If you have an e-commerce site, your goal is profit and a high success rate. Well, are you managing to achieve this? With the orientation of consumers towards online shopping in recent years, e-commerce volume has also risen with great momentum. However, the high number of e-commerce sites and competition with large marketplaces result in the failure of many ventures. Let's take a look at the most common reasons for failure in e-commerce and solution proposals!
What Are the Reasons for Failure in E-Commerce?
Among the reasons for failure in e-commerce, the most important issue is the lack of market and competitor analysis. People turning to e-commerce for the first time usually think that everything is ready when they launch a site and upload products. The biggest misconception begins at this very point. For an e-commerce site to stand out, the user experience must be improved, SEO works must be carried out, weaknesses/strengths must be determined through competitor analysis, and importance must be given to social media marketing.
22% of e-commerce sites fail in their first year and cannot reach their targeted profit. Therefore, the fact that not enough time has passed is also among the reasons for failure. However, of course, all reasons are not limited to this.
Lack of Capital!
Setting up an e-commerce site requires less capital compared to other business fields. This is true, but it is quite difficult to achieve success in e-commerce with zero capital. When you open an e-commerce site, you need to spend money on many issues such as marketing, optimization, design, market analysis, etc.
The relevant expenditures will increase conversion rates in a short time.
E-commerce sales account for 22% of global retail sales. While the sector continues to grow rapidly, it always offers opportunities to new entrepreneurs.
Capital-sourced problems are generally seen when physical store owners turn to e-commerce. Especially small and medium-sized business owners prefer to open a new branch or store rather than investing in e-commerce. Therefore, the launched e-commerce site does not meet expectations and encounters failure.
Reasons for Failure in E-Commerce: Shipping and Packaging Problems
According to research, 80% of consumers prefer sites that offer free shipping. You can provide free shipping to your customers for certain products or certain price limits, even if not for every product. For example, offering a free shipping opportunity for purchases over 200 TL will directly attract the attention of customers.
Your customers always want to receive an undamaged package. For this reason, you should pay special attention to the packaging issue. For instance, when you read the comments on marketplaces, you see that many people complain about poor packaging. Sturdy packaging prevents negative situations that may occur during shipping, and the customer who receives their order without any problems will prefer you again.
In conducted studies, 39% of consumers state that they will not prefer the same e-commerce site again due to poor packaging. Therefore, the issue of shipping and packaging will directly affect the success of e-commerce sites. You can also provide advantages such as same-day shipping or fast shipping to your customers.
Not Carrying Out SEO Works!
Does your e-commerce site not have the number of visitors you want? Or does your site not appear in search queries you perform regarding the products you sell? If your answer to both questions is yes, you need to turn to SEO works.
34% of failed e-commerce sites express that they give very little importance to SEO works. To avoid being among that 34% portion, you should start implementing SEO techniques.
SEO, or by its other name search engine optimization, ensures that your website becomes visible in search engines and even ranks in the top positions. For this reason, regardless of the sector you serve, you need SEO works.
Ranking in the top positions in searches made by users directly increases your sales while helping you become a popular e-commerce site.
Lack of Mobile Compatibility!
63% of e-commerce shopping is carried out from mobile devices. Mobile users can shop at any moment without any difference in time or place. Therefore, it is important that your site works flawlessly for mobile users.
Your site needs to show the same performance on different devices. For example, a design that looks good on a wide screen may not show the same performance on phones with small screens. For this reason, you can turn to the necessary optimizations by testing the mobile compatibility of your site with Google Search Console.
Low-Quality Photos!
Do you know that products with videos have 87% more engagement compared to products with photos? You can resort to videos to introduce your products multi-facetedly. However, the most important thing of all is poor and low-quality photos.
A low-quality photo results in your customers getting a negative impression. For this reason, you should take high-quality photos and show the packaged version if possible. Nowadays, the number of people who prefer to read a text is decreasing almost day by day. Most of the time, a photo or video directly affects the purchasing action.
Promoting products with quality photos will increase sales rates.
Reasons for Failure in E-Commerce: Lack of Marketing
Among the reasons for failure in e-commerce, perhaps the issue that needs the most attention is the lack of marketing. The launch of your website does not enable you to make sales immediately. The bad news is that there may be millions of e-commerce customers who are unaware of your website's existence. But do not worry!
E-commerce marketing techniques are built on creating awareness and increasing sales. For example, you can enable your website to gain more traffic with Google Ads or social media advertisements. Start the recognition process of your e-commerce site with impressive photos and videos, call-to-action messages, or campaigns.
A good marketing strategy is the most effective and shortest way to reach customers.
Poor User Experience!
The showcase of e-commerce sites is the landing page. At the same time, the website must offer an easy shopping experience to users. Visitors should easily find the products they are looking for on your site and obtain information by reading descriptions for the products. Your site needs to offer fast and easy shopping to users and be functional. If you cannot provide these, the conversion rates of visitors will be very low.
UI (user interface design) and UX (user experience) must be the most important optimization goal of e-commerce sites. Otherwise, users who log into your site for the first time will not prefer you in their subsequent searches or needs.
Another issue to be considered regarding user experience is payment methods. More than 30% of consumers leave the site due to extra costs appearing on the payment page. For this reason, you should always clearly state the product-price information on product pages and explain the shipping fee.
Inadequacy in Customer Communication!
Your e-commerce site reaching a permanent and reliable position in the sector is related to customers. So, what should you do? Accept your customers' return and exchange requests as long as it is possible. Offering them a seamless experience will also open the doors to word-of-mouth marketing.
The fact that customer service truly offers solutions completely meets the needs of consumers. For this reason, form an experienced team and establish strong communication with your customers.