Month: March 2022

If you are running an online store, a website will keep it open 24/7. An e-commerce store without a website is like a brick-and-mortar store without signage and billboard. Your customers will not know that your business exists.

A business website is vital for your online success. Thus, you must put effort and proper planning to use its advantage to the maximum. If you already have a website for your e-commerce store, track your traffic and conversion rates.

If you think your website is not performing well, then you should check if you have done website design mistakes. A poorly-built website that does not provide you enough sales might consider a revamp.

Here are the web design mistakes you should avoid:

1. Lack of responsive design

A responsive website means that it is adaptable to multiple devices. If your website is designed for desktops only, you are missing a lot of potential customers. Did you know that internet search queries are dominated by mobile phones?

Ensure that your website’s user experience is consistent across mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. 60% of online shoppers use their smartphones when looking for a product. If your website is not responsive, you are not expanding your audience reach. 

2. Poor Design Elements

The first impression lasts. If you want to capture the attention of your visitors, you need to create a recognizable brand image. Choose a clean and professional-looking theme and be consistent with the look and style.

Avoid using too many colors and choose fonts that are easy to read. Playing with complicated and mismatched designs will confuse your web visitors and give them reasons to not come back. 

3. Complicated Navigation 

Navigation means giving convenience to your visitors when surfing your website. If a customer lands on your website and has a hard time finding your product pages, clicking several buttons, and going to the wrong places, it will build a bad user experience. 

As much as possible, reduce your user’s scrolling and clicks just to find your product and read information. Do you have product categories and advanced search options? Not anticipating your visitor’s expectations can divert them from shopping and purchasing.

4. Boring Images

Images speak a lot about your product. If you are using low-quality and boring images, your customer will feel that your product is not worth giving attention to. 

Bear in mind that when shopping online, your customers cannot physically touch the product. They rely on pictures and videos. It may seem okay to use the product images provided by the manufacturer but if you can photograph the products and optimize them yourself, that could be better. 

Bad images allow your customers to think twice, making them leave your website – a loss on your potential sale. 

5. Not Enough Customer Support

In this digital world, people demand an immediate response. We do not want to wait for hours just to get information or assistance about a product.  It is not enough to post your email address on the website and have customers email you if they have a question or problem.

An FAQ section answering the most common questions is helpful. You can also integrate a chatbot to handle specific queries or even have a live chat to support your customers in their purchasing journey. Customer convenience is critical. Providing them with the help and assistance they need improve the credibility of your business.

6. Inefficient Shopping Cart Design 

One of the primary reasons why online shoppers abandoned their carts is becuase of the complicated checkout process. The shopping cart design should allow your customers to easily add/remove products, change quantities and variations.

An effective checkout process should include:

1. Checkout

2. Delivery Details

3. Payment Details

4. Confirmation

7. Lack of Payment Options

Offer multiple payment options to your diversified customers. Shoppers dislike too many steps and screen pop-ups at checkout. This is annoying and uncomfortable. If possible, do not redirect the payment option to a third-party site. Customers feel more secure making payments on your site.

Provide payment solutions that give flexibility to the users – whether they want to pay via PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and other options. Catering to your customers’ different preferences leads to a hassle-free checkout. 

Although dropshipping is one of the simplest business models to follow, the path to success is not always easy. Everyone makes mistakes along the way and they are not inevitable. Thankfully, you can reflect on the experiences of others and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Many online entrepreneurs assume that dropshipping business is a low-risk business. However, like any other business, one poor decision can be costly. To minimize risk and avoid suffering pitfalls, below is a list of common dropshipping mistakes to learn from.

1. Picking the Wrong Niche

A niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. Several dropshippers made this mistake early on as they thought that it was best to sell trending items. They sell hot products from different categories which ended up marketing to a broad audience. You can’t be selling electronics and baby’s clothing at the same time (unless it’s a general store).

Pick a niche, stick to it, and test it. If you are selling kitchen accessories, sell complementary items such as baking tools rather than adding women’s jewelry to the mix.

2. Spending too much time choosing a product

You have to keep up with the market trend and use time wisely. A certain product may be selling now but in a few months, not. Spending too much time choosing the best product can put you in a state of analysis paralysis.

By being too indecisive and seeking more information, you are letting go of the days that you could have made a sale. Once you’ve done enough product research, it’s time to take action and commit to the product.

3. Relying on one Supplier

So you’ve found a great product in Aliexpress and contacted the supplier. Then you both agreed to the dropshipping agreement and then you leave your entire business to them. That can spell a lot of issues.

There’s a high tendency that suppliers can run out of stock, go out of business, or have some difficulties. This can lead to a loss of sales on your part. You will be dealing with a lot of cancelled orders and fulfilment issues and left scrambling to find a replacement supplier. To avoid this scenario, partner with multiple suppliers for your products when possible.

4. Bad Website Design

Think of a website as your primary salesperson online. What do your customers see when they visit your website? Since your website is your storefront on the internet, it should be properly structured to attract customers.

Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms that dropshippers use to create an online store. Imagine your customers landing on your website only to be annoyed by pop-ups, complicated design, and incomplete information. A simple and professional-looking website gives credibility and a good shopping experience.

5. No Marketing Plan

Don’t assume that once you have built your website, customers will come instantly. With hundreds and thousands of stores out there, you need to create ways to stand out from the competition. Social media is a powerful channel to reach a target audience.

You can set up Facebook and Instagram pages for your online store. Set up a budget for paid ads and run promotions and advertisements for your business. Make sure that your audience can find you not just on your website but other channels as well.

6. Pricing Problems

It is a bad idea to underprice and overprice your products. It is important to keep an eye on your competitor’s prices and keep your pricing competitive. Determine the right mark-up and profit margin. The pricing should be comfortable for the seller and the buyer. In this way, you won’t push customers away while ensuring you have enough profit.

7. Not caring about SEO.

There are no shortcuts to online success. Many dropshippers invest little time to optimize their stores. SEO may require massive time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. The information you put on your website must be unique and relevant.

When writing product descriptions, try not to copy them from the manufacturer’s provided data. Instead, spend time writing engaging descriptions and include keywords that your customers are searching for.

8. Poor Customer Service

You may have a winning product but if your customer service is poor, your sales will go down. Are you responsive to your customer’s queries? In a saturated e-commerce market, providing good customer service can give you an edge.

Providing necessary information about a customer’s needs on time makes them feel that you care about them. That experience will keep your customers to keep coming to your store and patronizing your products. Customer referrals work better than paid ads.

9. Poor Branding

Branding your store is crucial to getting people to trust your brand and buy your products. Since you have competitors who are selling the same product as yours, adding branding to your packaging and labels can make a big difference.

This makes your customer remember your brand. They recognize you as a reputable seller who handles their products with care and attention. You can contact your supplier to arrange a private label and create your own brand that people will not forget.

10. Having Unrealistic Expectation

Dropshipping is not a “get rich quick” scheme. If you are not patient, it is not for you. Understand that dropshipping is a long game and it requires a lot of learning experience. Some people who failed are the ones who just set up their website and wait for something to happen. They made a few sales and then quit the next month.