3 Planning-Stage Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Up an Ecommerce Business

Friday, October 27th, 2017

Ecommerce is increasingly growing and without doubt, it still has a brighter future. Just recently, eMarketer announced that online sales will most likely exceed $4 trillion come 2020.

But, retail has always been competitive and unpredictable. Formerly, small stores battled against giants stores like Kmart and Walmart. And now, it’s all about eBay and Amazon— the two ecommerce bigwigs. The harsh truth for startup ecommerce retailers is that even a minor hitch in their systems can send away customers and as a result affect their revenue negatively.

So if you want to maintain a steady and growing customer base, and better your bottom line, here are four common mistakes to avoid when setting up an ecommerce business.

Creating content that doesn’t trigger response from your audience

Content marketing is a crucial aspect of ecommerce. The intention is to display the right message for the targeted group of people. Branded content, if used properly, could be a very valuable asset. But it could also drive away a large number of your prospects if carelessly done.

That’s why you should invest time and money in proper planning to ensure each message you send will serve its intended purpose. This means addressing common concerns and matters related to your industry. Fortunately, tech has provided are all sorts of tools to assist you with this.

Failing to invest in dependable web security

Cyber attacks are these days an open threat. Customers, on the other hand, expect you to keep their data safe from fraudsters. And since there’s sharing of financial data, you don’t want to take any risks at all.  Regardless of how hard you work to market and make sales, you can never see substantial results with a platform that’s not protected from fraud.

Serious ecommerce merchants should consider learning PCI Security Standards—which were introduced to ensure merchants stay safety during payment processing, data storage and payment data transmission. Plus the situation is ever changing, so you have to stay up to date with new changes.

Next, you’ll need an SSL certificate to ensure all info sent to your website e.g. usernames, credit card details, passwords, and more is encrypted for security. This will assure customers of your site’s safety.

Taking lightly the significance of customer service

The idea that a good customer interaction is unnecessary for ecommerce is misleading. Maybe this was the case earlier, but this year it is a key part of any online business.

Since you’re dealing with an impatient generation of shoppers, you don’t want to keep them waiting or they’ll move on to next shop. That’s why your customer service needs to be fast, easy and satisfactory. If possible add a live-chat feature on your website to speed things up.

You can also consult account providers that offer the best merchant services for small businesses like EMB to ensure you set up a dependable payment system that won’t let you or your customers down.

In a nutshell, these three mistakes can ruin your entire ecommerce experience and result into huge losses. Be sure to look into each of them before venturing to ensure things run smooth all through.