10 Blunders to Avoid in Ecommerce Marketing
Ecommerce marketing is not just about having a professionally designed site that is filled with products. Many online merchants have great sites and products, but are only making minimal sales. Here are some of the mistakes you need to avoid in ecommerce marketing:
The success of any ecommerce business relies greatly on trust. Your customers must trust you first before buying anything from your store. Some of the trust factors you should consider adding on your site include privacy policies, terms of use and SSL certificates. Assure your customers that personal details will be handled with the utmost level of confidentiality.
There are a wide range of ecommerce platforms in the market that come with varying functionalities. These include Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, LemonStand and BigCommerce. Be sure to select a platform that meets all your business requirements, as well as one that will give your buyers a pleasant user experience. In addition, it would be advisable to choose a platform that offers free trial. This will allow you to test several options before making a final decision.
The ‘About Us’ page is one of the most visited pages of any website. Before trusting you enough to make a purchase, many people will want to know your story. Who are you? When did the store commence business? In addition, they will want to know where are you situated and where the products are being shipped from. Therefore, not having a proper ‘About Us’ page could mean loss of many potential sales.
Product descriptions and reviews are very important for any commerce site. However, instead of creating their own copy, many online merchants simply copy and paste content from the manufacturer’s site. However, Google does not encourage duplicate content. Using content copied from elsewhere might only get you banned from search results. In addition, some of the content found on manufacturer’s sites is not well written, and thus converts poorly. Therefore, it would be advisable to take time to create tailor-made content for your audience.
Every ecommerce store should have a properly written return and refund policy. This will outline outlines how many days the customer has to return a product, and whether an exchange, full refund or partial refund will be issued. Such a policy will make it safer for customers to make purchases from your ecommerce store. You can use one of the refund policy generators available online to create your own customized return and refund policy.
Before making a buying decision, most customers will first visit your reviews section to see what other people are saying. Many ecommerce sites try to impress their visitors by displaying only positive reviews. However, customers might only end up getting suspicious of an online store that seems too ‘perfect’. Contrary to popular belief, negative reviews are not always a bad thing for an ecommerce site. Being honest with your customers could translate in even more sales.
People are increasingly using their smartphones and tablets to access the internet today. According to research, 90% of online shoppers buy using their mobile devices. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that your ecommerce site is responsive. Mobile users should be able to easily view your product images and information, as well as navigate your site as seamlessly as possible.
‘We are the number one store in Europe’. ‘Over 3 million people have visited our site in the last one year’. ‘We have been featured on CNN and Time magazine’. ‘We are three-time winners of the best ecommerce site’. This kind of self-focused copy is common in many ecommerce sites. However, the truth is that most customers don’t really care about your many accolades. All they want to know is if your products are genuine and whether their orders will be shipped on time. Therefore, cut down on the self-centered blabber and go for more customer-focused copy.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in ecommerce is failing to disclose your contact details. If your customers and prospects cannot find a way to reach you, they are likely to lose trust and go elsewhere. Therefore, you need to ensure that details such as your email address, phone numbers and social media contacts are displayed prominently on your site. Don’t forget to add your physical address. This will make your business look more credible.
Measuring performance on a regular basis is very important for the success of any ecommerce business. You need to check on things such as website traffic, social media engagement, number of products sold and abandoned cart rates. This will show you whether your business is growing and what needs to be improved. The good news is that there are numerous web analytic tools that can help you keep track of your figures.
Charles Mburugu is a professional blogger who writes for TechBlogKe. You can follow him on Twitter @techblogke
Image: RawPicxel/Shutterstock.com
