In this piece, we’re reviewing the top 5 most common eCommerce mistakes that brands are most likely to make.
We’re putting this out now so that you can make changes before the holidays hit us in full force.
With no further adieu let’s jump right in!
1. Underestimating The Amount of Inventory You Need
It’s simple… you can’t sell what you don’t already have.
You only have a few short minutes to make a lasting first impression on your potential buyers, and data shows us what we all know already: if you don’t have the product the customer needs, customers will go where they can get it (and they’re likely to never return).
Use your historical sales data to get the order quantity right for your top-selling products so you can avoid costly stockouts!
2. Implementing Complex Pricing Changes During Major Promotions
To win the cyber sales war, what we commonly call Black Friday, keep your pricing attractive, competitive and logical so you can avoid the dreaded head shake of confusion.
If your new strategy doesn’t make sense to your customers they’re going to quickly turn away.
On Black Friday this is the last thing you need.
Having a strategy is, across the board, something that all businesses need to have when thinking about their promotions.
But getting overzealous and thinking that recreating the wheel during quite possibly the most important day/weekend of the year can lead to disaster.
Innovation is great, but sales are better.
3. Promising Shipping Deadlines That You Can’t Meet
This is a grave mistake that can really upset customers, and rightfully so.
The last thing you want from a company is them promising something and then not following through.
Accommodating customers is one of the more important things to focus on, but if your deadlines are off or if your staff can’t get orders out on time, you might lose a customer indefinitely instead of just missing one sale.
Be realistic when you promise deliveries.
4. Updating your website at the last minute
There are plenty of things you can update safely. Things like inventory, some promotions, or product descriptions, but don’t make major overhauling changes to your website after mid-November.
We all know that mobile sales will be extremely important this holiday season, and sure, a fresh professional look can increase sales.
But you don’t want to run the risk of failure by making large sweeping changes at the last minute.
We suggest locking down your site, monitoring its performance, and spending time reviewing competitors’ websites during the holidays.
Create your own wishlist of improvements and optimizations you’d like to make once the peak season is finished.
This way you can have a plan in place to improve your website going into the next holiday season.
5. Neglecting Your Marketing Efforts
You’ve worked hard all year to build your brand.
Your online presence looks stellar and sales are streaming in – now is not the time to stop!
Once the flood gates open, don’t become passive and let them close.
You need to keep going, promote your products and watch the sales flow in.
Email marketing, blogging, social, promotions, and sales…when done well and consistently, all add up to a potentially very happy holiday season.
The Takeaway
We often focus on what we’re not doing as the main cause of decreased sales. Sometimes it’s what we ARE doing that’s causing this dip, this is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about costly mistakes.
At times when addressing issues, it can be more important to address them at the right time as opposed to how you address them.
