If you are going to open an e-commerce store or plan to start one, chances are that you will face the same setbacks that others struggle with. According to various starts, around 90 percent of all online startups fail in their first 120 days. This is because most start their e-commerce business without proper planning or without proper market research. You cannot expect to start an e-commerce business today and get rich the next day. You need to know the challenges and the setbacks that other internet marketers face in opening up and online business.
Below are the 8 deadly mistakes that most internet marketers make in their e-commerce business
#1. Lack of market research
When selling products online you need to sell what people want, rather than what you like. If you like designing tee shirts and you design every piece according to your own taste and aesthetics, chances are they won’t do well. Instead they would do better if you use your designing skills after doing a market research.
Founder of Lionsmark, jitpal kocher recommends being competent in one thing rather than putting your shoes in fifty places. He emphasizes in adding a single product with different themes rather than overdoing it. Furthermore he adds, let everyone know you for marking really amazing movie poster spoofs rather than having something that doesn’t relate.
#2. Trying to do everything yourself
In order to save expenses, most of the business owners try to handle everything themselves in the start. This is not recommended as you are not an expert in everything. It’s better to hire experts like customer services, data entry, marketing and more.
Best self co. founder Cathryn lavery states that the biggest mistake they made was trying to carry out everything by themselves. According to her, it would have taken them lesser time to hire experts and get them do the required work at the right time. She adds further that they undervalued key roles like customer services and this was one of the initial mistakes they made. Now they recommend hiring excellent customer support from within the country the business works from. In addition they advise business owners not to hire cheap customer services from overseas.
#3. You don’t have a significant marketing strategy
If you want people to find your products you need to plan a marketing strategy. A solid marketing strategy is important because you cannot get buyers coming to your e-commerce store just because you shared it once or twice in a Facebook group. It’s better to invest in a blended marketing strategy that includes social media, content creation, paid advertising, SEO etc. once you follow this you will have more customers, more conversions and more sales. Make sure to keep your plan updated as well as analyses your progress consistently. This will enable you to learn what works and what doesn’t in your marketing strategy.
Fresh prints CMO comments that they sold 2x more in their 14 days of email marketing campaign than over two months of launching their first line. He added that people who don’t want to read the email newsletters just delete it without reading. They don’t hate the bands, they know it’s your marketing strategy. So, in their 14 days email marketing campaign they emailed every segment once in two days, and according to stats the open and click through rate were 3x the average e-commerce click through rate.
#4. Improve your Product
Always try to ensure you product quality first, for ecommerce business product looking very important. When you to do lot of marketing and people are coming to judge your product and if they saw low quality product then people definitely not impressed and for that ecommerce product looking also very important. Before publish any kind of image you need to improve your image quality by take some image editing service like cheap retouching service, or drop shadow or reflection shadow etc.
#5. You have not created buyer personas
A buyer persona is something that represents your target customers or audience. You can have two to three buyer personas to target your customers. To create one, you have to think and answer the questions from your target customer’s mind and make a written record of it. Once this is done you have to create content, marketing strategies, SEO, and products, keeping your buyer personas in mind.
There are several guides online to help you create your buyer personas. Hub post is a very good resource for finding one. If you have created your marketing or buyer personas, you may need to update their with time, as buyers interests change. This can be done yearly or every few months.
#6. You haven’t found the right platform
If you are used to selling your crafts on Etsy, and are doing well, chances are you will do much better on sites like Amazon, shopify and Pinkoi. It’s all about finding the right platform.
Not all sellers are suitable for amazon marketplace. While they might not get a single customers on amazon, they might do very well on niche specific platforms. For instance, SPXMAC founder Damien prosalendis, once had a client who wanted to offer room decoration digital consultations on Amazon. This was similar to a pet shop selling car replacement tires. No one would have looked at what he dad to offer, since, no one looks for these things on amazon. In addition the price range was from $300-$600
#7. Be a Brand for success choose
Your bran dname wisely when starting an e-commerce business. It should be something that represents your work or what you are selling. Make it appealing to your customers or buyers in a way that they can feel connected to it.
Sean Broihier founder of Pixels.com narrates their story by reflecting on their old brand name and how they changed it to pixels.com. According to the story they were first named as fine art America. Soon they found that their business is going beyond America and outside the scope of fine arts only. So, they rebranded it to pixels.com, but it proved to be very costly at that time, for both their company, and their customers.
#8. Don’t underprice your product
Always price your products after taking into account the shipping, returns, taxed and overhead. Remember you should be generating revenue instead of expenses. It is the same for everyone, whether you are a seasoned pro or a novice. E-commerce can be expensive if you don’t record your numbers.
Conclusion
If you want to be successful in e-commerce then you can follow the above steps and avoid the 7 common mistakes e-commerce business owners make. Remember to keep your business updated with time as e-commerce is constantly evolving. You need to keep your business updated in terms of platform fees to SEO algorithms. It’s important to realize that online shopping and e-commerce is an evergreen niche, and it’s not going away, so grab your share by starting today. If you work hard today, you will reap the rewards for years.
Author Bio: Leyva in love with sports from my childhood. I am studying at CSE on reputed university as well as an occasional blogger and now working for a graphic design agency, I want to share my interests and experiences through this blog clippingpathhouse.com