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8 Common E-Commerce Strategy Mistakes That You Should Avoid

Juliette Anderson975 05-Nov-2018

8 Common E-Commerce Strategy Mistakes That You Should Avoid

So you have the best idea in creating the best product in the market. Perhaps, you came up with an excellent service that isn’t offered by anybody else yet.

However, when it comes to the e-commerce landscape, the competition is fierce. To rise to the very top, you need to craft a planned approach, with clear goals and priorities.  

Before you launch a new product or service, there are some critical things that you need to avoid to increase e-commerce conversion, as well as your overall sales. It is to ensure that you’re not making costly marketing mistakes in the long run. 

Bypass Market Research

Don’t just go on launching products without doing any prior market research on how effective they will perform in the market. Chances are, while these ideas and products and generally fun to create, it’s challenging to make an initial profit.

While it’s tempting to launch a product immediately, really take your time to study and learn about which products will generally sell well with your target audience. Research your competitors and know about their failures and successes. Learn from them. Don’t just jump headfirst. Instead, connect with professionals and experts in the industry, and carefully assess your competition. By doing this, you’ll soon find yourself standing out from the rest of the pack.

Burning Yourself Out 

One of the biggest mistakes that you can ever possibly make is doing everything by yourself. But you’ll find yourself highly burned out in the end.

The solution? Hire the right people. Honestly, we can’t stress this enough. If you want to make your e-commerce business flourish, it’s crucial to find the right set of people made up of professionals and experts, who will efficiently help you with the workload, allowing you to achieve your goals faster.  

Not Having a Solid Development Plan 

It might come as a surprise, but a lot of businesses out there have no solid development plan. For example, when crafting a content marketing strategy, the importance of highly compelling content to finding commercial success online is indispensable. Not only it’s an excellent way to connect with your target audience, but when you get it right, it helps you integrate essential inbound marketing techniques like social media marketing, SEO, and lead generation.

Poor Choice of Business Name 

Many business owners don’t think about picking a good business name. They don’t think about crucial things like product relevance or SEO, much to their detriment. Don’t lock yourself in just a specific product, service or geography. Keep in mind that when launching an e-commerce business, see to it that the name of your company not only reflects the products you are currently selling. Instead, think about what you will be selling, several years from now.

The thing about e-commerce is that when everyone out there is your potential customer, it will be relatively easy to expand later on with new product categories. So, see to it that the name that you choose doesn’t hold you back from your future ventures. 

Failing to Engage to Customers 

It’s easy to wrap your head putting marketing campaigns into action or fulfilling customer orders that the customer feedback and research aspect tend to take the backseat. But your customers can give you the most vital feedback when it comes to your products and services. They can also give you an insight into how they think about your brand. Therefore, while staying in touch via newsletters and offers is essential, you still have to take the extra mile of establishing human relationships with them. You have to personally reach out to your customers and hear about their experiences.

Underpricing Your Products 

Are you selling your products, cheaply? Then, you seriously have to reconsider. Think about the listing fees, the marketing aspect, platform costs and other fees that you have to deal with.

That’s why it’s vital to do a financial analysis first that takes into account everything ‒ from returns to overhead costs. After all, margins and cash flows are everything for your business. Know your numbers, since sustaining e-commerce is expensive.  

Be updated with every single detail, from the recent algorithm changes to the SEO ‒ remember, the e-commerce landscape is always changing.  

Placing Your Products To One Platform 

When launching and selling your products online, don’t put all your efforts into just a single platform. Take into consideration the diversity of different platforms. Don’t be afraid to put your products on various platforms like Shopify, Pinkoi, and Amazon. You’ll soon realize that your business can benefit greatly from these. There will be products that are specifically suited to a niche platform that caters to a particular demographic. You have to choose the right platform to target the right audience specifically. As we know, audience targeting is instrumental when you want to set up your e-commerce business to success.

Not Having User-Friendly Website 

Web-development is challenging. There are many crucial factors to consider when it comes to running a highly-efficient site that is properly optimized to attract leads, amplify conversions, and increase sales. Put yourself in a user’s shoes ‒ they are coming to your site to learn, and potentially buy your products. They want a website that’s easily navigable, where the entire purchase process to be convenient and hassle-free as possible. So, you need to concentrate on your efforts to make everything easy and intuitive for them.

In Summary 

Building a highly successful e-commerce business takes an incredible amount of hard work. However, the small mistakes that you make can ruin your efforts, as well as all the hard work you’ve put through.

By familiarizing yourself with these e-commerce strategy pitfalls and avoiding them, you’ll soon find yourself on the right path, as you build your way through a successful e-commerce business.  





Updated 07-Sep-2019
Juliette Anderson is an Outreach Community Specialist for an e-commerce fulfillment company that specializes in partnering with online sellers who have an average parcel weight of 5+ pounds or greater. She works hand-in-hand with e-commerce stores to achieve optimal sales for four years already. Her specialty lies in social media marketing and paid promotions.

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