The 10 Most Common Ecommerce Mistakes

One of the best ways to learn what to do is by discussing what not to do. We’ve got a list of 10 of the most common ecommerce mistakes that business owners make. Hopefully, by learning what not to do, you can focus on what to do and improve your website’s visibility and SEO.  So, here’s a what not to do list.

1. Don’t do the math. Math is a very important part of running a business. You don’t want to end up in a niche that has good demand but not enough revenue potential to make it worthwhile. If you sell cheap products, you want to make sure that there is enough demand out there for you to make money. To see how profitable your business can be, you should use this formula:  PROFIT=DEMAND*(REVENUE-EXPENSES). If you do the math, you should know what you’re in for. You want to make sure that you make enough money to make it worthwhile for you. Do this before you start your business or you could find yourself working really hard for very little profit. 
    
   
   
     
   
   
   
   
2. Don’t find a gap in the market. You’ve got these great products to sell. You’re pretty sure they’ll make you a ton of money. Unfortunately, you don’t do any research to see who your competitors are and if they can deliver the product more effectively and more cheaply than you can. Well, if you don’t know who is out there selling similar or the same products, you could wind up competing with people who have better reputations and processes in place than you do. If this happens, you could wind up with a disaster commercially. 
   
   
   
   
3. Don’t limit your products. You want to sell a ton of products. Perhaps, you are into the eco-friendly niche and decide you just want to be a one-stop-shop for all things eco-friendly. If you specialize a little bit more, your ecommerce site may be more appealing to customers. Too many choices can make people overwhelmed and they might go somewhere else to get what you could have provided them with. So, think about what you want to sell and narrow it down to something manageable for you and your business model. 
   
   
   
   
4. Don’t have a content plan. Yup. Ignoring content marketing can be very detrimental to your ecommerce site. Content marketing brings in more customers from search engines and social media networks. If you don’t have good content or any content, it will be hard to be found on search engines. Build your content strategy around your ideal customer. Chances are they have interests that you can utilize on your blog and on your site. 
   
   
   
   
5. Don’t think your freebies through. Some businesses do very well giving away freebies either through contests or samples. However, not every niche requires that you do this. Freebies tend to work best on perishable or consumable products like skin care, foods, supplements and so forth. For all other products, they don’t make as much sense. Freebies don’t always drive sales. You need to build a brand to do that. 
   
   
   
   
6. Don’t plan out contests. If you decide you want to run a contest, that’s up to you. We just mentioned that freebies aren’t always a great way to ecommerce success. However, maybe you want to offer a gift certificate to purchase your products. That’s fine, but you need to have a plan. Do you want to run it on your social media networks? If so, which one? What are the rules? You need to plan for the logistics and aftermath of the contest before you start it. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Don’t worry about time spent on menial tasks. If you decide to bootstrap your business, which many people do, that’s okay. However, you have to remember that time is money. You only have a limited amount of time so you can’t do everything. It’s not possible or profitable. Try to automate as many tasks as you can. You can also outsource for certain tasks very cheaply on sites like Fiverr. Remember, work smart and hard. 
   
   
   
   
8. Don’t think about your ideal customer. When you start a business, you need to think about your ideal customer. This is the person you are selling to. You need to know who this person is and what they want. You have to provide them with a solution or a need they have. You will lose sales if you don’t think about this ideal customer and market to them. The more you can define this customer, the better you will resonate with people. This translates to more sales. 
   
   
   
   
9. Don’t have a solid marketing plan. If you want to fail in business, don’t market. Marketing plans are necessary for you to succeed. In addition to SEO, some businesses find PPC is actually profitable; others business find social media is a better use of precious resources. You may not know this going in, but you should include some time to research and change course if necessary. You must think about all the ways you can market and do the ones that make the most sense for your business. Write it down and keep it in a document that you can make changes to as you do business. 
   
   
   
   
10. Don’t scrutinize PPC company’s sweet talk. Some ecommerce sites think that PPC is the way to go. They fall for the claims of companies that sell these services and end up spending more money than they plan on. PPC can be done on your own. You can also start with a small spend and adjust it as you go. PPC can be a part of your overall marketing plan, but it should not be the only part of that plan. It has its place and it should depend on your available advertising budget. You don’t want to eat into all your profits by spending money on an expensive service. Take some time to understand how PPC actually generates revenue. The knowledge can go a long way towards helping you thrive online.

By avoiding these common ecommerce mistakes, you will be on your way to success. We want you to succeed and encourage you to keep coming back to our blog so that you can learn more about running your online business. 


Further reading: 

Small Business' Ultimate Guide For Ranking Ecommerce Websites 
Why Does My Business Need SEO When It Serves A Local Market