An e-commerce store is an awesome way to raise revenue with very little tactics: You can generate sales around-the-clock at a global level without the expenses or staff required to operate a brick-and-mortar business. Yet, despite the fact that more than 205 million consumers in the United States shop online, and spend a per-person average of nearly $3,000 per year, plenty of e-commerce business is still struggling to earn profits.If you count yours among them, here are 10 things that could be the root cause of your revenue problems.Poor quality images and product descriptionsWhen customers shop online, they don’t have the ability to pick a product and inspect it. They’re forced to rely on the images you upload to the site, along with whatever description you have. Images and descriptions should be designed to attract buyers. If you have shady photos or rely solely on technical descriptions, you’ll lose a lot of sales because you'll fail to generate interest in your products.
Contact information may seem like a small detail, but limiting it on your website is a huge red flag for consumers. They want to know they can reach you if there’s a problem. If the store location displayed is wrong or missing on the website, the consumer will be not satisfied with service you are providing.
A complex, multi-step checkout process is a frustrating experience for customers. It’s like going to Walmart for a single product, only to find the store has only two registers running and lines that are enormous.
I have personally abandoned countless online carts because shipping costs were hidden until the very end of the checkout process, and it was only then that I discovered high shipping rates which I wasn’t willing to pay.
According to Smart Insights, 80 percent of shoppers search the web using their smartphones. If your online store has tiny buttons, small product images or a cluttered design, navigation can be incredibly difficult.
Even with an e-commerce website, you need to make it very clear what you want the customer to do on your site. Non-product pages should direct the customer using a blatant and obvious call to action. By providing necessary information about the online purchase procedure without any huddles can impress your customer and bring success to your e-commerce business.
Without targeted traffic, your store isn’t going to generate any revenue. You need to create an inbound marketing strategy that uses social, content marketing and even paid marketing. Once you begin building your customer base, let user-generated content and testimonials build further social proof and promote your store.
No acknowledgment at all from a salesperson is just as bad as a pushy salesperson. Engage your customers and followers on social media to keep your brand front and center. Get involved in industry-related discussions to turn heads of prospective customers.
You may be pouring time and money into content marketing or ad spends that aren’t generating any business. If that’s the case, are you targeting the right people? Make sure you do your audience research so that your marketing is targeting the right crowd.
Pricing products can be difficult: if your prices are too low, customers may think your products are lower quality. Prices too high and they'll shop elsewhere. When you factor in tax and shipping costs, it’s even more challenging. Market research and trial and error can help you find the pricing sweet spot you need, to gain (and keep) customers.