But ensuring our ecommerce business is one of the successful few takes hard work. Between 80-90 percent of ecommerce businesses fail, with most falling within the first 9 months of business. To avoid falling into the ranks of these failing ecommerce businesses you need to take stock of what successful ecommerce businesses are doing. Take time before your launch to ensure your ecommerce business is ready for the masses. You need to know what you're doing and what mistakes to avoid. Below, we've put together a list of five common mistakes new ecommerce business owners make and how to avoid doing so.
Choosing The Wrong Business Name
Your ecommerce business's name is a huge part of your brand. It's how the masses will identify you and distinguish your service from others. Therefore, choosing the wrong name can be detrimental to your ecommerce business. Before choosing the name there's a series of questions you should ask yourself and research you need to conduct.First, ensure the name you were thinking of isn’t taken, and if it is to see how many similarities there are, you may want to go in another direction entirely if it seems like the internet is flooded with website names similar to what you were thinking for your ecommerce business.
For example, Amazon is one of the biggest ecommerce business sites in the world, and as recognizable as the name is it also dominates the field of that name. If you are thinking about naming your business Amazon or including amazon in your name, you should have a very specific way to distinguish it.
Make sure your ecommerce business's name is short and sweet while still getting to the point of your brand. Try not to have anything too difficult to spell or say, as statistically, this drives away business. Offensive names will single out certain demographics, so try to avoid them unless, of course, your ecommerce business is targeting a demographic that enjoys offensive content. You can work with a domain brokerage service who will help you choose the best domain without compromising or opening yourself up to future liabilities.
Not Investing In Customer Service
Customer service is pivotal for the success of an ecommerce business. With no brick and mortar for people to go into, having an accessible email or phone number for customers to reach out to with questions and concerns will help ensure no problem goes unfixed. Focus on hiring people who are well-versed in the ecommerce customer service space. Train your team and check in with them often. It would be beneficial to include a questionnaire for your customers after their customer service experiences. You can ask them to rate the quality of service and leave feedback about what was good versus what they would change regarding the experience.Poor Website Quality On Mobile-Devices
79% of smartphone users made purchases on their mobile devices in 2021, with that percentage expected to reach the upper 90s over the next few years. Investing in your website design is pivotal to your success, but a common mistake new ecommerce business owners make when creating their websites is forgetting to test their mobile-device website design.Ensuring your page translates well to mobile devices will ensure that smartphone shoppers aren't turned away by a lagging, misshapen website when checking your ecommerce business out. It's important to check with the ecommerce hosting platform to see how they handle transitioning your site to mobile devices. Run tests of your ecommerce website on mobile devices before your launch and check in monthly to ensure everything is running smoothly.