3 Mistakes That Cost Your E-commerce Store (And How to Fix Them)
An e-commerce store offers you the chance to make huge profits due to lower overhead costs. However, there are no guarantees that you will make money, and even when you do, your profits margins may not be as high as you want them to be. Mistakes can happen. And those mistakes could cost you a lot.
Here are three mistakes that you may be making when running your e-commerce store, and how to fix them. And below is a great infographic from Red Stag Fulfillment on How to Fix a Leakey eCommerce Faucet.
1. Your Slow-To-Load Website May Be Causing Lower Conversion Rates
It’s not enough to get people onto your e-commerce website. You have to keep their attention long enough to get them to buy something.
Unfortunately, if your website is poorly designed, it will load slowly, and that’s where your problems will start.
Every second your website takes to load counts. Studies show that 88 percent of consumers want a positive shopping experience and will shop elsewhere for it if they can’t find it on your site. In addition, statistics show that 40 percent of consumers will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
To solve the problems related to your website’s slow-to-load speed, you need to design your e-commerce site properly.
- Check your page speed on this Google tool to see how well your website performs on mobile and desktop.
- Follow the recommendations they suggest for “should fix” and “consider fixing,” including leveraging browser caching and optimizing your images.
- Get help from a web developer if needed.
2. Your Credit Card Fees Are Too High
Not every financial leak your e-commerce store experiences will be attributed to your website or customer behavior. Some leaks will come down to your own business decisions. One of those decisions is the kind of credit card vendors you choose to incorporate within your e-commerce store.
Studies show that 70 percent of Americans have at least one credit card. So, there’s no doubt that you have to allow for credit card purchases. That said, your choice of vendors matters. The higher your credit card processing fees, the more money your e-commerce store will lose on your end. It’s therefore in your best interest:
- To understand what your vendor fees are like and which options have the lowest processing fees.
- To include online payment options like PayPal that offer cheaper alternatives as far as processing fees are concerned.
3. Your Shipping Costs Are High
Most people love to shop online, but few want to deal with huge shipping fees. About 28 percent of customers will abandon their cart if shipping costs are too high. It is your responsibility to find great shipping deals for your business if you want consumers to spend more and generate higher revenues. You can do this by:
- Negotiating with multiple shipping companies for better shipping deals.
- Working with your vendors to get special discounts.
- Paying for your shipping online.
There are plenty of other mistakes that you may be doing that are costing your e-commerce store money. For more information, check out this infographic from Red Stag Fulfillment on how to stop a leaky e-commerce faucet:
