Selling online is not as easy as you thought; is it? When you fall because of losses it hurts more than you assumed it would. Online retail requires strategy. Maintaining stocks and listing your products is not enough. You need to look at where you are going wrong and make a conscious decision to implement a good system to avoid your same ecommerce mistakes.
So where is it that most online sellers go wrong? Is it pricing, packaging, cataloguing, promotions, inventory or all of these?
Working closely with online sellers has helped us identify common ecommerce mistakes. Here are the main ones online sellers tend to neglect:
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Pricing miscalculations
When determining the price payable for a product online sellers generally forget to consider marketplace deductions. Online marketplaces charge sellers commissions, shipping fees, fulfilment fees and other charges. So, at the time of remittance, the amount payable is much lower than estimated.
There’s also the fact that margins for promotions are not maintained. It’s going to cost money to promote products and when these are added total expenses and deducted from money earned, there are chances your profit margins being reduced. In addition to this, when offering discounts on products sellers forget to work out how reduced prices will bring down their profits and cause them losses.
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Packaging negligence
There are certain weight slabs based on which sellers are charged shipping charges. If your product weighs 502gms and the weight slabs are shown as:
500gms and less = Rs. 50
More than 500gms to 1kg = Rs. 100
Instead of paying Rs. 100 you can bring down the weight of your product. Simply remove unnecessary packaging or use lighter packing materials.
In case of volumetric weight try reducing the size of your product through compact folding or disassembling your products to reduce its space it occupies.
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Indirect discounts
There is a downside to depending completely on discount coupon websites. They do help acquiring new customers but won’t get you as many as you’d like. This means of offering discount can be troublesome to buyers because they need to search for discounts on different websites. As a result, they may prefer direct discounts on the marketplace itself. So, make sure you try out discounts on your marketplace and not only on discount coupon websites.
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Not taking time to prepare
When selling online you cannot leave anything to chance. Take the simple example of offering discounts during the peak season. If you simply provide discounts and ignore preparing a plan to make this promotion effective, you run the risk of losing out. Discounts attract consumer attention. This means you need to have sufficient stocks ready to meet demand. If you don’t you need to cancel orders which leave consumers irritated with your services and determined to avoid them next time. It gets worse! This move sends your consumers directly to your competition’s product pages.
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Know your promotions
Before participating in any promotional campaigns on marketplaces, take the time to look into how they work, what the costs are and how your products are currently performing. Accordingly, maintain a budget and chose your products for promotions. Never engage in promotions without knowing how they will benefit you or how much they cost. You can consult experts at Browntape for assistance with marketplace promotions.
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Ignoring consumer needs
By the end of the day, it’s the consumer who you need to impress. Your efforts should be aimed at persuading them and keeping them drawn to you for more. If you sell good quality, you will be recommended to others and you can certainly expect repeat sales. There are other things too that can be done to ensure more sales:
- Pack your products well
- Sell only genuine products
- Ensure quick delivery through packaging efficiency
- Personalise your sale by adding a thank you message in the packaging
- Offer freebies or samples to first-time buyers
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Selling on too much on too many marketplaces
Before you move on to a different product make sure you have are capable of handling it. The same goes for marketplaces. Registering your wares on numerous marketplaces helps spread out your risks, but at the same time, it can affect your efficiency. You can use inventory management systems like Browntape’s to regain your smooth flow of work. This way you can expand your business without worrying about confusions, delays or mix-ups.
Ecommerce mistakes are bound to happen. There is now way of eradicating them completely. What most fail to see is these mistakes help sellers grow and move on to become better at their business. Making mistakes is fine. Learning from them is what is important.
These are a couple of ecommerce mistakes you may have spotted in your online retail. Now it’s time to move past them. If you’d like help with that, get in touch with an expert at Browntape today! We are India’s leading ecommerce experts and we are always ready to help!
