The failure of startup e-stores has become common. As with the general trend taken by investors has committed some mistakes and faced some obstacles through digital marketing and e-stores, and even they make a wrong decisions in their beginnings. Every 10 sites, 8 sites fail to complete the path.

There are many reasons, as well as there are common points in projects that could not be completed, despite the strong vision and good knowledge of the market.

In this article, we will learn about the most important reasons for the failure of startup websites, and present some tips to help new website builders to success their websites.

1- Selling the wrong product:

One of the reasons why major e-commerce sites fail is selling a product that people do not want. Here you are in a difficult situation from the beginning of your journey in the world of e-commerce.

You must determine well before starting what products you will sell on your website, and whether the audience you are targeting is really interested in this product or not?

In this regard, take advice from “Thomas Edison” - by the way, he is not only an inventor, but he also a very successful businessman in marketing and selling his inventions - one of the inventions that he regrets inventing is the electronic voting device. What is his story?

Edison noted the time the government spent counting paper ballots. He decided to invent the vote recorder. The machine was designed to record ballots with the help of a simple switch and an electric current. Each legislator would move a switch to either a “yes” or “no” position, sending an electric current to the device at the clerk’s desk. The invention was to make the voting process easier and faster.

Although the invention worked, government refused to purchase it. Edison realized that before spending time on an invention, he should study the demand for the invention, and said a quote that is consider a lesson to all salespeople throughout the ages: ““Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

So don't exhaust yourself selling something people don't need. Find what people needs, and create a product that meets that need. If you do this well, you have succeeded. If you don't find anything, you can simply sell other people's products, or even copy their ideas and use them in the same market.

For example: The market is now full of different brands of sports shoes (Nike, Adidas and Fila), the market has room for everyone to enter the world of selling sports shoes.

2- Pricing:

Sometimes the customer has difficulty finding the right prices in the reality, (it requires the customer to wander around different stores), but shopping online is very easy, even in terms of time. It's different on the web, so be careful my friend.

Do good research on all the different competitors' websites before you setting your prices.

We have all seen websites that make millions even though they have no an attractive design, but these people succeed when they offer the best prices, as the low prices will attract customers, because the price is the most important principles that your customer thinks about.

3- Lack of a coherent marketing plan:

One of the most prominent reasons for the failure of startup online stores is that they plan not to plan! If you do not have a marketing plan and do not know where you are currently or where you are going, how will the customer know that you are here??

Some mentalities object to the principle of planning in the first place, claiming that there is no plan is completely implemented. This is true, as it either exceeds what is expected (amazing success) or lags behind what was planned (relative failure), and this is very normal, and everyone who spoke about planning - even Kotler - mentioned the importance of the element of flexibility, and the ability to modify the plan according to circumstances and challenges, developments, and other things that occur in the course of work.

Prepare your marketing map and determine the sources which you will market your products and your e-commerce website, and determine the resources and amount you will pay in the marketing campaigns. You may not find strong results from the first time, but you must consider that your project is the first step, so continue until you see the results required.

4- Lack of online search visibility: 

Your plan must be to adjust search engines, or what is known as search engine optimizations /SEO.

The main idea here is to be at the top of search results when Internet`s users search for a word related to your business. This step is one of the most important steps that will lead to increasing your sales and increasing the popularity of your website.

The owners of online store prefer to collect profits quickly, hence they resort to paid advertisements. But there are still 35% of users who use Google to search for products they want to buy. This means that not paying attention to appearing in Google search results means losing a third of your revenue.

Preparing your products for search engines begins with the descriptive content of these products, taking care of the main and sub-headlines, and expressing the product in simple terms that describe the benefits, not just the features.

To get the best results for preparing the article in search engines, make sure to add the keyword in:

Title

Description

Heading 2, 3, 4 etc.

Highlight the product`s name by put Bold/Italic/Underlined

Write the product`s name in the image`s description and alternative text.

This is considered one of the basics of the internal configuration of the On-Page SEO product, and the search engine optimization manager will undertake the rest of the task by doing the external configuration for it Off-Page SEO.

5- Design of your online store:

The design of your website, the consistency of the chosen colors, and everything in its correct place make the visitor comfortable, which will distinguish your website and make the visitor spend more time browsing your online store.

You should factor in visual attraction when it comes to designing an online store and follow the 15-second rule, which states that you only have a quarter of a minute to attract a visitor's attention on your website. If those seconds pass without feeling any connection to your website, you will most likely lose him / her forever.

This is not only related to the issue of colors, but also to the trust that the site provides to the user. So, activate SSL on your website, and post the logos of the security certificates, such as McAfee and ISO certification.

Here there is a very important question that can greatly affect your sales levels, which is: Does your website work well on mobile? Does your online store provide a good experience for the visitors that makes them feel comfortable?

6- Bad Content:

Even the best business plan cannot always overcome a bad website.

A modern ecommerce site must be secure, functional, have great search, adapt to mobile devices, and load very quickly. Anything less is unacceptable.

What’s more, there are many excellent ecommerce platforms from which to choose. Many of these require very little technical expertise, so there really is no excuse for having a bad site.

Have you heard of the term SEO copywriting? It is the art of writing content which compatible with search engines and at the same time with the visitors. This is what can be classified as good content.

The good content on your website is what will make the visitor buying the products quickly. View all the details related to the products in an attractive way and use phrases that are easy for the visitor.

7- Poor Product Photography:

The real image of your product makes the customer trust you and gets to recognize all the actual aspects of the product, which motivates him / her to make the purchase.

The picture should be clear and expressive of the product. If the product is multi-piece, the pieces are photographed side by side and individually. If it is being used personally - such as a mobile phone headset - it is preferable that it be displayed while it is in use. If it is a book, it is preferable to have some pictures of the inside pages of the book. All these details will influence in the customer to drive him / her to buy.

These are some tips that you should follow when photographing:

Make sure all pictures are the same size.

Take pictures from different angles.

Use an attention-grabbing background.

Highlight your product.

Show the info of each product.

If the product you are promoting is difficult to use, you can film a video explaining how to use it.

8- Lack of react from visitors and customers:

Sometimes one of the big problems that leads to the failure of many e-commerce sites is the lack of reviews from previous customers and visitors. This can happen for several reasons, including their unwillingness to buy, in addition to other factors, such as:

Lack of the details about the product.

Lack of clarity on how to purchase.

9- Additional Costs:

There are simple things that the owner of an e-commerce website may consider unimportant, but they greatly and negatively affect the purchasing decision, such as:

Shipping costs: In many cases, the shipping price is close to the price of the product, which make the costumer refuse to buy your products, and gradually turns away from your site completely.

Replacement policies: 60% of customers and visitors to e-commerce sites check this policy before completing the purchase, as for various reasons, the customer may exchange or return the product. So you must develop strong and flexible policies at the same time, so that your customer has all the data and information before completing the purchase.

10- Lack customer Service:

It does not matter the size of your business or company, if there no customer service that works to answer customer questions and know what they need, you will not build a good relationship with your customers in any way, and if there is a problem with one of the products and the customer does not find a way to solve it, he / she may resort to writing and publishing what happened on social media and talking badly about you.

11- Poor organization of your e-commerce website:

You must avoid this matter, and work on designing sections of your products according to clear standards, and avoid putting all the products together without division, in order to make the visitor know browse your site easily, quickly and in a comfortable manner.

So, always try to achieve the best possible result for your e-commerce website.

12- Provide exceptional value:

Do not make the consumer look at you with a static, without any emotion. There is a hidden value behind every entity that serves society, even if it is simple.

For example, the owner of al-Baik Restaurant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ihsan Abu Ghazaleh, allocates one SR as a charity for the soul of their father - the founder of the restaurant - for every meal sold. You can see the size of the crowd at al-Baik Restaurant throughout the year.

We do not necessarily learn success from success stories. Sometimes failure plays this role more efficiently than success. Therefore, learn about the reasons of the failure of famous online stores, and avoid them in your store so that you can face any challenges.