Whether you’re selling books, technology, clothes, or food, avoiding a few critical mistakes will help you satisfy your customers and grow faster. Without further ado, here are 5 mistakes you should avoid at all costs.
1. Having High Delivery Costs
High delivery costs is one of the major turnoffs for potential customers. Even if the price of the item (or service) is reasonable, people will be less apt to buy if they have to shell out more money for shipping/delivery. The only solution is to lower your delivery costs without increasing the delivery time. This is especially important if you sell items worldwide. Look for alternative delivery options like post services instead of delivery firms, and when possible try to ship from tax free ports like Hong Kong (which isn’t such an exotic location if your items are manufactured in China!).
2. Offering a Slow Delivery
Forty-two percent of consumers abandon an e-commerce shopping cart if the delivery time is too slow. What ‘too slow’ means depends on what you’re selling, but unless it’s BMWs, you must try to deliver items within days after the order has been placed. Sixty-percent of consumers expect to be given a delivery date when they shop online.
3. Not Providing Different Payment Options
Apart from popular debit and credit cards like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, it’s important to implement PayPal and other e-wallet solutions that are popular in your region. While many online shoppers are reluctant to provide their credit card information to a company they had not bought from before, they are more than willing to make a purchase using PayPal, which does not discloses any sensitive information.
4. Botching Orders
Twenty-nine percent of consumers will never buy from an e-commerce site again if they receive even one incorrect order. Avoid mixing up orders or shipping the wrong version of a product by encouraging your employees to be careful (which is most easily achieved by raising their salaries.) Be extra careful if you sell books, clothes, accessories for gadgets, or other similar items which are often ordered in bulk.
5. Providing Inaccurate Product Details
Every product page on your site must contain detailed, accurate, and up-to-date specifications, as well as high quality images that leave no doubt as to the color of the product. The safest approach is to use the photos provided by the manufacturer on the official product page, as well as the info offered there. You have to be extra careful about electronic devices and gadgets as even small details can make a major difference.
6. Having a Long and Complicated Checkout Process
Implement a one-click checkout process – don’t make registration mandatory for customers. The fewer checkout steps and fields customers have to go through before buying your product, the more likely they are to make the purchase. Also, do away with phone confirmation for orders when possible, offering instead the faster and more convenient method of email confirmation – this can save you as much as one full day on shipping time.
By avoiding the mistakes above you will make your customers happy and encourage them to spread the word about you. It will help you grow your online business faster.
Image Credit: [Flickr/Paresh Gajria]
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