3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an eCommerce Business

Whether you run a brick-and-mortar or plan to operate exclusively online, setting up shop on the web can can help you expand your reach, increase visibility and boost your profits.

Still, there’s more to starting an eCommerce business than simply setting up a website. To truly win with eCommerce, you need to avoid some big mistakes businesses make when they first launch their online stores. Here are 3 common mistakes to steer clear of.

1. Not Expanding Your Business's Online Presence Beyond a Website

Few industries as competitive as eCommerce. If you want to stay on top of the competition, it's not only critical to advertise your online business, it's equally important to market and sell across multiple channels.

Today there are more ways to reach customers than we could have imagined not so long ago - websites, mobile apps, social media pages, VIP groups, SMS text messages, and emails, just to name a few!

Where to start? Well, if you don't already have one, building an eCommerce website should be the first order of business. Customers will always consider central hub for all established online businesses.

Secondly, you will want to build an online presence where you can find your target audience. Millions of people log into Facebook and Instagram daily, so many retailers find that it makes the most sense to begin expanding their online presence and storefronts to social media.

Social networking sites are one of the largest hang out spots on the net with a large concentration of potential buyers. Creating a Facebook page or an Instagram business account can help your business gain a ton of exposure while you build customer relationships with its engagement tools.

Plus, with social commerce on the rise, businesses can use these channels to provide their following easy ways to make purchases directly through the newsfeed.

2. Expecting Technology to Do It All

Though automation can make business owners’ lives much easier, there is still much work to be done behind the scenes. Back-end operations such as inventory scheduling, branding, customer support, all require time and effort on your part.

Technology can greatly assist you, but it cannot replace you. It can only be as good as the people behind it. Hiring the right team or even considering potential roles for your growing online business can help with getting a leg up.

3. Not being human enough.

Customers buy from people they know and trust. It was true before the internet, and it remains true now. Going digital doesn’t mean you need to lose the human connection. 

Add an About page that tells your story and mission, provide excellent customer service, and frequently connect with customers through social media, where you can have a two way dialogue. (Facebook Live sales are a tried and true method for this!)

Sure, there’s a lot of competition out there. However, not all businesses go out of their way to continuously engage and connect with their customers. You’d be surprised what a difference it can make. Their loyalty will stay with you even if they can find similar products elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

If you want to not only survive but excel at eCommerce, you will need to market everywhere, put in the work, and cultivate customer relationships. These three lessons are the core of every online business. As such, you will continuously need to work on them wherever your business may take you.