Creating your very own business is an exciting new venture. Most new business owners won’t have any experience in running a company. You may have a little bit of experience in web development or sales. You might know a thing or two about marketing, in fact. Chances are you’ve never combined all of the skills needed to run a successful e-commerce company. So, when your business begins to fail it can be difficult to understand why. If you’re not seeing as many sales as you had hoped then it could be down to one of these things.
- You’re not selling what people want
It’s a harsh reality, unfortunately. Sometimes, you’re just not selling a product or service that people want. It happens to the best of us! How do you know if this is the case, however? You need to be conducting market research on an almost constant basis. Before you start the company, after you’ve launched, and throughout your businesses life. This is the only way you’ll find out if there’s a real demand for what you’re offering. You can ask for opinions from independent surveys. Never ask your friends and family, they’ll be too polite. You can also look at what the competition is doing. If they’re selling the same product, then what are they doing differently? If people don’t want what you have to offer then you can either keep pushing and hope they change their minds. Or, it’s time to throw in the towel.
- You’re not on social media
If you’re not on social media, then you’re missing a tremendous untapped resource. One that’s filled with lots and lots of potential customers. There are billions of people who use their social networking accounts on a daily basis. How many of those people do you think could potentially want to buy from you? If you’ve worked out your target audience, then you should have a good idea of which social networks to use. From Pinterest to Facebook. Look at the demographics for each one. Where is your target market spending most of their time? That’s the social network you want to concentrate on.
- You can’t be found on Google
This isn’t something that is going to happen overnight. Building up a presence on Google takes a lot of time and effort. It’s all worth it in the end, however. Look at the number of people searching for your product or service. You can do this via Google AdWords. Now imagine if you could sell to even just a percentage of those people. Being found on Google is a must! There are several ways you can do this. Hiring a Google shopping agency is a good idea for e-commerce businesses. This means that your products can show up in the shopping tab of Google search. With very little effort on your part! Alternatively, look into search engine optimisation tactics. These will help you move up the rankings naturally.
Three things may seem like nothing in the grand scheme of things. However, these three reasons are all extremely important. If you tick any of these boxes, then your e-commerce business could easily become a failure. Put some of these tips into good use and see the sales rise.