So, you are past the teething issues of launching an online business and have already started getting a few orders.That’s an achievement and an important milestone in your entrepreneurial journey.
You should be happy about it! But are YOU?
Something is bothering you, RIGHT!
Setting up the business was the easy part, now you are having sleepless nights thinking how to make your venture a profitable one. You have streamlined the resources, worked hard on the marketing and tryied every trick of the trade to make your business a smashing hit.
But, have you ensured that you are not making some of the common mistakes that stop many a business from writing successful business stories?
To enhance your chances of success, try and avoid these mistakes which might prevent your business from being profitable:
Table of Contents
Not Being Different from the others
So, you are inspired by the success story of someone making it big by selling T-shirts online and you also want to venture into the same business.
Well, do a bit of research and you will find an astounding number of online selling sites are offering T-shirts at very affordable rates. Add to this, the market bigwigs who have a dedicated segment for selling a variety of clothing items on their multi-seller marketplace and you have a highly competitive market where the fittest survives.
Entering a popular business vertical sounds an easy way to spin money but the reality is very different. If you pick a segment that is too popular you face stiff competition, and your chances of ranking on popular keywords also becomes tough.
The key to survival and success here is to find a set of products that is not easily found elsewhere but has a potential demand. Offer something uncommon and different to your target customers and go for ecommerce business ideas that have enough demand to keep your order count rolling.
Related Read: 5 things to research thoroughly while preparing your ecommerce business plan
Not Researching third party partners
For your business to be profitable you need to align various third party services like choosing vendors, payment gateways and logistics to complete your order fulfillment process. For any business to be successful all these components need to be the best fit to ensure the customers have a good experience and keep coming back.
However, many entrepreneur’s stories reverberate with one fact that insufficient research while choosing third party partners led to chaotic business operations. This in turn resulted in customer dissatisfaction and losses.
To make your business profitable and successful in the long run, always spend time in checking the history and credentials of the third party services you are choosing.
Alternatively, if these come as pre integrated services with your e-commerce platform, you can rely on the vendors, logistics and payment partners as they have been tried and trusted by thousands of businesses using the platform.
Related Read: 5 tips to help you start an e-commerce business without wasting time
Not preparing a Marketing Plan
Even with the best product categories, vendors, payment options and logistics your business will fail to be profitable if there is not sufficient footfall. A simple answer to “how to sell more?” is- bring more customers to your online store using a comprehensive marketing plan.
The success of your website depends on careful planning of marketing strategies even before the actual launch of your store. If you are unable to create a buzz and interest about your store, chances are high that you will have to spend about 3-6 months to create a brand identity in the digital world. Timely and well thought marketing plan builds brand visibility and brings traffic to your website.
Your business cannot scale heights of success unless you have a well planned traffic and marketing strategy in place.
Not Optimizing Online Business for Search Engines
Optimizing your site for search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing help your customers find your online selling site during their searches.
Any online store, that is optimized on all the crucial parameters content, images, meta, links etc. has a higher chance of coming on the top of SERP pages and thus bring in cost effective traffic to your business. The best optimization policy is to work for competitive as well as long tail key phrases that help you rank effectively on possible search terms used by customers.
Hence, optimizing and setting up your site to rank high on SERP pages is an important step to ensure you are bringing lots of targeted traffic that results helps to make your business profitable.
Related Read: 5 tips that bring better traffic and sales from FaceBook to your webstore
Not providing seamless shopping experience on all devices
The modern online shoppers are a smart and informed lot. They use various devices like tablets, laptops and smartphones throughout a day to search, surf or shop for online products.
To enhance e commerce business opportunities and make the best of Omni channel traffic you need to provide a seamless shopping experience to your customers on all devices being used by them.If your store in not mobile ready and does not perform well on mobile devices, you might be losing one third of your potential sales.
M-Commerce is growing with a much faster pace than e-commerce and your online business needs to be ready for future to be profitable in the long run.
Would you like to add to this list?
Now that you are aware of the common mishaps that prevent a business from being profitable, try to avoid them and give your online business a better chance at success. Also , feel free to share your experiences and inputs and help us make this list even more detailed by adding your own points in comments section given below.
StoreHippo will bring more tips and successful business stories of its clients to help your business scale new heights of success. Keep watching this space to stay informed !
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