5 Common eCommerce Store Launch Mistakes
As an eCommerce store owner, you already know that there’s a massive difference between having an online store and having an online store that presents users with an incredible and unique experience.
That’s why knowing shoppers’ needs is crucial to delivering an awesome eCommerce experience – if it takes your shoppers too long to locate and purchase goods from your store, they’ll simply turn elsewhere. That means you’ll need to locate and reduce friction in the shopping experience, including intuitive website design and captivating images.
We know the importance of a successful eCommerce launch and the consequence of making mistakes. That’s why we’ve put together the 5 most common mistakes when launching an eCommerce store.
eCommerce store launch mistakes
When building and launching your eCommerce store, be sure to avoid these common mistakes:
Mistake #1: Design over function
Your site should be as functional as it should be beautiful – because a beautiful site that doesn’t work is devastating to revenue. Because more than 50% of online traffic is sourced from mobile phones, and 54% of total eCommerce sales will come from mobile in 2021, your site needs to function well and be optimised for mobile.
Find a way to integrate your website design with ease of use. As such, make sure the design of your browse and search functionalities don’t hinder your visitors from being able to clearly navigate your site. When visitors are unable to find the products they’re looking for or get irrelevant site-search results, it’s likely they’ll move on to a store with a better-performing platform.
Mistake #2: Not understanding your product or audience
So many eCommerce stores make the mistake of not conducting market research. If you don’t understand your product or audience, you’re merely guessing that there’s a need for your product. This kind of assumption can be detrimental to your online business.
By identifying the need in the market, you can understand what your audience really wants and what their frustrations are regarding existing options. This way, you can create a better product that actually offers a solution to their problem. Your success depends on how your audience receives your product, and blindly putting a product out there won’t add any value to your business or to your audience.
Mistake #3: Slow checkout and no guest checkout
There isn’t anything more frustrating than taking the time to browse and shop at an online store, to then discover that the shop’s online checkout function is a disaster. In fact, the checkout process needs constant adjusting to keep up with changing customer demands. If you make your checkout process an unfriendly one, then you’ll be sure to notice a rise in abandoned carts.
Here are a few examples of a poor checkout experience:
- Requesting and collecting unnecessary information from customers
- Disabling autocomplete and autofill
- Not accepting common or preferred payment options
- Limiting shipping options
- Not allowing for a guest checkout
Today, everything revolves around ease and speed. For visitors on mobile, they definitely don’t want to have to type out their information or make an account just to purchase from your store. Speed up the process and reduce checkout friction to ensure a successful eCommerce store launch.
Mistake #4: Not investing in security
For store owners, security should be considered an investment, not a cost. Today, fraudsters have myriad ways of attacking your store – from phishing scams to infected links and financial fraud.
This is truly a matter of “when, not if” your online store gets targeted or attacked in some form, so make sure you have the right security in place or it could truly devastate your online operation. There are a number of ways to protect your store, including:
- SSL certificates to protect payments
- Antivirus software to safeguard payment information
- HTTPS to secure your users and their data
Mistake #5: Poor mix and quality of photos, videos and imagery
The photos on your site are one of your only opportunities to make your products appear desirable and alluring. Make sure you invest in proper photography and videography of your products because even your best product can be made to look unattractive with the wrong lighting, angle, etc. Your photos should clearly demonstrate the product while having a background that adds to, rather than detracts from, the product itself.
A common mistake is to also throw all of your media onto your site or product pages. Make sure to carefully select which media to feature, mix it up, and don’t overwhelm your visitors. If your site is too slow to navigate, taking too long to load, or confuses your visitors, then it’s working against you.
