3 Common eCommerce Mistakes

With eCommerce, businesses enjoy opportunities to earn revenue 24/7. Web users hundreds of miles away can find out about your products and become loyal customers. But in many cases, this isn’t what happens when companies set up their online stores. Several businesses fall victim to poor strategizing or insufficient eCommerce software, resulting in a web store that fails to attract business and, as a result, wastes their investment and even tarnishes their brand’s reputation. In this post, we lay out the common failures that too many businesses experience when they build their online stores and explain how you can avoid these missteps and achieve eCommerce success.

Poor Images and Descriptions

It might not sound like a big deal, but a grainy image or an incomplete description will definitely result in fewer sales. Shoppers can’t hold the item in their hands or witness it in person. That means they rely heavily on photos and descriptions to understand what the product is. Pictures should always be high quality and depict the product from different angles. Don’t forget to add relevant ALT text so your products appear in image searches. You can even go the extra mile and show a video of the product in action. When it comes to descriptions, keep it short, but don’t be too generic. Offer all the necessary details in a clear, enticing way—treat it as a mini sales pitch. With Magento eCommerce, users can use drag-and-drop content management tools to easily create product descriptions and include attractive images and videos that grab shoppers’ attentions.

Slow Load Times

Humans aren’t a patient species. Most of us won’t wait more than a few seconds for a web page to load. That means your online store has some pretty high standards to live up to. How can a non-tech person create a website with quick load times? Fortunately, some standards for optimized web speed are easy to implement and test. One simple solution is to limit the use of images and other rich content. I know, that sounds contradictory to my previous point about product images. Yes, you should include images and maybe even videos, but too many will drastically slow down your site. In addition, be sure to compress images to speed up web pages. You also want to use as little JavaScript content as possible.

Unsure if your page is too slow? Google’s PageSpeed Insights rates the page speed and offers suggestions for changes that can improve the load time. Choosing a fast eCommerce platform will also help you in achieving quick load times. Manufacturers have enjoyed faster load times with Magento eCommerce, and the software continues to improve its speed and performance with each upgrade.

Inaccurate Data

Have you ever made an online purchase only to find out later that the item was sold out? Or did your purchase fail to make it to your doorstep, somehow ending up at another home? These frustrating errors occur when eCommerce systems aren’t connected to ERP. Magento eCommerce can streamline the creation and maintenance of web stores, and robust ERP systems such as Epicor can streamline manufacturing and distribution processes. But when these two systems are working separately, your business still incurs some risks and inefficiencies.  Multiple systems require multiple data entries, slowing down operations and putting your business at risk of using inaccurate data.

With an enterprise software integration, the problem is solved. Data is all in one connected system, eradicating dual data entries and enabling automatic updates. When a product is out of stock, that information from Epicor is used to automatically update the eCommerce site. Once a purchase is made online, your ERP software has the shipping information to ensure an accurate delivery. An integration between Magento and Epicor serves as the optimal solution for reliable customer service, correct data and efficient operations.

Wrap Up

Just about everyone can set up a web store, but not everyone can maintain it and earn steady revenue. Magento eCommerce has all the tools you need for a successful online store. Once you set up your comprehensive eCommerce strategy and your Magento platform, your online store is open for business.

But remember, you can protect your data and serve customers even better by integrating Magento with Epicor ERP. In addition to being a Magento expert, Datix is an Epicor Platinum Partner, making us the premier Epicor ERP consultants. With Unity, our pre-built integration solution, mid-market manufacturers and distributors can tear down departmental silos and enhance productivity by connecting Epicor and Magento into a single source of truth.

Don’t take on building a web store alone. Reach out to Datix, your one-stop shop for enterprise software solutions!

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