5 Hard lessons for E-commerce entrepreneurs

The E-commerce industry is currently one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The field is ever-changing with rapidly evolving technologies, trends, and competitive environments- resulting in both positive and negative effects for all. The digital revolution has completely changed consumer behaviour, and brands need to respond accordingly. Consumers completely altered their method of buying items during the lockdown, forcing companies to invest aggressively in digital marketing and other growth strategies. 

Here are some suggestions to be mindful of while starting your entrepreneurial e-commerce journey.

1.     Product quality matters to a great extent

The quality metric also applies to any tangible you'd sell online. The price must meet the consumer expectation for quality, or your business will suffer from rampant returns, lack of loyalty and an exceptionally low retention rate. Greatly inflating the price of the product against its actual market value, thus denigrating the expected quality to the consumer, can cause distrust in your business.

2.     Simplifying Helps You And Your Customers

Simplifying checkout instead can boost your order rate and give you a better chance of creating repeat customers. Adding carts to every sales or product page and providing fast payment and guest checkout options empower visitors to buy as well. And making your returns policy less complicated helps people trust your business more. These steps and other universalization efforts can also improve your operations. Standardizing your product packaging and box sizes, for example, can make it easier to control shipping costs.

3.     Determine if you’re targeting the right customers

Many businesses find it difficult to understand who their target market is online and convert them even if they have a well-optimized website. Even if you promote your website through various social media channels or through paid advertisements, you won’t reach your target ROI if you’re not talking to the right people about your business. Figure out your target market and check if you’re indeed serving the right people for your products. Once you know which type of audiences you should serve, it’ll be easier to create a strategy that will increase your conversion rates.

4.     Choosing the right e-commerce platform for your needs

An e-commerce platform is your “physical store” online. This is where you operate your business, and this is where you work on your business. There are different e-commerce platforms designed to suit different needs. By eliminating ineffective ads and scaling those platforms that perform well, the budget can be optimized, and the best advertising price for customers can be achieved. 

5.     Treat your online store the same way as if it’s an offline store

Selling online may be quite easy than selling offline, but the efforts in maintaining it should be the same. Entrepreneurs need to look at it as a big investment requiring copious amounts of effort. Every missed comment, every positive review left unheard, is a missed opportunity for your website. A simple response can make a difference when it comes to customer engagement. Hence businesses should put the same amount of effort into the website to make it profitable in the long run.

Authored by Dr. Deepak Jain, Founder, The Fragrance People