Common Mistakes People Make When Starting an Ecommerce Business

1. Common Mistakes People Make When Starting an Ecommerce Business

2. Starting your own ecommerce business/website can be a hectic and lengthy process – one that many new business owners underestimate. Underestimation of the process forces business owners to make costly mistakes. These mistakes can ruin your website and/or business before it’s even started. However, knowing what these mistakes are and how to avoid them can help you create a seamless, remarkably successful ecommerce site. Below are four of these common mistakes and how to protect your business from them.

3. Creating an Ecommerce Business Without a Business Plan Long gone are the days of lengthy, detailed business plans. Today’s businesses don’t need plans that address every possible issue that might arise, they only need plans that address certain areas.

4. Creating a business plan that addresses these key areas will be the foundation of your new venture. These key areas include: • Knowing what problem your business is trying to solve • Deciding whether the website will be competitive based on its position or value • Knowing your product and market

5. • Making sure your business has a unique online presence that sets you apart from your competitors • Securing your target market • Identifying your key competitors • Understanding the weaknesses and strengths of your key competitors and how you can capitalize on them

6. Underestimating How Much Work an Ecommerce Website Requires Running an ecommerce website is about more than shipping products to customers. Of course, you’ll have to do plenty of marketing, create and maintain social media profiles, employ a service to build a winning website for your business, use the most effective web platform and software, create a pricing model and so much more.

7. However, to alleviate the stress of having all these jobs and to make your business as successful as possible, outsource these duties to reliable providers. For example, employ a web design company like SOS Media Corp to build your website.

8. It may be tempting to use a standard ecommerce website builder, but web designers have the skills, the tools and the resources to make sure your site is user-friendly, well-maintained and optimised for the web. For new business owners, choosing to develop your own website can be a costly mistake. However, services like SOS Media Corp offer packages that cover many jobs at once.

9. For example: • A professional website builder will monitor your web traffic via Google Analytics • Ensure Search Engine Optimisation • Track your marketing efforts • Optimise your site for mobile devices • Provide the best Content Management System (CMS) platform • Setup your domain name and hosting

10. Improperly Displaying Your Products Properly displaying your products on your website means putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. This means creating a virtual storefront that’s simple, aesthetically-pleasing and responsive. Web designers make this easy for you by creating easy to navigate product pages with attractive designs as photos, top-quality generated product descriptions, seamless carts and checkout and inventory tracking. All of this will enhance your customers’ experience, making their purchases simple and ensuring their return.

11. Neglecting Your Marketing Strategy An ecommerce business can’t be successful without a proper marketing plan and strategies. Good marketing strategies are the key to generating web traffic, acquiring new customers, retaining customers and growing your brand and/or business.

12. The best marketing plans especially include ongoing SEO, an analytics system, social media marketing and promotional marketing. But, marketing plans should include a diverse set of ongoing strategies to build brand awareness and ensure your ecommerce site is popular, reputable and successful.