10 Reasons Why People Are Turning Away From Your Online Store

With the existence of platforms like Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce, putting up an online store has never been easier. Add it up with the increasing number of vlogs and web articles that discuss the matter, almost anyone with the right amount of capital can become an online merchant in just a few clicks.

Building a store in Cyberspace is now very easy, but owning an online store that really sells? That’s another story… one’s that’s in fact, a hard objective to attain.

According to an article in etailinsights.com, there are around 7.1 million web retailers all over the world today, which indicates that the number of online store owners is very close to that figure.

If online stores are that plentiful on the Internet, what guarantee can you have that the products you sell online will gain attention?

If you happen to be one of those who think that your online store could get more popularity but doesn’t, here are 10 possible reasons why is that so.

1. You have no online customer-service portal

Buyers will always have the desire to make the most out of their investment’s worth, no matter how big or small they may be. And since inquiring about what they will be getting if they choose to purchase something from your store is something that can’t be avoided, it would be good to establish an online portal where customers can huddle with you in the speediest manner possible.

This calls for the existence of a certain portion of your website where they can drop messages, that you, or your technical staff could easily respond to – this would be a really cool method. Making an extra page for that would just be very easy, it would take only a few minutes to come up with such an inclusion. The tricky part is putting up a certain person that can cater to customer inquiries or questions in real-time, if possible.

Another innovative way of establishing your customer-service portal is just by making a social media page for your online store. Facebook or LinkedIn would be the most ideal choices for this. By putting up an online social area where your buyers can connect to you easily, they would have the impression that you are very approachable, and will always be within reach should something go wrong with the products they’re purchasing.

It would be some kind of additional expense on your part, but one that can surely add some attraction to your store. The bravest merchants are often the most successful. And if you put a face to your online store that answers customers’ problems upfront and in a very quick manner, you will surely have an edge over your competitors.

2. You’re not presenting your store as a publication.

Many real-world businesses publish a magazine or article journal about themselves on a regular basis. Some do it monthly, while others do it annually. Publishing reading materials is one of the most effective, proven strategies in existence. If many businessmen attain high levels of success with this method, then you should highly consider doing it too.

Yes, making a magazine or newsletter about your business is a costly undertaking. But you have a cheaper alternative that can fulfill a more desirable outcome – making a website or blog about your business.

Indeed, it’s hard to convince people to go to a bookstore and grab a copy of your publication, but it’s a lot easier to offer them a link to a reading material that speaks about your business on their social media accounts and emails.

By so doing, it’s like you’re asking them to bring along your digital magazine along with their cellphones and tablets since they carry such devices wherever they go. They may read it in their cars, in their offices, and virtually, wherever they are.

If your clients can read or see some interesting information on your website, you can then unleash your innate selling techniques so you can persuade them into buying your products.

3. You’re not providing interesting content.

If you agree that publishing about your business is an effective strategy, then you have to agree as well that mere content is not enough, you have to provide information that can poke into your clients’ interests.

You may say this, “Why can’t I just put eye-catching layout and menus in my online store pages? I’ll just put an awesome theme for my products with the corresponding prices, and a buy button and that’s it! Good idea, right?”

Bad idea. A gazillion of online store owners are doing exactly that, and it’s exactly the reason why most of them fail and go bankrupt before they even know it.

This is how a typical online store looks like. I’m not saying the one who owns this isn’t making money at all. But if your store looks just like this, you will not get the most out of your potential clients. You have to do better!

To attract more buyers, you really must provide content that’s worth checking out. But what kind of content? What can you put on your website that can drive people into browsing through your store and buying your products? These next elements might be the answer.

4. You’re not emphasizing the importance of your product.

Why should the customers buy your merchandise? What can your products do to make their lives better? How can it solve their most difficult problems? These are the questions that your store has to answer. If you can present your items in a manner that provides quick and easy solutions to these questions, your potential customers will have lesser second thoughts on buying whatever it is that you sell.

Another vital element you have to include is the “price vs. quality” aspect of your items. Of course, buyers always look for the durability and longevity of a product, but there are also those who opt to look only for affordability. Even if a product is not as durable as the top-class ones, clients will still be interested as long as its usability is just worth it for a small price.

If you have items that are not known for their quality, you can just emphasize the product’s worth relative to its low price. You can still convince your buyers to make the purchase in this manner.

5. You’re not including product trivia.

On some occasions, some customers will just frown upon your products and curve their lips in an undesirable manner as they browse through your products. To diminish this likelihood, embed something that can make them delve into your items in a deeper way. What is it that you can embed? Trivia. Yes, mind-boggling, nerve-wracking, head-turning trivia!

Okay, trivia doesn’t have to be mind-boggling at all times, although if you can make it as such, why not?

This is a much better product presentation. Aside from the item being presented in varying angles, a catchy description is also included. But you can still do better than this!

For instance, if you are selling clothes or any wearable item, you may consider putting information as to where that kind of dress originated from, who are the famous celebrities who are known to always wear it, or what famous company also sells that clothing style. This can surely ignite your clients’ interests.

6. You’re not putting catchy, high-resolution media.

Although I mentioned the failures of most online stores that just focus on fine visuals, it’s not meant to imply that visuals are not vital to your web business’s success. Nobody wants to purchase something if he or she can’t see the physical appearance of the product clearly. To address this, you have to acknowledge the importance of putting high-resolution pictures or videos on your website.

A picture of a nice hat or shoes would be good, that’s why many online merchants are doing that. But you can do better, you can ask for someone to wear that hat or shoes and take a picture or a video of that person, and upload it to your website.

Of course, this is an additional expense on your part. The best way to achieve this is to tap into a modeling agency and hire their models to pose as endorsers of your products. But you do have some good-looking friends right? Why not ask them to pose for your products instead?

As your business grows, you may then hire professional models or kickstart the modeling careers of your chosen friends. But why should you choose only your good-looking pals? Some of you readers might dislike this idea, but good-looking people sell products faster, this is a proven strategy.

In car shows, or car magazine publications, I’m pretty certain that you have seen women on swimsuits sitting on the hoods of the showcased cars. Are these sultry women sold alongside those cars? Of course not. But they are embellishments that drag in more sales. This truth can’t be disputed, so let’s stop arguing that the good looks of people are something that’s unnecessary for making effective marketing strategies.

So to make your products more attractive, put some attention-grabbing photos or videos on your online store, they are elements that will be hard to ignore.

7. You’re not establishing the client as the main character.

Businessmen, especially those that belong to the “not-so-successful” category love to brag about the success of their business. They believe that by letting people know about how fast they attained the high levels of their income, they can attract more customers. This might be a good thing to talk about when facing other businessmen but in the face of your plain customers? I suggest that you avoid using it as a marketing strategy.

Why? Because clients are only interested in your product, and in your quality service alone. Once you start talking to them about how successful you are, and your goals in bringing in more money to your company, you will start to repel them away from you. Trust me, many successful merchants are with me on this.

So in connection to providing interesting content for your website, you have to think of your article posts as some sort of a novel… with the client as the central character. Speak it in a manner that’s about your buyers, not about you.

Otherwise, your clients might begin to think that you are this egotistical entrepreneur who only aims to grab a great portion of their financial resources.

Avoid such a scenario, make your client the star of the story, not yourself because after all, you are already a star in the business community. And if you keep doing justifiable business practices in increasing measures, you will soon be a superstar within the business arena,

8. Your store is not easy to navigate.

Whenever you go to a mall or any grocery, I’m sure you wonder why some products are not arranged the way you expect them to be. Oftentimes, you get frustrated as to why certain food products are not placed on other food items that you think should be situated next to a certain consumable category.

Why do stores do that? Because they are employing a marketing strategy that can make you buy more than what your shopping list indicates. There is a special kind of science behind this, so stop complaining about your frustration or disappointment.

Okay, you may complain. It’s your right. It has to be one of your privileges as a customer, right?

Thankfully for online shoppers, they don’t have to walk through long aisles just to find the products that they want to buy. All they need to execute are some clicks and scrolls.

As an online store owner, you have to exploit this fact. You have to wisely and smartly lay out the pictures of your products in such a manner that your site visitors will subconsciously view your other products as well. The more products they will browse through, the better.

This requires greater time for more research and conceptualizing. But since making the most out of your product sales is your objective, then you should not think too much of how tiring such a process would be.

9. You don’t strategically market your store on social media.

Lastly, to make your online store highly marketable, clients have to know that your store exists. We have search engines to lead them in the direction of your store. Sadly though, getting your site indexed by Google or Yahoo so it may appear on the first list of search results is very difficult especially if your website is very new.

The solution to this is to utilize social media marketing. You can build a Facebook or LinkedIn page for your business and tell your friends and followers about your online store’s presence. By giving links to your latest article posts from your website or blog, people from your social network will be automatically notified thereby, boosting your sales.

Since people stay longer on Facebook pages longer than they do on search engines, you can surely connect to potential clients on a deeper and more personal level.

10. You don’t give promos or giveaways.

This is an attraction that nobody can ignore. And if you don’t do this, at least occasionally, or once every few months, the chances of your store growing in patronage would be very slim. Some greedy businessmen hate this idea because they think it would hurt their income. But you as a wise online seller must not fall into that trap. Ask a few successful store owners and you will surely have the recommendation that giving free stuff from time to time would be truly beneficial to any type of business.

Facilitating activities that can give rewards and benefits to the customers is one of the strongest advertising methods ever. And if you are a smart entrepreneur, you should put it into high consideration that there should be an event in your online store in which customers will be handed over with stuff that they can enjoy.

What kind of products would be ideal for this? If you have become profitable as an online seller already, handheld gadgets would be the best things to hand over. If that’s too costly for you, some low-cost accessories would do just fine like earphones, cellphone covers, USB flash drives, or keychains.

Even in the earliest stages of planning your online store, you should already have plans for giving free stuff – it is one of the reasons why so many online stores are succeeding, and why an even greater number of them are failing.

The purpose of this article is to give a motivational post, one that I think can greatly encourage you on how to truly succeed as an online entrepreneur.

If you’re interested in making an online store within your Facebook account, read this.

Wishing you all the luck in your online-selling endeavors!

Before you leave, can you please share this with your friends?