With increasing number of customers opting for online shopping, the U.S eCommerce sales is expected to reach $434 billion in 2017 and this number will keep on increasing even more. This calls eCommerce businesses to develop a more focused strategy to target and engage customers on their site. For driving customers to their site, businesses need to have an efficient marketing strategy.

Conversions on an eCommerce website can only be happen if it is able to drive customers at a faster pace. However, if your site fails to convert visitors, it means you are committing mistakes somewhere or the other. Whether it is about placing the wrong image or providing a complicated checkout process, every single mistake is going to cost you loyal customers as well as huge amount of money.

Listed below are some common eCommerce mistakes that websites tend to make- go through them to know and understand what can be done to eliminate them-

Having Products that are “Out of stock”

Imagine what happens when an online shopper comes to your product page and is greeted with a message that says, “Sorry this item is out of stock now”. What will he do?

He will definitely turn to another website to purchase that particular item resulting in lost sales and an unhappy customer.

If you go with an option of leaving an out of stock product page live,  there are multiple measure you can take to prevent higher bounce rates or increase customer experience on your site-

In order to avoid this mistake, you must not display those items on search results or category page which are out of stock. Another option is you can add a badge on product that says “this product is not available for now”. If you still want to display items that users can save in their wish list, give them an option in filter that says- “Include out of stock items”.

By doing so, you can improve chances of making a sale by encouraging visitors to stick around on your site instead of saying, “Sorry, we don’t have what you are searching for”

“No results” Upon searching

“404 not found” is an error message that sometimes customers get encountered with while browsing product search results on your site. If a customer gets this message, he might as well turn away from your site. Don’t give customers a blank page that might stall their shopping and turn them away from your site.

For eliminating this issue, you can provide alternatives to their search.

For Example- If a customer searches for “Black Pendant in Gold Chain” and your site has no such product in inventory, you can provide other suggestions

May be suggesting a “Black Pendant with Silver Chain” can help both the customer as well as you.

This requires effort but if planned well, it will definitely convert your lead into sales.

Displaying unnecessary Popups

Nobody comes to your store for filling out registration forms, subscribing for newsletters or for availing deals and discounts. Remember visitors will never provide any of their contact details without knowing how credible or authentic your website is.

So, avoid welcoming your users by displaying a popup. Instead, try using different ways to get a call-to action from your users. If you really care about your visitors, it’s time to get rid of popups.

Displaying wrong Product images

One of the primary reasons for increase in bounce rates on your website is guiding users in a wrong way by providing wrong product images. Before uploading any of product images, you need to ensure that image you are using represents the right product or not.

For Example- if you are talking about Shift Dress in Red and Black, then image should be of that color and not Blue and Green. Similarly, when it comes to size, choose large ones with different angles, so that user is able to get an idea about the color, print and even material of the product.

For smaller images, better use ZOOM feature so that users can view it clearly.

Forced Registration

Compelling users to register in order to make a purchase is one of the biggest mistakes eCommerce websites do. This is a big turnoff for many customers who would not necessarily want to register to buy just one product. Or, sometimes customer might not have time for registering. Whatever, be the case you should never force your visitors to register on your website, infact you should allow them to shop as guest.

Other than this, you should provide feature of “Save and Shop for Later”. This will encourage guest visitors to save their chosen item to the wish list and in turn increase customer loyalty and engagement on your store.

Conclusion

These are some of the top mistakes that eCommerce websites do. If your site is one of them, it is high time you sort it out. For a successful online business, you should provide customers with the best experience by eliminating such mistakes and you will see a dramatic improvement in your conversion ratios.