The ecommerce sector has transformed itself from a cutting-edge transactional space to one of the most critical business platforms.
“Ecommerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake.” – Jean Paul Ago CEO L’Oreal
Therefore, a planned approach for an eCommerce business is necessary to ensure smooth functioning. Online companies are migrating from on-platform or custom eCommerce solutions to software-as-a-service (Saas) platforms today, saving hundreds of dollars on the go-to-market as well as on maintenance costs.
Beyond providing benefits of cost-cutting and smooth sailing, eCommerce platforms also help you serve customers in an agile and personalized manner. In fact, businesses that failed to provide personalized solutions lost $756bn in revenue. But not everyone is able to unlock the key to eCommerce business success.
If you are also wondering what could be a possible obstacle in your path to success, this blog post will help you break through your cloud of confusion. Generally, eCommerce store managers face the following six pain points and we have a way to resolve them each.
Top 6 Pain Points of eCommerce Store Managers
All in all, the question is “How do I drive maximum traffic and build brand recognition for my eCommerce store?” Every eCommerce store managers’ ultimate goal is to ensure operations effective enough that bring return visitors and repeat business. So without further ado, let’s see what makes it so difficult to achieve this goal.
1: You Are on The Wrong Platform
There is one question that you should repetitively ask yourself. Will you maintain a store that cannot accommodate in-person customers? No, right? Then why should you run your business on a platform that may hinder your sales?
If the cost is a big concern while choosing the ecommerce platform, remember that the cheapest or most reasonable platform will come with a limited set of features. Also, it will usually be the most difficult one to scale and maintain over time.
For example, customizations on a platform like WordPress are bound to experience complications at the backend in the long run. The constant struggle for resources and workforce to fix your ecommerce website can cost you more than it generates.
So, the question you should ask yourself while addressing this pain point is, how big is the company? What will be the shipping requirements, and what plans do you have for the future?
The Solution: Redirect your focus from cost to longevity, potential to customize, scalability, and the overall user experience. Instead of going for a platform with lower upfront costs, choose an ecommerce platform that can help generate maximum revenue.
2: Poor Onsite Product Search
It is always better to stay ahead of customer expectations. Today’s customer base expects companies to anticipate their needs, ensuring them easy access and shopping across various devices and platforms. If you cannot provide customers with what they are looking for, you are risking losing them to a competitor’s website.
Which customer searches for a product on the internet with a product number? The answer is, Nobody.
Nobody searches the internet with random numbers. Therefore, rather than listing products with product numbers, build detailed product pages that have complete information including names and descriptions.
It is always the best idea not to lock customers into narrow product navigation. No two customers shop alike. Provide your customers the freedom to search for products by as many parameters as possible such as number, manufacturer, brand name, or category.
Another reason to do this is you never know which customer is using which device to navigate through your website.
The Solution: Make sure your ecommerce platform is SEO-ready. It should be such that it helps increase exposure and provides you the ability to optimize web pages and keywords relevant to the user.
Also, adding a Parts Finder to your website, organizing data to improve search results, restructuring navigation, and adding interactive diagrams can act as important product recovery features.
Now that your website is SEO optimized to rank well on the search engines and visitors are pouring in like the monsoon rains, what’s next? The key is to provide a personalized experience to leads, which could help you lock in online sales.
3: Slow Page Speed
A slow loading time causes frustration, which in turn leads to reduced conversions. In the ecommerce sector, the attention span lasts only a few milliseconds. You have worked hard to rank on the first page of Google, and shoppers are rewarding your efforts with clicks. But if your content takes a lifetime to load, visitors are going to drift away and go elsewhere.
Shockingly, even a 2-second delay in load time results in abandonment rates of up to 87%.
The Solution: The only and the best possible way to solve this pain point is to ensure faster website loading time. If you need professional assistance for that, talk to us!
Faster load time maximizes your ROI. Here’s how the magic formula works:
Fast Website = Happy Customers = Increased Sales
4: No Guest checkouts
Understand that customers’ time is precious. Not everyone is interested in creating an account with you. Some want to test the water without taking a dive into the ocean, and it is only fair on the customer’s front. They might be in a hurry and not have the time or the patience to create an account.
Forcing them to do so before making a purchase is discouraging and annoying to some extent, especially when the CTA button you placed asks them to ‘Buy Now’ and later redirects them to ‘Let’s Create an Account’ instead of completing the checkout.
The ‘Buy Now’ button can be considered misleading, and you must never mislead a prospective customer. Ask yourself, “Is a new customer’s information more critical than making a first-time sale?” The answer mostly is, No; and don’t worry, you can still gather most of the information via the Guest checkout.
The Solution: If gathering and retaining new customers’ information is still your main goal, you can always ask them to create an account on the “Thank You” page after they have made their purchase.
You can use scripts like, “Thank you for buying from us. For faster checkouts in the future, create an account with us. Save your card and shipping information to ensure zero inconvenience.”
Note: The idea is to keep an option for Guest Checkout.
5: Hidden Charges and Expensive Shipping
Surprises may be considered an essential thing in a relationship, but they are absolutely not needed when it comes to building customer relationships. Customers do not like surprises. Especially when you have hidden fees and expensive charges for them.
Be upfront about the costs before the checkout process. As many as 25% of customers cite hidden charges as the prime reason for driving them away.
Ideally, it would be best if you offer free shipping above a certain threshold amount of order.
The Solution: If you are charging for shipping, make sure you provide the price breakup component before you proceed with asking for their credit card information.
Provide detailed information about the shipping costs. If they decide to abandon their cart anyhow, you can always send a personalized cart abandonment email, which makes customers feel that they are valued.
6: Poor Customer Service
In today’s world, the internet is flooded with opinions through different mediums such as social media, blog posts, forums, all of which typically feature online product reviews and customer opinions. Customer reviews (especially over social media) are your best bet and tool for online sales. That is why it is crucial to invest in your customer service at such depth.
If customers feel that you have addressed their concerns, answered their queries, and you are a trustworthy business, it’s most certain they will talk about it.
A bad experience on your ecommerce website does not necessarily mean that you have lost a customer. But a lack of means or the desire to solve their problem will most certainly equal a lost customer. Customers appreciate the fact that a business goes out of its way to help them, and they do talk about it.
It simply lies in your hand what your customers say about you. So, what is it going to be?
The Solution: You can take your customer interaction to the next level if you use tactics such as free shipping, returns, Live customer service, 24/7 support, and coupon codes and discounts for shopping with you.
While the above-mentioned are some of the most common pain points of eCommerce store managers that need to be addressed, you might also need to consider other things to boost sales through your eCommerce platform:
- Develop a mobile-friendly website
- Elaborate product information
- Provide faster and hassle-free checkout options
Conclusion
Finding an end-to-end solution is necessary to drive more eCommerce sales. But finding one is the first and foremost challenge. To choose the best eCommerce platform, look for two major components—1) a web platform that can help you manage conversions and 2) logistics to support inventory management and shipping. The result is, maximizing revenue.
Need help managing your eCommerce business? Our team of experts will take care of everything from eCommerce website development to SEO. Discuss with us your pain points and land a trusted solution now.