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Common Ecommerce Mistakes To Avoid (And How To Fix Them)
Introduction
Jaap is Head of Marketing and Ecommerce at NEDIS – one of Europe’s fastest growing suppliers of consumer electronics and accessories. As a strong believer in a multi-channel approach for ecommerce, Jaap’s strengths lie in the intersection of ecommerce, new media, strategy and entrepreneurship. Jaap is responsible for the development and implementation of the global ecommerce and marketing strategy and achieving an ambitious sales target. You can reach Jaap on Twitter @JaapCuperus or on LinkedIn.
Perhaps you’ve just created your very own webshop to sell products you really care about, or the dropshipping business you started is starting to generate lots of new sales and you need to bring a couple of new employees to manage all of your orders. Maybe your boss has put you in charge of managing your retail store’s webshop and you’re not sure where to start. Regardless of where you are on your ecommerce journey, there’s no denying that having the right ecommerce marketing strategy can make or break your business. How do you analyse your current marketing efforts? Are you doing the right things, or can you develop new marketing campaigns to bring in more loyal customers? On the following pages I’ll attempt to address some of the most common ecommerce marketing mistakes I see entrepreneurs, business owners and online marketers make, and of course, share some of my top tips on what you can do to fix (or avoid) them.
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1. Underestimating the power of
Content Marketing Consumers are exposed to more commercial messages than ever before, greatly reducing the impact of more traditional marketing channels. If content marketing isn’t part of your ecommerce marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to provide additional value to your customers by tailoring to their interests and needs, build trust, and reach new audiences.
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Identify problems
Take notepad and pen and begin to jot down a list of all the problems or challenges your customers may run into, and identify where your expertise can solve those problems.
Use Different methods
Make a list of all the different methods you plan on using to reach out to your customers such as blog, email, newsletters, social media etc..
Map out content Map out the content your customers will be most interested in for your future blog and social posts or email campaigns.
Publish
Publish and share your content!
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Pricing Pricing your products on your webshop just right can have a large impact on determining who and who doesn’t buy your product (and that’s before we even factor in things like packaging and presentation!). When was the last time you rethought your pricing strategy? Have you experimented with higher or lower prices? If not, start now.
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Offer better incentives As the online shopping space becomes even more competitive, it’s important to constantly offer your users new and exciting incentives to stand out from the competition and enhance their overall experience. Think free shipping, 10% off voucher codes or soft bundling, in which you offer discounts on accessories for customers who have made a purchase.
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Simplify the checkout process
2. Not Focusing on the User Unlike their traditional brick and mortar only counterparts, webshops lack the ability to allow customers to touch, feel, smell and see products before making their decision. While you may not be able to solve this problem currently, you can compensate for this by giving users a great online shopping experience.
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If you’re struggling to lower your shopping cart abandonment rate, then look to your checkout process. By reducing the amount of steps your users need to take to complete their purchase, you’ll not only improve your cart abandonment rate, but also boost your sales significantly – all without bringing in any extra web traffic.
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“FOCUS “
on giving users a great online shopping experience.
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3. Oering the Same Experience for All Visitors Every customer that visits your webshop has their own unique tastes and preferences, so why give them all the same experience?
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Personalise There are countless ways to personalise the user experience. Think of all the emails sent to your customers for order confirmations, invoices and more. Include your customers full name instead of ‘Sir/Madam’, including relevant information and even think about showcasing relevant products based on their preferences (many modern email marketing tools offer this ability).
Our Online Marketing Team recently implemented a personalised homepage on the NEDIS webshop based on our customers purchase and search behaviour. Visit the homepage: www.webshop.nedis.com 10
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GGet creative
Get creative with your headlines and content! Google’s latest algorithm updates tend to favour unique content over keyword optimisation, so go for unique content tailored to your online audiences. Your customers – and the SERPs – will thank you.
4. Writing for Search Engines While it’s important to make sure your webshop is optimised for the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), relying too heavily on keyword optimisation can actually have a negative effect on your search engine rankings and can also end up looking unnatural. 12
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for
people
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Write
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Search Engines
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5. Oering Your Webshop in Only One Language If your webshop is only offered in English you could be missing out on an entire audience of people ready to purchase your products. Don’t let the fact you only speak one language stop you from selling your products to customers in Spain!
about TThought using a platform?
Most ecommerce platforms such as Wordpress, WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify offer translation options so that customers in other countries who are unable to speak your language can still buy from you. As an international supplier, we offer our webshops in over 20 languages to ensure that our customers can access the information they need with ease in their own native languages.
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6. Not Following Up Abandoned Carts No matter how successful your online store is, you can never be immune from missing out on potential sales due to abandoned carts. The abandonment rate for online retailers varies anywhere between 60% and 80% (Baymard Institute). Pretty shocking, right?
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EEncourage
Thankfully there’s a few simple ways you can reduce the occurrence of abandoned carts. The first is to simply remove as many hesitations as possible, by offering incentives such as a discount or free shipping. If you already have this in place, another effective method is to setup an email recovery campaign to encourage your customers to complete their purchase.
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7. Overlooking the Importance of Building a Mailing List Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolkit. If you’re not building a mailing list you could miss out on hundreds, if not thousands, of sales down the line.
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Capture Start capturing your website visitors email addresses by featuring a sign-up form somewhere on your store. It’s best to offer your visitors something in exchange for their details such as “Sign up for 10% off your next order”. Have a blog? Incorporate a sign up form at the end of your blog posts so visitors have the option to sign up for future updates!
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Create Once you’ve built your list you should create your email marketing plan. Aim for at least one email a week including content such as new or upcoming products, sales, discounts or blog article content. The key is to make sure it’s not too salesy!
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MailChimp Services such as MailChimp are a great way to dive into email marketing if you’re just starting out, and make it easy to create beautiful, professional looking campaigns with no coding.
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8. Not Oering Enough Transparency There’s a number of laws surrounding online shopping and make sure that important details such as business contact information should always be clearly displayed, and product information should always be accurate and up-to-date. Despite this, many consumers still have hesitations about shopping online.
FFAQ
You can give your website visitors more confidence purchasing from you by including the answers to common questions such as returns, shipping time and order cancellations on your webshop. A great way to do this is to create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page that can be easily found by your webshop visitors or highlighting your unique selling points in the top banner of your
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FAQ NEDIS Our Online Marketing Team has recently created a detailed FAQ page for our webshop covering the most common questions received by our International Customer Service (ICS). This not only creates transparency, but also builds trust and loyalty between NEDIS and our customers.
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9. Using Low Quality or Generic Product Images By the far the biggest con associated with online shopping is the inability to physically hold the product in your hands and “try before you buy”. That’s why it’s so important to visually convey the benefits of the products your selling through images or videos.
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We ensure to include as many photos as possible for each of our products on our webshop to give the customer a deeper insight into the product.
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High Quality H
Make sure to use high-quality, original images of your products from all the possible angles to provide the best impression and help your customers make a more informed decision.
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10. Not Having an Onsite SEO Plan Having a solid content strategy and creating unique content tailored to your audiences is important, but search engines still rely on keywords to get your store in front of the people searching for the products you sell.
Optimise O
Platforms like Wordpress offers great free plugins such as YoastSEO that make optimising your webshop a breeze. If you have the budget, you might want to consider hiring a skilled SEO professional to help you show up on page one of Google, Bing and Yahoo faster.
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<10% of people advance to page 2 of Google (source: http://www.protofuse.com/blog/first-page-of-google-by-the-numbers)
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40%
of worldwide internet users have bought products or goods online via desktop, mobile, tablet or other online devices (source: https://www.statista.com/markets/413/e-commerce/)
48%
of people cited a websiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business (source: http://www.ironpaper. com/webintel/articles/10-web-design-statistics/)
68%
of small businesses have a mobile-friendly site(source: https://clutch.co/web-designers/resources/small-businesswebsites-2016-survey)
80%
The cart abandonment rate for online retailers varies anywhere between 60% and 80% (Baymard Institute).
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Conclusion The amount of information about ecommerce marketing on the web can be overwhelming, but the good news is that creating a successful online store is a lot simpler than you might think. Even if you focus on just a few of the areas outlined in this ebook you’ll be on the path to increasing your online store’s revenue. But remember - the tips contained in this ebook are just the beginning. What you do next is entirely up to you. Whether you’re inspired to overhaul your content marketing plan or begin building a new mailing list, make sure to continue to test and tweak every possible aspect of your ecommerce marketing strategy. I wish you all the best on your ecommerce journey.
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For more ecommerce marketing tips and to stay up-to-date with our latest deals and special offers, follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
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Looking for High Margin Products For Your Online Store? With over 17,000 high margin products across 18 categories including connectivity, security & safety, energy, lighting, smart media, photo and video and more, we’re confident we have what you’re looking for. Partner with NEDIS today and benefit from:
Healthy margins User friendly webshop and full online support to view your orders and invoices Drop shipment service (NL, BE, DE & LUX) Local European Warehouse Complete Private Labelling Solutions No minimum order amount Easy ordering app
Join o ver 50 ,000 Resell er Who R s Globally ely On NEDIS To Bo ost Th eir Profits Today !