Mistakes to Avoid When Launching an eCommerce Business

Part of every learning experience involves making mistakes that teach us important lessons. However, you don’t necessarily need to make those mistakes as an eCommerce business owner to learn from them. Some are perfectly avoidable, and it’s important to know what they are going into eCommerce, which will help maximize your early success.

If you’re wondering what kinds of mistakes eCommerce brands make, the following are some of the most common along with steps to take to avoid them.

Failing to Understand Target Audiences

You must know who you’re trying to connect with before attempting to connect with them. Otherwise, your marketing and sales efforts will be far too broad to be effective.

Take some time to get to know your audience and each segment within it. Build buyer personas that serve as fictional representations of different segments. For example, you might have a persona describing college students on a tight budget while another might go after busy professionals.

You can look at your existing customers to see what kinds of people you attract or take a look at competitors to see who they’re pursuing. You can also request feedback from customers to learn about their demographics along with their specific wants and needs.

Once you’ve learned more about your audience and what it’s all about, you can then shape your campaigns to target them.

Only Listening to Those in Your Inner Circle

Another potential mistake that eCommerce business owners might make is to listen solely to their friends, family, and colleagues. If everyone you know and trust is agreeing that your ideas and strategies are perfect, then you’re gearing yourself up for failure.

Instead of surrounding yourself with self-appointed pundits, try reaching out to people who might be able to provide you with a more objective opinion. Connect with experts in your industry who might be able to offer some key insights into what’s working and what isn’t.

You might learn about a new approach or strategy that helps you get real results when you’d otherwise stay in a rut.

Selecting the Wrong eCommerce Platform

Some eCommerce brands may also go wrong by choosing an eCommerce platform that isn’t right for them. There are several options on the market today, from Shopify and BigCommerce to WooCommerce, Wix, and Squarespace.

Each platform has its upsides and downsides that you should consider. You can determine which platform is ideal for you based on a number of factors, including the cost of running and hosting your website on each platform, the kind of customizability you need, and search engine optimization (SEO) tools included.

Do some research into different platforms to make the right choice for your brand, which will eliminate any potentially negative surprises and headache associated with moving to a different platform.

Making Branding Too Generic

eCommerce brands may also need to spend more time on branding, including everything from logo design to color schemes and brand voice. If you’re not able to stand apart from the mounting competition out there, you’re going to have a hard time connecting with your target audiences.

Today, people see around 6,000 to 10,000 ads daily, and they encounter numerous brands that grab their attention, which is also decreasing. These and other statistics show how important it is to differentiate yourself through your branding.

Take a look at your competitors and see what their branding strategy is like. Take cues from them but avoid mimicking them in any way.

Think about your brand values and what you want to convey through your messaging and imagery. Also, think about the kind of language that your specific audiences will respond to most based on the buyer personas you’ve created.

If you can stand apart through engaging branding, you’ll be able to increase awareness, recognition, and trust among audiences. This will translate to increased traffic and, ultimately, sales.

Poor Website Design

Your website should have a high-quality professional design that people don’t find off-putting or difficult to navigate. Many eCommerce platforms make it easy to avoid this through intuitive designs and layouts that make it easy to optimize your online storefront, but you’ll want to ensure everything looks good and trustworthy.

In addition to high-quality visuals and product photos, you need good copy that establishes everything about your business and products without turning people away.

Ensure that everything on your website is easy to locate and explore with design elements that keep visitors on your site.

Neglecting to Use Effective Email Capture Forms

While appealing and memorable branding and web design can go far, you need to use capture forms on your site to get people on your email list so you can implement email marketing.

Many people who visit your website, particularly for the first time, aren’t likely to make a purchase during that visit. Before these visitors leave, you should use certain forms to capture key information that you can use to continue marketing to these people later.

For example, you can ask people with a popup on your website to subscribe to your brand’s newsletter in exchange for new and exclusive offers.

While lead capture forms are crucial, you shouldn’t be too pushy with them. For instance, if people instantly see a popup as soon as they land on your homepage, this could be a huge deterrent. Instead, you may want to add a time limit before it appears or have people scroll down the page to a certain extent beforehand.

Also, limit your pages to a single highly visible form if you can. Having too many forms on your pages could quickly annoy your visitors.

Take the Right Steps to Build Your eCommerce Brand

Avoiding these and other potentially costly mistakes can fuel your brand’s initial and lasting success. Of course, some mistakes aren’t avoidable—we’re only human and prone to error. However, if you can identify these mistakes and put measures into place to prevent them in the future, you’ll be able to continually improve your efforts.

To find out more ways to improve your eCommerce brand’s performance and succeed in your industry, consider reaching out to the experts at Gray Growth Consulting. We have the expertise and knowledge needed to get your eCommerce brand off the ground.