18 mars 2021
E-commerce has experienced strong growth in recent years, and in particular since 2020 with the different phases of confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic. E-commerce today represents 13.4% of retail sales in France. Having a merchant site has therefore become essential and must be integrated into your sales strategy.
Are you in the middle of a project to create or redesign your online store, or are you hesitant to take the plunge? Don't panic, we'll help you with this important step in your digital strategy.
And to guide you in this project, here is a list of mistakes not to make when starting out creating an e-commerce site.
1. Not defining your target
Whether it is an online or physical business, you cannot get started without having identified your customer base. It is crucial to study your market and define a precise target through a persona.
A persona is a representation of your target audience through the creation of a fictional character. This character represents a typical user. This allows you to better understand the motivations of your customers to better direct them to your site. Targeting also allows you to adapt your message
2. Not defining a value proposition
Faced with the large and growing number of websites, competition on the web is increasing. It is then imperative to find a way to differentiate yourself: what are your strengths? What do you offer that your competitor doesn’t?
It is essential to take the time to analyze your business, particularly through the Value Proposition Canvas, which allows you to identify the needs and problems of your customers and compare them with your offer and your solutions.
3. Propose a non-optimized customer journey
For your site to be visited and generate conversion, the organization and ergonomics of the website is essential. Indeed, it is very important to work on UX in order to offer the most efficient customer journey possible, facilitate user actions and encourage them to make a purchase (up to the validation of their basket).
Implementing a precise UX/UI methodology will allow you to ensure the best organization of your e-commerce site.
4. Ne pas utiliser la bonne technologie
Many solutions exist on the market for creating an e-commerce site. The choice of CMS or Framework used is strategic and depends on your project. Depending on the complexity of your project, some CMS may prove insufficient. In the same way, a simple project will not require the most developed technologies on the market to implement it. It is then very important to analyze the functional and management needs of your future site in order to determine the degree of complexity of the project and to choose the appropriate technical solution.
5. Avoir un mauvais design
Your site must present the various information in an aesthetic and pleasant way, while integrating the company's graphic charter into the design.
Using a premium theme is one solution but can be complex due to the integration of numerous plugins. We prefer the development of specific themes for each of our clients for greater performance.
6. Not having a responsive or mobile first site
Your site must adapt to all screens.
Nowadays, the computer is no longer the first channel used to consult a website. 54% of global web traffic is done via mobile (2019 figures). A Statista study in 2019 estimates that 73% of online purchases will be made on a smartphone by the end of 2021.
Mobile navigation has therefore become very important and can no longer be neglected. Your website must have a responsive design, or even mobile first.
Mobile first means developing your website for a mobile format first, then adapting it for other types of screens. This is also the technology put forward by Google for several years. Learn more about the importance of mobile first.
7. Not making a marketing strategy
Despite what you may think, customers will not necessarily come to your site on their own. Faced with competition and search engine algorithms, landing on your site may not be easy. You must then plan a marketing strategy, like a “plan of attack” to make your site known and get your customers to go there.
As a result, it can be dangerous not to take an interest in web marketing tools to create traffic on your website:
- SEO: strategy for optimizing your position on search engines
- SEA: advertising campaigns on search engines to appear among the first
- SMO: animation of your social networks and connection with the site to encourage visits.
- Analytics: monitoring the performance of your site through the creation of a dashboard containing specific indicators.
- Marketing automation: automation of your online marketing campaigns through the creation of specific scenarios.
8. Neglecting natural referencing
Having a website is not enough, it is essential that your site can be found on search engines and in particular on Google. SEO corresponds to a set of techniques allowing you to improve your position on search engines (technical, semantic, etc.). This is long-term work: you will therefore not see results immediately, but this element is essential to your digital strategy. To learn more about SEO.
9. Having poor quality product photos
Your e-commerce site is a sales channel, it must inspire desire. Beyond the design of the site, the products offered must be well presented to encourage their purchase. It is very important to have good quality photos and beautifully presented products to inspire and reassure the customer about the quality of the product and the company.
10. Neglecting content writing
SEO works a lot through the content of the website. Content writing should therefore not be taken lightly. Think about the keywords corresponding to your activity, be concise. It is risky and irrelevant to have texts that are too long.
Beyond SEO, this is an important point for the user experience: writing clear and concise content makes it possible to improve the latter by making the information easily accessible to the Internet user.
Thus, it is essential to take the time to establish a methodology to prepare the development of an e-commerce site.
Our agency follows a [precise methodology](/methodologie-ux-ui/) to establish the best possible site according to each project: digital strategy consulting, UX/UI service, SEO, multimedia content, etc. We set up collaborative workshops with our clients to ensure their involvement and be as close as possible to their needs.
From analyzing the offer and creating personas to monitoring the performance of your site, we support you in all stages from its creation to its optimization.
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