Is your Ecommerce site not selling?
If your Ecommerce site isn't selling, or converting well, you've come to the right place.
In this guide, you'll learn the 13 most important reasons why your Ecommerce site is not selling.
We'll also teach you how to fix your Ecommerce site so it starts converting.
Keep reading.
1. You’re not getting any (or enough) traffic
An e-commerce business will only be as strong as its optimization. Without it, the traffic that you wish to see flowing to your site simply won't be there.
There are a lot of reasons why this could happen. But the biggest contributor is a lack of attention to detail.
The problems tend to persist more in people that are unfamiliar with the way e-commerce works.
Although it might appear to be a simple process on its surface, this business can get quite complicated and necessitate lots of discipline, working hours, and the right amount of funds before payoff is seen.
How to fix:
To get traffic to your site, you'll first want to ensure that it's compatible with browsers that people use on smartphones.
The majority of e-commerce sales are done through the use of mobile applications, so your website should reflect that. You can try widgets built specifically for web and mobile-compatible browsers.
Depending on how you're running the site itself and whether or not you're using a third party to create the page, it might take a basic understanding of HTML, but nothing that a beginner wouldn't be able to handle.
Check to see if your site loads fast on mobile and computer. Nothing drives away traffic more than a website that takes too long to load.
If you have a fast connection and are noticing that your page takes longer than ten seconds to load, you may need to cut back on the amount of HTML, CSS, and Javascript that's running on it.
Posting too many videos can make this occur, or photos with a high resolution.
2. You’re not getting the right traffic
Traffic is one thing, but having the right kind of traffic is another crucial part of e-commerce. If the people that are going to your website are there just for browsing purposes, sales will be few and far between.
Conversions happen with people that are looking for what you're selling. But to reach them, businesses often must seek them out, not the other way around.
You must know your customers and have a good understanding of their needs and what kinds of things that'll keep people looking into what you're selling.
Once you've mastered this, you'll have bypassed a majority of the difficulties associated with e-commerce.
How to fix:
First, you should know the background of the kind of people you want to reach. What are their age ranges, hobbies, and related interests?
To find out, you can check online and find studies that have already been conducted on the things that you sell.
However, you could also do this yourself with people visiting your site, even if they aren't interested in buying products at the moment. Surveys are also of use, though you shouldn't rely on them too heavily until you've built up the site a bit.
Another major thing you should do is use keywords on the products you sell, your landing pages, and anywhere you run ads.
Keywords are words associated with different goods and are indexed by major platforms. They allow for greater exposure to an e-commerce business' target audience.
It's suggested that you check with sellers of goods on other websites when doing this. Implement keywords in places where they're likely to be scanned, adding more according to new products you add or related events taking place about the niche on the news.
3. Your landing page isn’t converting
Just as not all traffic will be the kind that you want, not all people interested in your niche will help you gain sales.
Conversions come from people that are actively engaged in your site to buy something, shoppers that feel your domain has enough features to keep them checking back for updates to something else they may want.
These people have trust in the places they shop. If it's not there, that's usually due to a lack of communication and interaction from other people that have used your services before.
How to fix:
Customers tend to gravitate to websites that have been reviewed. Not just from any reviewer, but someone familiar with the product and can verify that it's been used.
Today's consumers are savvier than ever before and can spot a fake review a mile away.
You'll need to build a list of reviewers through each sale that you make, especially if you're just starting up the site.
To do this, encourage people that do buy from you to leave a review, incentivizing them with discounts for other goods.
This isn't something you must do with everyone that writes something about what you're selling. But the more people you have to show others about what you're carrying, the better future conversions will be.
4. Your checkout process is complicated
The last time that you bought something online, was there anything about checkout that you felt could've been done better?
With e-commerce, it's the little annoyances that can kill your conversion rates, even when someone is looking to buy from you.
A customer might feel frustrated with your checkout process to the point where they give up and look for the product somewhere else.
Having a poor layout of the page you use for checkout and confusing instructions for completing a transaction are common mistakes made by e-commerce businesses. Here's how you can avoid this issue.
How to fix:
- Reduce the number of actions required to check out - When a customer places an item in the shopping basket, they don't want to be hit with a million directions after doing so. All they want to do is find the checkout button, ensure that what they're getting is the correct type, and little else. You could add some additional items on the checkout screen that you think accentuate what they're buying, but not in a way that slows down their checkout time.
- Allow for checkout with no sign-in - You've probably come across this issue before, a website mandating that you sign up to complete checkout. While this is sometimes done by companies to send out emails in the hopes of building repeat customers, it's also an inconvenience to others. Consider making signup an optional choice for people. Anything that slows down the nuisances of making a purchase online can do wonders for raising the number of your daily conversions.
5. It isn’t easy to navigate around your site
Too many clustered tabs or even too few tabs where a customer would expect them to be may cause disinterest in your e-commerce business.
Navigational menus are where your customers find what they're looking for. If these are placed in a spot that's hard for them to find, they won't get to items they wish to buy.
Companies spend large sums of money trying to figure out how their website layout will appear. Presentation is everything, so your business' page can boost or deter browsers away from it by having redundant buttons and confusing tabs unrelated to what they want.
Think of it as cleaning a desk or even the digital desktop on your computer. The nearer it is, the easier it will be for you to find things. Too much clutter will annoy but not having major tabs directly in front leads to impatience.
How to fix:
To streamline your e-commerce website's navigation menus, you want to take the opposite approach of "Where's Waldo." Don't clutter up your tabs but present them in one area.
The very top of the page below your header is a good spot. You can give hot-button items their own clickable link and add subcategories in drop-down menus. Place some menus at the bottom, though not in abundance.
It might help you to find examples of a navigational layout from the influence of other websites. Try to make it flow in a palatable manner. Ideally, you should structure it based on places your customers are likely to have shopped at before.
6. You’re not assisting potential customers
Your potential customers visit your ecommerce site, but how do you get them to convert into paying customers?
How to fix:
By proactively assisting them with a personalized customer experience.
With ServiceBell, you can proactively assist website visitors with the help of on-demand live video chat and screen takeover.
You can also use ServiceBell to better understand how your customers found your website.
The results of proactively calling potential customers on your website using ServiceBell?
- Higher conversions
- More trust between your customers and your brand
- More revenue
- A personalized experience customers won't forget
The best part? ServiceBell easily integrates into your existing website with a few lines of code. Sign up for a free trial today, and start selling more on your ecommerce site.
7. Slow shipping and delivery times
Once someone has made a purchase, don't forget that it isn't finalized until after it arrives at their door. In between this period is the shipping time.
Customers without a clear understanding of the shipping times may become impatient, which could affect your future conversions and lower interest in the purchase of more products.
As anyone would want, getting items delivered to you quickly is a plus. But too few delivery choices mean that the impatient may look elsewhere for shopping, even if it involves them paying a bit more.
How to fix:
The solution for this is simple, allow as many shipping options for your customers as you can. The easiest is standard shipping.
Give an accurate listing as to how long they should expect to wait for the package to arrive. It's better if you extend it a bit to compensate for delays.
For paid shipping, inform them that additional costs are part of the service, but items will make it to their residence sooner.
And for expedited shipping, a discount on top of it would appeal to shoppers that hate waiting. If your e-commerce store is fully independent, you could even make a subscription-based service that eliminates expedited shipping costs.
8. Product is saturated
A saturated product is something that is so widely available to the consumer, that the demand for it lowers. In a broad sense, products on the verge of becoming obsolete are typically oversaturated.
With e-commerce, the easiest way to tell if something is over-saturated is through an evaluation of ads being run.
If views are high for a product but comparatively low in sales on your website, too many listings of it from multiple sellers is a possibility. Consumers would flock to wherever the product is used while never getting to your landing page.
Another way to check is through growing e-commerce websites. Others might sell the same products that you do, even if they don't belong to their primary niche.
Oversaturation might drive sales to lots of people but hinder their introduction to businesses that specialize in what's being sold.
How to fix:
To steer clear of oversaturated products, offer unique goods that others don't have in their stores. Use unique keywords, phrases related to the product but will make you stand out from the rest.
You could sell goods that aren't found on other websites. Think of the iPods as one example. Even while they're easy to find online, selling them at a good price within a certain niche is an ingenious way of ramping up conversions.
Some niches harbor customers that like to buy obsolete goods as collector's items. Basically, introduce your product to different people that want it, or sell items different from the way others are doing.
9. Copy doesn’t speak to your target audience
Website visitors love going to places that have everything they want. Shopping sites are the same.
But how do businesses find out this information from their customers if most interactions are done over a computer? The majority of e-commerce businesses have little physical interaction with people buying from them.
Bad communication will undoubtedly create gaps in conversions since shoppers and sellers aren't on the same page.
If this happens to you, you'll lack the understanding in knowing what areas of improvement could be done, what additional items you should retail, and anything else that's getting people to turn their backs on your business.
How to fix:
- Use Surveys - Surveys are the best friend of retailers looking to form a better relationship with their shoppers. They can help you to pinpoint where upgrades and changes are needed. You'll get feedback on existing merchandise and suggestions for merchandise you aren't selling, but should.
- Understand Surveys - While certainly beneficial, surveys can draw away conversions if they're used in abundance. For instance, you could implement a survey in the form of a questionnaire during checkout, immediately after, or within a month. Doing so could open them up to savings and discounts but not at a rate that would get them to lose interest in the offers. You want surveys to remain valuable, so break them down but don't rely on them too heavily.
10. Shoppers aren’t adding products to their cart
Shopping online can be an identical experience to window shipping at someone's favorite retailer. There are things they may like and are interested in purchasing later, but not right at the moment.
When shoppers come back to the site for purchase and find their items deleted from their cart, the effort it takes for them to find it again may turn them away.
An e-commerce site with carted items works best for customers when their items are saved for the next visit, even if they haven't signed up for an account.
Alternatively, your visitors may refrain from adding merch to the cart from disinterest, or nothing encouraging them to finalize the transaction.
How to fix:
- Make a call-to-action - A call-to-action motivates shoppers to finish what they're looking at by purchasing it right away. You don't want to come off as desperate when you do this, however. Call-to-actions work best when they're succinct but casual. Place buttons in areas frequented by guests, directing them to the portion of your sites that allows for faster checkout.
- Save customer's items for later - Shoppers love to come back on sites that remember what they were shopping for so that they don't have to. Use a widget that saves items they click on, including for people that haven't signed up yet.
11. Shoppers are abandoning their cart
An abandoned shopping cart is leftover by a customer that failed to complete a purchase. In many cases, they may wish to return to the site but cannot remember the name of it, or have forgotten about the items initially placed in the cart.
Without the right know-how to get in touch with these shoppers, you'll build up clicks to the sites, but lose big on conversions.
Research customer surveys, and you'll find that shoppers tend to look at websites and leave items inside the digital cart all the time. What ways are there to get them back?
How to fix:
Use widgets to contact your past shoppers. Such applications will help you to send out emails and notifications to previous visitors, reminding them of what they're leaving behind.
Incentivize this with discounts, special offers, and promotional codes that can only be used on your website.
Ask for phone numbers from customers that are signing in or checking out.
Even if they have no interest in signing in, having the phone numbers of visitors opens up the ability for you to send them notifications to their phones, which is more likely to be checked than a simple email.
The tools used to do this log customer info safely for them and send as needed, though not as spam.
12. Price or payment options are stopping shoppers from checking out
Shoppers won't buy your goods if they can find them someplace else at a lower price.
E-commerce is highly competitive, with numerous sites selling goods.
Those with great conversions usually have lots of positive feedback from visitors, great customer service, and prices that appeal to people within their niche, and some outside of it.
But even a store with all of these things, save the low costs, could be losing people that are willing to shop longer to find a certain item at a better price.
How to fix:
Take a good look at the prices you've given to your products, compare them with other e-commerce sites, and adjust them according to what you think is best.
For this to work, it's useful to put yourself into the shoes of the average consumer.
Many have no concern for loyalty to online retailers outside of the major corporations.
They're going to shop for what burns the smallest hole in their pockets. Create discounts at certain times of the day, or even within the hours where most in your niche are available online.
13. Your site doesn’t build trust with shoppers
To earn the trust of your visitors, you need great customer service and communication with them when it matters.
But that's certainly not the bulk of it. Untrustworthiness comes from bad experiences when interacting with retailers in the past, suspicious reviews, or lack thereof, and even bad presentation of your website.
Sites with an old appearance could be mistaken as dangerous to shoppers.
How to fix:
Use your customer's contact information to your advantage. Send them emails informing them of shopping tips and suggestions.
Place a logo on your sites, one professionally done or created by yourself. Use information graphics in your posts that appear up-to-date.
Don't limit yourself to just one method for them to contact you.
Instead, add email, phone, or even a chatbot to help them get answers to questions at any time. These are provable ways for customers to trust your business.
It'll also let them know that you care about keeping up with the latest retail trends online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why isn’t my dropshipping store making sales?
Be sure to budget out the funds that you're spending in ads and elsewhere.
Allocate enough funds to ads, and use them wisely. If paying for a service-based e-commerce website such as Shopify, be sure to find widgets that are useful but will keep you from going over the budget.
The more you have for marketing, the better your turnout from customers will be.
How can I increase my e-commerce sales?
Understand what your customers want, and provide it for them. Offer lowered prices than your competition. Limit most goods to your niche, and sell them in styles, colors, and appearances that are different from what's commonly found.
Here's a quick look into ways for you to get successful sales from your customers:
- Come to your customers, not the other way around - Shoppers must be led to your business. They're not going to visit it on their own. Always keep this mindset, even if making lots of sales.
- Expand your products selection - Don't limit yourself to one item in your inventory. Expand your website as it grows, showcasing goods that are trendy or related to certain trends. For instance, if selling accessories for electronics, look into smartphone sleeves when Samsung or Apple comes out with a new edition to the Galaxy or iPhone.
- Keep the site clean and organized - Don't add too much or too little to your website. This goes for navigation menus, products within a niche, and listed reviews from other customers.
Why is no one buying from my Shopify store?
Your chances of failure on Shopify are reduced when understanding the website and how to get conversions from it. Analytics is a great way to find out who your niche appeals to, when they're online, and items they're most likely to buy.
Use widgets within the Shopify site to do this but also obtain data from Facebook's Pixel and Google Analytics. They'll both allow you to build the site around convertible merchandise.
How do I get more sales on Shopify?
For Shopify, you should have these 3 things set up:
- A landing page designed to convert - This is crucial to getting clicks from your ads to visit your website. Let it stand out and showcase some of the goods that customers can find there.
- Add layers of trust - Let your customers come to a site that's modern and easy to navigate through. Use logos and get customer feedback from verified buyers. Let other shoppers see their reviews.
- Use advertising on Facebook - Facebook is useful for finding out where the flow of your potential web traffic can come from. There's Analytics and Pixel, powerful data-learning tools to help you narrow down when to spend funds on ads and the best times to run them.