Are you struggling to make sales from your eCommerce website? To give you a helping hand in identifying the cause, we’ve shared a list of 7 mistakes to avoid on an eCommerce website.

1)    Non-responsive design

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as an eCommerce website owner (and one many are still making) is not having a responsive design. If your site is only designed for desktop, this means it won’t look or function right on tablets and smartphones. And if your eCommerce site isn’t optimised for these devices, you could end up alienating a large percentage of your audience and driving them to your competitors’ sites instead.

Invest in a responsive eCommerce design and have the peace of mind that it will look great and function perfectly across all of your customers’ devices.

2)    Lack of high quality images

When it comes to shopping online, one of the main things customers base their decisions on is a product image, as unlike in a brick and mortar store, they can’t pick things up and examine them closely. A lack of quality images will put customers off from making a purchase.

With this in mind, it is important to make sure you provide plenty of high quality images of your products that offer different views to customers. Even better, you could implement a 360 degree image, where they can get a 3D view of the product or a video showing the product in action.

3)    No social proof

Before shopping online with a new eCommerce company, many people will seek out their social media pages. If you haven’t included social media buttons on your eCommerce website or your social media pages look bare and lifeless, it’s not going to make a very good impression of your business. Many customers will also look for reviews as proof of your business’s legitimacy. If you don’t include any on your eCommerce store, you could be driving customers away without even giving them chance to view your products.

4)    No SEO strategy

You may have the best looking eCommerce website in the world but what good a beautiful web design if no one knows your site exists? Implementing an SEO strategy is essential to increasing your online visibility and connecting customers with your website.

Make sure your eCommerce site is optimised for search engines by using relevant keywords within your content and ensuring it has a user-friendly structure. Producing regular content and submitting an XML sitemap will encourage search engines to index and rank your site on a regular basis.

5)    Slow loading times and performance

According to Forrester Research, users expect websites to load in two seconds or less. Any longer and 50% will abandon a website and take their business elsewhere. With this in mind, you need to ensure that your eCommerce site is not taking too long to load. Things that can slow down your site include poor hosting, excessive third party plugins and large image files.

Improve the page loading times of your eCommerce site by utilising browser caching, minifying image files, investing in quality hosting and ensuring you are not using any unnecessary plugins. The quicker your site loads, the better your SEO will be and the more likely you are to see greater sales conversions.

 

6)    Long checkout process

There’s nothing quite like a lengthy checkout process to put customers off completing their transactions. Long check-out processes are not only time consuming but can also make customers feel uneasy, as if you’re asking for too much information from them.

Implementing a one step checkout process or social login is a great way to speed up the final part of your customers’ online shopping experience. If you are using Magento, there are actually a number of extensions available, which allow you to install one step checkouts and significantly improve your conversions.

7)    No contact page

Customers need the peace of mind that if something goes wrong with their order, they are going to be able to contact you and speak to a real person. If you don’t provide a telephone number, address or email address on your website, it can raise questions about the legitimacy of your business. Creating something as simple as a contact page on your eCommerce website can boost customers’ confidence in your business and give them the reassurance they need to place an order with you.

Are you making any of these classic eCommerce mistakes?

If you think your eCommerce site could do with a makeover then get in touch with Magento eCommerce Agency today. We can help you rectify any mistakes you’ve made and ensure your eCommerce store is offering the ultimate online shopping experience.

 

Image credits: appleboy46 and Daniela Hartmann