How to Overcome Challenges of Running Ecommerce Store

Setting up and running an ecommerce store is a huge undertaking. The 80-percent failure rate of all ecommerce stores is living proof of the same. Most founders start with the product and forget to focus on other key aspects to grow their business online. In this post, we discuss 5 challenges of e-commerce business and how to tackle them effectively.

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5 Ways to Overcome Challenges for E commerce Business

Challenge#1: Lack of Sales in the Beginning Phases

“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. However, if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar

As an entrepreneur, you might build an attractive website. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll see sales skyrocket from the first day of launch. Since you’re a new online store, many consumers might be skeptical of you. They might be hesitant to purchase if you don’t seem genuine and reliable. In the beginning, the lack of genuine reviews from other customers will also stop them from making a purchase.

Solution

As a founder, your job is to make them comfortable with purchasing your product. You could do that through a couple of different steps: -

1. Provide security badges that indicate that their money would be safe with you
2. Make a genuine and professional website that loads fast
3. Write compelling backstory on your about us page that makes you more relatable
4. Provide contacts of your physical stores
5. Assure them that they’re undergoing a safe transaction with you
6. Send them a receipt as soon as they purchase your product or service
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Challenge #2: Lack of Social Media Presence

“Create content that teaches. You can’t give up. You need to be consistently awesome.” – Neil Patel

In this social media age, customers want their brands to interact and educate them in real-time. They want to learn more about your story, why you’re passionate about the business, and what value you’ll give them. Nearly 45 percent of the world is on social media. If you’re not on it, you’ll lose on a lot of potential leads and brand ambassadors for your business.

Solution

Take advantage of apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and others to connect with your audience. You could run social media campaigns to generate awareness about your brand, seek feedback on your products, or even post content related to your niche. Through a robust social media presence, you can build credibility and boost sales. Through content scheduling tools like Hootsuite, you can easily schedule your posts across multiple channels and free your time.
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Challenge #3: Lack of Proper Customer Support

“Customer service shouldn’t just a department; it should be the entire company” – Tony Hsieh

89 percent of customers stopped doing business with a brand because they experienced bad customer service. Customer support isn’t just the responsibility of the call centers of the company. Every employee in the business needs to think like the company’s customer and try to perform their duties by it.

Solution

Here’s how you make your processes more customer-friendly: -

1. Straightway commit that you’ll offer exceptional customer service through all your social media handles
2. Make it easier for your customers to reach you and register a complaint or a query
3. Track all customer interaction so they don’t have to repeat their concerns if they call you again
4. Respond to all their queries
5. Offer promotions or freebies to incentivize organic marketing
6. Personalize your conversations with them and maintain a respectful but informal tone
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Challenge #4: Lack of Awareness on Money Spent in Carriers, Returns, and Fraud

“Awareness is the key ingredient to success. If you have it, teach it. If you lack it, seek it.” – Michael Kitson

As a startup founder, you’ll face many issues that you didn’t anticipate from the start. For example, your carrier partner may lose a package, or a scam purchase may take advantage of your company. Although it’s rare, reputed companies like FedEx or UPS may lose your package. You could also lose money when your customer ships the product back to you especially if you’ve given free shipping.  Being aware of your potential issues and preparing for them protects you from risks and disastrous circumstances.

Solution

Here’s how you deal with these situations: -

1. To minimize package loss costs, try out different courier partners, and pick the least expensive and most effective one.
2. To minimize fraud, ensure you get verifiable credentials like social security numbers, bank account details, and others. For larger orders, use automated systems to verify the shopper before shipping out the product.
3. To minimize return costs, enable your customer team to talk to them and collect feedback. Ask your customers why they’re returning the product and what your business can do better.
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Challenge #5: Lack of Thought on Mobile Responsiveness

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt and change.” – Stephen HawkingIn

2020, 3.5 billion people worldwide use smartphones daily. US adults spend nearly 2 hours and 55 minutes daily browsing on their smartphones. Unsurprisingly, most people use mobile phones at least as much or more than their laptops. Many websites may look great on the desktop but they look completely weird on mobile phones. Viewers have to scroll, zoom in, and zoom-out unnecessarily to go through such content. As a result, they won’t prefer such sites and go to other attractive sites.

Solution

So, if you’re considering investing in good website development, ensure you ask for responsive web design. Such designs adapt to different screens and give the user a side-scroll-free, pinch-and-zoom free viewing experience. You’ll make it easier for your customers to read reviews, browse through your collection, compare prices, and buy your products.

These were 5 challenges of e-commerce business and how to tackle them effectively.

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Conclusion

“Businesses aren’t B2B or B2C, they’re Human to Human (H2H).” – Dominic Cummins

Every new founder gets extremely excited about their products. However, they need to understand if their customer is also equally interested in the product or not. They’ll succeed better if they build effective customer-centric processes.