Devastating Ecommerce Mistakes You Must Avoid

We are living in a digital world, a world where we can work, shop, and do a thousand other things from the comfort of our own homes. It’s that digital shopping aspect, Ecommerce, that we’re going to look at today.



The world of Ecommerce now accounts for over 21% of retail sales across the globe, nearly a quarter of all shopping is now being done with a computer. This absolutely colossal market is the place to be if you want to succeed these days.

If you’re thinking you can just leap in and start shovelling money into a bag, you’re sorely mistaken, Ecommerce takes a lot of work to get right, and it’s easy to make a mess of it.

Today we’re going to learn from the mistakes of others, and look at a few of the ways you can severely hamstring your Ecommerce venture.

Failing To Define Your Target Audience

You can’t sell to an audience that isn’t there, and if you can’t make sales, your business goes kaput. Before you rush to set up your online store, check who you think is going to flock to it when you open your digital doors.

You’ll have to do some market research and figure out the demographics of the audience you’re hoping to sell to. Make sure there’s actually a market for what you’re selling, and then find out as much as you can about that market.

How old are they? What are their interests? What’s their disposable income like? There are hundreds of questions you could ask, each one narrowing your focus a little more. You don’t have to go quite that far, but you should have a good idea of the kind of person you’re selling to before you start making your pitch.

Neglecting The User Experience

Think back to your past online experiences, chances are you’ve navigated at least a few terrible Sites. How many of those Sites did you return to? You probably wouldn’t if you had any say in the matter, and your Customers certainly won’t.

A poor user experience is a surefire way to start generating dissatisfied Customers and negative reviews. Once overwhelmingly bad press starts circulating, it can be near impossible to turn it around, so you have to make sure you’re doing the best you can right from the start. An attractive Site is good to have, but it can’t be all glitter and no substance, the most important thing is that it works.

Important information should be easy to find, don’t make your Customers hunt for it, or they’ll turn around and no longer be your Customers. Make sure the language you use throughout your Site is clear, don't confuse your Customers with jargon and technical terms they won’t understand. Your market research will help you figure out how deep to go into technicalities here.

Most importantly, your Site should function. If something is broken, get it fixed immediately! Every additional frustration you force Customers to deal with increases the odds of them giving up and trying elsewhere, consult with an Ecommerce expert on building a store that won’t scare off your Customers.

Having A Complex Checkout Process

In a similar vein, the checkout process of your store should be dead simple. If a Customer has reached the checkout you’ve almost sealed the deal, but you’re not there yet, they can still back out.



Why might they do this? The most likely reason is that they don’t trust your checkout, or find it too confusing. Customers get skittish once they’re being asked to hand over money, don’t give them any reason to change their minds about you.

Avoid surprise fees and complex language, keep everything simple and present it all up front. Also make sure you have a couple of payment options, most Customers have a preferred payment method that they already trust, if you accept that payment method that trust then extends to you. Paypal, Stripe, and Square are all options with wide appeal, make sure you have at least one.

Not Planning A Sales Funnel

We could spend all day talking about the intricacies of Sales Funnels, but to summarise, a Sales Funnel is the journey that potential Customers go through on their way to becoming a confirmed sale.

It starts with them becoming aware of your brand, then proceeding through learning about it before finally coming to a decision. You obviously want them to decide to make a purchase, so make sure you’re paying attention to every step of the process.

The first is to make sure people know about you. Whether through PPC, Social Media, skywriting, or whatever other method you choose to use, make sure potential Customers know you exist.

Then you need to make sure they like what they hear, pay careful attention to your reviews, manage a Social Media account, and encourage some positive word of mouth advertising. A Site that communicates what it has to say clearly will help you immensely here.



All going well, they’ll get to the end and decide to make a purchase, in which case congratulations! If they don’t, look to see if there’s any aspect of the process you’re neglecting.

There's a lot to say about Ecommerce, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. This multi-trillion dollar frontier is the future of retail, so if you want to build a business that will thrive, start doing your research.