4 Biggest Problems of Online Shoppers and How to Fix Them

The main goals of all online shops always revolve around the question: “How to increase sales and achieve greater profit?” What many of the entrepreneurs who focus their efforts into making a profitable digital shop fail to do is bring the customers into the equation.

What is important to understand, once you get into the ecommerce industry, is that the digital shop is not any different than physical one. It has to provide everything a brick and mortar store does, or at least approximate the experience as best as it can.

The recipe to success is to focus on middle man, the online store website and customers. And you will see how these two are intertwined. In the end most of the online shoppers’ problems either directly correspond with website design or they can be addressed through it.

Let’s cut to the chase, here is a compiled list of the biggest problems online shoppers face, accompanied by few tips on how to fix them.

Visitors Leave due to Complexity

The main pain point of potential online customers is the structure of the web store. This is really important issue that has to be quickly solved by redesigning the website respecting the latest trends in the industry.

The potentials of ecommerce are still not used to the fullest and there is still room for improvement, but by following the latest advice from experts, you will make sure that your online store is optimized for indulging the average shopper’s mind. Make sure to check Google’s material design in order to get the better perspective of this issue.

There is nothing more frustrating for an online customer then a ridiculously complex navigation on a website, accompanied by irrelevant information and dozens of options. The thing is, if a potential customer doesn’t find what they are looking for on your shop, the chances are that they won’t ever return.

So your first objective would be to have a sit down with the web design team and get rid of all the cluttered features and elements. Also, make sure to keep in mind what it is that online shoppers look for once they land on the website. The main goals is to have an intuitive navigation that will make visitors feel comfortable while surfing your store’s pages.

Shoppers find Some Online Stores Too Boring

If you want to attract more customers your online store has to be able to engage the visitor and keep him/her interested in the content, you have to offer. In the past this wasn’t the problem, but now the attention span of an average internet surfer is limited to 3-4 seconds. So if you don’t grab their attention in these few seconds, the visitor will close the tab and continue his/her shopping adventure somewhere else.

Luckily, there are several solutions for this problem. They all revolve around making the online shopping experience a more interesting and fun activity. For instance, the gamification method can help you make a game out of this non-game context. Another one is guided selling, a technique that can easily be integrated with gamification. Its main purpose it to increase engagement in order to indirectly influence someone’s purchasing decision.

But if you decide to implement some of these methods, you have to do niche research in order to get to know who your customers are. The best way to find out this and make the best use of the data is to try using CRM software. This powerful software tool can also be used to enhance the customer experience and improve their satisfaction rates.

Before making a choice, check out the comparison of customer relationship management software, because some of them might have the features you won’t be using.

Poor Product Pages

This is something you really want to fix as soon as possible. Imagine this scenario. You got the prospect to come to the website. He/she found the product interesting and there is no additional information. One picture, one sentence product description and no reviews nor ratings. “Why is this important?”, you might ask. Well, in the physical shop, the customer has a chance to see and touch the product, but when shopping online your website is the one responsible for painting the product’s mental picture in the visitor’s head.

The good news is that this is easily fixable. Decide on the structure, get some pro product photos from various angles, list the specs like they are listed on your competitors’ online stores for easier comparison and you are set to go. And remember, consistency is the key here. Every product page has to have the same outline and elements.

Also, you might consider adding some extra information in the product description. Write about how it feels in the hands, and describe some features and theirs benefits and uses in real life situations.

Bad Support

Here we come to one of the most sensitive aspects that can influence purchasing decision on so many levels – customer support. If a prospect has to wait for an answer while they considering whether to buy something from an online store, the chances are that they will go to another one. Good customer support is the characteristic that sets apart successful online stores from the bad ones.

The solution can be found in online chat software. An easy to implement and use web application that can be used to greet the customers from the very moment they land on the website, answer any question in real time and guide visitors through the entire purchase decision process. Make sure to check all the benefits of live chat software if you need more information.

By addressing these points, company your ecommerce business will attract more customers and also increase customer satisfaction and retention rates. As you can see, web design and a few integrated web applications form a very powerful synergy that can be salvaged and used for various purposes. In case you want to do more research on this topic and expand your knowledge feel free to browse blogs that cover hot ecommerce industry issues.