖.
There may be many other legal issues with your eCommerce business as well! But don't stress, at Kaivalya.me, we've got over 5 years worth of experience clearing such problems!
All you need to do is set a meeting at your preferred time and date right now, and you're all set!
17. Bad Product Pictures
Needless to say, a user will not buy your products if their images aren’t inspiring enough!
If you haven’t got the proper lighting, the proper angles, the proper background, the proper contrast, and the many other shenanigans of photography for each of your product images, it reduces the chance of their selling online by over 85%, and that’s big business loss for you!To avoid the mammoth of all eCommerce mistakes, check out this post from LyfeMarketing.
18. Nothing Having Review Stars
If you need to buy something, you’re most likely going to take advice and review from others to ensure that you’re making a great bang for the buck! But if your eCommerce website simply has no review facility, there aren’t any bigger eCommerce mistakes you can make!
Online customers practically live on reviews. Show star ratings clearly beside the products, and (if possible), also below their thumbnails when they are listed on other pages such as the homepage or category page.
Promotion
Your product’s aren’t going to sell themselves! You have to promote them and ensure that you’re getting sales on your eCommerce business, after all the intention is to make profit 🤑!
You need to provide the users with limited period sales and create an urgency in them! Let’s see what common eCommerce mistakes surround promotional content and how you can easily avoid them!
19. Lack of Limited Period Offers and Sales
Giveaways, limited period offers, flat discounts on certain products, and other methods of sales and promotion increase your customer base exponentially! Who doesn’t want a bite in the free lunch, especially if it’s of great quality?
As an eCommerce business owner, it’s your responsibility to generate and maintain limited period offers and flat discounts, advertise them properly, and handle all the incoming traffic as a result of the same!
Don’t think of it as margin lost, rather imagine it as your platform exposed to more customers! If you’re here for the long term, you will see more profits as a result of more customers and higher volume of sales!
20. Lack Of Product Recommendations
While giving your users a personalized experience, it’s also necessary to give them the best recommendations which will inspire them to buy more than just what they intended!
Lack of product recommendations means that you’re making one of those eCommerce mistakes which is very easy to fix, yet ignored, eventually resulting in you losing a ton of money if you’re here for the long run!
Make sure that your recommendations are relevant to the buyer’s interests and past purchases.Offer the users to buy these items while they’re adding another item to the cart, and also tagging along something like a 10% off take-or-leave deal. It works magic!
Checking Out
You’re nearly there! Your customer has checked your eCommerce store out, added products to the cart, and taken your promotional offers! You’re through 90% of the most common eCommerce mistakes that hurdle your way.
All that’s left now is to wait for the user to hit that big attractive buy button and make the payment! In this last step, don’t mess anything up to ensure that your profit doesn’t get frictioned in the way!
It’s time to explore the eCommerce mistakes online shops make while in the checkout process, and how you can avoid them!
21. Not Having Guest Checkout Feature
While we’ve discussed the importance of getting users registered, there are some who like to stay under the radar, and that should be totally fine!
As long as they are paying you, you shouldn’t be too worried, so just shutting off the guest checkout is going to ruin some neat profit that was otherwise right on your way!
That’s not to say you don’t inspire the user to sign up while checking out. Create offers such as, “sign up and avail 50% off on your first order” and similar promotional content to persuade the user into signing up, but there should still be that blue link saying “checkout as guest”!
22. Using Hidden Fees To Earn More
If, while checking out, the user has to pay for something they weren’t expecting (or they weren’t informed of before), there aren’t any other eCommerce mistakes which can ruin your sales!
If hidden fees is your strategy to earn more money at the last moment, do note that this method will lose more money than it will make, and it’s going to ruin the reputation of your eCommerce business.
Such eCommerce mistakes reduce your customer retention and create a bad name for your brand in the online space, which is the last thing an eCommerce website needs in today’s competitive word!
Hence, ensure that you don’t make any such eCommerce mistakes just to get that little more money, know that you’re going to lose more!
23. Not Having A Sales Confirmation Page
After a sale has been many, many eCommerce business websites lead the users directly towards the homepage or back to the page they were on.
That’s one of the most weird eCommerce mistakes, since it doesn’t appear to do any harm, but it does have a rather big impact which unfolds slowly but surely!
You see, if your users aren’t sure of whether their money has been spent the right way and if their order isn’t placed, they’re going to call your service line. Eventually, you’re going to get so many of these that you’ll need to throw in countless dollars just to say, “yes, order is placed”!
That does sound like one of those stupid eCommerce mistakes, eh? Instead, all you need to do is redirect the user to a proper conformation page which summarizes their order in a neat fashion and recommends some other products!
Bottom Line
Hope you’ve found this post on the 23 most common eCommerce mistakes in 2020 and how to avoid them informative and useful for your own eCommerce business!
Note that while this post provides a comprehensive and detailed list of eCommerce mistakes which, if avoided properly and as recommended in this post, will save your eCommerce business a great many hurdles, there are some other sort of hurdles as well!
These hurdles aren’t general for all eCommerce businesses, but personalized based on the sort of eCommerce website you’re running. Such eCommerce mistakes can ruin your entire otherwise decent business model in a flash!
The competitive world of today is dynamic and changing rapidly in unpredictable ways, but if you want to stay at the top of your game regardless, you better buckle up and start patching all these eCommerce mistakes!
In case you need help finding them, avoiding them, or creating plans to crop them all out, we at Kaivalya.me have over five years of experience doing this work and helping eCommerce business owners see their dream revenues come to life!
All you need to do is book a session with us at your preferred time and date! Isn’t that convenient? We hope we’re going to be of some great help to you, like we’ve been to all our clients!
Let us know in the comments what you feel, and check out our post on how to easily maintain customer retention for your eCommerce website in 2020!