Your Ecommerce Website Is Failing? Here Are Some Tips for You

The rise of ecommerce online stores is always seen as an alternative to brick-and-mortar retail stores with the convenience of online shopping. However, the survival rates for a brick-and-mortar store being more than an ecommerce website will surprise you. According to Neil Patel, 90% of ecommerce startups fail within the first 120 days.

At the same time, the failure rate is 22% for brick-and-mortar stores during the same period. But does this mean the ecommerce industry is on the decline? Well, the answer is a resounding “no.”

According to Statista, total retail ecommerce sales reached an astounding $4.9 trillion worldwide and are expected to increase by 50% over the next four years, reaching $7.4 trillion by 2025. So, you can understand that market’s potential has no dent, but it is the ecommerce product or website that lets startups down. This analyzes the website and understands the reasons for failure critical to your business. Here, we will discuss some of the common reasons your ecommerce website can fail and how to stop them.

Abandoned checkouts

Imagine you are trying to check for shipping charges of your favorite smartphone and accidentally click on buy? With a lousy checkout page, an accidental click will mean disaster. A checkout page is like that counter at the end of a supermarket where you will pay up.

Without optimal design, your checkout pages will drive the customers away from your ecommerce website. According to a report, 21% of customers leave a purchase due to the long and complicated checkout process. This makes the checkout process one of the most significant contributors to high cart abandonment rates.

So, what is the way out? The first step to avoiding accidental clicks and creating a seamless checkout experience for your audience is reducing the CLS score. It is one of the factors that Google considers for determining the web page experience for indexing your website in search results. CLS of Cumulative Layer Shift helps measure the sudden changes in the layers, which can cause problems of accidental clicks. An ideal score for CLS needs to be below 0.1 seconds for an enhanced experience and a good ranking on search engines.

Now on the flow process and check out complications, you need a well-defined roadmap. The checkout process needs to have minimum checkpoints to make a purchase. For example, you can add a guest sign-in and checkout feature, which does not require users to sign up before buying a product.

Take an example of the Gucci website, which offers an excellent shopping experience through single-click checkout. It has simplified the entire checkout stage into a few steps that do not require users to go through a long and complicated process. Similarly, you can make the checkout process smooth by reducing touchpoints. SEO optimization is the second most crucial factor for which your ecommerce website should not fail.

Lacking SEO optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps in improving your website visibility. It enables you to improve your search engine rankings, enabling higher visibility to users looking for information on products and services like yours. However, the question here is why ecommerce SEO has become so important?

According to a study by SEMrush done on 13 different ecommerce websites, organic search-based traffic amounts to 80% of the total visitors. So, there is no denying that ecommerce SEO becomes vital for your website as it helps improve visibility and organic traffic. Here are some of the SEO tips to follow for your ecommerce website:

  • Analyze your target audience and create profiles
  • Based on profiles and search intent analysis, create a keyword plan
  • Use keywords optimally in your website
  • Enhance the conversion through targeted CTAs
  • Leverage meta tags and descriptions for better rankings
  • Build an optimized linking structure in your website

A simplified checkout process and optimized SEO are essential to avoid ecommerce failures, but you need a secure website to build trust among customers.

Not securing the website

Modern-day online shoppers are serious about data breaches and cybersecurity. So, ignoring the security of your ecommerce website is not an option. According to an NTT report, 76% of customers check secure HTTPS connections for an ecommerce platform before purchasing.

So, if you are wondering how to get a secure HTTPS connection for your website? The answer is simple—an SSL certificate. Secure Sockets Layers employs an encryption-based technology to secure the user’s device and browser connection. So, installing an SSL certificate from a dependable certificate authority (CA) is key to ecommerce security.

However, there are several subdomains related to different departments sales, customer service, customer relations, and more for an ecommerce website. So, one SSL certificate will not be enough, and you may end up installing individual certificates leading to higher costs.

Here, a wildcard SSL certificate can be the best option as it allows you to secure the primary domain and several subdomains. Several CAs offer wildcard certificates like Sectigo wildcard, Comodo Wildcard SSL, GlobalSign Wildcard SSL, RapidSSL wildcard that you can choose to secure your ecommerce website. Securing your site is critical, but it will be a plain lousy shopping experience without the right design.

Poorly designed website

Designing an ecommerce website is not just about adding fancy stock images but also making it functional. Your ecommerce platform needs to have a seamless navigational capability and highly responsive design for a smoother shopping experience.

Here, you need to provide an advanced search feature for users to find products quickly. Your customers can have different filters and subcategories to search for products with such a feature.

Another important aspect is to have a visual hierarchy for your website. It allows your users to find what they are looking for without much hassle. Here is a hierarchy that you can follow for designing your ecommerce website:

  • Brand logo and name in the header
  • Advanced search bar
  • Navigation menu
  • A slider or hero image
  • Main content
  • Footer

Conclusion

Every ecommerce website can fail, but certain factors make it more likely. If you have a well-planned ecommerce strategy, your chances of success will be greater. If you are having trouble with your current ecommerce platform, our blog post will help you improve the quality and increase your sales. With the increasing market size of ecommerce platforms, you need to consider all the factors and devise a plan to cope with the reasons for failure.

Photo credit: The feature image has been done by NMedia.

This guest article has been submitted by Riya Sander. We appreciate all guest contributions but the opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of TechAcute.

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