Ecommerce Mistakes and Pitfalls – Quitting Before You Ever Get Started

I would definitely say that this is the most common problem I have ran into with other people who have asked me what the problem is with their ecommerce website. Generally, people feel like ecommerce online is much like running a retail store on Main Street in their local small town. They expect that after they open the doors people will naturally come because it is now visible. The problem is that it does not work this way online.

Just because you can access your website does not mean that others are aware of it or will even be able to naturally find it on their own. I commonly give this example, but it bears worth repeating just so that you can ensure that you do not fall into this category. Building a website is much like building your business in the middle of the Sahara Desert. There is no one around, no one is going to see it, and you will never get any traffic. This is not to discourage you, but is the harsh reality of a start-up ecommerce website. What do you do to overcome this? Naturally, you would tell people who were interested in your store what services you offer, what products you sell, and tell them how to get there. In fact, you may even develop unique ideas such as running a shuttle to and from your store that is in the Sahara just to ensure that you get traffic.

Ecommerce is really no different. You should never count on your website gaining traffic without a little leg work. Just because you invested money into having it professionally developed does not matter. You may have the prettiest store of all your competitors. Still though, you are in the middle of the Sahara with no one around.

So from an online perspective, how do we overcome this? How do we do “leg work” online? Generally, this involves time and effort just as it would with your brick and mortar company. There are several methods to truly marketing your website, but I do not think there is anything more valuable to a businesses success than real interaction with potential buyers.

The first thing I would recommend that you do is to get involved within many of the online communities. It does not matter what type of ecommerce store you are running, there is a community out there that is waiting for you to get involved. Let’s say that you sell custom mugs and cups where you print a label on it. I give this as an example simply because it was the first thing I saw on my desk. You could find other small business owners forums who might be interested in having your create some cups for them for marketing purposes or to give to their employees. You could look at church organizations who might be interested in having their church logo placed on cups and give to their members to use at their work. The idea in mind is to go to where the people are, not just wait for them to come to you. If you fall into this, you will find it very difficult to succeed online. When you develop relationships, the word will spread quickly about who you are, where your website is, and will eventually begin to convert to sales.

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How to Source the Right Product

If you hear nothing else that is written here, please here one thing. Finding the right product to sell online is the single most important part of starting a business online. A bad product from a good product can be there difference of millions of dollars in your bank account. Below, I have listed some of the most important factors in finding the right product.

The product must be somewhat difficult to find

It is absolutely imperative that you find a good balance here. When people first ask me the question, “Why isn’t my product selling?” I ask all of them the same question. “Are you selling toilet paper?” Most of them come back with a puzzled look on their face or simply answer the question and say “No, I’m selling rubber bands.”

Do you see the problem here? Anyone can probably drive within 5 miles of their home and find toilet paper for near nothing in price. Unless it is like ultra-sensitive with designs on it, toilet paper will not sell online. No one cares to buy it and then pay for the shipping costs, or have the patience to wait for the duration of having it shipped. Rubber bands are in the same category at toilet paper.

You must find a product that people can not go directly down the street and buy. This defeats the purpose of buying products online and you will find it very difficult to compete with local markets on a wide variety of products.

The product must be in demand

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the requirement for demand. Another question I am frequently asking is, “Does your product solve a problem?” Often times I hear the word, “No”.

You have to find products that people want and need. I do not care how well you market purple ceramic frogs with pink polka dots on them, there is such a small market and demand, you will certainly find it difficult to market. Almost no one would want to put a two foot tall pink and purple ceramic frog in their living room. Nor do people really need that product.

Instead, your product must serve a purpose as well and solve a problem of some kind. Think of your most needed products in the world. We can even go back to toilet paper. People need toilet paper. There was a need for it. Find products along those lines.

Factor in Shipping Costs

The one downside of working online is that everything is shipped. The benefit is that there are no taxes online unless you are buying from someone in the same state. Therefore, the taxes and shipping costs kind of balance out if you are selling the right product.

At the same time, a lot of extremely heavy and large products simply do not sell well online. When you are selling a product such as this, you may have to charge a hundred or more dollars for an item that sometimes only costs forty or fifty dollars. This is a huge problem when trying to sell things online and compete. You should always keep this in mind when thinking of products to sell.

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Product Reviews of Shopping Cart Software

Your website and the ability for customers to check out quickly and easily is incredibly important. As many website owners know, all too often a customer will place an item in their cart and go to check out. However, for whatever reason during checkout they change their mind and never complete the transaction. This could be due to any number of reasons, but in many cases it is simply because the checkout procedure is too much of a hassle. If you don’t want to lose sales at the last critical point then make sure you have the best shopping cart software. How do you do this? There are several ways, but one of them is to read product reviews.

Product reviews are important because it allows you to see from a website owner’s point of view the benefits and drawbacks a particular program might have. This is important because before you can learn from other’s experiences before you buy and install the software. You want to avoid as many lost sales as possible and the best way to do this is by reading product reviews and finding shopping cart software that will meet your needs. There are a few things to look for.

First, you want a software that makes it easy to checkout as well as make changes or return shopping. Some individuals may be in the process of checking out and realize they forgot to look through the clearance items. The last thing you want to do is have them start over so you need a shopping cart software that will easily let the customer return shopping and then back to the shopping cart with no confusion and seamless transition.

There are many different shopping cart software options on the market and some are great while others are just so-so. You don’t want a so-so shopping cart software but rather one that is right in line with what customers want from a checkout process. They don’t want to have to fill out a lot of forms, they don’t want to have to create an account, and they want to be able to make changes to their order and see the immediate price changes whether this be with shipping, taxes, or simply adding or removing items.

Finally, make sure your shopping cart software is never the reason why a potential customer leaves with her cart half full. This is the worst possible situation and if you are doing what it takes to get customers to your website and then making a purchase then the last thing you want is for your shopping cart software to turn them away.

Written by Aaron Goldberg.

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