L'e-commerce has (finally) exploded here in Italy as well. With an initially slow growth that began in late 2010 and continued on a crescendo throughout 2012, even Italian entrepreneurs have realized the importance of selling online, with all the advantages this strategy can offer. Merit perhaps goes to the advent of Amazon.com and other major online malls that have pushed, even with their insistent advertising in traditional media, to change the habits of Italian consumers. Many venture into this fantastic experience but often the results are bad. In most cases, lack of knowledge or adequate preparation for launch is to blame, or again, the false belief that to sell, it is enough to "be there."
3 Common mistakes in e-commerce
These are the ones you can run into and that lead, inexorably, to failure.
- No pre-launch strategy. A bar has just opened in my town that, after various vicissitudes and changes of management, has returned under the old management of the family that had founded it, think about it, in 1848. Well ... The first thing they thought to do was to make it known to everyone what was going to happen, namely that there was going to be a re-opening, that the bar was going to be renovated, that there was going to be an inauguration with cocktails for everyone and surprises for everyone there, using all possible means. Of course, the grand opening was a success, because the right anticipation had been built up and everyone was ready, on the day of the reopening, to visit the venue. This very mundane marketing tactic, dating back to the mists of time, is almost always ignored by most who want to start an e-commerce business: no pre-launch campaign, no suspense or anticipation generated, no benefit to visitors.
- Those homemade photos... Would you buy something (unless it was an iPhone or other ultra consumer good known to everyone) without knowing (=seeing) what you were actually buying? Would you ever buy a pair of shoes without seeing them from every angle? Would you pay for a dress that you can only see resting on a counter or hanging? I think these questions have already given enough reasons for you to realize that many people go wrong precisely in the presentation of their products. Not to mention grainy photos, out of focus, with distorted colors or flash glare. It's fine that digital cameras today are within everyone's reach, but that doesn't automatically turn us into shooting professionals. Doesn't it...?
- Buying is more difficult than ever. Mandatory registrations, products that disappear from carts when you log out, passwords that are impossible to remember, payment systems that require double steps. These are just some of the problems that many merchants often don't think about. E-commerce was created to simplify life for buyers, not complicate it. Unfortunately, it seems that many people do not take this into account, and here to buy a memory card one has to register when the cart is already full, only to go back and enter the shipping information again, and finally find out that on Paypal I have to enter again, everything. I'd rather buy it at the store down the street at this point.
To be honest there are many more problems, here I have mentioned the 3 problems I most often see, but I guarantee there are others of equal importance. You see an e-commerce is a system composed of many variables that must mesh well with each other, if you get something wrong it is a moment for your potential customer to change their mind and leave. Remember we are on the web, here decisions are 50 times faster than in real life. Now, if you keep these simple observations of mine in mind, you will see that your e-commerce (or your client's) will be much less prone to an untimely demise, and you will have laid the foundation for a successful business.