7 Biggest eCommerce Challenges Sellers Face On A Daily Basis

Over the past few years, the eCommerce industry has grown at an incredible rate but also increased eCommerce challenges. In fact, global eCommerce revenues are estimated to exceed $1.065 trillion in 2023. However, every day brings new obstacles for eCommerce business owners. If that wasn’t enough, there are bigger, more serious threats that your business needs to deal with immediately to survive.

Your products, customers, or even your sales strategy itself can pose these grave threats. However, with the right plan in place, these issues can be handled effectively. This article will look at seven of the most pressing challenges facing eCommerce businesses today and offer suggestions for dealing with them.

1. Picking the Right Platform

The first step in starting a successful online business is choosing the right eCommerce platform to serve as the heart of your operation. eCommerce platforms can be broadly classified into two categories: cloud-based SaaS eCommerce solutions and open-source.

The ideal platform should make it easier for you to handle every aspect of your eCommerce business, including your website, marketing, sales, and operations. In other words, it should be able to integrate with widely used management tools while also incorporating sophisticated features that will support you in running your company.

2. Cybersecurity Concerns

Cyberattacks can infect your e-commerce site with malware, compromising its security. Even more concerning is that they may be able to get their hands on your customers’ personal data. This sensitive information, such as credit card details, is vulnerable to infiltration by cybercriminals.

Cybersecurity issues may be one of the most difficult eCommerce challenges to overcome. Investment in cutting-edge technology and regular system maintenance will help you avoid this potential nightmare.

3. Understanding eCommerce SEO

When launching a new eCommerce store, you must develop a plan for getting the public aware of and familiar with your brand. The first step is to ensure that your website is listed in search engine results. If you don’t know how to optimize your eCommerce site for search engines, you could lose a significant amount of traffic. That’s what makes SEO mastery so crucial.

The problem is that search engine algorithms are always changing, making it difficult to keep up. For that reason, here are some pointers to keep in mind when planning your SEO strategy:

• Find out what people are searching for by conducting keyword research
• Improve on-page SEO
• Make your website responsive to mobile
• Speed up your website

4. Cultivating a Loyal Customer Base

Customer loyalty is essential to a company’s success in the e-commerce industry. Studies show that retaining your existing customers is less costly than acquiring new ones. Trust between a company and its customers is essential to building and maintaining long-term loyalty.

However, eCommerce takes longer and requires more effort to build customer trust than a traditional brick-and-mortar store due to a lack of face-to-face interactions. Fortunately, this can be achieved by following these tips:

• Add an option for live chat
• Be open and honest
• Make use of reward schemes
• Publish relevant blog articles frequently

5. Providing a Good Customer Experience

Successful e-commerce websites rely heavily on customer or user experience. It’s not unusual for customers to expect a similar or even identical online shopping experience to that which they’d have in a physical store. Web design, website segmentation, and product personalization based on customer preferences are critical to success.

There are plenty of ways to enhance the user experience. One of which is to create a user-friendly website so that customers can find what they are looking for quickly and effortlessly. Then, having clear calls to action will let shoppers know exactly what they need to do next.

6. Reducing Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is a significant challenge for all eCommerce companies, regardless of their size. In fact, research shows that approximately 70% of customers abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase. While there are various possible reasons for this, it’s almost always due to a negative user experience. As such, we’ve compiled a list of ways to reduce cart abandonment rates:

• Improving your shopping cart’s design and layout
• Use live chat to keep your customers happy.
• Optimize for mobile
• Make use of retargeting strategies
• Send email reminders to customers who have items that aren’t checked out

7. Responding to Economic Uncertainty

Every company has to deal with economic uncertainty at some point. All businesses are affected to some degree by market volatility and financial crises. Fortunately, there are some tried-and-true methods you can use to keep your online store afloat during economic downturns.

• Focus on customer retention because satisfied customers will stick around even in the face of adversity
• If the costs rise too high, work to improve your connection with your suppliers or find new ones
• Find out what your customers think about how well your product works and use that information to make improvements

The Bottomline

The process of setting up an eCommerce store is fraught with problems. With that said, there are long-term remedies for each of these challenges. eCommerce websites demand a higher level of attention when it comes to platforms, security measures, search engine optimization, and customer service. Only by removing these obstacles can you achieve a successful and lasting eCommerce business.