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It must be really exciting to build an online store, isn’t it? But actually it is very overwhelming. Your brain is filled with millions of thoughts as you would be putting up your products and services in front of the people to see and judge.

Therefore, it is quite important that you put your time and effort into proper planning and implementation of your online store. While doing this, it is common that you might make some mistakes. It is necessary to avoid these mistakes while building an online store as it affects the brand value. Your online store should be crafted in a manner to attract buyers and increase your sales.

#1 Don’t Opt For Desktop-Only Design For Your Online Store

In today’s era, you would see more people stick to their smartphones rather than desktops. Nowadays, people find their smartphones more convenient while doing online shopping. So do you think that giving preference to desktop design only is going to serve the purpose?

Well, no! So while building an online store, your focus must also be on making your online store mobile compatible. It would be easier for you to drive traffic to the store and increase the ROI (return of investment).

Besides this, if your store is not mobile-friendly, even search engines like Google would not provide a good rank to your eCommerce website/online store in the SERP – search engine result pages. Therefore, it is essential for businesses to prefer mobile-responsive design for online stores along with desktop design. It will be seamless for your target owners to view the products on their devices.

How Can You Improve?

You must have a focus on both – mobile- compatible design as well as desktop design.
The features that you integrate into the online store must be in tune with the mobile design.

#2 The Online Store Does Not Have Proper Navigation

Have you ever thought about what could be the most frustrating thing for a visitor – poor website navigation. Just give it a thought – would it be convenient for you to keep searching for buttons, sliders, proper navigation menu every time you visit the online store? If an online store doesn’t have proper navigation, a user would skip the website and move on to some other store. Most people would find it irritating and a waste of time. So what should be done?

While building the online store, you must think like the user and then work on the implementation. Every user visiting an online store would like to have easy navigation to product pages, product reviews, description, checking out similar products, check out pages, and finally get back to the homepage.

How Can You Improve?

• You can simply use the best website navigation practices that have proven to help get the most out of your eCommerce store.
• Be very specific when you have to use buttons, links, or icons.
• Decide the placement of the logo so that it doesn’t block the navigation menu
• Set the navigation menu in order so that it is easier for the visitors to track pages like order, contact us, or about us.
• Ensure that the drop-down menus are convenient for visitors.

#4 Making Use Of Ineffective Product Images

It goes without saying that the product images have to be of high quality because they can attract customers and even drive them to buy it. But this is also something where the entrepreneurs become negligible. The negligence might be due to the fact that they are in a hurry to see the online store live as fast as possible. But while designing your online store, you must be patient enough and must not neglect anything. Your online store is a place where you would be getting potential customers and generate revenue. Product images are important for the customers because they are not tangible, nor can they test the product before buying it.

How Can You Improve?

Before uploading the product images, you must go through it multiple times and try to think like the customer. Just by looking at the images, the user must feel like buying. Moreover, if the product is available in different colors or materials, then it must be mentioned.

• Make use of high-quality images
• The images should show the products clearly
• If the product package has multiple items, then you must provide separate images for each package.

#5 The Checkout/ Payment Process Must Be Easy And Convenient

Who would like to get stuck up while making the payment for the product they are buying? Well, no one. Besides maintaining the security of your customers, it is necessary to ensure that your customers find it convenient to swift through the checkout process. Therefore, every business must ensure that the comfort and convenience of the customers are maintained.

How Can You Improve?

• Provide multiple payment options for the customers.
• The payment process must not be more than two to three steps.
• Avoid presenting multiple forms while making the payment.
• The navigation from one step to another must be easy.

You can opt for a one-page checkout option where all the details would be provided on a single page right from cart items to the shipping address.

In short, this will also increase your sales and help you in growing your business.

Summary

In order to grow your business through online stores, you cannot afford to make these mistakes while building it. You ought to be familiar with all the aspects of the online store and then only you would be successful in fixing the mistakes and most importantly avoiding it.