Though there has never been a better time to jump into the eCommerce industry, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. There are plenty of pitfalls that can impede a company’s success. Fortunately, knowing about these common mistakes can help you find solutions to them or avoid them altogether. Here are some common mistakes that online retailers make and how to solve them.

5 Mistakes to Avoid

1. Choosing the Wrong eCommerce Platform

The eCommerce platform you choose will have a huge impact on how your business functions. This is because the platform your choose will dictate everything from the number of orders you can process to the features included on your web pages. Choosing the wrong eCommerce platform can potentially ruin your business efforts.

Some eCommerce platforms do not lend themselves well to scaling. This means that as your online store grows, your eCommerce platform may struggle to keep up. Some platforms simply don’t offer the bandwidth that larger eCommerce companies need to handle their volume of orders. This can end up limiting your company’s potential.

Solution:

Do as much research about eCommerce platforms as much as you can stand before landing on a final decision. Compare platforms based on price, features, and scalability to ensure you find a platform that is a perfect fit for your business. Here are some other factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform:

• Shipping services you’ll offer
• Products that you sell
• Your budget
• What tools your need
• Do you want a custom or template style design

2. Not Marketing on Multiple Channels

Gone are the days when investing in a single marketing campaign was enough to boost your business. These days, there are several marketing channels available to businesses each with its own distinct strengths. Digital marketing has made it possible to engage with audiences in entirely new ways. Businesses that market to their audience through multiple channels generate much more engagement and receive more traffic.

Solution:

If your brand is already marketing through a few different channels, then start doing so immediately. Remember to focus your marketing efforts on channels that appeal to your target demographic. For instance, if your audience focuses primarily on young adults, then you should have a strong presence on social media.

3. Failing to Prioritize The User Experience

The user experience your website provides will the deciding factor for many online consumers. Online shoppers have grown accustomed to eCommerce giants like Amazon who make it easy to find the products they want. If your website isn’t easy to use and intuitive to navigate, then online shoppers will take their business elsewhere. Websites with a poor user experience also generally have a higher cart abandonment rate. This is when a shopper leaves the website before finishing a transaction.

Solution:

Prioritize the look and feel of your digital storefront from the moment you create it. Many website-building platforms have pre-made templates that can be customized to your liking. These templates are generally intuitive to navigate and provide a good user experience.

4. Website Isn’t SEO Friendly

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of editing your website so that it ranks higher in search engines like Google. Websites that rank in the top ten links, or on the first page of Google, get considerably more traffic than lower ranking sites. For eCommerce companies, more traffic generally translates to more sales and more revenue. Practices like spamming links or plagiarizing content can get your website penalized, causing it to rank lower.

Solution:

An effective way to instantly raise the SEO of your website is to implement responsive design. A website with responsive design will automatically reorganize itself depending on the size of the screen it is being displayed on. This means that the same page can be correctly displayed on a mobile device and a desktop with ease. This is important because mobile-friendly websites rank higher than their non-responsive counterparts.

5. Poor Corporate Culture

A company’s corporate culture refers to a set of beliefs and behaviors that dictate how members of the organization interact and how a business meets its goals. This may sound like a pretty vague definition, but it makes sense when applied to an example.

In recent years, technology companies have earned the reputation for having a very loose and accepting corporate culture. This includes practices like casual dress codes, generously long lunch breaks, and some companies even allow you to bring your dog to the campus. These practices are designed to make the workplace more informal and comforting for the workers, but it also influences the way they work. Technology companies make it clear that they value innovation and aren’t afraid to be a bit unorthodox.

Poor corporate cultures can cause employees to grow discontent with their position and even resent their organization. Companies with a high turnover rate generally have corporate cultures that leave employees feeling dissatisfied. A common mistake many companies make regarding their corporate culture is overworking their employees. This can make workers stressed out and prone to simple mistakes they wouldn’t have made otherwise.

Solution:

You can begin building a positive corporate culture by showing your employees that you care about their growth and the impact they bring to the company. The most direct way to do this is to invest in developing their skills with professional corporate training. Leadership development consulting is especially effective at creating a solid corporate culture. This is because the senior members of your organization will set the tone for the entire team.