Have you ever thought about what customers love so much about Amazon or eBay? What elements on these eCommerce web stores inspire trust and encourage customers to shop? Unfortunately, many online businesses don’t spend enough time analyzing these platforms to discover the secret of their success. As a result, they make mistakes because of which customers hate using these eCommerce websites. Here are five common mistakes that customers hate about online shops, and you’d better avoid them.
1. Poor Aesthetics
If you tell online merchants that website design matters, some may answer that convenience comes first. It’s a wrong mindset. Yes, ease of navigation affects customer experience, but you won’t have any visitors if your website looks outdated.
Poorly designed eCommerce stores don’t inspire trust. They seem shady and scammy. If people think that your website isn’t reliable, they won’t enter their personal or credit card information. No trust – no shopping; it’s as easy as that. Hence, don’t save on your web store’s graphic design. It’s one of the essential factors influencing the shoppers’ decisions to buy. How to have an attractive design? You should hire professionals. If your web store is built on Magento, for example, hire a ecommerce development company to help you.
2. Terrible Customer Service
Having an extensive and rich FAQ section is amazing. However, when buyers face issues, particularly with payment, shipping, or product return, they want immediate help. Some online shops have contact forms; others provide email addresses and phone numbers to reach out. But most frequently, people want to get assistance via live chat and get disappointed if they aren’t supported immediately. For example, if someone has added products to his cart and cannot check out, he’ll abandon it and never return if no one helps to pay successfully. Hence, always make sure to provide different channels for reaching out to your customer support department.
3. No Search Functionality
Customers hate eCommerce stores without search functionality. Why? How many items do you present on your website? Hundreds? Thousands? By not providing a search option, you force potential buyers to spend a lot of time browsing through products until they find what they search for. Customers aren’t this patient. They know what they need and want to find it quickly without leafing through dozens of pages. If they feel like finding items of their interest on your website is difficult, they’ll abandon your eCommerce store and never come back. If your online shop is created on the Magento eCommerce platform, hire Magento developer to add this functionality to your website.
4. Required Login and Complicated Signup Process
Statistics show that 20% of potential customers abandon their carts because they are asked to create an account in the checkout. People, especially those that shop rarely, don’t like to create accounts. Usually, they are one-time buyers and seldom come back. These people want to buy the product of their interest without signing up. They want to provide their personal and credit card information and buy as a guest.
On the other hand, most customers don’t mind creating personal accounts on eCommerce websites. However, some of them hate going through forced, complicated registration procedures. Hence, make sure that the signup process of your web store is easy. You can also consider providing sign-in options via Facebook or Google accounts.
5. Grammar Mistakes and Typos
Another thing that may affect your online store’s reputation and drive people away is grammar mistakes and typographical errors. Poor spelling and grammar don’t inspire trust. On the contrary, they are indicators of poor service for people, which they would rather avoid. Hence, always double and even triple-check your content’s spelling and grammar.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, your eCommerce website’s quality plays an important role in your online business’s success. It should be aesthetically pleasing and include several must-have functions like search. Second, your product descriptions must be grammatically correct to inspire trust in buyers. And finally, provide shoppers with easy options to create accounts and contact the support team when required.
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