3 Mistakes E-commerce Businesses tend to make. Building your own e-commerce store might be easy, however it does involve quite a bit of thought and dedication. This blog post will show you the 3 main mistakes people tend to make when starting up their online business.
ZERO Planning
Businesses are often started with an idea and a great idea nonetheless. However, what people often overlook and forget is the planning on how to get their e-commerce business started. You cannot expect your idea to grow just by putting it all onto a webpage or expect traffic to your e-commerce store overnight.
So before you start investing all your money and time on a fancy e-commerce website, take a step back and create a business plan and a marketing strategy.
Your business plan does not have to be a 1000 page report, instead it should answer these questions:
- The name of your brand
- What your business will be focused on
- Who are your customers
- Who are your competitors
- What makes you unique in the market compared to your competitors
Now no great business would be complete without a marketing strategy. Keep in mind that you’re running an e-commerce store and most of your marketing has to be done online. It is important to get yourself familiar with the basics of online marketing. Here’s a few tools you need to get familiar with:
- Being familiar with all social media handles
- Google analytics (a free tracking system)
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Keyword research
Coming up with a business plan and a marketing strategy might be the longest and hardest part in building your business but it is definitely worth spending time on. As it will be the backbone and structure of your e-commerce business. E-commerce is an extremely popular form of business these days and many people are doing it. The things you can do online are limitless. So with online marketing don’t stop with just the 4 examples given, find out more marketing strategies that can help you and apply them to your business. Also, if you don’t want to waste time on learning all the digital marketing tactics , get someone to do it for you! There are plenty of companies who do online marketing for companies.
Choosing The WRONG E-commerce Platform/Web Host
You might be thinking why would you pay for web hosting when there at plenty of websites that do it for free (e.g: WordPress, AwardSpace, Weebly) and the list just goes on. Not are they free but they are fairly easy to use with templates ready for users who are building their websites for the first time.
Well, free isn’t always the answer. If you’re planning to become a serious store or company, no one will take you seriously if you do not have your own proper domain name. (yourbusiness.com). Also, of course with everything that is free, functions are limited. As a new website you wouldn’t want to limit your possibilities to make your website as accessible as possible. In addition, if you were to use a free website host you do not own the site that your built along with all the content you added. Hmm.. now thinking about it, spending $20-$30 a month on a proper website host isn’t a bad idea after all. Actually it’s a great investment come to think about it. *At least you know that you own the website*
Head over to our website if you’re looking for an e-commerce solution.
Check out our blog post: Setting Up An Online Store
Underestimating The Work Involved
Setting up a website is just the beginning of it. If you’re in it thinking that it is a great way of earning fast money then unfortunately you’re wrong. There is much more planning and work involved rather than just receiving orders on an item and collecting money. Like every business, whether it be online or brick and mortar, it requires your full attention and dedication.
In the early stages of your business it is completely normal to make some mistakes as you will learn from them and improve. For example, maybe you might not be getting as much traffic as you would have expected. People often just assume the traffic can be driven by itself or just word of mouth but there is so much more you can do. There are different ways of driving traffic to your website and you’re bound to find one that works for you.
As you progress sometimes you might need to make some changes to improve your website, which is completely normal. Make a list before you proceed, that way you can keep track of everything that you do and assure everything is done before the launch of your e-commerce store. Cross out the task once you have finished doing it. This way you will not forget anything, especially when you’re busy juggling with a load of things.
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