Getting on with an e-commerce business can be overwhelming at times, especially if it’s your first venture. And to add to that, building it on Shopify website can also be a bit startling. However, just because you are not a pro at technical stuff, you can afford to make mistakes. To save you from that, we bring you a list of mistakes you should avoid even if it’s your first time ever in the e-commerce industry. Most of these are simple, quick fixes that won’t cost a hole in your pocket and will result in a quirky, trendy and scalable online store.
In this post, we will look at 10 of the most common mistakes you should avoid as a business owner:
1. If you have an online store, traffic will follow:
It doesn’t work like that. Even if you have the finest of the website, it doesn’t guarantee visitors unless you promote it strategically. According to the World Wide Web Site, there are 4.44 billion pages on the internet and your site can easily get lost in the crowd. Therefore, your customers need to know about your site and the products you want to sell them.
2. No Logo:
Your logo says a lot about your company. A website with no logo leaves its customers no impression at all after they leave the site. A logo enables quick recognition of your brand to your customers. But even then, there are so many others who launch their stores without logo due to the fear of spending hundreds of dollars on it.
The fact is far from it. There are many options available for making a logo which are cost-effective as well as free sometimes.
3. Not optimizing images for the web:
Shopify optimizes the images for your store. However, pay close attention to the size of the images. Always remember to resize and compress the images before you add them to the products on your Shopify store. You can either use several apps on the internet to resize the images or use the apps available in the Shopify store to do the same for $0.01 – $0.05 per image.
4. No Proper About or Contact Page:
About us, the page is the most visited part of any website after services and products. Even then, most of the merchants find it unnecessary to add it to their website. Well, don’t. Few other mistakes around this also include:
- No Story: Your customers need to know you before buying your products. Who are you? Where you came from? What is special about your journey? All this and more will keep your customers intriguing about you and connect to you easily for a long time. You do not have to write elaborately, but a brief about you and your products should be enough to gauge your visitors.
- No Location Details: Even though you do not have a brick and mortar store, people would like to know where you are located and where are you shipping from. This is a factor many consider before trusting your brand.
- No Proper Email Address: Communication through generic email is okay initially. However, if you have your own domain name and email, it builds further trust and loyalty as it shows you have invested in your business and are here to stay.
5. Leaving SEO to default settings:
SEO is an important part of the marketing and promotion of your brand. Every page, product, and blog post has a specific spot to insert meta tags which facilitates SEO practice. But very few people use this facility to manage their website and promote it. When you scroll down the page you will find the space for meta tags. Make use of these tags to optimize your SEO and grow your page ranking.
6. Not utilizing Shopify payment methods:
When talking about the payment methods, the more the merrier rule clearly applies. Setting up multiple payment options increase your value and customers are satisfied if they do not have to abandon the cart because of payment issues. This, in turn, ensures confidence and can increase conversions on your store. In case you are thinking about the 2% that you must pay to Shopify, then a good idea is to include it in your product pricing.
7. Do not ignore Mobile:
With mobile phones becoming the norm, one cannot deny the power of mobile apps to keep your customers engaged. With Facebook ads, mobile traffic can also reach up to 80%. When you plan to start your own store, do not ignore the mobile application launch simultaneously. Make sure the mobile version of your store is as good as your desktop version. To keep the layout intact, keep padding and extra space to a minimum. You can also use features such as swipeable product images and remove the excess content that doesn’t enhance the shopping experience.
8. No Social Proof and Forcing Social Proof:
Social proofs help big time in converting visitors into customers. But the key is to use them at an appropriate time to establish authenticity. If you are launching your products the first time, hold on before adding reviews on every page. First, gather some customers and then gradually add user reviews. Some merchants do not take it seriously. Having a review section without any review in it may make other buyers suspicious of the quality of the products.
Similarly, being on every social media platform without any followers may cause more harm than good. Therefore, start gradually with one platform and build your customer base before moving to the others.
9. Incorrectly setting up Google Analytics:
Do not interrupt the Google Analytics code as it is a must for your e-commerce site. Follow the Shopify guide to set your Google Analytics right and get the correct sales info and data on certain issues requiring your attention.
10. Having high shipping costs:
Let us face the fact that no one like paying for the shipping when shopping. Keep the shipping free and determine the amount of purchase required to avail that. If your products are expensive to ship, include the shipping cost in the product price. This gives the impression of free shipping to the customer and you too, are not at loss.
Conclusion:
If you remember to invest a bit of your valuable time in taking care of these elements right from the start, you can achieve amazing returns on your investments from the very beginning. The initial phase is experimental as well as crucial at the same time. It requires ample planning and rightful execution so that customers are bound to come to your store and trust your brand, to begin with.
If you still feel overwhelmed to start a Shopify store all by yourself, seek professional help and contact WebBee Global to handle all your e-commerce concerns. They have experts to handle the Shopify design and development for your unique website and will guide you through the whole process of handling your Shopify store going forward.
