After doing all the work and setting up your Ecommerce sales site, it seems like you’ve hit a wall when it comes to making as many sales as you’d hoped. Fear not, this is not something that happens rarely – even experienced marketers have faced some challenges in the past.
The good news is: common challenges mean there are some documented ways of overcoming them – so think of this as a cheat sheet that will get you selling products in no time!
1. Not Enough Traffic
It’s only in marketing that we look forward to increasing traffic. Luckily for us, online traffic jams are not a thing (yet!). Your first step in the analysis of your Ecommerce site should be the amount of traffic it’s getting.
If you notice that you’re not having many visitors, that is surely the reason you’re not selling enough products. Keep in mind that the average conversion rate is 2.63%, meaning you will need to attract more customers in order to start converting visits into sales.
2. Wrong Audience Choice
Every product has its audience, and it might be that you’re attracting non-believers to your website. Take a deep dive into your analytics, and figure out what your visitors’ interests are. This way, you can see if those interests match up with your offering.
If not, it might be that your marketing efforts are targeted at the wrong crowd. Keep in mind that there are simple and reliable messaging marketing strategies you can use to get your site up to par with the competition.
3. No Audience Choice
The only thing worse for Ecommerce sales than attracting the less relevant visitors to the website is not having a strategy for attracting traffic at all. In order to get started, you need to answer some simple questions:
- How old is your target audience?
- What are their interests?
- What problem are you solving for them?
- How do they connect with your products?
Once you figure that out, leveraging messaging tools in your marketing campaign will become a piece of cake. Knowing who you’re talking to completely changes the game!
4. Uninspiring Product Descriptions
Think of the type of products you like to purchase. When you enter a website hosting them, what is the messaging that would attract your interest? It boils down to content being king – interesting, creative, and imaginative product descriptions lead to better conversion rates.
Use the same strategies you would for your SMS marketing campaigns – short, concise, and to the point descriptions with a BANG – allowing your customer to fall in love with the products.
5. Poor-Quality Images
Product images need to be of the highest quality to entice customers to make a purchase. No matter the product, multiple images should be available. Shot from multiple angles, and as clear as possible.
You wouldn’t buy a fancy notebook if you couldn’t preview what it looked like, right? Neither would your customers!
6. Lack of Optimisation
It’s impossible to be anywhere near the realm of marketing and not know how important optimization is for a site’s success. If you fail in the basics, you can kiss selling products goodbye, as search results will not even rank your site.
The good news is – once you cover your basics, you won’t be driving traffic away. Here’s what you NEED to be doing:
- Use relevant keywords on ALL pages
- Improve your site’s loading time
- Make responsiveness a priority
7. High Bounce Rates
Now, this might be connected to some of the reasons above, but it is definitely worth diving deeper into. If your analytics show your bounce rate is sitting at over 70%, you have a reason to be concerned. Visitors leaving your site at alarming rates is a telling sign that there’s something up, and that an increase in sales is just a dream.
It might be that visitors are finding the content and products not relevant to them OR that they find your site difficult to navigate. Be systematic in your optimization efforts, and pay attention to the bounce rate as you do – chances are, it will become lower the better optimized your site is.
8. Irrelevant Keywords
What do relevant keywords even mean? Well, if your product offering comprises high-end jewelry these would be: wedding bands, gold watches, rose gold, diamond watches, etc.
Keywords help search engines rank your content, so the understanding customer needs and what they’re searching for will get your Ecommerce sales site more visits. Try putting yourself in the customer’s shoes and think about which phrases you would search for in order to find the most suitable product for you – that’s half the job!
9. Wrong Marketing Channel Choice
Nowadays, there are a number of marketing channels you can use to help customers engage with your brand. It’s very important to choose the right one or you’re more likely to be losing sales than anything else.
If you’re using Facebook Ads and your main target group is Gen Z, I have bad news for you. No amount of investment will get you the target needed – Gen Z simply doesn’t use Facebook.
However, there is one approach that is applicable through generations – SMS marketing. It’s simple, straightforward, non-intrusive, and cost-effective. Might be time to give it a try!
10. One-Strategy-Fits-All Approach
Let’s say you’re using all the power of social media to your advantage – you’re advertising everywhere, isn’t that enough? Well, no.
Hate to break it to you, but using the exact same content and marketing strategies across different social media is a big no-no. Now, that’s not to say you need to completely change and adjust your brand to increase sales using these platforms.
What you do need to do is optimise your content strategy per platform, and take advantage of their differences! Then you’ll be truly harnessing their power.
To sum up, it’s important to understand the reasons behind your Ecommerce sales site struggles. Once that’s been analyzed, solutions are not far away. Whether it’s investing in more appropriate messaging marketing campaigns or optimization of your website – selling products is just a little effort away.
Armed with the knowledge of potential challenges and how to overcome them, there’s nothing left but to wish you good luck! Happy sales!
