A planned approach for an eCommerce store is essential for smooth business functioning. Glitches in the system complicate the business and lead to time being wasted on sorting daily operational issues.
The best solution is to identify the pain points of running an eCommerce store and overcome them as a preemptive approach.
We have highlighted 10 pain points and their possible solutions.
#1 Longer Check Outs
Shopping cart abandonment is a serious issue. The global average is 69.23%. Global eCommerce is already pegged at billions, and if the shopping cart abandonment problem can be corrected, the sales will lead record-breaking highs.
Problem
Often, an eCommerce store complicates the checkout with long, convoluted forms which consumers aren’t willing to fulfill.
A checkout requires three basic details – Name, Address, and Preferred payment method.
Instead, stores seek a greater number of details that lead the consumer to abandon the checkout, causing loss of revenue.
Solution
The store manager can remove the pain point by reducing the steps leading to checkout and integrate a short checkout and invoice generation process.
Consider the following extensions for your store’s CMS to optimize the Checkout process:
Magento : One Step Store Checkout by Magestore
Shopify: Skip Cart by Simplify
WooCommerce: One-Click Checkout by YITH
#2 Multiple Device User Experience
Mobile commerce sales are projected to reach $459.38 billion in 2018. The modern consumer shops largely via mobiles and tablets and any eCommerce store will bleed sales if the user experience is less than satisfying on the mobile devices.
Problem
Lack of knowledge or a tight budget often leads store managers to avoid making the eCommerce store mobile responsive.
However, even before an eCommerce store is launched, it should be a priority to test the website on all platforms – Desktop, Laptop, Mobile, Tablets, Phablets.
Solution
Irrespective of which CMS you are using – you can find tons of themes that are by default Mobile responsive.
Hence, if you are choosing a paid theme from the market then make sure that it is actually responsible for Multiple screen sizes.
If you are looking to have a custom theme developed then test how well the website scales on different screen sizes. Additionally, check the theme’s performance on mobile devices along with desktops.
Tools like Google Pagespeed Insights, GTMetrix and Pingdom allows you to determine the performance of websites on mobiles as well as on desktops.
If you are a startup and don’t have multiple mobile devices to check the website on, then consider BROWSERSTACK which gives you virtual access to different devices and operating system for as low as $29 per month.
Use any of these tools to know where your website can be improved.
#3 Problematic Legacy System Updates
Store owners always prefer using off the shelf and feature rich CMS solutions that allow them to manage and scale their stores without investing too much in getting a CMS tool developed.
Whether it’s a custom built solution or built on existing CMS’s like Magento WooCommerce, Shopify, the support staff, the management and the admin have to spend a lot of time in understanding and using the legacy system.
The business often hits roadblocks when upgrading the system.
Problem
Upgrading legacy systems often lead to:
- Bad user experience,
- High maintenance costs,
- Integration errors,
- Poor mobile loading
- Change of business processes
All these cost the business time and money.
Solution
The solution is to a two-way deal:
- Choose a lightweight, seamless, and effective CMS. Be wise in making your choice and do thorough research before selecting your CMS.
- Install extensions and themes that will work in the CMS wisely. Overloading your CMS with multiple plugins will eventually cause chaos in your store at some point in time.
Remember, the upgrade is mandatory (for obvious reasons). It is up to us the store manager to make sure that the store is prepared for updates and upgrades.
It is prudent to have a skilled backend team to handle major Upgrades and data management processes with minimal downtimes.
#4 Ineffective SEO
Running recurrent SEO audit and campaigns for an eCommerce store is a humongous task due to three reasons:
- Lack of budget because SEO isn’t cheap anymore and buying backlinks from Fiverr doesn’t help anymore.
- Inefficient team because SEO is an evolving field, and the business needs an agile team to handle SEO.
- Too much high competition because of existing industry stalwarts.
Dealing with the third reason isn’t tough if the store owner successfully mitigates the first two reasons.
Problem
Organic business in the online sphere heavily depends on continued SEO campaigns. Identifying specific eCommerce keywords from the buyer perspective and ranking a site isn’t easy.
There is a considerable investment involved, and if you have the right team, the investment will be easily recouped with exceptional sales figures.
Solution
Therefore, the only solution I can recommend here is to hire the right team and set aside a good budget. SEO is a highly technical field, and each of its technicalities can be comprehensively documented.
Use the right SEO tool like Ahrefs, SEMRush or Serpstat to monitor SEO growth and ROI.
#5 Complicated Shipping
Whether you’re into eCommerce drop shipping or self-shipping retail business, shipping gets complicated either way because it isn’t simple to identify shipping costs globally.
Problem
Businesses restricted to cities have the benefit to identify and standardize the shipping cost based on the product weight and other dimensions.
What about international shipping?
Too high shipping costs demotivate buyers to checkout and given the high competition, it is sensible to absorb the shipping cost within the product cost.
In such cases, how does one define the profit margin?
Solution
Shipping should be an automated process. There are three solutions to this:
- Directly partner with shipping service providers like FedEx and Bluedart to handle the goods.
- Partner with logistics service providers in certain countries.
- Integrate a software within the website if the business is small and self-shipping would suit best.
The cost of the first two solutions depend on the business volume.
The third solution could be plugins and extensions. WordPress CMS users can use the WooCommerce plugin while Magento CMS users can use Magento Shipping Suite extension. An eCommerce developer can assist with setting up these resources to its maximal efficiency.
#7 Broken URLs
Even a small eCommerce store generates tons of URLs. These product pages, tag pages, category pages, seasonal landing pages, offers and deals, company pages, support pages and more.
Problem
There is nothing more frustrating for a buyer to click on a link that leads to a 404-page error, implying the page doesn’t existing or has shifted. The store loses a buying consumer, simple!
And, there is less chance the buyer would return to the store for future purchases.
Solution
The recommended solution to monitor broken URLs is to set up a system within the website to scan all pages periodically and train the technical person to ensure no errors happen while uploading a new landing page, a new offer or a deal.
Keep a bird’s eye view on your web page link using tools like Check My Links, W3C Link Checker, and SEMRush.
#8 Mismanaged Support Staff
The growth of a business strongly depends on the people it hires. The Support staff is at the forefront of the eCommerce store because they are the first point of contact with the consumers for their queries, whether it is buying a product or claiming a refund.
Problem
A major pain point for any eCommerce store is untrained and mismanaged support staff. Poor behavior and lack of customer satisfaction lead to negative business reviews on social media.
Moreover, poor technological infrastructure to handle customer queries linearly is another major issue.
Solution
The solution is to invest in a relevant technological infrastructure. Hire a competent development team to integrate it within the eCommerce store. The development team will manage the Support system and remove all bugs.
Lastly, invest in training the Support team for better communication, product knowledge, and customer sensitization.
#9 Poor Database Management
Big data analytics for predictive buyer behavior is the norm. Running an eCommerce store is incomplete without efficient data collection and management processes.
Problem
Every buyer should be added to your database for future retargeting. New product launches or deals should be communicated to existing customers for recurrent business.
Any eCommerce business spends a lot of marketing budget to acquire customers, but the real effectiveness of that marketing strategy is proven when these customers become repeat buyers.
Solution
Rather than depending on external SaaS product for database management, the prudent approach is to have an in-house setup to collect and store database built on systems like Salesforce.
Combine it with email marketing systems like SendGrid, SendInBlue and MailChimp to reach out to the consumers for permission marketing.
#10 Lack of Security
The digital ecosystem is both empowering and imbued with vulnerabilities. Security should be a prime concern for any eCommerce store owner.
Problem
The modern buyer is aware of flaws any site might have, and they will think twice before revealing their credit card or debit card details. Lack of secured checkouts on the store will cause the business losses.
Solution
The solution for this pain point is to employ adequate security features such as SSL certificate, HTTPS connection, 2-factor verification and more.
A dedicated security expert team will be able to integrate a security system with the eCommerce store and increase trust and credibility in the eyes of the potential buyer.
In Conclusion
Managing an eCommerce store isn’t easy. It requires both short-term and long-term planning with dedicated to-dos and expected measurable results. There must be other pain points as well. Hire eCommerce developer who can identify them by understanding the issues from the perspective of the potential buyer and take steps to improve the eCommerce store.
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