3 Pitfalls to Avoid When Launching your Online Store

Get ahead of the competition early on by avoiding these common mistakes

You have a great product and have built a gorgeous site, but where are your sales? Our ten-plus years of experience have shown us the most common pitfalls faced by ecommerce merchants. Take a good look at your business and see if you’re making one of these mistakes, then follow our advice to fix it!

Pitfall #1: Selling a product no one wants

It sounds counterintuitive, but many entrepreneurs try to sell products and services they will do well and not products that prospective customers have indicated they are willing to pay for.

The fix:

Before spending time, money and effort getting your website and product off the ground, figure out who your customer is, what pain point (unmet need) you would be solving, and how much they would be willing to pay for your product or service.

In short, #knowyourcustomers.

Pitfall #2: Not spending enough time or money on marketing

Congratulations, you’re online! Unfortunately, a beautiful ecommerce store is no good if nobody knows about it. The hardest part is still ahead of you: creating awareness.

The fix:

Create a sensible and effective marketing plan (take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s Content Plan for a great example) and be consistent in promoting your new website.

Pitfall #3: Putting form before function

Far too often, brands focus on building a beautiful, unique ecommerce experience for their customers, and end up building a beautiful, unique store that simply doesn’t convert.

While there are merits to taking this approach, like standing out, your primary goal with ecommerce is to make it incredibly easy for your visitors to find and buy what they’re looking for on your site.

The fix:

Ensure your online store is user-friendly. Try it out on friends and family (especially the less tech-savvy ones!) to make sure that can find your product and buy it with ease.

Conclusion

By fixing these three common ecommerce pitfalls, you are offering products and services that your customers actually want, reaching new customers and making it easy for anyone to buy from you. Now, that’s good business.

Want more guidance? Rather leave it to the professionals? We always recommend starting with Able Sense’s Ecommerce Action Plan.

We are a full-service ecommerce website development agency specializing in Shopify strategies and custom implementations for clients around the globe. As a Shopify Plus partner, we help merchants succeed at B2B, B2C or D2C by helping them put Shopify at the centre of their businesses.

Originally published at https://ablesense.com on April 1, 2020.