Looking to start an eCommerce website? Are you trying to grow one that you have already established? Avoid these five mistakes.
1. Not going organic
Whether you like it or not, SEO will be a big part of the success of your online store. Learn the ins and outs of tagging your images correctly, creating descriptive titles, using keywords, etc. It will make a huge difference in the growth and success of your store.
2. Be a silent shopkeeper
When a person visits your online store, they should instantly see two things: a phone number they can call if they have questions, and an email they can send a message to when they finally decide they don’t want to talk on the phone. Having your customer service department easily accessible will add credibility to your store and help keep people on the site when they would otherwise have left. Don’t be a silent grocer.
3. Bad Organization
Whether you have a large or small catalog, you need to make sure products are displayed with large, high-quality images and are properly organized. Small stores can start with a single page layout, but no matter what, you need to feature products on the front page if you want to optimize your website for conversions.
4. Slow design
No one is going to stick around and browse a site that takes forever to load, but that’s often the case with eCommerce websites. You’ll be uploading a lot of large, high-quality images for the products you’re displaying, so use the right image processing and hosting service to keep your site speed up.
A website-wide cache will also help things load quickly so your customers aren’t waiting for your products to appear on their screen.
5. Not mobile friendly
Did you know that 70% of mobile searches are converted within an hour? That means if a mobile user lands on your website and your site isn’t ready for mobile users, they’ll just go and try a competitor’s website. Don’t think they’re going to go to all the trouble of accessing a desktop that might work with your site.
You need to be ready when your customers are, and that requires having a mobile-friendly website to help increase conversions. Be sure to test your website on all types of devices to help stop bounces resulting from poor website design.