Reasons Why Most eCommerce Stores Don't Succeed

In today's fast world, most of the people (who uses the Internet) buy products/services from eCommerce websites in order to save their valuable time and energy. This trend has prompted entrepreneurs to set up their eCommerce websites so that they can reach out to maximum number of people within a short duration of time & accelerate their sales.

Running an eCommerce business can be an exciting feeling. But, apart from several benefits, there are various fatal challenges that can lead eCommerce business owners to a complete fiasco. Many passionate chaps in eCommerce field pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams with great zeal, but their long-awaited dream (of having a recognized eCommerce brand) gets shattered within a few years. In this article, we will analyze why so many eCommerce business organizations fail miserably. Just go through the below-mentioned points carefully.

1. Inappropriate Website Design

It's a fact that customers are more receptive to a website which is visually appealing, easy to navigate and offers the exact information (quality content). If your website is complicated and has clutters (such as lots of advertisements, too much visual content-several sliders & popups, cookie warnings, complex navigation etc.), visitors swiftly lose their passion to browse your website and leave immediately without taking any action. Such disappointed customers never come back to your site in future. This causes a sharp decline in website traffic, leads, sales, email subscriptions, etc.

●    Solution

Keep the structure of your eCommerce website simple and straightforward. Make sure that it is visually appealing and has all necessary elements that help visitors to buy products/services quickly and easily.

Get your eCommerce website designed from expert web developers/firms that have expertise in eCommerce site design and development. You should always renovate your website design & its layout as per the changing taste of buyers. Make sure that visitors have pleasant browsing and shopping experience on your eCommerce website. It works a lot for your business. A happy customer not only buys frequently from you but also recommends your eCommerce portal to others as well.

2. Flawed Content Marketing Strategy

Having a pre-defined content marketing and its timely execution is vital to gain success in the eCommerce business. You must be aware of the fact that customers don't get any chance to inspect the products physically when they are about to buy from your eCommerce portal. So, it is your content presentation style, which lets them have a basic idea of the product and encourage them to buy.

The problem is, most of the eCommerce website owners don't have a well-defined content marketing strategy. As a result, they use unfair practices (such as copying content from other's website, using the same product description, again and again, spinning the content which is already live on other websites, etc,) to meet their growing demands for website content. A flawed content marketing plan can be a complete disaster for any eCommerce website as it doesn't drive customers to buy products and services.

●    Solution

Just create fresh, user-centric & meaningful content and update your eCommerce website regularly. It will encourage buyers to visit your site, read out the content and buy the products they need. Always keep in mind that content development is a time-taking process. So, if you face the shortage of the quality content, avail the services of digital marketing agencies that offer content development services. You can discuss your specific needs (in terms of content) with the content marketing agency and get your desired content created easily and effortlessly for gaining the ultimate goal of your eCommerce business.

3. No Customer Retention Policy

Today’s eCommerce business is full of competition. There are many e-retailers who try to grow their eCommerce sales and increase their market share. So, for serious entrepreneurs, every customer is important from whom they get business.

From time-to-time, shoppers encounter issues in your eCommerce operation such as finding a faulty product, request for product replacement, money back, product not delivered on the due date, etc.

If you fail to address the legitimate concerns of customers, it will make them unhappy. This may affect your business negatively as disappointed customers not only stop buying from you but also dissuade others not to buy from your website.

●    Solution

To avoid such hassles, you should display the product replacement, return, money back policy clearly on your website. Also, you must have a clear-cut customer retention policy as how will you address the concerns of customers and get them back.

4. Low Visibility In Search Engines

It is one of the main reasons why eCommerce businesses fail in just a few days, weeks, months or years after their commencement. When you launch an eCommerce website, it should be placed well in the SERPs. When visitors look for products/services using their preferred search engines, they may find your website or its pages in results (depending on its ranking) and buy from your site eventually.

 

If your website has lower placement in search engine results, it is possible that visitors may not reach your site through search engines. If your site ranked low in SERPs, then you will miss-out on various business opportunities from organic search.

●    Solution

When you operate eCommerce websites, make sure you implement the best practices of SEO to improve its ranking in search results. A decent ranking in search engines means more traffic to your site.

However, eCommerce website optimization is not an easy task to do. If you don't understand the ifs and buts of eCommerce SEO, it will be better for you to hire digital marketing experts/companies to perform that action. They will optimize your eCommerce site as per the latest trends in SEO and give you the desired output. You must have a separate budget and strategy for this.

5. Use of Outdated Technology

There are many eCommerce websites that fail to sustain long owing to the use of flawed or outdated technologies such as a poor selection of eCommerce software platform, CMS, server, OS, internet technology, etc. while you make blunders in this context, you face numerous issues related to the security, usability, scalability and performance of your eCommerce.

●    Solution

Be smart and make sure you are making no mistake when it comes to the use of various technologies to operate your website.

Use the best quality and robust operating system, server, website builders or CMS, antivirus, extension, plugins, Internet security technology, etc, and make your website user-friendly as far as possible.

6. No scrutiny

When you operate eCommerce business, you need to monitor, test and analyze the performance of your eCommerce website regularly so that you may face different challenges with a high level of confidence while handling day-to-day operations, customer queries, request for product's purchase, etc.

If you don't analyze the performance of your website, it will jeopardize your eCommerce business sooner than later.

●    Solution

You should check the performance of your eCommerce website at regular interval. If you can't do that due to some reasons, you can use website monitoring services easily. This will help you to trace flaws in your eCommerce website and eliminate them in time.

7. Staff Dissatisfaction

When you leap into the world of eCommerce business, you have to compete against several established eCommerce business brands. In order to attract the customers (while facing tough competition from your rivals), you need to have a team of highly motivated staff so that you can operate your website smoothly and cater the needs of customers.

To operate an eCommerce website and keep it live 24*7/365 days, various professionals have to work for prolonged hours. It is observed that entrepreneurs with limited monetary resources fail to compensate benefits to their working staff and provide them pleasant and amicable working environment. This results in great dissatisfaction in working professionals which ultimately reflects in the performance of eCommerce websites.

●    Solution

Make sure that you have enough budget and business plans to finance your eCommerce website and motivate your staff for the development of your eCommerce business. A team of passionate and innovative professionals can go extra miles to develop or expand your eCommerce business and provide you the maximum returns with a little investment.

8. Credibility issue

There are millions of people who want to buy online, but they hesitate to do so because of their fear of leaking their sensitive information or online frauds. If your eCommerce website has security issues (such as frequent online attacks, data breach, several down times, etc, ), then customers will not deal with your business.

●    Solution

Handle website security issues with the utmost care and ensure that your website is safe for transactions. You can do the following in this case:

 

  • Add an SSL certificate to your eCommerce website. It makes online transactions safe and prevents online bully elements from accessing the sensitive data stored on your site's database.
  • Add several payment options to your website.
  • Display reviews and testimonials.
  • Conduct security audit from time- to- time and eliminate security holes and
  • Ensure a strong social media presence.

Take Away Idea

These are many reasons that assert why eCommerce business ventures fail despite their fabulous launch. If you planning to try your luck in eCommerce business and be successful, implementing these recommendations will help you to prolong your business without any fail.