Jaimie Dobson Internet Consultant

As more and more people turn to the web to buy goods and services, the power and popularity of trading on-line becomes even more evident as it establishes itself within the make up of today’s retailing sector.

Consequently the need to trade on-line with an effective e-commerce strategy is now a real ‘must have’ for many traditional bricks ‘n’ mortar retailers who want to grow their businesses.

However, many retailers make basic errors when it comes to trading on-line resulting in their ventures collapsing before their very eyes leaving them disappointed and out of pocket.

So where are they going wrong? Here are the top seven mistakes many small retailers make when they decide to move their business on-line.

1. Failing to Research and Plan Using the web as a sales channel is full of pitfalls for the unwary so the whole idea should be a carefully researched and thought out process like any new business venture. Unfortunately many small retailers think they can compete online with the Amazon/Currys/Boots and Play.com’s of this world with an off the shelf shopping cart that costs them just a few hundred pounds (or less) marketed with a handful of adverts in their local paper. Any business looking to move into e-commerce should approach the matter with a workable and realistic business plan for the project that is S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). To do otherwise will result in failure.
2. Getting The Name Wrong Naming an online business in a similar way to a competitors in the hope of ‘catching some of their traffic’ is a recipe for disaster and could leave an e-tailer open to litigation. Time should be spent researching names that do not conflict with an existing business (on-line or off-line) that offer the same or similar products to the intended online shop. This applies both here in the UK and over in the US as the Internet doesn’t recognize borders. Attempts to get both the .co.uk and .com domain names for the site should be made and researching the name to make sure it doesn’t conflict with any registered Trademarks or existing websites wil pay dividends. Useful resources on the web to help with this include: www.nominet.org.uk, www.companieshouse.gov.uk and www.ipo.gov.uk If the busienss has already been named it’s found to be similar to an established competitor; serious consideration should be given to renaming it. It’ll save a lot of grief later.
3. Poor Site Design and Usability No matter how little or how much you spend on a site, if shoppers can’t use it, can’t easily find your products and figure out how to buy them, or should they feel uncomfortable with the site’s security; then they will abort their sale and leave the site for another. If you’re serious about e-commerce for your business, make sure you work with an Internet consultancy or web design agency that has experience in the sector and can deliver a site to you that is custom designed for your needs. Such a company will also be able to offer you advice and guidance throughout the process of your site’s development on many aspects such as marketing, payment processing and converting visitors into sales. Remember, such people may not be experts at retailing your products in the high street, but they are experts at building online retail stores. Use them to your advantage and listen to what they have to say with an open mind. Yes, the up front development costs will be higher when dealing with such an agency in comparison to a single web developer, but it’ll pay you dividends in the long run as you’ll have a more professional site that is capable of competing with the big boys.
4. Poor Customer Service Within the bricks and mortar world of retailing, customer service is a personal, face-to-face relationship the trader has with their customers and is relatively easy to manage. In the online e-tailing world, that personal contact element is removed and must be compensated for with elements such as FAQ pages, secure certificates and real world contact addresses on your site. Easily visible telephone and email addresses that reassure the shopper and the use of a good secure payment processing provider will build shopper confidence. Liberal use of product and deliver guarantees with a good privacy policy and transparent T&Cs across the site will also help to reassure the shopper and encourage them to buy from your site.
5. Poor Order Fulfillment Getting all the ‘front end’ stuff right coupled with good customer service set-up is not the end of the story if the whole process goes pear shaped once the order has been placed. It won’t take many missed orders, or orders being delivered late or damaged before your brand becomes tarnished and your business starts to get a bad reputation. A few well placed blog posts by disgruntled shoppers can cause irreparable damage to any online shop and is very difficult to eradicate once it’s on the web. So make sure that you set-up an effective order fulfillment strategy that is capable of delivering nationally or if needed, internationally. Set delivery guarantees and make sure you stick to them. Be aware that it may be necessary to employ staff to specifically manage outgoing orders or at the very least make it part of an employee’s job description. Be prepared for this.
6. Lack of Marketing The days of “build it and they shall come” are dead and buried and it’s not good enough simply to launch a website and expect people to find it. The promotion of your e-commerce website needs to take into account a number of strategies including search engine optimisation and marketing, online advertising (PPC etc), perhaps e-zines and offline marketing in the traditional media. Marketing a website is not a low cost or quick option in these competitive times for any e-tailer and is often a time and cash hungry process. Build into your budget enough money for the site’s marketing once it’s launched and start to think about the whole matter before you start to build your website. Techniques such as search engine optimisation go hand in hand with site design, so build your site with this in mind rather than be burdened with potentially costly site reworks after launch.
7. Unrealistic Expectations Many small traders approach the setting up and ongoing marketing of an e-commerce website with unrealistic expectations both in terms of the time commitment needed and the initial set-up costs required. Serious e-tailers should be prepared to invest several thousand pounds in their online business and shouldn’t realistically expect a return on their investment in anything less than a year. One retailer, having spent his entire budget on getting his site launched, left no money for ongoing marketing and couldn’t understand why his site wasn’t flooded with orders within the first couple of months. In their initial business-plan, traders should take a long term view and work out how many products they need to sell in order to obtain a return on their investment. Unrealistic expectations will lead to disappointment and a lack of commitment.

Further Reading

Additional articles on the web that will help the small retailer avoid common mistakes include:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/1997-top-10-most-common-e-commerce-mistakes

http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/internet-e-commerce/3972-1.html

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Tags: E-Commerce, Online Shopping, Sales and Marketing, Web Design