Launching your own eCommerce store sounds appealing on many fronts. You get to work from the comfort of your computer, pick your own hours, and work on a project you can truly call your own. But without giving it enough thought and rushing into it without the proper mindset, you’re headed for trouble. After all, it is as they say… failing to plan is planning to fail. So to avoid falling into the same kind of deadly traps so many eCommerce business owners have entangled themselves into, you’re wise enough to study the ins and outs of this business model before proceeding.
That’s why you’re here for, right? So let’s not keep you waiting!
1. Not giving the content enough attention
In Google’s eyes, duplicate content is never a good idea. Ideally, you want at least a small percent of your traffic coming to your website organically from the search engines. Who can argue with free traffic, right? Well, free traffic is hard enough to get as is, but if you’re not well versed in the latest SEO techniques, you’re going to get breadcrumbs of it, if any.
So to address the issue, you should never copy and paste a description you’ve found on another website or online store. There are many issues with this; first and foremost, you might get into copyright issues this way. The other reason is that pages with duplicate content won’t rank well in the search engines. Therefore, it’s well worth your time to either come up with unique product descriptions on your own or pay someone to do it for you.
2. Not knowing enough about traffic generation
Whether it’s organic traffic or paid advertising you’re pouring most of your time and effort into, know that 8 out of 10 eCommerce stores fail. If you still think that success is as easy as setting up a store online and importing some products, you’re in for a rough surprise. In reality, the only way to succeed is giving your best effort when it comes to traffic generation.
The fact of the matter is this: if no one sees your offer in the first place, you’re not going to make any sales. Period. You’ll need to pour a lot of time into mastering the art of traffic generation like Google ads, Facebook ads, SEO, social traffic, etc. Paid traffic can deplete your financial reserves pretty fast, and without knowing how to optimize your campaigns properly, you might not even have a positive ROI in the end.
3. Not giving the order fulfillment process enough thought
Even when the first orders start coming in, you’re still not entirely in the clear. When you’re not making a substantial amount of daily sales, managing it all on your own is a breeze. But what happens if the floodgates opens one day and a waterfall of orders starts getting placed on your website every day?
Hiring a helping hand should cross your mind at some point. But if you’re dead set on fulfilling the orders all on your own, you’re probably going to need solutions you can read more about at Evocon.com and similar websites, especially if you’re also into process optimization. It may seem like a first-world problem, but you also need to be ready for success when it finally comes.
Conclusion
This is by no means a comprehensive list of every eCommerce trap that lies out there, but it should suffice. Now start absorbing all the knowledge you can find and show your competitors what you’re made of!
