Last Updated on May 30, 2019 by Numinix Developer
Launching a new eCommerce business can feel similar to pushing a 100 lb. boulder uphill. It is often met with resistance and necessitates more effort than most businesses expect. If businesses can last, they beat the odds, but if they get swallowed up, they become the latest statistic of failure and defeat.
If you can comprehend and recognize the biggest hurdles you will face when launching your business, you will be in a greater position to beat the odds and build a successful business online.
1. Unrealistic Expectations
When new eCommerce businesses launch, the owners are excited and ready to make money. Most have heard about the vast opportunities available on the internet and how they can reach millions of people, more than they ever could in their local towns and cities. What they are not told is the complexity of the road they are required to walk in order to get there. Unrealistic expectations force new website owners to expect profits immediately.
The truth: While immediate profits are not completely impossible, most new internet businesses need time and space to breathe, learn and carve their niche on the internet.
2. Impatience
Unrealistic expectations also breeds impatience. You expect one result and you get another, hence the impatience escalates and the frustration expands. At this stage, you may be asking yourself, “How come I’m not making more?” and “Why do so many people say that making money on the internet is easy?”
First, it’s not easy to start a business from scratch and make massive profits. It takes time to brand a new business, and target and reach an audience with your goods and services. Second, you will face a learning curve as it relates to the internet and your audience. This process is ongoing, but it will be more intense in the beginning. Though initially it will feel like you are going nowhere, in actuality you are engaging in an important learning process, one that will facilitate your long term success.
3. Sales Driven instead of Customer Driven
New business owners are often so focused on making sales that they often forget about the people to whom they are selling. Your customers are the lifeblood of your business and they should constitute your main focus.
What are your customers’ desires? How can you provide high value to them? How can you solve their pain points and meet their most pressing needs?
You must know the answers to these questions if you want to experience success. Your profits are located in the hands of your customers, not in SEO strategies, marketing gimmicks and the latest internet trends. These strategies are essential, but they should not take the place of providing your customers with the highest value products and services.
4. More Effort Now, More Profits Later
One of the most important principles you must understand when building an eCommerce business online is that 80% of the work is required upfront to build a sustainable profit machine. If you can hold out until you start seeing results, the labor, though still intense, will start to feel easier and more enjoyable because you will finally experience the rewards. More time and effort now, greater profits and less work later.