Did You Make Any of These E-Commerce Mistakes in 2019?

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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2019 is winding up, and it’s time to assess your performance. If you own an e-commerce business, assessing your year can tell you how you performed in the last year and what to look out for in the coming year.

Specifically, there are common mistakes that people tend to repeat year in, year out. As great as the year might have been for you and your website, the chances are that you probably fell victim to one or more of these mistakes. Let’s take a look at four of them. We’ll see how you might have gotten it wrong and what you can do better in the coming year.

Inputting incorrect product information

You may be expecting to see catastrophic mistakes on this list, like failing to sign up for prepaid card solutions. But then, the little things are just as important. In fact, if you have great traffic generating tactics, but lack basic site maintenance, you'll lose most of the traffic you generate.

You have to list your products properly. It's not debatable. The product information is the only thing your visitors can use to assess their wants and needs. Your customers won't even consider buying from you if they don't get enough information, or worse, if the information is incorrectly listed.

Failing to match your competition

In an industry as competitive as e-commerce, differentiation is crucial. If you're offering similar products as someone else, you need to find a way to make yourself stand out, or you could fall into the background. Even if you’re unable to stand out, you should at least match your competitors.

This includes making your site as responsive and as fast as theirs. Unless you have very strong brand loyalty, visitors will leave your website if it fails to load in four seconds. That’s traffic you could as well be redirecting to your competitors.

Poor-quality images

Besides the product description, image quality is the other way that customers can authenticate what they are buying. Try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you’re buying an article of clothing or an appliance, you’ll probably want to zoom in to see the details. People often imagine how well a product fits into their lives before they buy it. If they can’t visualize, they won’t buy it.

Poor-quality images can also signal shady activities. It's easy to think that your images are low resolution because you’re trying to sell unauthentic products. You need to cast all the doubt aside. Only use e-commerce images.

Thinking that more traffic automatically means more sales

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not everyone who visits your website is coming to buy. E-commerce has made window shopping much easier, and a good percentage of your visitors will only come to sight-see. There are also those looking for sales, and those who need to know the price of an item.

The right approach is to focus on quality traffic. One of the best sources for this is blog posts. When someone goes on Google to search for something, they need quick answers. More often than not, they also need to make a purchase. Writing a detailed guide will help visitors know what to choose. Visitors who get redirected from your blog posts are quality traffic, and they are most likely looking to buy something. You should focus on generating traffic from sources like these.