4 common obstacles for a webshop owner | Wedoio

A part of obtaining success involves overcoming obstacles - this oddly enough also counts within the eCommerce field. No one will go straight to success without having to solve a number of challenges and issues first. So when you stumble upon an obstacle remember that once it’s solved you are one step closer to obtaining success - the only way of failing is by giving up.

This doesn’t mean that you have to overcome all the challenges on your own as often people with a positive approach to challenges are seeking new knowledge, and using their network to solve the issue. With this approach, you have a lower chance of giving up or failing. 

So, here we will not only present you with 4 common obstacles for an eCommerce webshop owner but also with each of their solutions so that you will hopefully be one step closer to succeeding after reading this article. At Wedoio we are experts in helping online store owners succeed and scaling their webshop using smart integrations - we want to see you succeed as well! Here are our solutions for 4 common obstacles:

Not enough traffic

It is pure logic that to generate sales you first need to generate sufficient traffic to your website. Without potential customers in your store you will not be able to sell anything but except for this what’s important is leading the right and relevant traffic to your eCommerce webshop. If you only ship to Italy and France, 100 website visitors from India won’t make any difference. 

Or for instance, if you’re selling a product targeted at men, a lot of female visitors might generate some sales if they are on the lookout for a gift but generally generating more relevant traffic will help increase your sales more. A lot of webshop owners’ greatest obstacle is to generate enough traffic. There are different options when it comes to increasing the traffic; paid advertising (Google and social media ads), SEO optimization, Email marketing, utilizing social media and influencers, and many more.

Solution:

This might not be the answer you want to hear but; as the options are many so are the solutions which can be both good and bad news. 

First of all, we suggest making a plan and strategy for generating either free or paid traffic. Paid traffic such as Google and Facebook ads is the fastest way of seeing results while generating free traffic for example through SEO, posting on social media, link building etc. might take a bit longer to build up and requires consistency before you start seeing results - but it is worth it to start building up your free traffic already now as this will be a huge advantage in the long run.

Start focusing on some of the parts to increase your traffic, set goals, carry out a plan and strategy to build it up step by step - be consistent and have patience. If you are using Shopify or WooCommerce you will be able to find video guides and lessons on how to increase your traffic.

To generate the relevant traffic for your online store make sure to always aim the texts and marketing for your target group. Make a clear overview of the ideal potential customer and create your campaigns based on this. Make sure to implement the correct and relevant keywords into your text when it comes to generating free traffic. We could write an entirely new blog article about generating more traffic but will leave this for now.

Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is when a customer starts the checkout process but leaves without completing the order or payment. This is a common obstacle for many webshops and it might be hard to completely avoid cart abandonment but you can work on reducing your abandonment rate. 

The average webshop loses 75% of its sales because of cart abandonment. There are many reasons for cart abandonment; the customer might just have wanted to check the total price including the shipping fee, the price after adding a discount code, etc., or something during the checkout process might have led to the customer losing trust in your store or brand. Below we will give a few possible reasons to have a look at, to optimize and a solution for recovering the abandoned carts in your webshop.

Solution:

Possible reasons why customers suddenly leave their shopping cart without completing the purchase:

1. Hidden costs or fees added during the checkout process. If the price is suddenly higher than expected this might lead the customer to abandon the cart. Make sure to state the shipping costs clearly on the product page or advertise free shipping (you might just include the shipping costs in the product price instead to avoid additional fees).
2. Concerns about payment security. This is especially relevant if you are a smaller or unknown webshop. Make sure to show an SSL certificate on your checkout page, insert different forms of social proof on your website in general to increase trust, and display sufficient and easily accessible contact information or even photos on the “about us” page to further help increase the confidentiality.
3. Complicated checkout process. Make sure that your checkout process is smooth and easy. Your checkout process should be customized to match the rest of your website by layout, design, and colours. Furthermore, ensure to add as few steps as possible to the checkout process. For example, first having to create a user profile to submit the payment might lead some customers to leave without checking out. 

There are many more reasons for cart abandonments that you will find more about by doing a small research on Google. Make sure to have each of these reasons under control to minimize your abandoned cart rate.

Please note that some abandoned carts are impossible to avoid as some customers are just researching, looking for inspiration, or need time to consider their purchase - some customers might come back to complete their purchase after thinking. BUT make sure to establish an abandoned cart email to kindly remind your customers about completing their purchase, preferably including an attractive discount code in this email to make the customer return.

Creating trust and confidentiality

Especially if you own a new or smaller webshop you might have to put some extra effort into this part to convince the consumer to leave some of their hard-earned money at exactly your store. If a brick-and-mortar store decided to expand its market range using a webshop, this might be an easier process as it has already generated a brand and confidentiality.

Shopping at a brick-and-mortar store doesn’t require as much trust as shopping online (or the trust is easier established). At a physical store, the customer is in direct and personal contact with the employees, gets the product right away, and if anything goes wrong the customer knows where to find the store again. Shopping online is completely different as it’s easy to hide behind a computer, the customer might feel less safe thus important to make an effort to create that extra trust and to appear credible - but how do you ensure this?

Solution:

Except for the obvious solutions like avoiding spelling mistakes, having a well-designed and professional website, you might have heard about social proof? Social proof is a great way of ensuring extra trust. When showing the consumer that many other people are also buying products from your store, this can convince the consumer that it is safe to pay and that the product is of good quality.

Studies show that the majority of people take for example customer reviews into account when deciding on purchasing a product or not. So make sure to implement sufficient social proof like for example:

• Customer reviews and preferably give your customers the opportunity of uploading product pictures as well and rating your product with stars.
• Influencer image: As social media are taking over, a good way to establish social proof could be to pay an influencer to advertise or recommend your product. This way you will also be able to implement an image of the influencer and your product that you can use in the future either for marketing or on your product page to establish extra trust.
• Display a number showing how many people bought the product: This is another option of implementing social proof. Showing your potential customers that others bought this product as well can lead them to make the decision of purchasing.
• Mark it as “Bestseller”, “Popular choice” etc.: Many webshops like Shopify and WooCommerce webshops provide the opportunity of customization where you will also be able to mark some of your products with tags like “Bestseller”, “Popular choice” etc., which can catch your clients’ attention and be a plus when they consider your product.

There are other options of social proof for example being present and consistent posting on social media, interacting with your target group and establishing relations. Except for this, you should always have all of your contact information available on your website. Adding a phone number and VAT number can be an extra plus in creating confidentiality.

Not enough hours in a day

This is an issue many entrepreneurs stumble upon once their webshop starts scaling and growing. In theory, this is a good sign as it means that your business is going well. In the beginning, you were able to do everything yourself but as your business is growing the workload increases.

You now feel like a multitasking octopus with bloodshot eyes running around intending to make the ends meet while downing cans of coffee. Okay, we might have exaggerated a bit, but you know what we mean: Sleep is underrated but you still wish that you had more time to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. Does this sound like you?

Some eCommerce store owners choose to hire webshop managers and other employees to reduce their own workload. This is an option but a rather expensive solution and you still have to spend time keeping track of your employees and their work. Therefore we will present you with a new and innovative solution:

Solution:

Sit down and relax - take a deep breath. We are gonna present you with a solution called; Automation. With this solution, you can automate workflows within your webshop. This means that you can get work done - all automatically! 

This will save you both time and money letting you focus on the essential and most important parts of your business to support your growth, and of course, also make things easier and faster for you.

At Wedoio we are experts in integration and automation solutions and have helped many webshop owners automate their workflows to save them time and money, reduce the risk of errors, support growth, and increase profit while making more use of data by organizing the work processes.

Wedoio Uniconta integration:

Uniconta is a modern cloud-based ERP system that keeps track of finances, inventory, projects, production, and logistics. It is designed for small and medium-sized companies to help them become more digital and boost their progress. 

All of the information that you provide to Uniconta is safely stored in the cloud, and it’s always accessible in real-time.

Wedoio's Uniconta integration gives you the opportunity to automatically transfer your products, customers, and all of the orders from your webshop directly to Uniconta. It provides time savings on your daily routines, searches, document retrieval, and business management. By subscribing to this easy and simple integration process, you save a lot of time and nerves managing your webshop.

Does this sound like something for you? You are always welcome to contact us or book a meeting to further discuss an integration and automation solution for your business. We are here to make things easier for you and will support and guide you throughout the whole process. Keep scaling and talk to you soon!

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