This is the era of e-commerce. There’s no point denying that. Yet, if, by any chance, you’re still missing this point, you’re probably living under a rock.
E-commerce website and app development has been ahead in the race of web trends. There’s an enormous market out there to provide e-commerce solutions to help their customers succeed in their business goals. As users, we are flooded with numerous options; it’s a difficult challenge for the sellers to immerse their customers with meaningful experiences so that they ought not to drop off the midway.
But if your eCommerce website or application is not built to offer an exceptional user experience, get ready to face either average or below average ratings. The reason for such experience can range from pixelated images to inadequate product information.
With the recent surge towards mobile browsing, one has to make sure that their e-commerce website must run well on mobile browsers, even if they have a dedicated mobile app. A recent example being Flipkart.
Let’s explore some of the most common e-commerce app and website design mistakes that you must avoid to grow.
Inadequate product information
With the limited screen space on mobile phones, businesses often reduce the size of the product description.
Product pages in an e-commerce app must be as relevant and comprehensive as in the other channels like a full desktop website. You’d not want a potential customer to read different information about your products on different channels.
To make sure that the production information is consistent in all of your sales channels, make sure that you the content properly. This means that you should put the most relevant information about the product in the top most sections of the details page and leave the less relevant information either hidden (i.e. click to expand) or below the top fold.
The catch here is to identifying the most relevant information about any product. For this, we suggest you put yourself into your customer’s shoes and see it from their point of view.
Long & tedious Checkout Process
The checkout process plays an important role in the success of any e-commerce store. Many studies have shown that a lengthy and tedious checkout process results in a steep drop in sales.
For this reason, Amazon patented their One Click Checkout Process. And it’s worth billions. It proved to be game changer for Amazon.
It’s by design of the human nature that we want to get things done quickly and this nature is augmented further by the attention grabbing apps in our phones.
The rule is simple- your e-commerce website and app must be able to do quick checkouts. And for this to happen, you need to make sure that your website stores information like address, payment options etc for each customer and use the same information without asking the customer to refill them again and again.
Of course, they can edit it but studies have shown that most people do not really change such information much. So it’s safe to store them and re-use.
Too Many Features
As the saying goes, more features is equals to more bugs. Even with bug free implementation of features, the users get tired of using them after some time.
For example, an e-commerce app and website does not require a Stories like feature of Snapchat, unless you are implementing social features in the app. No body is stopping you from building any number of features you want, but you must realize that the sales is the utmost important thing in your store.
Instead of building unwanted features, focus on growing the revenue and sales of your store instead. And as many studies have implied, a buyer doesn’t really want every feature in the app or website. They want a pleasant and stable experiences from your store.
Lack of Payment Options
This is easily the most common issue yet the most easily fixable one. With the plethora of options to choose from, it’s rather easy to pick a payment gateway for your e-commerce store.
Choosing the correct payment gateway is a task when you are doing sales internationally. For example, Google Pay for India or UPI is limited to Indian customers and not international ones. In such cases, you need to make sure that your payment gateway accepts international credit cards too.
Adding the checkout option like Cash on delivery, specially in India, also increases the chances of sale in some cases.
Lack of personalization
Given the competition in e-commerce space, we believe that personalization is the key to success. Why? Simply because a customer wants to feel at home when they visit your store. They want to know what they should buy next. Or if there’s a sale on something they saw earlier on your store.
Simple things like sending follow up email on an abandoned cart, or sending anniversary greetings with speacial discounts can go a long way than you can imagine. Such personalization tactics also brings customer loyalty.
Talking about loyalty, it’s something that most stores do no appreciate but can bring massive returns if done correctly. We suggest starting small by giving loyalty points to your customers on each purchase and then building campaigns upon those points.
Not using Analytical tools
If you’re not using any analytical tools such as Google Analytics to understand and measure various matrices on your store, you won’t be able to plan correctly.
Not employing data analytics is one of the most common mistakes that e-commerce store owners do. Most of the modern analytics tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel etc are very easy to integrate.
These tools help you understand your target audience and your customers better. Once you’ve gathered enough data about what’s going on on your store, it’s becomes easy to make informed decisions.
Conclusion
E-commerce is here to stay thanks to the rapid and cheaper adoption of the Internet. If you run a brick-and-mortar store, you should, without any delay, get an e-commerce app and website for your store.
We’re here to help you design, develop and scale your e-commerce store using both e-commerce mobile app and e-commerce website. Reach out to us to understand more about our offerings.