{"id":10536,"date":"2017-04-24T10:59:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.repricerexpress.com\/?p=10536"},"modified":"2024-12-13T10:21:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T10:21:03","slug":"5-reasons-ecommerce-businesses-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repricerexpress.com\/5-reasons-ecommerce-businesses-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Why Ecommerce Businesses Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting an ecommerce business is a bit like married: the odds are not<\/em> in your favour. Most enterprises end up not working out, with hopefully the person learning a lesson or two for the next go-around. But if you want to be one of the merchants who beat the odds, then RepricerExpress<\/a> has five ways you can avoid going belly-up.<\/h4>\n

Reason 1: Poor Management of Revenue and Spending<\/h2>\n

Not every ecommerce business will have a Warren Buffett-sized cash injection behind it. But not every business needs<\/em> to. It\u2019s more about how you manage the money coming in and out. If you\u2019re constantly spending on, say, marketing but not allocating money to deal with the influx of orders, your business could suffer.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest mistakes merchants make is planning budgets around projected sales instead of actual ones. If more sales come in, you can always expand your budget to accommodate that, but it\u2019s a lot harder going in reverse.<\/p>\n

Reason 2: A Decidedly User-UNfriendly Website<\/h2>\n

Your website is often the first point of contact with shoppers. And if it sucks (i.e. they can\u2019t easily navigate around, common search terms don\u2019t lead them to where they want to end up, pictures are of poor quality, it takes forever to buy an item, the colour scheme is garish\/too busy, etc.), they\u2019ll give up and go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it. If you don\u2019t feel comfortable designing your own site or you can\u2019t afford to pay someone, go with a template \u2014 and remember the KISS method<\/a>: Keep It Simple, Sweetie.<\/p>\n

Reason 3: Not Appropriately Sizing Up the Competition<\/h2>\n

You know the show Dragon\u2019s Den<\/em><\/a>? A common reason some of the dragons shy away from seemingly good deals is because the contestant (if we can call them that) is pitching a product for a saturated market. For the online world, this means some ecommerce businesses can fail because they\u2019re trying to compete with big-box retailers right out of the gate.<\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019ve got millions and millions to fall back on, there\u2019s just no way you can compete with the Apples and Amazons of the world. A more successful alternative is to find your niche, understand your competition, and cement how you fit into it all.<\/p>\n

Reason 4: Nobody Visits<\/h2>\n

Probably the biggest reason why a business fails is because it doesn\u2019t get enough traffic. Without visitors, it\u2019s impossible to make sales, despite a pro-looking site and slick advertising. It is so crucial to do thorough research to understand the market, then translate that into stellar SEO practices, novel content that keeps you ranking high, and targeting the right kind of shoppers.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still stuck, study up on your competition and see what practices they employ, then use that as a template for your own.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> 9 Tips for SEO and Keyword Research for Amazon Sellers<\/a><\/p>\n

Reason 5: Customers Don\u2019t Feel Listened To Or Valued<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re getting traffic coming in but having trouble keeping it there, one reason could be subpar customer service. In How to Win Friends and Influence People<\/em><\/a>, Dale Carnegie says it takes a lot of \u2018atta boy\u2019s to make up for one \u2018oops\u2019. It\u2019s far easier to build \u2014 and sustain \u2014 momentum if you make superior customer service the norm and treat every deviation from it as a serious, lesson-learning case than to fix multiple problems when operating from a low standard.<\/p>\n

Some tips to keep in mind include:<\/p>\n