Contributed Post
So you’re looking to start an ecommerce business. That’s great and everything, but are you sure you’re ready for this? Many people make this sort of pursuit out to be pretty easy. In fact, a lot of businesses depend on you assuming that it’s going to be easy. Let me assure you that it’s going to be nothing of the sort.
There are ecommerce websites being created all the time, and most of them fail. Often because good ecommerce sites start with good design that is figured out through a collaborative process with companies like Cefar. And often many companies don’t think about user-experience in their designs. That’s because most business owners make some really big mistakes. Let’s list those mistakes here. If you’re actively looking to fail at this pursuit, then go ahead and do these things. I’m obviously not recommending them, though.
Build it and assume they will come
I’ve already pointed out that ecommerce websites are being created all the time. But you may have underestimated just how many are being created. I mean, there are nearly 1.2 billion websites online right now. New ones are created at a faster rate than one a second. And many of those are ecommerce businesses. Don’t fall for the “if we build it, they will come” mentality. That will get you nowhere. You really have to stand out amongst these guys.
Have zero social proof
Social proof is a psychological concept that applies to both the personal and the commercial. Let’s say you’re looking at a business for the first time. You’ve never seen it before. No-one you know has ever talked about it and you’ve never seen advertisements for it. You might be a bit wary. What you want to know at this point is how many other people are aware of it and are actively engaging with it. So you’ll look in the store to see if others are actually using it, or you’ll check for online reviews, or you’ll look at their social media accounts to see if they have legit followers. If someone can’t find any of these for your business, they’re likely to turn away.
Use a subpar management system
An ecommerce website is going to be dealing with a lot of content. So it’s absolutely vital that the developers of your website are actually using a decent content management system. And no, WordPress isn’t going to do. You’ll want something that’s actually tailored to the use of ecommerce websites. There are plenty of decent ones out there, but the most popular and reliable is probably Magento. You could probably call it the WordPress of ecommerce. If you’re working with an ecommerce agency, it might be best to ensure they’re using something like Magento.
Wikipedia – By Magento – Magento 2 Backend, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47838771
Expect big profits to come soon
You’ve quit your job and started up this business. You look at the giants like Amazon and eBay for assurance that profits are going to be drowning you in no time. Problem: that’s not how it works. You’re going to be putting a lot of money into this business. You can’t expect it to turn big profits for at least a year – and that’s being generous. You need to be properly prepared for this. Don’t get into this without a decent amount of savings or capital.
Thank you for sharing this excellent article.:)