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The 5 Most Common Ecommerce Website Mistakes

Last Updated on Dec 3, 2012 by Jenna Scaglione

What is it about your Ecommerce site that sends your customers running? Why are your conversion rates so low?

Until you change and test elements on your site, you will never know why your conversions are low. But, if you want a place to start, consider taking a look at these five common Ecommerce mistakes. You may find yourself committing at least one of these crimes.

1. No Guest Checkout

Customers will leave the checkout process if they do not want to enter a password to save their information in an account. Some people do not understand cart security and they want to keep a low profile. Forcing them to open an account can intimidate them enough to leave.

2. High Shipping Fees

It’s not uncommon for Ecommerce stores to hike their shipping costs to keep their prices competitive.

While you may snag a few unsuspecting customers, the majority are too intelligent for this tactic. And the customers you retain because of competitive prices will never outweigh those you lose as a result of high shipping costs. As a general rule, do not charge more than 5-10% of the product price as a shipping fee.

3. Slow Website

Every second your site takes to load, your abandonment rate rises. Internet users are impatient, and they will not wait around for a slow loading website, especially if there are a hundreds of your competitors waiting for them in the search results. Lighten your website load by removing some “changing content” as well as third party plugins that may be slowing your site down.

4. Billing and Shipping Address Isolation

Most customers’ ship-to and bill-to address are identical. Yet, I still see some Ecommerce stores requiring customers to type the address twice.

Once a customer enters the address, add a checkbox that allows the customer to specify that the addresses are the same. The checkbox autofills the second address field with the first address. This feature is common but not implemented in enough stores. A long checkout process equates to more frustration which results in lower conversions.

5. Your Site is Too Complicated

If customers have to expend their energy because of a poor user experience instead of using their time to purchase a product, they will not feel motivated to purchase.

Your customers do not know your site like you do. They haven’t invested the same time into it, and as a result they may not have the same experience you do.

Ensure your checkout process is easy and without errors. If you are unsure about the complexity of your website, install eye-tracking capability and perform some user testing. The results you acquire from this testing could prove invaluable to your store.

The above errors are five of the most common for Ecommerce stores, but they only scratch the surface. When examining your conversions, think also about browser incompatibility, irrelevant offers, and mismatched audience targeting when assessing potential problems with your website.

And if you have any other tips you can share with our readers, please do so in the comments below!

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