Ecommerce Website Pitfalls You Can Easily Avoid

Ecommerce industry has witnessed a massive boom in the post-pandemic world. Several small businesses are bringing their stores online to boost their sales. In such a scenario, it’s important to pay attention to every small detail as a single mistake can throw you behind the competitors.

In this blog, we will explore some of the common mistakes in eCommerce website development that you can easily avoid. Check these out.

Mistakes to Avoid in Ecommerce Web Development

Incompatibility with Mobile Devices

A study by The Drum finds that mobile devices account for 65% of all eCommerce traffic. This highlights the importance of a responsive web design that is seamlessly accessible on mobile devices.

Website developers always recommend using widely tested themes so as to ensure the responsiveness of a website. You can opt for Google’s mobile-friendly test to find out if your site is optimized for smartphones.

Also, frequently check your website manually. Many often, a shopping cart looks perfect on mobile devices but fails to work when the users place an order.

Complex Navigation

Always abide by navigation best practices as too much uniqueness is not a wise decision here. Here are a few points to remember:

• Anything clickable should be highlighted and large enough so that the users can tap on it using a mobile phone.
• Categories should be easily accessible from the top menu or hamburger menu.
• Allow the users to sort by important features like price, relevance, popularity, etc.
• Keep provision for multiple filters unique to your product inventory.
• Make sure that the users can save their cart or wishlist for a certain period. Usually, people don’t shop for something online in one go (except for essential items like medicines). They will browse multiple sites, compare prices, read reviews, and check out different products before making their mind. Ensure that their saved cart or wishlist is not lost.
• A search function with autocorrect and autocomplete features will instantly increase the users’ convenience.

To ensure streamlined navigation, we recommend you contact a professional website development company. The experts will focus on intuitive navigation and enhance user experience.

SEO Errors

Without proper SEO practices in place, an ecommerce website cannot achieve success in this competitive landscape. Here are a few common issues to look out for and fix:

Duplicate page: Since an eCommerce website has lots of product pages, you need to make sure that a page doesn’t have a duplicate version. This is usually caused by URL variables. You can use a canonical tag (“rel canonical”) to inform the search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Using this tag will prevent problems caused by duplicate or identical content appearing on multiple URLs. It will also highlight which version of a URL you want to feature in search results.

Broken links: It’s important to find and fix broken links. A broken link may imply that a webpage is no longer available, the page is moved without a redirect, or the URL structure of a page is changed. It’s important to resolve these with proper tags/redirects so as to increase the users’ convenience. There are two ways to fix the issue: replace the links with live links and remove the links.

Other than these technical SEO issues, you need to invest in comprehensive SEO services that help in promoting your site and drive organic traffic to your site. Since reputation is a crucial factor for eCommerce websites, winning the top rank on the search engine, building brand awareness, and promoting brand credibility play paramount roles in growing a business.

Too Much or Too Less Product Description

You know that product description is important to inform people more about the product and earn their trust. But it’s important to understand that a product description should provide adequate information without making people bored. They may be exhausted while reading a never-ending product description with irrelevant details.

Point out which information are central to your product and feature those. You can include a product video for the people to get a better insight.

No Upsell Opportunities

These days, upselling has proved immense merits in boosting sales. If you want your customers to add more products to their carts and checkout, upselling can be the right strategy.

Major eCommerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. offer functionality that can display products related to the individual product page. A feature like “customers who bought this item also bought” can offer amazing opportunities to improve transaction rates and thus enhance average revenue per order.

Failing to Define Unique Selling Proposition

Every business has a USP but many forget to flaunt it on their websites. This is one of the worst mistakes to make. With so many competitors around you, it’s important to underline your distinguishing feature so as to stand out in the market and appeal to your audience. Further, with large marketplaces like Amazon around the corner, you must give a compelling reason for the users to buy from your website.

For instance, do you offer a customization service? Can the users customize the products they are shopping for? Are you offering pan country free shipping? No matter whether you belong to B2B or B2C domain, highlight your USP on the site.

Of course, there are many other aspects that you can optimize on your e-store but these are the starting points that you cannot afford to overlook. We hope you have found the blog useful. Share your thoughts with us. For the online store owners who are planning to redesign their existing website, also read our blog on Ecommerce Web Design Trends in 2022.