The enormous opportunities that come with eCommerce cannot be overemphasized. Since its adoption by businesses, the internet has made more millionaires than any other invention is known in the history of humankind. While other innovations such as electricity have made life easier while making lots of money for a small handful of businesses, the internet made life much easier while making lots of money for many more businesses both big and small. You need not search far for examples of success stories. From Google itself, the King of search, is a testimony that the internet is perhaps the biggest game-changer in the art of making money. Think of it this way. Would there be Amazon if there were no internet? Would people be talking and writing about eBay without the internet? How about Alibaba?
Now, the few examples above, like Amazon, are just but a drop in the ocean in a list of eCommerce sites that have grown to become unshakable empires in this space. They process crazy numbers of transactions per day that earn them billions in revenue per year, enabling them to sustain thousands of employees who serve millions of customers around the globe, daily.
The secret to their success, like that of many other eCommerce sites, lies in their storefront. A storefront is a crucial determinant of how your eCommerce site will perform. If done well, you will make the profits you dream of; if done poorly, you will only find yourself losing money.
Here now is a look at why your storefront might be costing you money that could otherwise be piling up in your bank:
1. Horrible Design
Imagine walking into a store and stumbling on disorganized products, thrown all over the shop. Unless it is a matter of life and death, you will be better off walking to the next shop. This very experience happens online for many eCommerce sites’ storefronts. Your design could be so confusing that customers find it tasking to find what they came to buy. Either your categories are not displayed clearly in a single location or some of the products are hidden somewhere beneath collections. Arrangement is also a common issue that affects many storefronts. The easiest way to solve this problem is by engaging professionals with sufficient experience in storefront design. They will know the right themes to use, and will consider important aspects such as responsive design with respect to the products you are selling.
2. Poor Product Descriptions
The copy you use to describe your products matters from the first word to te last. Studies have demonstrated that the simple act of touching a product on sale brings the customer closer home and increases the chances of a decision in favor of the purchase. However, since customers cannot touch products online physically, a splendid description is the only way to match the touching experience. Never tolerate weak copy!
3. Poor Speed
Slow speeds on websites are known to result in high bounce rates, driving away traffic that you worked so hard to acquire. You are losing both the money you have used to market your eCommerce platform as well as the money you would have earned from your targeted customers.
4. Currency & Payment Challenges
Depending on the scope of the clientèle you are targeting, it is important to ensure that your currency and payment options are broad enough to accommodate each customer that comes to buy from your site. The best way to stay on the safe side is by ensuring that your online store can accept all currencies from all over the world. Be sure to have a simple system through which buyers can quickly do conversions and see how much the product will cost them in terms of their currency. When it comes to payments, provide as many payment options as possible. There is no need to limit customers to one or two payment options. Remember that if a customer is not able to pay using the options in their hand, they will simply go to the site that can. Don’t lose money just because you are unable to receive money. There are many platforms you can use to enable receipt of multiple currencies, one of which can be found at www.fastspring.com.
Conclusion
These are just a few tell-tale signs that your eCommerce site’s storefront could be costing you lots of money that may probably take you years to recover. Sometimes you could be struggling to find reasons why your storefront is not converting as much, yet the reasons are actually sprinkled all over the very storefront. Take the time to look at these factors in comparison to what you already have, and make immediate changes where things are not right. E-commerce sites have infinite potential to bring in the sales you need to drive growth. It all starts with a correctly executed storefront.
The writer, Edrick Hypolite, is an aspiring ecommerce entrepreneur who has studied the many ways to turn a website into a source of revenue. If you wish to learn more about Edrick you can visit on Google+.
