Many ecommerce businesses opt for direct selling model to increase revenue and form closer rapport with their customers, but direct selling demands a lot of effort and attention. This article discusses five big mistakes that brands often make, while developing their ecommerce strategies.
Lack of Value Proposition
It is very important for ecommerce businesses to have a clear and strong value proposition. Businesses should be able to communicate the value to the customers in a way that encourages them to read more rather than hitting the back button. Moreover, your value proposition should not be confusing. It should explain customers why they should buy from you and not from your competitors.
Unfortunately many brands not only have poor value proposition but they are also unable to convey it to the prospects about what they are trying to sell. This causes online stores to lose potential customers. People will not buy at your stores until you tell them why they should.
Example of an excellent value proposition can be found at Wolverine Boots’ site:
Imagery or Aesthetics are taken for Granted
Create an aesthetically appealing landing page and you will be able to drive up sales. This is a fact! No one likes to shop at a traditional store that is untidy or mangy, and same is true when it comes to online stores. Brands should try to make great use of images on their websites. Images can very well tell a story about a product. “Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you. Use them only when they form a better selling argument than the same amount of space set in type”, says Claude Hopkins – a legendary advertiser. Lack of Useful Information Although imagery can tell the story about the brand but it really does not mean that online stores should leave the product descriptions to minimum or abandon. According to a study undertaken by Neilson Norman Group only 18% of the time was spent on viewing the photos of certain brands while 82% of the time was spent on reading the product descriptions. Online stores should remember that even if their customers are carried away by the aesthetics of the product, their purchase decision would be based more on what the brand is capable of.
For instance we can take the example of Magento Go, which has always understood the importance of providing useful information to its customers, about its wide variety of products.
Not Optimized for Multiple Screens
Online stores should remember that research about products and brands can be done on smart phones and tablets, while emails are usually opened on small screens. But if you have not optimized your pages to multiple screens, especially small ones then your brand suffers significantly.
Moreover, it is very easy to spend money on latest mobile apps but brands should not overestimate the power of mobiles. There are many shopping apps in the market at present that nobody wants to use. So be very wise if you want to make profits from mobile apps and choose the right one with the features that you desire.
Lack of Trust Factors
It is not enough for brands to claim that they are trustworthy; they have to make the customers believe that too. Brand recognition of the big boys in the ecommerce market is enough to win customers loyalty and trust for their products, but if you are a new entrant you will have to labor a lot to reach to that triumph.
So how can you make your brand and store trustworthy? Well you can consider adding testimonials and customer reviews to your sites. For example Magento stores add product reviews to their product pages so as to assist customers in learning more about the product and make the right choice for themselves. The idea is to ask your select and loyal clientele to write reviews about your products or services. If they say something positive then add it to the site, but if they are not satisfied then try amending your products or services. Moreover, you can ask customers to write testimonials for your store as it would allow new visitors to have some faith in you after reading common people’s views about your brand. In addition to that you can also add a notable press about your industry on your website, and highlight publications featuring your brands.
