eCommerce Mistakes that Make Most Startups Shut Down Placeholder canvas
Top eCommerce Mistakes that Make Most Startups Shut Down

Top eCommerce Mistakes that Make Most Startups Shut Down

Published : 20th, October 2022 Edited : 31st, May 2023
  • ecommerce development company
  • eCommerce website development

It is a fact that the eCommerce industry is flourishing these days rapidly. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in January 2020 and has adversely affected a lot many businesses worldwide. But seeing its positive side, it has led to a boom in the eCommerce industry. This has now become a great selling opportunity for most of the retailers to start a business online.  

Before this pandemic, shopping for a product online was increasing at a constant rate of approximately 4.5% every year worldwide. However, this percentage has drastically increased after the pandemic. The reason behind the increased number of online stores is the restricted movement aimed to control the spread of COVID-19. 

Nowadays, eCommerce website development is not an option. Instead, it has become the fundamental need of all the online businesses looking to grow. Clearly, the COVID-19 has immensely changed the online shopping behaviour of consumers. 

Fortunately, having well-structured and attractive websites opens the doors for businesses to expand their business in the digital world. Being a business owner, generating good sales from eCommerce websites or applications is impressive, right? eCommerce business is an excellent opportunity for you to develop a good customer base and increase sales. 

However, many online businesses fail to get the desired results. According to some research, approximately 90% of budding startups or small businesses fail within 120 days of launch. Truly, eCommerce websites have become a great opportunity for many businesses, but due to some mistakes, many have faced failures too. Wondering Why?

One of the most common reasons for eCommerce business failure is “maybe your website or application is not structured correctly. Also, there may be some essential elements missing that lead your business to failure. This may also lead to failure in attracting a custom base and retaining new customers. 

If you are on the verge of starting your online business, hiring a responsive website design company can be the best way to get great results. Well, there could be many reasons for an eCommerce business to fail. Some of which are discussed in the following part of the blog. 

Reasons eCommerce Websites Fail and are Unsuccessful.

Often people ask the reasons for eCommerce websites fail. There are many reasons, some of which responsive website design companies can help you resolve, and some depend on the client. Let’s dive deeper!

Reasons eCommerce Websites Fail

1. Joining the eCommerce Community Without any Research

The most prominent mistake that most businesses usually commit is jumping on the bandwagon without adequately researching the industry. For business owners, inspecting the industry and its requirements is the most important thing to do before joining the eCommerce industry. 

When you initially research your business, it gives you insights into the competition, targeted customer base, and market demand. You can leverage these insights to adjust your business plan in a way that ultimately gets you good results. 

Many entrepreneurs do not research and fail. However, if you want a successful eCommerce business in this competitive world, you must first profoundly research and analyze the market. Do not forget that good market research is a crucial step to thrive in the industry. 

2. Poor eCommerce Website Design

Designing an eCommerce website with just a few pictures showcasing your offerings. Is this a good website design? Absolutely Not. Doing this and hoping for the best results is a waste of time and money as well. 

Poor website design can directly affect your business conversion rates. In order to get successful, you need to develop a user-friendly website that works well. By investing in your website and working with an eCommerce development company can give you cost-effective results. This can help your business fail due to poor website design.

Shaking hands with an experienced website design company can help you create a mobile site that beautifully reflects your brand. Visitors will definitely convert into potential customers helping your business to thrive. 

3. No Quality Content 

Pictures are the very first thing a customer pays attention to. As said, pictures sell products. Inferior products images can drive your customers away. Use good product images to make a good impression on every user. 

Pictures are not the only thing you need. Instead, describe your product with a compelling product description and sales copy. Quality images and confident sales copy will increase the performance of your marketing strategy. Instead of running ads that would bring customers who won’t buy, use quality images to help you attract new customers. 

4. Poor eCommerce Search Engine Optimization

Being online shoppers, almost every one of us starts our online journey on search engines. For niche-specific retailers, most of the traffic on their website comes from Google, Bing, or any other search engine. It is merely impossible for an online store to survive if new traffic is not coming to their website.

One of the most significant reasons for an online business to fail is: it does not show up on the first page of the search engines. The solution is to use specific keywords in your product description all over your website. In addition, publish regular blogs to drive more traffic and generate leads. Also, ensure the speed of your website as it is the most critical ranking factor. 

Online stores that do not take care of their SEO always struggle to drive necessary traffic to generate sales. You can even boost traffic by paid ads, but this could affect your profit margins. So, the best way is Search Engine Optimization.

Read also: Common Pitfalls to Avoid while Developing an eCommerce Store

5. Bad Marketing Strategy 

Entrepreneurs often have a misconception that once their website or application is launched, the shoppers would automatically start visiting their website. But it is not that easy to drive traffic to your website. Today building a solid online presence is even more important for an eCommerce business. 

No business can thrive without building a robust digital presence. So, if you are not focusing on enhancing your web presence, it is high time to decide. Digital Marketing is an efficient technique to attract new customers to your website and improve brand value. This would eventually boost revenue for your business.  

If you start selling your products online, always consider Digital Marketing Services the topmost priority for your business to thrive. 

6. Lack of Call to Action

If you have a product idea and plan to develop a responsive website for selling that product, ensure adding appropriate CTAs. If you are trying to get someone to add products to your shopping cart, ensure that the button stands out. 

If you want your customer to call you for any enquiry, make sure that the contact number is clearly visible. While developing a website, make sure that you clearly tell the customer where to go or what to do. 

To push them towards a sale, make sure that the call to action button works appropriately and is clearly visible on your website. In short, your website should offer the best customer service to the clients. 

7. Complicated Checkout Process 

A complex checkout process may lead to cart abandonment that is not at all good for your business. In addition, customers who are frustrated by the extra fields to fill or confusing payment options may drive away from the sales process. The best you can do is to make the checkout process as simple as possible.

Ensure that your eCommerce website offers multiple payment options like credit cards, COD, GPay, PayPal etc. Do not use any necessary registration. Instead, encourage registrations with some added values. Doing this will lower your website’s cart abandonment which will ultimately increase your sales and profits. 

You can also include the option to register through social media accounts to save time and build trust in your customers with a secured checkout.

8. Less Cash Flow 

Putting cash flow in simple words is the process of movement of money in and out of business. Budding startups can struggle when they do not have enough cash to operate. The best example to understand this is when an entrepreneur invests all his money in buying inventory for the website and is left with no cash for marketing. In that case, sales do not rise, and the business is unable to thrive. 

To avoid the cash flow issue, spread your expenses across every necessary thing so that everything does not remain due at once. Consider paying for the inventory in terms of 60 or 90 days. Over investing in advertising or so-called search engine gurus can be a harm to your business. Therefore, always avoid that.

9. Poor Inventory Management 

As per the business plan, inventory management can be one of the most significant issues new online businesses could face. If you buy too much inventory, it would ultimately cripple the cash flow. And if you buy less inventory, you would, in the end, lose customers or miss out on sales. 

Ordering products on a website is often not as easy as you think. Vendors may have different lead times which means, it might take a few days for a vendor to get a reorder and another vendor may accept the reorder in a few weeks. This means you have to place reorders at different times and at different inventory levels. 

Shipping costs associated with your inventory can also be significant. 

10. High Competition

The internet is the sky of stars for even the smallest of businesses across the world. But almost no online startup business can survive against the most established businesses. This happens mainly in the case when small businesses try to sell the same product that already established businesses sell. 

Simply understanding, you cannot easily sell Microsoft’s Xbox that hundreds and thousands of retailers already sell, including Amazon, Best Buy, Flipkart, etc. In short, it will be more challenging to sell mass-market products rather than selling niche-specific unique products. So to fight competition, find your unique niche and start selling. 

This was all about the top issues that lead a startup to fail. Now, if there are problems, there always comes a solution to the problem. So read further and know how to avoid a business failure. 

Avoiding a Business Failure

If you want your business to survive in the market, the greatest mistake you are making is not asking for advice from other professionals. Even if you think that you know every necessary thing about your business industry, there is a person who is likely to be more experienced than you. Therefore, you need to make potential connections with such people to take advice from them whenever your business is succeeding the way you desire. 

Ensuring customer care services is another way to avoid business failures. If customer care services are taken seriously, it can help you expand your business. On the other hand, if you don’t give your customers the respect and attention they want, you will probably lose them to your peers. Keep the communication line open with your customers and show them you are concerned about their queries. 

Always stay true to your vision. This can also help you prevent business failure. You should never copy other companies as what worked for your competitors might not work well for you. While it is a fact that some ideas work equally for every business, you should only imitate those. However, before copying the ideas, make sure that the idea will work best for your business too. 

Valuing experience can always uplift your company. For example, if you don’t have any experience in project management, you might need to hire experienced project managers for that job. So, significant experience can definitely help you avoid the mistakes that lead to business failure.

Conclusion

If you are planning to develop an online store or looking to gain more attention in the much-crowded marketplace, WeDoWebApps LLC can help you stand out from your peers. We specialize in responsive website design services and digital marketing services. We design and develop innovative websites and applications and help the customers to increase visibility and attract new customers. 

Our ideal web design services can help you provide an excellent shopping experience and convert your visitors into loving fans. We are experts in creating WordPress, Shopify stores and other eCommerce stores for your business. So reach out to us today, and we will try our best for your business.