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

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!

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!

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!

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!

Indeed, it’s so true and yet it never strikes anyone before. But now we’re on it!

One new successful entrepreneur, each Sunday! We’re recording our podcast conversations with them, converting them to hilariously informative text, and presenting them to your new-to-business-need-help mindset!

And this week, we’ve got a superstar business entrepreneur who's shown that the gifts industry brings too many return gifts to the gift shop owners!

Welcome Akshay Gavhane, the founder of FotoVilla! And our conversation revolved heavily around productivity and how that’s the one thing which separates a falling startup from a successful, established business!

Welcome, to Sunday Sit-Downs at Kaivalya.me, let’s dive right in!

Why Productivity Management Is Your Fuel To Excellent Entrepreneurship

What Is Productivity?

More than anyone realizes it, this is a bamboozling question. We always strive to be more productive. But what does that mean?

Getting more work done? Alright. Your road to managing personal and business life? Maybe.

But here’s the catch… productivity shouldn’t be defined to anything. Ironically, that would be counter-productive!

Instead of going to Bing and looking up what productivity really means, you should be the one defining what productivity means for you. That’s the one thing Akshay got damn ironed into our brains.

For Akshay, his priority list was: Work > Family > Friends > The Rest. Now, for this model, he defined productivity as finishing up as much work as possible (with the highest quality), with the same 86,400 seconds we all are gifted with.

If you’re spending 3600 of those seconds reading this post and digesting it, that’ll surely count as productive. Alternatively, if you’re doing 4000 seconds on Instagram, you’re not cool enough for our Free Audit And Consultation services .

But don’t follow Akshay. Just get inspired.

What’s productivity for you? Does family come as important to you as does business (and it’s totally fine that it does). In that case, productivity means getting as much work done in the day while also getting as many diapers changed without bailing out!

You see, productivity management starts when you decide what’s your goal. Once you have it straight in your head, “this is what I want to do… and I’m sure I do!” that’s the moment you’re 50% through productivity management!

Optimizing Productivity

Now that you know what you want to do, it’s time to really dive deeper into how you can become more productive.

To begin with, you need to have the right set of tools. And we’ll get to the details of productivity tools in a little bit. But before we do, we need to optimize our productivity to make the most out of the tools.

Wait… what? We need to optimize our productivity to make the most out of productivity tools which are supposed to optimize our productivity? (Keep reading that till you get to the bottom of it)!

Optimizing your productivity comes in two parts:

• Recognizing your ‘production’ you want to get done and what’s the most efficient way to get it done
• Adding tools to your work cycle to increase your efficiency and time taking for a unit of production

Productivity 01: Recognizing Work

Clearly, the second part requires tools, but we’re here to see the first segment. Let’s say you’re a budding entrepreneur looking to start a website development company.

Now, your day is going to be very packed if you really take your work seriously. You know that to make websites, first you need a set of talented marketing and web development team members, then you need to to let people know you’re there and tell them why they should choose you over the others, then you need management for incoming orders and offers, and finally you need an organic working cycle for the product development itself.

Now, this process can be optimized in the following ways: what if, while we’re a startup, we just look for freelancers and interns doing web development for us and simply maintain a very strong marketing team.

That way, we’re making sure people know we’re there, and impactfully so, while we’re still getting quality work done - but just through  freelancers and not through in-house staff. Many successful companies such as Internshala started this way, and now they’re touching the sky!

That way, the product development cycle is off your hook and you’re also free of hiring developers. Now, all you need to do is hire a great marketing team and just look into product management. Isn’t that a hundred times more productive, without any tool?

And that’s just a simple example without getting into too many specifics. As you can see, a lot of productivity can be optimized by just making smart business decisions without touching a single tool!

Think clearly… what process you’re following, what process some successful (and unsuccessful) companies have followed, what will and won’t work for you (and why so), and prepare your cycle. Once this cycle is prepared, repeat this thinking process to keep optimizing your productivity. In just a day of proper brainstorming, you’re going to see massive results!

Once you’re done with that, it is indeed time to get into the tools!

Productivity 02: Productivity Tools

These are very important, and they’re different for everyone.

In the video conference between Akshay + team and Kaivalya + team, the two sides spent a huge time debating the ‘Asana vs. Trello’ clash.

Indeed, both the software have some really nice bonuses which the other doesn’t, and by the end of it, we realized that there isn’t any “best productivity tool”, there’s just the “right” productivity tool, and it varies with who is using it.

At Fotovilla, their team relies a great deal on project planning with timelines, milestones, and the types. At that one, Trello is clearly a winner as not only does it provide those services free, but it also has a better and easier to use interface for the same.

Conversely, we at Kaivalya.me aren’t as timeline based as we’re task-based. We look to create quality content. I’m not saying “On 31st December, I’m doing to publish this post.” Rather, I’m saying, “By 31st December, I need to publish these many posts on these topics” and I’m flexibly working with the time.

Clearly, Fotovilla is a gifting eCommerce business while we’re a high quality consultation and website development company, so we’ve got different ideas of productivity, and therefore we’ve got different tools.

So, again, in this post, we’re not going to pinpoint to you what tools you should use, but rather we’re going to give you a basic framework on which you must build. Plus, if you really want to be an entrepreneur, you must always be inspired but never follow someone else!

So, unlike all other posts, we’re going to tell you to use tools and not tell you which tools to use!

My Day Today

To begin with, Akshay highlighted a critical tool which we all use without realizing: a notepad and a pencil. Before starting a day, all successful entrepreneurs know in their head what they’re going to do this day.

They take a notepad and a pencil, scribble out what they’re going to do, how they’ll do, and make a priority list. Indeed, that’s the best software. You get everything sorted in a flash!

Just in case you’re uncomfortable with the traditional writing style, use some great apps such as Microsoft To-Do, Tick Tick, etc. which will help you get sorted in the head what you want to achieve today.

Communicating With Team

Once you’ve done that, you’re going to dump work onto your teammates. It is extremely important that you nail this segment. If you know what to do but those who work with you don’t, you’re never going to make your day productive!

For this, there are many tools such as Trello, Asana, Range, Microsoft Lists, etc. which are all great. See which fits perfectly into your workcycle!

Work Review

Now that the work day’s over (for your employees, because work day is never over for an entrepreneur), you need to review their work, understand their pros and cons, and let them know!

For your web developer team, websites such as Google PageSpeed Insights will let you know how well your team has prepared the site, what they could work on, etc.

For content writing, you’ve got Grammarly and similar websites to check for plagiarism, grammar, quality of writing, etc. You’ve also got UberSuggest and similar websites which check the SEO and content quality, and how it compares to your competitor’s websites.

Clearly, depending on what you and your team is working on, the tools you use for work review will differ. Except one tool: your brain. Use it to review their work first, then search for great tools and use them to review.

That way, you’re building your own organic work cycle on our framework, and not copying us or ignoring us. That’s the sign of a perfect entrepreneur!

Productivity 03: Time Management

This should probably be Productivity 01, it is critical. As an entrepreneur, you’re going to be dumped with work.

In the start, it will be overwhelming and most of the ordinary Joes out there will feel like quitting. That’s why 90% businesses fail: before they never start. The workload is immense and if you’re not in the top 10%, you’re out of luck!

But what if we could cheat luck just a little bit? It doesn’t really take that much brain power and intelligence to get into the top 10%, just the right time management!

If you don’t trust my words on it, we’ve got confirmation from Akshay and Bill Gates! Here’s a short video that’ll get you a neat framework on time management, on which you can build your business!

Final Thoughts

In our interaction with Akshay, we realized that he sets the lighting of his room to orange as it keeps him the most productive. Many of his stationery and furniture is yellow to keep him the most creative.

He meditates before sleeping to clear his head, just as Kaivalya just focuses on his breathing for the same. He doesn’t sleep anywhere near 8 hours. His idea is to fit as much work as possible in the time he’s got, and he doesn’t want to waste a third of his day with his eyes shut.

Now these are some very obsessive techniques many entrepreneurs use, but there’s a reason why Akshay’s Fotovilla business is making a ton of money for him: he didn’t copy anyone.

He spends a huge chunk of his life just experimenting with the many productivity tools and techniques surrounding him, and finally he’s found his sweet spot. And on the way, his business got very successful!

While talking with this team, we realized that his team was extremely familiar with him and his ways of working, almost like a family. His communication is excellent, his thinking capacity is off the charts, and his dedication - the one word which changed everything - is seen right through the shine in his eye.

It was a great time, and we hope our podcast will help you convert your budding entrepreneurial dream into a successful business. If you’re dedicated, get inspired, don’t copy, and experiment, you’ll be just perfectly set for productivity management!

But then there’s also the business side. You need to create a really neat interface which your clients will love. You need to persuade people that you’re a person of your word and you create some quality product no one else can do just as good as you do.

And for that, there is no hiring process in the world which will allow you to nail it. It comes with years of experience and working capacity. But don’t stress. Instead of spending years in the industry before reaching that level, you can leverage on your experience of over five years!

Our extremely talented and experienced team of web developers and content writers can get your business front-face sorted in no time and make your business look world-class within its first month!

If you’re interested in starting a successful business journey, check out our services right now!

Wish you the best of luck. See you next Sunday!

Start A Gift Basket Business in 8 Simple Steps

Pricing right is necessary. You’ve put a lot of effort and love in your products, and you better get paid right. But it’s also necessary to soothe the customer’s bargaining instinct! A simple trick is to price the basket double of the investment cost + taxes. That way, for each basket you make, you could make two more. Speak of an exponential trend!

8) Advertising Your Gift Basket Business

Whether a physical gift store or an online gift market, your gift basket business requires the attention of the public. If you want to stay here for the long run, the two things you need to seriously put efforts on are the design of the gift baskets and the advertising!

There are many ways you could advertise your gift basket:

• Social Media: Networks such as Facebook and YouTube let you flash your ads to the right audience for a fee. If you consider reaching hundreds of people through your gift basket business, you better take this one!
• Website Ads: Microsoft Ads, Google Ads, and many other agencies display your ads on websites relevant to what you do on a cost-per-click basis.

You could also follow the traditional marketing such as printing posters, listing in the yellow papers, connecting to call centers, etc. Another great way to advertise yourself is through the word of mouth and the hidden power of WhatsApp. When you deliver great baskets to a few people, they’re going to tell others. Maintaining consistency in quality is the best ROI!

And there you have it, folks! All set to rock the gift basket business and the gift industry itself.

However, if you’re the expansionist type, this isn’t going to be enough for you. While these 8 steps would get you going with an established gift basket business that does pretty well, it won’t exactly leave your mark in the industry.

But, if you’re interested, we’ve got a solution for that too! You see, the gift market is a lot more dynamic than most people think. There’s a new trend every day and these trends take place at different times at different places.

For example, the California summer pants will never make a sensible gift in the freezing state of Alaska! Even within each state, the cities are all trending differently, and this directly affects your gift basket.

Ask Questions with a curious mind.

If you are in sales, then don’t start the same sales tape for every person you see. Remember, everyone is different. With different skills, flaws, and desires.

Understand the specific problems of people and then decide if your product and service can really help them achieve their desired outcome.

Most of the time, I have observed, our customers’ problems are really simple but they get overwhelmed by our solutions. And end up not taking any action.

But we wouldn’t know that unless we ask questions with a curious mind.

Let me tell you a story.

This happened around 5 years ago when I was in the 12th standard. I was sitting in a class. There was an event.

The teacher came to the stage and said, there is a presentation. You are supposed to choose the topic, prepare for a day or two, come on the stage, and present your topic. Speak about it. It’s not compulsory but I think everyone should participate.

You know when someone says something, ask something, immediately in our mind, we decide if we are going to do it or not.

We think, oh yes, that’s amazing I am going to do it. Or we go, Nah man. I am never going to do that. Now, how can I say no politely?

We think all these things immediately when someone says something. It’s an impulse reaction.

And let me tell you, I had intense stage fear. Not just that, I was very introverted. It was hard for me to go out of my shell and talk to another person, much less express my thoughts.

So my reaction was, immediately, NO… A big hard NO!

But that’s not the complete truth. You see, back in the day, and still today, I am very obsessed with inspirational people.

People like Simon Sinek, Sadhguru, Tony Robbins.

One of my friends introduced me to their literature and their videos. I was reading their books, watching their videos, listening to their audio-books and following them around everywhere.

I knew that this is the chance to, sort of present the thoughts that need to be presented.

A chance to share the message
that need to be shared.

I mean, I knew that most of the people, including the teachers, sadly, don’t know the intricacies of the mind, and productivity and success.

Now, I am not so sure, that I did, or do, even now, but at that time, I thought, someone has to present the “start with productivity, front of them. Someone has to. It is very important.

And I asked my best friend that, hey man, you can, you know, talk to people, you are an extrovert, how about you take this opportunity to present the thoughts, and explain these points from the presentation “start with why” to the students and teachers.

And we were discussing… of course, he knew that I have this intense stage fear.

So he said, “I am not going to do it.”

“If you want to convey the message, you will have to get on the stage. You will have to look people in the eye and they are going to stare at you and you have to smile, and you have to present the message. If you think the message is worth it.”

Such a cruel friend…!

Now you see, at one side, there was this intense fear and on the other side, there was this intense need that I was feeling. The need to convey the message because I knew the message is really good and people need to hear it.

But I guess the second need was more important than the first fear.

Every time this happens in your life, every time your goal seems bigger, better and worthwhile to you, then the fears around it, you dare, you try, you jump and you take chances.

Otherwise, you stay where you are, not moving an inch above, you stay cooped up and die eventually without ever living.

But If your goal is so big and exhilarating, if your goal excites you, if your goal is about other people, you will find a way to manage the time, you will find a way to do more stuff in less time, you will find a way to be more productive to take risks, to develop new skills and as a result, you grow faster.

Everyone has fears, you know. Maybe not as intense as I had, but everyone fears something. But as long as your goals, matter, your fears can’t stop you.

So I planned, I practiced and I practiced again.

I went to the class and I was still practicing. My mind went blank. I was trying to remember the words and points.

I was shaking. And I went up there on the stage. It was brutal. I started talking and I forgot some points. The sentences did not make much sense. While people got the gist of the talk, I knew,

It was a disaster.

But it was not the only time I made a joke out of myself. I mean, I was exceptionally bad at talking to people. The same thing happened in college. The same thing happened at the friend’s gatherings and the same things happened everywhere.

But here’s the kicker… Even though, I was thinking about, what would people say, if and when I fail? What would people think of me, what would they remember me like, I was learning how to talk, and how to present my thoughts in a structured manner and how to write all the while. And I am still learning that.

About 4 years after that, one of the guys, who have seen me making a joke of thoughts, lots of times, he met me on the street. Now mind you, by this time, my ‘official education’ was finished.

By that I mean, I dropped out.! I was making videos and doing website-development as a full-time job.

His eyes were twinkling. He said, “it’s nice to run into you. I saw some of your stuff online, it’s good.”

Turns out, people don’t really make fun of you when you win. They don’t make fun of you when you succeed. And they actually forget every stupid mistake you ever made when you get at some level.

It’s not like, I am very good at what I do, mind you. I am still learning how to make good videos, how to write better. But I can say for sure that Now my videos are getting more bearable and sufferable than 4 years ago.

Do it. People are not going to remember your past mistakes anyway.

That’s what my best friend used to say and that’s my message for you.

On this channel, on this website, in our workshops, or anywhere, you might think, oh, how can I ask this question? This must be a stupid question. Oh, I don’t know if people might think of me as a dumb, foolish or worse, a different person than them…

Guess what? They don’t matter. You do.

They might have forgotten all about you by tomorrow and you about them.

But if you hesitate now, then you will, without a shred of a doubt, lose the chance to try, fail, learn, try again and grow.

So, Don’t give in to any social pressure here. This is your space. This is your time to learn and grow. No one matters. Only you. You getting the most out of these videos and workshops and articles. That’s what matters,

So, Ask Questions. It’s the most effective way to grow.

What do you think? What are your thoughts?

What are the questions that you’ve asked your clients or mentors that changed the way you look at the business forever? Tell me your story. I would love to know.

Did you like this article? Do you want articles like this more often? If you have a problem that you are facing right now in your business, tell me about it.

If I can help you get even a slightly different perspective to look at the problem you are facing, it would seriously make my day. So comment below and let me know.

Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, every blogger wants people to comment because it builds more engagement. Which means more views for the article. You are absolutely right.!

But here’s the thing.

I really want to know what you think. You can even email me at hello@kaivalya.me or you can just comment below. It’s much easier.

To your success,

Gift wrapping paper comes at the price of peanuts, and you could literally charge a 200% margin on it, and it would still appear pretty cheap to your customer for wrapping their gift!

What does that mean? The Gift wrapping service is super-low investment, great return on investment, and a key to customer satisfaction!

Moreover, it requires barely any skill set. Therefore, if you’re already running a gift shop, all you need to do is purchase some gift paper. You’re all set!

Of course, it’s not that simple. But it’s not so hard either! Welcome to Kaivalya.me. Let’s see how to start a gift wrapping service in 2020!

How To Start A Gift Wrapping Service in 2020

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Develop A Brief Business Model

I’m not asking you to make a detailed 100 page document which describes your business. Afterall, you’re already running a gifts business.

This brief business model will center around how you will integrate the gift wrapping service into your gift shop.

Outline a couple of ways in which you can structure your gift wrapping business in the center of your gift shop.

Would you hire a new worker for wrapping gifts? Would you want to set up a special stall in your gift shop for wrapping gifts? Answer these questions and many others which you might think of.

The aim of this step is to get the idea clear in your head. By the end of this, you should know exactly what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do! Wrap it up!

Refine Your Skills

If you’re running a gifts business, you and your staff are already probably aware of gift wrapping techniques.

Buy some wrapping paper and conduct drills with your staff. Ensure your staff, especially the one you’re going to appoint for wrapping gifts (and that may be the entire staff!) is able to wrap gifts quickly and efficiently.

A key point in refining your skills is ensuring that the wrapping paper is wasted as less as possible. Try to save on your resources, it’ll save money in the long run. And on the way, you’ll get just that little more eco-friendly!

If you don’t know how to wrap gifts just yet, don’t worry! Here’s a great way to wrap gifts quickly and efficiently:

Your Niche And Gift Wrapping Service

Your gift shop will have a target audience or a focus on which you build your outlook, inventory, customer base, and marketing techniques.

Ensure that your gift wrapping service falls well within this niche of your gifts business. A business gift shop won’t do great with teddy bear wrapping!

But if your gifts business doesn’t have a niche, you’re in trouble!

Most gifts business owners don’t take niches importantly. Don’t fall into that flock! You want to stand out.

If you disagree, think of this: pick any successful company from the top of your head. Any one. Now recall how they started off. Amazon sold only books for a decade, Microsoft solely made operating systems for quarter of a century, Hamleys sold just dolls for 5 years.

You see, if you pick a fine niche and build your business on top of that, you’ll have a much better marketing strategy, customer satisfaction, clarity of goal, and countless other advantages.

And don’t think it’s too late! Leverage our experience of more than five years in the gifts business, book your spot in Kaivalya.me’s Free Audit And Consultation service now!

Getting The Pricing Right

Pricing right is very important! You’ve got to satisfy your pocket and the customer’s bargaining instinct at the same time.

You could set a fixed rate or could go by the size of the packaging. Many gift shops generally take the double of what it costs plus the taxes. That way, for each wrapping, you could wrap two more! It’s simple and exponential.

However, if you’ve got some great sourcing and partners, you might be getting the material at a cheaper cost than others, in which case you could consider giving yourself a higher margin.

But don’t be too great!

Speaking of finding sourcing and partners, this segways perfect into the next pointer:

Sourcing And Partnering

Sourcing right could help you buy in bulk and save a lot of money and time. You could either directly buy from a manufacturer or go through wholesales. Either way, your aim should be to buy more in less.

This would allow you to significantly increase your profit margin and bring you that much closer to the revenue you could only dream of!

Sourcing aside, you might consider partnering with another gift wrapping service. On a commission basis or fixed payment, you could hire another gift wrapping service to wrap gifts at your store!

This will save you the process of buying material and training your staff. However, it is most likely that your margin will be much less through this method. Weigh your options and deice what’s the right choice for you!

In case you need help finding the right sourcing agencies or partners (which most gift businesses do), we’re offering a hand! Consider our Free Audit And Consultation service now!

Promotion

Through the jungle, and onto the road! You’ve set up everything, you’ve got the material, the pricing, the everything!

What’s left? Telling people you’re here!

Consider adding a punchy tag on your gift shop board, “Gift Wrapping Service Now Available” or something on those lines. If you have an online gift shop, get the SEO right and update your description with the gift wrapping service in it!

Consider paid promotions such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads, among others. You could also follow the traditional marketing practices by printing ads of paper and distributing them.

Read this post from WikiHow to learn how you could advertise for free.

Conclusion

Et voila! You’re now a successful gift wrapping service ready to make some great side-income!

Keep your customers happy and your revenue high! All by adding the low investment high ROI Gift Wrapping Service to your gifts business! That’s all it takes!

Nevertheless, in case you’re the expansionist gifts business owner, this won’t be enough for you.

You might want your gifts business brand image on the wrapping paper, you might want to start your own line of wrapping papers, among millions of other possibilities.

And we could help! In January 2020, one of our clients made $52,799.53 in sales! We help gift shop owners study their market, refine their business model, suggest to them what to do, what not to do, and how to do.

But don’t use our services!

Don’t leverage on our years of experience with a multitude of gifts businesses unless you’re an expansionist gift shop owner. Don’t use our services if you’re happy with what you’re doing and don’t expect more.

But there is a rule that applies to all of the businesses under the sun. This is hands down the backbone of giants like Amazon and Google. This is what you need to MASTER if you want to grow your business faster, efficiently and easily.

This rule is Testing… Experimenting…

You should always be testing different website designs, different words in your videos.

You should always be testing different graphics and different offers and different traffic sources for your business.

Testing is the name of the game.

If you are not testing different ad copies, different website designs, different pieces of content to see which one is giving you more leads and customers, then continue the read and I will show you exactly how to do it even if you’ve never done it before.

Exactly which tools to use, how to set it all up.

Here’s how it works.

So, the first visitor on your website will see the first version of the website. The second visitor will see the second version of the website. The third visitor will again see the first version. It will rotate like that. You get the idea.

On the back-end of your website, you will see which version is giving you more leads and more customers.

Let’s get started.

So, the first visitor on your website will see the first version of the website. The second visitor will see the second version of the website. The third visitor will again see the first version. It will rotate like that. You get the idea.

On the back-end of your website, you will see which version is giving you more leads and more customers.

Let’s get started.

Here’s what to test.

There are different aspects of your online presence that you can should test.

1. The Advert (Facebook Ads)
2. Your website/blog.
3. Follow Up Sequence (Coming Soon.)

Get the tools.

2. Check out ClickMeter.ClickMeter will give you a single link that will be redirected to the first page upon first click. It will be redirected to 2nd page on the second click. So on and so forth.

03: Here’s how to set up experiments in your adverts.

• Facebook Ads Split Testing.

When you go to Facebook Ads, you can select the type of ad you want to run. Make sure you choose a conversion focused ad type. So that you can get the actual useful returns like leads and sales instead of the metrics like likes and shares.

When you hit proceed, you can then select the split test between two different ads. Here you can add 2 different headlines or two different images or two different call to actions and test them against each other. Pretty simple.

Continue with the ad creation. When you hit the publish button your ad will go live. Facebook will rotate the ad evenly.

04: Here’s how to set up an experiment on your website.

Click on the button that say, “Add Test”

You can set the name of the test, the URL that will be advertised, the different pages to test against each other and the conversion page here.

Maybe not the most intuitive interface but It is very simple to configure.

When you add all the details, it will show you a notification that says, the split test is created successfully.

• By using Thrive Architect

Thrive-Optimize Addon of Thrive Architect is probably the most intuitive of the bunch.We, at epiclancers are big fan of thrive. And for a good reason. Their “rapid-results” and “shipping your stuff as fast as you can” makes total sense. Once you install Thrive Optimize, Go to all the pages in your WordPress Dashboard and edit the page with thrive architect.

Go to the A/B Testing Option on the right hand side.

Go to the A/B Testing Option on the right hand side. A new window will open where you can create a different variation of the same page. Make changes like changing the headline or switching the video out. Click  “Add new variation”

Now you can edit this variation. Make changes like changing the headline or switching the video out. Make sure you test one thing at a time. It will rid the confusion in the long run.

This is one of the most interesting parts. At this stage, you can choose automatic winner setting. Here’s what it means.

Imagine you are writing a post a week. Publishing a couple of pages a month. Good offers. Everything gets overwhelming so quickly.

You probably won’t have time to check back and see the results and then decide which version of the webpage to keep.!

Use the automatic winner settings. The software will draft the loser and keep the winner. Isn’t that cool?

But that’s not all. It gets even better.

Thank you page would be the page that people see when they successfully acquire your product. You can add exactly the value that transaction holds for your business.

Do you see the gravity of this?

You can set-up this system and it will automatically optimize your online presence and give you the report of which version of the web-page is giving you more revenue.! Hit start A/B test button to launch the test.

It will redirect you to this page. [Check the screenshot attached below]

As visitors will start coming in, the first visitor will see the first version. The second visitor will see the second version. The third visitor will, again, see the first version. You know the whole story.

Remember, a simple change can drive results. Incremental tweaks based on pure numbers will give you a massive, massive edge over your competition in the years to come. There is no doubt about that.

• By using ClickMeter:

Imagine you are promoting a product on amazon. You want the visitors from U.S. to go to Amazon.com’s product page and visitors from India to go to Amazon.in’s product page.

Well, you can set this all up using ClickMeter. All you have to do is submit both URLs and set-up the geo-specific redirection. The software will take care of everything else.

No more writing lengthy descriptions of videos like,

“If you are from U.S. click here to go to U.S. Amazon Site.

If you are from India, click hereto go to Indian Amazon Site.

If you are from Germany, click here to go to German Amazon Site.

If you are from mars, click here to call Elon Musk. He wants to have a word with you.” ????

I mean, come on… How much hassle is this..

Here’s how to set it up. Go to Clickmeter dashboard and create a new tracking link. [Check the screenshot below]

Add one destination url. After that, click the redirect mode. Here, You can specify the visitors from which nation should visit which link.

 Sign up for ClickMeter right now. Set-up a single affiliate link with geo-specific redirection. Sleep in peace knowing that people will be redirected automatically to their country’s specific website without any hassle.

Advertise the tracking link. Run different experiments. See which offer works in which geo-region. All the best. 

Final Thoughts

1. Test one thing at a time.

Remember, if you test a more than one thing at a time, you will not know exactly which of those things influenced your revenue in a positive or negative way.

Make sure you only test one thing at a time.

2. Just do it.

Remember, the results might not be 300% in the first split test campaign but when you get 2% and 3% improvements with every proven change, it quickly adds up.

The Ball is in your court now.

What do you think? what are your thoughts?

Did you like this article? If you have any questions, please comment below and let me know.

It’s time to move from reading a blog post to actually taking action.

Go ahead, check out

1. Thrive-Optimize,
2. Split Testing for Elementor
3. ClickMeter

and let me know how it goes for you. I am excited to hear your story. To your success,

1.  Novelty Items & Brand Merchandise

Many successful gift stores have a select range of products with their brand name, logo, or other signature marks engraved onto them. This is a trend that’s been taking off the gift market for decades, and it's the way to success if you run a gift shop.

When a customer visits your gift shop, they’ll be impressed seeing your own line of products side by side the other gift items.

Here’s a few cool novelty items and merchandise to run a gift shop:

• Clothing
• Mugs and Cutlery
• Photo Frames
• Bands and Accessories
• Bookmarks

2. Tourist-Centric Gift Shop

Tourists, no matter where in the world, surely land into gift shops! Now, to run a gift shop successfully, you need to satisfy your customer base, and tourists are surely on the list!

Therefore, you must focus on products which tourists seem to want. This could include souvenir items such as models of tourist spots in your city or a mug or clothing with the name of your place sewn into it. Here’s a neat example:

If you’re selling gifts, might as well build some compelling services around it which the customer didn’t know they needed until you told them!

This is very popular (and revenue generating) in the gift business. If someone’s bought a gift, offer them to package it! If they’ve packaged it, offer them to attach a card over it! And the cycle goes.

You could do this to an endless array of items, common ones being gift wrapping, coupons and tickets, tour guides (these sell a lot!), chocolates and pastry items among others.

These services not only make you some extra income for each gift you sell, they also help your customer achieve more in a one-stop destination, which the gift market totally loves!

Just remember that it’s fine if you don’t add too many services, but the services which you do choose to provide, you do them well.

7. Gift Market Study

This is the most important pointer to focus on. A study of the gift market dictates everything for your gift shop. Before you run a gift shop, you decide where you’ll open it, what you’ll name it, what you’ll sell, and everything else.

From where do you make all those decisions? Needless to say, it depends on the trends and customers around you. Now, as your gift shop expands and brings in more clients and more revenue, the importance of a quality gift market study only increases.

The gift industry is more dynamic than most people think. New trends pop up every day, and they hit each place at a different time and with a different magnitude. It’s both hard and important to precisely determine the needs of customers in your locality.

The gift market study will allow you to get a clearer view of what you need to sell, what gift products that you’re spending money purchasing are becoming a liability, and what gift items that are total assets you don’t have in your inventory yet! Watch this video that briefs you on market research:

These three key elements of a web design, if nailed, would nail your customer base and set an organic recurring client base that would visit your website too often!

If you’re interested in nailling your business website, welcome to Kaivalya.me! Let’s dive right in!

5 Fundamental Aspects Of An Excellent Web Design

Lines are useful for dividing space, content, and make it easy for your eyes to navigate through the structure of the page. They also act as visual cues to highlight certain elements. And, while most web designs don’t inculcate this, they can play a huge role in the attractiveness of your website!

Lines, with their millions of patterns, designs, colors, and themes can change the entire facade of thy website and make it look totally stunning! Make sure you use lines to your advantage in your web design!

3. Space

Maintaining the right balance between screen occupation and screen space is of paramount importance. Too much spacing, and the user thinks you have no content. Too little spacing, and the user’s eyes will never reach the end of the long, boring, dirty, content-loaded page!

Two websites may have the same amount of content, but the one with appropriate spacing and balance of screen area will make the audience feel significantly different about it!

As Frank Zappa said,

There’s gotta be enough space in there so that the sound will work in an air space. That’s what makes music work.

Unfortunately, though, negative space is the most underutilized aspect in a web design. 

Now that is why most web designs are simply failures! To learn how to strike the perfect balance between content and spacing, here’s an article from Vanseo Design!

4. Shapes

Welcome to the Kindergarten of web design! Indeed, shapes are so essential to websites they’re taught to us in pre school!

Whether organic or geometric, or simply just freestyle, shapes add significant interest and attractiveness to your business website.

They are also often used to emphasize a certain highlight of a web page such as a call to action button or an offer!

Ultimately, everything is just a shape. What makes the difference is, whether you’re able to use the right shape or not! Most web design experts don’t take this under consideration, which makes me take under consideration their expertness (I know, it was a bad joke ).

Play with the many shapes modern web design tools can offer to you! Ensure that you make the most out of what geometry has to offer!

5. Fonting

In case you’re wondering, no fonting is not really a word in the dictionary. But the idea of language is to be able to communicate, and I’m sure you get the point. Of course, I mean typography!

I’m sure most of you have no clue what typography is, it’s basically making sure the font size, style and other properties are right so that content is legible. Say what, using an incorrect word was more communicative!

But nailing typography is indeed of critical importance. Perhaps the most important part of web design!

For your business website to get sufficient traction in this competitive digital environment, it is necessary to ensure the color, size, family, presentation, amongst the many other properties of your font are placed just correctly.

The idea is to not only make your website as legible as possible, but in the way also make it super attractive!

Also weigh your font in the right way! What I mean is, put the most necessary parts of your business website such as the key quotes, the call to action area, the heading, etc. in a larger font than the regular content.

Moreover, try to color code your font so that the reader is easily able to identify what to place where! These little visual cues make a large difference in the user experience!

Watch this brief video to nail your fonting/typography:

Bottom Line

Evidently, there’s a lot more to web design than you originally thought! For your business website to run smoothly and engage the audience just the way you planned, there are multiple aspects including but not limited to the ones above.

If you truly take your business website seriously and understand its importance, you’ll know better than to hire just about any web developer out there! You must ensure that the one who makes your business website understands web design better than anyone else and knows your needs.

Moreover, given that you are a budding business, it’s necessary to ensure that the web dev part doesn’t cost you too much! Indeed, this segment of your business can cost you way too much if you get into the wrong side of things!

Furthermore, as a business owner, you must understand what your business website needs to do. Should it be an eCommerce website? Or should it be a static design that convinces the customer to check out a physical store than you own?

Should it lead your users to your partnering businesses or should it attempt to keep them in house and get everything done in a one-stop destination?

Well, frankly, if you’re new to the game, this might seem intimidating at first! What’s more? You might actually make the wrong decision within this unsure environment, and the last thing you want is it all to fall down because of basic web design errors!

But don’t worry! At Kaivalya.me, we’ve spent over five years creating and optimizing websites for our clienta, and even providing consultation on what type of websites a business would need depending on their plan!

And we’ve got that for you too! Consider our FREE Audit And Consultation service now and take your business a step above!

If you’ve enjoyed this post, have questions, or want to share some additional info, let us know in the comments!