Nobody can deny that they haven’t, at least once in their lifetime, gone to the malls or shopping complexes for window shopping and didn’t actually buy anything. I have, many times. Gone are the days when everybody used to go to the retail stores to purchase groceries or electrical appliances. Retail shops were part of everybody’s everyday life but then came internet and with that then came online shopping. In present times, every field has two modes of working, online and offline, whether education, media or Food industry. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic kids classes going online and people ordering food online proves the immense prevalence of ‘Online thing’. Another field that has gone online in the last decade is shopping. Yes, you have definitely heard about online shopping and must have ordered something online. This article will be about the factors that can hurt your e-commerce website.

E-Commerce website

Amazon, Flipkart or Myntra, there are many more e-commerce giants existing today. This has become a really competitive field with more and more online shopping platforms coming onboard. They are of different kinds. For instance, for fashion apparels like Myntra, for food like Zomato or some ‘we got it all’ too like Amazon which has plethora of different categories.

So it’s necessary to make sure that your website stays on top and more and more people keep buying things. If you are eager to know the factors that can hurt your e-commerce website, bear with me. I am going to make you aware about some factors that can hurt your e-commerce website

Factors that can hurt your e-commerce website

# Bad User Experience

One thing that can hurt any website, not just e-commerce, is the bad user’s experience of the website. If the website is too complex, too hard to understand and navigate. The user will leave the website instantly without ordering anything. Make sure that the website is simple and easy to navigate. Websites that have many categories should have a column or row as navigation pane which has all the categories listed sequentially so that the user can easily browse the site and get a hassle-free experience.

# Economical Pricing

One thing that I look for whenever I’m purchasing anything online is discount and the final price. Main reason why many people have turned to online shopping is the expensive pricing of branded products which many people can’t afford. Some websites actually provide really good discounts on branded products that make them affordable for those who can’t buy them from brand outlets. If the prices are not competitive with other sites then the customers will shift to the cheaper option. The most common example of this is ‘made in china’ products. They are really popular in India due to their cheaper rates. People prefer cheaper options.

# Quality of the product

It is possible that cheaper products may compromise on the quality. But now a days people want the quality of the product to be good as well besides the price of the product. Make sure that the quality of the product is fine. When this concept of online shopping was very fresh, people used to avoid it. Maybe due to quality issues they thought the it might not be good. This could be the reason why these online platforms offer discounts and sell products on low price. Quality cannot be compromised for anything, that’s the only way you can keep your customers loyal to yourself.

# Freedom to review

One thing that any customer like about offline shopping is that they can inform the seller about any discrepancy in the product or any service they provide. They can provide the feedback which is very important for improvement. So if the online platforms do not have the review section then that can backfire. Also it helps other customers to know the details of the products. They can decide whether the product is worth purchasing or not. It also creates a sense of freedom in the customers mind that they can always criticize the company for good reasons.

# Unproblematic returns

This is the facility that some of our local shops and shopping complexes doesn’t provide is easy returns or even returns at all. Some just provides exchanges but no return and no refund. As a result of which e-commerce websites got more popular. Therefore, it is such an important thing to make sure that the return policy is not problematic and complex and people can file returns and refunds easily.

# Coming Onboard Social Media

Social media where billions of people interact from around the world has become a new platform to promote their businesses. E-commerce websites can also capitalize on this vast virtual world of real people. This strategy has been used by e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart by promoting their website on social media which has proved to be a masterstroke. Social media is the best platform to spread  news about anything and to create a new trend.

Conclusion

E-commerce websites should apply abovementioned points in their strategy to make their website and hence business successful. This is a competitive world where every point should be keep in mind with regards to website development in order to provide better web services. New upcoming e-commerce platforms should implement these things early in their career so that they can build a sector of loyal customers which further will help them bringing new customers.