Retailers are loosing millions of dollars each year due to website inefficiencies. An inefficient website can cause a company to waste marketing budgets, loose customers, and experience a hard time with customer acquisition. Here are the main 5 reasons retail websites loose sales.
Of course, when we discuss retail websites we mean e-commerce websites. E-commerce websites have to be designed and developed in a certain way to achieve results. Website design is a critical aspect as well as technology applications integrated. There are common reasons why websites often fail to produce sales. Below are the main 5 that tend to be common with start-ups and existing retail websites.
1. Site Functionality
Consumers really dislike poor and/or missing website and page functionality. Hard to find necessary functions are the fastest way to loose a potential customer online. Retail customers expect to see pricing, reviews, incentives, and standard shopping cart features in key areas across the site. A customer should not have to look for any feature while visiting the website.
2. Product Content
Product content is considered anything from product descriptions as text, to images and video. There should be plenty of product content for the website visitors and shoppers. These days, video product introductions are common and becoming the norm in online retail. Plenty of product images should be provided as well.
3. Customer Incentives
Retail websites that lack sales often lack incentives. Incentives should be not just offered, but also properly published and displayed. They should be frequently changed. Make them exciting, worth it, and easy to get. Consumers go online to get deals. Make it easy to find these incentives.
4. Website Loading Speed
Slow loading pages and websites loose. They loose visitors and potential customers. Slow loading websites also perform worse with search engines and rankings. Most importantly, it does not help a brand increase sales. It does not support marketing efforts and therefore it should be corrected.
5. Store Checkout Process
This is the most sensitive area of a retail website. The customer wants a safe environment to conduct the transaction. The store checkout process should be simple, short, secure, and easy to understand. All relevant details should be clearly displayed. Customer service details should be easy to see during the checkout.
