Ask any business, and there’s a good chance it’s into e-commerce. It may already have a shopping website, or one is already on the pipeline. Even big-time retailers such as Ralph Lauren are redirecting some of their revenues to digital marketing efforts.
No one can blame them. In the Enterprise Guide to Global E-commerce report, its revenue could increase by no less than $4 trillion in 2021. It’s a far cry from less than $1.5 trillion in 2014. It’s also the only trillion-dollar industry to post double-digit growth, according to eMarketer.
The vast potential of this business, though, attracts a lot of entrepreneurs—thousands of them. But that’s not the point here. It’s the fact that in spite of the supposed success of e-commerce, only a small percentage (less than 20%) eventually generates meaningful revenue. Why do some shopping sites don’t make it? There are many reasons, and these two are probably on top of the list:
1. Poor Website Design
How essential is web design in the success of an e-commerce site? A report by Digital 360 Commerce revealed that over 60% of consumers would likely abandon it if it encountered issues while using it. Meanwhile, a bad design isn’t limited to the heavy use of images, videos, and graphics. It can also refer to the following:
- Appearance and Use across Different Platforms – The way the website looks on a PC is entirely different once consumers see and use it on a mobile device. Smartphones and tablets, for example, have a much smaller viewing area. Some parts of the site may not render well.
- Loading Time – This refers to how fast someone can view the contents of a website. Statistics revealed that Internet users these days are impatient. They wait for less than three seconds before they are likely to choose another site. In the meantime, websites with a one-second load time tend to have the highest traffic growth at 4.6%.
- User Experience – Also known as UX design, it is a process of designing websites to boost their usefulness, ease of use, and customer satisfaction. In other words, the pages should make viewing and eventually shopping a pleasant experience.
Because of these, e-commerce owners may benefit more from a customized web development service from teams such as Rebranded.io than from template-based systems including WordPress.
2. Customer Service
The website’s design is only a fraction of the issue with e-commerce. The other is customer service. Data showed that about 60% of customers would not complete a purchase if it feels the customer service is poor. The good news is there are many ways to improve this area:
- Provide different options for feedback (e.g., live chat, landline, mobile, office address, and email address).
- Boost the security of customer details. Include a privacy policy on your site.
- Create an easy-to-understand and –follow returns policy. (In other words, make your guidelines reasonable.)
- Personalize the experience. Use analytics to create a list of recommended products, for example.
- Offer many methods of payments and delivery.
About 12% of the population are into e-commerce, which means there’s still a lot of room to grow. There’s even a big market to tap. Don’t waste it by making these critical mistakes.
