Imagine spending hours searching for a product on the internet, comparing prices and reputations, and when you finally decide, the site crashes just in time to finalize the order. In fact, it is very likely that this has already happened to you. But what if we were talking about a customer of your store? Can you anticipate problems in your company's e-commerce?
At first glance, it may seem unfeasible. It is common for servers to have instabilities, in addition to redirection failures and heavy layouts. But, yes, it is possible and necessary! So get ahead of it.
It is no use investing only in marketing strategies. To sell more on the internet, it is necessary to have a structure that supports growth. Read on and find out how to prevent failures in your virtual store.
How to Anticipate Problems in E-Commerce Can Be Part of the Planning?
In the situation described in the first paragraph, how do you imagine the consumer's reaction? If your product is of great value to him, he may even insist on buying it. However, even if he succeeds after a few attempts, your store's reputation will already be compromised.
The first consequence is an increase in cart abandonment, harming the conversion rate. Navigation and usability problems hinder the customer experience, and bad experiences are one of the main reasons that prevent loyalty.
In other words: failing to anticipate errors in e-commerce means losing money.
Therefore, it is not enough just to put the site online. When planning your virtual store, it is essential to include, in addition to maintenance and support, testing and monitoring tools.
How to Test an E-Shop?
Testing the performance of the site and tracking key performance metrics is routine in the management of successful e-commerces.
There are several aspects to be evaluated and several methods to check an online store. The main points of attention are performance, usability, and compatibility. Check it out!
Usability tests
These are the most common way of checking the functionality of the interface. Its main advantage is to involve users, who are invited to test the site: their difficulties are analyzed by the developers to make the product easier to use.
A/B Testing
A/B testing aims to discover changes in the structure and layout of the e-commerce site that improve the number of conversions. The site's performance is compared from two different versions presented to the visitor.
Bots
Maintaining a dedicated team to check all the products, pages, and functions of the virtual store may be unfeasible. But the technology to make this process feasible already exists: the "robots" that make automatic checks. These are tools that generate reports about the site's performance and warn when it presents problems.
SEO analysis
SEO optimization serves to make your e-commerce site findable by web search engines. The evaluation of this aspect includes analyzing keywords and checking the ranking of the site and external links.
What are the 4 Errors an E-Commerce Store Shouldn't Make?
The most recurring errors of an e-commerce store can be checked constantly. Thus, defective URLs can be redirected, and the remaining errors can be corrected at the speed that today's consumer demands.
Speed and real-time actions are the differentiator that can ensure that the customer gets to the end of their buying journey.
See now the mistakes you need to check in your e-commerce:
Difficult navigation
In a physical store, we like to be welcomed and we value organized environments, in which it is easy to find what we are looking for.
In the online universe it is no different. A site that is difficult to navigate, with slow loading, images that do not open, and call-to-action buttons that do not work, is an invitation for the customer to look for another company.
Maintaining good navigability is not just an extra feature, but a duty of any e-commerce, and makes the customer feel "comfortable" in your store.
Problems at checkout
In the eagerness to get information about the customer, long registration forms have become a common mistake.
But a confusing checkout , with many pages to completion, discourages the customer from continuing. The ideal is to keep registration brief, asking only for the data that is strictly necessary.
By simplifying the sale, you will have the chance to create a long-term relationship with the customer, and then have better opportunities to get to know him.
Among the biggest causes of cart abandonment or stress during the purchase are:
- not locating the zip code field, to calculate shipping;
- difficulty in changing the delivery address;
- errors in calculating the final price after changes in the cart;
- difficulty in selecting or changing the payment method;
- inconvenience in understanding whether the purchase has been finalized.
It is also important to enable the auto-fill options and verify that all steps flow easily - even better if all the steps are on just one page, with all the necessary information in one view for the customer.
Non-responsive website
Perhaps this is the point where most companies still fail, even though, according to the Ipsos Institute and Paypal, Brazil is already the champion in purchases via tablets and smartphones, ahead of 22 other countries.
In other words, if your site is not responsive, you are missing out on a large part of the Brazilian online consumer market.
Offering a responsive experience means having a site that works well on both desktop screens and mobile devices. Besides taking advantage of the growth of the mobile market, which this year alone increased its revenue by 56.2%, being mobile friendly is also an important point to appear in Google search engines.
Failures in customer service
Having a good relationship with the customer will always be fundamental for any sale of products or services. In online stores, the most common options in customer service are chats and FAQs (frequently asked questions).
Whether in direct contact with the consumer, or in self-service, any systemic error can end the sales opportunity. Since online commerce does not rely on the face-to-face experience, the customer needs tools that work perfectly to answer his questions and get more information.
Any problem will be a hindrance to getting the customer to the end of the sales funnel. This also goes for the search system within the site: include filters and suggestions, but most importantly, have a tool that delivers accurate results to the customer.
What is the solution?
It is possible to prevent these errors with good planning and appropriate methods. Prefer tools that not only identify problems, but allow for immediate action.
The old maxim "time is money" applies perfectly to e-commerce: every hour offline can result in a huge loss of revenue. So also consider the cost-benefit ratio when choosing a testing system.
So, what did you think of these tips? We hope that our article will help you in the management of your online store. If you still have questions about how to anticipate problems in e-commerce, contact us and learn more about it!
