These days people prefer online shopping to conventional methods, which has led to the booming of the e-commerce sector. In the United States, half of all purchases are placed online. According to research, the number of people who shop online is over 2.05 billion, and it is expected to rise to around 2.2 billion this year. These staggering numbers can be attributed to the convenience online stores offer.
While the e-commerce landscape is booming, not everyone has it easy. Launching an online store may be easy, but building a successful one is a completely different story. The process is not easy as it seems, and numerous online stores barely make a profit. If you’re not seeing the desired returns from your online store, here are possible reasons why.
1. Fraud
If you are not careful, you could lose a great deal of money through fraud. Attacks on online stores can take many forms, but they are certainly adaptive and pervasive. Cybercriminals are constantly studying global trends to find loopholes they can exploit. Stolen credit card purchases are arguably the most popular way of defrauding online stores where criminals use credit cards to buy products from your online store. When the owner of the credit card realizes, they are likely to contest the payment, for which you will have to cover the administrative fees. Other e-commerce fraud includes:
- Friendly or chargeback fraud
- Account takeover
- Bonus
- Affiliate fraud
- Fake accounts
The bad news is that the scale, sophistication, and intensity of e-commerce fraud are not showing any signs of slowing down. The best thing to do to remain safe is to invest in a real-time fraud detection tool to help detect and prevent fraud before it happens.
2. Lack of clear call to action (CTA) buttons on your site
When you are selling on your website, you want to guide your visitors towards a specific action. For instance, you may focus on getting them to buy a product or join your email list. If your site lacks clear CTA buttons or doesn’t have them at all, this may prevent you from making a lot of sales. To make it easy for visitors to know how to proceed, ensure you have clear CTAs that pop up off the page.
3. Your website is not generating enough traffic
You can’t just launch an online store and expect to see sales start rolling in right away. You have to constantly market your online store and implement strategies to increase your website traffic. Use multiple channels to drive more people to your website. Some effective ways to drive traffic include:
- Social media marketing
- SEO
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
- Video marketing
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
4. A complex checkout process
A complex, multi-step checkout process can be frustrating to customers and could be the reason you are not making enough sales. The process should be simple and short to help improve customer experience.
Endnote
It is the dream of every online store owner to run a successful business. By eliminating the above mistakes, you can increase the chances of your online store prospering and succeeding.
