At the beginning of the year, NRF reported that they expected online retail would grow 8-12% this year, up to 3 times higher than the growth rate of the wider industry. This suggests that eCommerce sales should fall between $427 billion and $443 billion.
With such promising numbers, merchants are putting more emphasis on their online sales channels. It doesn’t matter if you’re an established online seller or new to it, your eCommerce strategy has to be on point to attract new customers. A poor experience can quickly turn away potential customers.
We put together a quick list of 7 eCommerce mistakes that can turn your customers off immediately and prove costly to your business.
7 eCommerce Mistakes That Turn Customers Off Immediately
Loyal customers are hard to come by. As the eCommerce industry continues to grow, so does its competitiveness. If a customer isn’t satisfied with your brand, they’ll move on.
The Chief Marketing Offer Council reported that almost half of Northern American and European consumers say they will abandon a brand and shop somewhere else if they continuously encounter a poor, impersonal or frustrating experience.
Consumers don’t expect perfection. However, there are a few key areas that merchants have to deliver on. Here are some common mistakes merchants make that turn off their customers.
1. Slow Site
Page loading time is top reason why visitors leave your site. 40% of online shoppers abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
It can be easy to overlook the loading time of your pages. You might want to keep those fancy graphics and cool layout design instead. However, it’s important to understand how loading times affects your bottom line.
According to KissMetrics, a 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. If an eCommerce site is making $100,000 per day, a 1 second delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year.
Be sure to consult your designers about your page loading times. Speed matters!
2. Lacking Product Information
88% of shoppers characterize detailed product content as being extremely important. Shoppers do their research before buying. They want to be informed about their purchase. Inaccurate or missing product information isn’t going to cut it anymore. Your customers won’t trust you or the product enough to buy.
Product listings should be tailored for the online sales channel and buyer they’re for. See why Product Information Management is so important to merchants.
3. Lengthy Checkout Process
Another major mistake eCommerce sellers make is having a lengthy, difficult checkout process. According to Internet Retailer, lengthy or complicated checkout forms, such as entering shipping addresses or payment information, account for approximately 39% of U.S. cart abandonment.
Customers reach the end of the buying processes and bail out at the last minute. Checkout processes should be easy and streamlined to ensure they complete the sale.
4. Too Few Delivery Options
Shipping charges and slow shipping times can cause buyers to hesitate. Two-day delivery preference is up significantly (20% in 2016 vs 15% in 2015 and 10% in 2014). Also, free shipping is the incentive online shoppers want most.
If you can’t compete with delivery, customers will find somewhere else to shop.
5. Inaccurate Inventory
58% of online shoppers find it important to have the ability to view a retailer’s inventory status online when searching/selecting products. Customers want to feel confident when they buy from you. When they checkout, they want to know that you’re able to ship the product.
Even if something is out-of-stock, displaying inventory levels provides an opportunity to communicate with your customer. 53% of online shoppers view back-in-stock products alerts as valuable. Just because you don’t have a product, doesn’t mean you need to lose a sale.
6. No Immediate Assistance
Customers identified immediate assistance as key to a great customer experience. 52% of consumers expect fast response times to needs, suggestions, or issues. Your brand needs to be reasonably available to your customers. 47% of consumers want knowledgeable staff ready to assist wherever and whenever needed.
Don’t feel like your team can slack on support. There are always going to be issues when selling online, but take the time to fix them. This allows you to keep your customers, even when something goes wrong.
7. No Personalization
It’s hard to avoid talking about personalization when talking about eCommerce. Customers wants\ to feel valuable and expect brands to treat them as so. It’s no longer acceptable for brands to not deliver personalization over digital channels.
88% of consumers say they’re more likely to shop with retailers that deliver personalized and connected cross-channel experiences.
To deliver personalization, brands must be able to gain insights about consumers quickly, have enough data, and have accurate data.
What to Do Next
Customers expect a lot out of brands. If you want to compete online, you need to deliver. Your eCommerce strategy should help overcome these mistakes that many merchants make. Don’t turn your customers off right away when they shop with you.
For more helpful tips about eCommerce strategy, check out these other articles:
- eCommerce Strategy: Achieving eCommerce Growth
- 5 Questions to Ask Yourself about Your Multichannel eCommerce Strategy
- Why Your eCommerce Delivery Strategy is More Important than Ever
- Your eCommerce Content Marketing Strategy Guide [Infographic]
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