3 Mistakes New Online Sellers Make
If you’re new to the world of e-commerce, it can be... overwhelming. And that’s probably putting it mildly. There are so many things that people will say you need to know and do — and most of it is all written in some sort of techie language that you don’t speak. Honestly, I think it’s probably why there are still so many small businesses that don’t have a website. (Depending on who you ask, estimates are that between 37% to 46% of small businesses in the US still don’t have a website!)
As consumer demand for online shopping options continues to rise, businesses that have even a small web presence will beat out those without one. As I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the years (and also just browsed a lot of websites), I’ve identified three major mistakes I see a lot of e-commerce newbies make. So, if you’ve been struggling with making the leap from brick-and-mortar or word-of-mouth selling to fledgling e-commerce business, read up. The best part? The solutions aren’t the least bit technical :)
Mistake #1: They make the project bigger than it needs to be.
All too often, I see business owners struggle with e-commerce projects (or put them off altogether) because they are just trying to do too much with their new website at once. They put too much pressure on trying to get everything online and making it all “perfect” when they should be focusing on making smaller, more incremental improvements over time. Some people blame this on being a “perfectionist” but I say it’s a diversion tactic and, unfortunately, it’s costing business.
Possible Solutions:
“The incremental sales boost you’ll get from having just 25% of your top sellers online is still going to be better than no sales at all if you waited to get everything ready to go first.”
If you have a large inventory, don’t worry about getting it all online at once. Pick a handful of your best sellers and start there. The incremental sales boost you’ll get from having just 25% of your top sellers online is still going to be better than no sales at all if you waited to get everything ready to go first. Remember, time = money.
Break the project up into phases. Start by moving just one product or service type online or only providing limited options or variations at first. This will allow you to test things out to see how they go while keeping costs down. Customers would rather have limited options than no options.
Start simple and add fancy features later. Your website doesn’t have to have all the bells and whistles on the day you launch. You can always work on adding cool new things down the road. Keeping your site simple to start will allow you to get launched faster and you can use the analytics (and sales!) from those initial online customers to help you add to your site as you grow. The added benefit here is that it will give people a reason to keep coming back to see what’s new!
Mistake #2: They say too much.
There are typically two reasons why we tend to say too much on our websites: 1) we think it's all about us or 2) we think if we could just tell people more that will encourage them to buy. This results in websites with giant, boring blocks of text or super complicated menus - both of which are a big turn-off when it comes to sales.
Again, the best sites are simple, straightforward, and highly skimmable. Most e-commerce sites need only a few static pages (such as an about page and an FAQ page) but I often see newbies give more real estate to the history of their company than they do to what they’re actually selling. This is a huge mistake and has the unintended side effect of reducing sales, which makes people think e-commerce isn’t worth it. The truth is, we’re often getting in our own way when it comes to sales.
Copywriting Tips:
Keep the focus on your products or services and the benefits they provide to your customer or client. People don’t care about you, they care about what you can do for them. Good news: this means the pressure’s off your need to write the perfect bio or company mission statement. (No one was reading it anyway.)
Avoid technical jargon or long explanations, even if you think they are important to what you’re selling.
Whenever possible, write in bullet points or be open to layouts that push the extraneous details down the page or out of view for most customers. For example, moving super detailed info to a FAQ page or hiding it in a drop-down versus putting it all out there upfront. This way, it's there for the small percentage of people who want to see it but it's not in the way for everyone else.
A good rule of thumb for web copy is to write out what you think you need to say, then cut it in half... and then cut it in half again. Upside: less to write and faster to launch!
Mistake #3: They spend too much time on design.
“E-commerce isn’t a 6 trillion dollar market segment by mistake. There’s a ton of science and strategy to the designs you see online and rookies spend time tinkering with things that don’t need tinkering.”
There’s a reason most websites share a lot of the same layouts and features: it’s because they work. E-commerce isn’t a 6 trillion dollar market segment by mistake. There’s a ton of science and strategy to the designs you see online. And as much as it pains those of us who enjoy aesthetically pleasing websites to admit, function really does matter more than form.
This is another case where rookies have a tell and that’s that they tinker with things that don’t need tinkering. There’s a reason why the button is always where the button always is. Or why menu elements always behave a certain way. It’s because it’s an important part of helping users know how to interact with them.
The upside here is that not worrying about moving things a pixel to the left or right is that you can get to launch day way faster. Also, this isn't to say that design isn't super important to how a website performs, just that for most small businesses, the return on investment just isn't there. It's not worth it to spend months and months stuck in design and development, essentially reinventing the wheel.
Tips to get the most out of the web design process:
Find a web designer you like and whose design style you vibe with and then trust them to do their thing. This doesn’t mean that your input isn’t an important part of the process; just that you hired them for a reason. Your success and happiness are important and they aren't going to steer you wrong.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you'd like to know more about the reasons why a design or layout choice was made. In most cases, user experience best practices have guided the decision to put a button here or a link there and we may not recommend moving or changing it if you'd like to maximize sales/conversions but we're always happy to explain why.
In 99.9% of cases, it's best to just pick a theme or template as a great starting point and spend time building out a great user and customer experience around that versus going for a completely custom build. Again, this comes down to ROI and doing everything possible to get you to launch day faster!
If you’re struggling with getting started here’s a post you might find helpful: A Step-by-Step Guide to Starting an eCommerce Business in 2024.
