Starting a business whether online or offline is a tremendous task. If not careful, you can make mistakes even before your store goes live, which can hinder its success. Here we will look at 5 common mistakes business owners make when launching their online store.
1. Not Having Enough Communication Channels
An important aspect of running any business is ensuring that your customers can reach you easily. Whether it is through phone calls or web chat or instant messaging, providing options of easy and free communication can greatly benefit customer service efforts for your online store. Toll free 1800 numbers are preferred by businesses because they do not charge the caller, making it free for interested individuals to call you. Secondly, because 1800 numbers are generally associated with large corporations, you will be placing your online store among their ranks.
Additionally, you can provide live chat, text messaging, social media, and email options on your website. Customers who prefer these methods of communication can, therefore, connect with you in a way that they are comfortable.
You can get virtual communication services such as virtual toll free numbers with SMS capabilities from a cloud-based service provider such as GlobalCallForwarding. Subscribing to such a service will give you access to other tools and features like call recording and interactive voice response (IVR) which can make your business phone system stronger.
2. Choosing a Highly Competitive Niche
Picking the right niche is important because it can determine how well your business performs. For example, if you pick a niche that is too competitive, you will have trouble ranking for it in search results. Competitors have been working on their product development and marketing efforts for much longer than you. And so, they have a great advantage over your online store which will make it difficult for you to stand out. Do market research, see and analyze what is out there, and consider how you can present your store as different, offering different promotions, and so on.
3. Not Paying Attention to Strong Marketing Strategies
This is particularly important. New businesses take time to include digital marketing because they focus more on developing and creating their business. You must start thinking about the different ways you can use digital marketing to increase the awareness and visibility of your online store.
You can even create your own merchandise to sell on Youtube with the help of Launch Cart. If marketing is not your forte and you do not know where to start, it always helps to hire a digital marketing consultant to provide the necessary insights.
4. Targeting the Wrong Audience
When you start planning for your online store, you may have a general idea of your target audience. But is this buyer persona right or enough and are you targeting them well? Oftentimes, businesses think they are targeting the right audience but their focus may be limited.
Here is where market research becomes important again. You need to consider different buyer personas and understand their backgrounds and preferences to target them effectively. Digital marketing can help here as well by eliminating weak audiences and engaging the stronger ones more.
5. Not Optimizing Your Website
Being an online store, your website is the most important aspect in selling your business. If your website is not optimized, not shown in search results, or is difficult to load, then visitors are more likely to move to another e-commerce site.
It is important to keep your website optimized for SEO by targeting strong keywords related to your service. Then when customers search for these keywords, they will find your business in search results and interact with it. Additionally, you want to make the website mobile-friendly so mobile users can use it without any hindrance. Ensure the website functions well and does not have too much happening in the background to slow it down.
Ready to Launch Your Online Store?
Keep these key points in mind as you prepare to launch your online store. Get the help you need for areas and strategies you are unaware of. Starting a new business can be overwhelming. But if done carefully and smartly, it can be everything you need it to be. Good luck!