Ecommerce is all the rage these days. Fewer people are setting foot in brick and mortar stores, and more people are ordering products and services online. Given the recent trends, it seems like a no-brainer: Take your business online. But that doesn’t always turn out to be as great of an idea as one may think.

The reality is: A staggering 90% of ecommerce businesses fail. Even when an ecommerce business offers great products or services, or maybe even a great marketing strategy, the quality of its website has the power to determine whether or not that online store will survive.

To ensure that your ecommerce store is one of the 10% of ecommerce businesses that sees success, here are 10 reasons your ecommerce website may not be performing its best and how to address those issues with ecommerce development. 

1. Your website isn’t SEO optimized.

Not receiving the sales you were hoping for? It could be because your ecommerce business has little visibility on search engine results. As of 2017, 34.8% of Internet traffic was from search, according to Search Engine Land. So, if you’re not using SEO (search engine optimization) for your site, your potential customers may not even find you.

By optimizing your content and landing pages, you can improve your site’s chances of showing up as a search result. One great way to do so is by integrating SEO tools and plug-ins into your CMS (content management system). Those tools can help you to optimize your content, drive traffic to your site, and hopefully, acquire more conversions.

2. Your products are poorly organized.

Maybe you’re receiving traffic but fewer conversions than expected. Consider this: Have you ever had trouble finding something in a drawer because everything was a scattered mess? The same can be said of an ecommerce site: If your products aren’t logically organized, or a simple ‘search’ function isn’t readily available, users may give up on finding the product or service they were looking for.  

With poor navigation or unclear product organization, users may not even be able to find where your products are located. Even if they find the product listing, they may give up their search when they find it in disarray. Evaluate these areas to see if your site offers a logical walk through the buyer’s stages.  

3. There’s no way to easily ‘search’ for products.

Even if your offerings are clearly organized, if you provide a surplus of products or services, it can still be difficult for users to find what they’re looking for. As mentioned, search engines make up a majority of the traffic on the Internet, so why not apply the concept of ‘search’ to ecommerce?

The simpler your user’s search process is, the more likely they will be to find what they’re looking for and make a purchase. Simplifying this process might mean including a search tool or automated product recommendations based on the products your customers have viewed.

4. You force your users to register.

Often rolled into the checkout process, many ecommerce sites force their customers to register an account with their business—some take this a step further by requiring registration before customers can view any products. While this can help you to capture leads, you also rob your users of the chance to simply browse your offerings.

In many cases, it’s better to give your users the option to create an account with your business. You can include the option to sign-up during or after checkout, or the option to create a free account with limited viewing options. That way, you won’t scare off first-time visitors with forced registration.

5. Your checkout process is confusing.

TechCrunch tells us that almost half of all ecommerce sales in the U.S. are done on Amazon. That means, most online U.S. customers will expect an Amazon-like checkout process—one that’s simple and straightforward. But if abandoned shopping carts are a common occurrence on your site, you may not be following in the footsteps of the ecommerce powerhouse.

If you’re receiving traffic but few conversions, a tricky multi-step checkout process could be the reason why. Consider walking through your checkout process yourself and determining where your users might be getting lost. Eliminate any buttons or steps that may be confusing, and once you’ve made the experience more user-friendly, track how your site performs.

6. It doesn’t include a mobile responsive design.

Statista reveals that ecommerce shopping is booming with 96% of adult Internet users in the U.S. participating, but did you know that 82% of users use a mobile device to do so? To accommodate the users shopping on their smartphones, ecommerce sites need to be mobile responsive.

If your site doesn’t function or look that great on a mobile device, you could be losing a good portion of your audience, particularly the 35% of users that only shop using a mobile device. Ensuring that your site is mobile responsive will increase those users’ likelihood of shopping on your site.

7. You don’t offer customer specific pricing.

While there are a variety of reasons your customers might visit your product pages, but not make a purchase, there’s one way to help seal the deal: Offer customer specific pricing. Customer specific pricing can give your customers the extra push they need to click on that ‘Order’ button.

For example, you can offer new customers a discount on their first purchase, or build customer loyalty by offering repeat customers with rewards. Evaluate what buyer’s stages you could improve, from new to repeat customers, and try offering prices specific to those segments.

8. You don’t recover abandoned shopping carts.

Just because you’ve convinced users to add your products to their shopping cart, it doesn’t mean they’ll place an order. However, if they’ve gotten that far, those users have certainly shown interest in your products. If abandoned shopping carts are a recurring trend, there is hope.

One tried-and-true way to reduce shopping cart abandonment is through automated reminder emails. While this only works for customers who have an account, by reminding those customers of their forgotten shopping carts, you could potentially increase your conversions.

9. You haven’t integrated social media.

Here’s another reason your customers may not be following through with their purchases: According to MarTech, 46% of online shoppers use social media to make a purchase decision. In order words, even when a customer has reached your product page, they might change their mind if social media isn’t glorifying your products and services as much as your site is.

As a supplement to social media marketing, you can include feeds from your various social accounts on your own site. For example, perhaps your target audience frequently uses Instagram; you can include an Instagram feed on your page, showcasing images of customers with your products. This is just one instance of how you can use social media directly on your site to encourage visitors to become customers.

Moreover, to continue encouraging your customers to talk about your products, you can include social media buttons on your product pages or blog. That way, you can provide your customers with the option to advertise your products and services for you.

10. It’s not clear what to do.

Last but not least, one of the top reasons users leave a page is because they’re not sure what to do. Your site should be designed to point your customers toward a call-to-action, from downloading an eBook to making a purchase. If your site isn’t doing that, there are likely issues with the user interface (UI) design to the user experience (UX) being provided.

Your overall site design and functionality should help to guide your customers through the buyer’s journey. Discovering where your users are getting confused may require some research, such as looking into how your users are moving within your site. You can improve it from there.

Let’s Make Some Changes!

Whether you built your website on an ecommerce website builder or had an ecommerce web developer build it for you, you may need some help implementing these changes to your site. Even better, you can hire a team with experience building ecommerce systems that provide results.

ClikFocus could be the team you’re looking for. For 10+ years, we’ve built ecommerce systems that have helped businesses to reach new heights in profitably and productivity, and we’d love to do the same for you.