eCommerce is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.
Consumers are buying more and more products online and businesses are trying to stay competitive in this market.
If you have a business, you must consider eCommerce.
eCommerce is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.
eCommerce is a really great way to grow your business because it gives you access to a whole new customer base. If you can get your products online, you can sell them to people all over the world. You’re not limited by your local area any more.
Everything comes with challenges. So is the case with eCommerce.
In this blog post, we have shared 7 eCommerce challenges along with their solutions.
Let’s get started!
#1 Security
Security can become a concern for eCommerce business owners.
Security is a major concern for any eCommerce website.
Hackers and scammers are constantly finding new ways to attack online stores, and you have to be vigilant to make sure your site is protected.
Security is a very important consideration for eCommerce sites.
If you have customers that are entering their credit card information on your site, you need to make sure that you’re using the highest encryption possible and that you’re storing their information safely.
Solution:
There are a few things your eCommerce developer can do to help keep your site secure.
- Change your hosting
- Use the latest version of PHP
- Use clever username and password
- Upgrade plugins & theme
- Change login URL
- Use 2-factor authentication
- Harden configuration file
- Hide WordPress version
- Use WordPress security plugin
- Check file permissions
- Take regular backups
#2 Cost of technology
The high cost of website development is yet another challenge that most eCommerce business owners may have to face. There is no standard pricing for eCommerce website development.
Some web design companies may quote you as high as $10000 to create an eCommerce store while other independent web developers may charge you as low as $3000.
The cost of your eCommerce website development depends on 2 things.
The pricing standard of your web development company or the web developer and the complexity of development involved in building your website.
Solution:
Below are some of the best ways to reduce the cost of your eCommerce website development:
- Go for the basic features first and then expand as your business grows. Don’t spend it all together on the first go.
- Hire an affordable website maker or web design company.
- Hire a website developer who can work on CMS platforms such as WordPress, Shopify, etc. Creating a website using CMS can save you more than 40% of your total web development cost as compared to the cost of the custom-coded website.
- Go for a paid them instead of a custom website design.
- Learn to maintain the website yourself instead of hiring the developer for every small change.
#3 Maintenance
Maintaining an eCommerce website is as essential as its development.
If you don’t maintain your website regularly, you may have to face several consequences such as:
- Outdated software, plugins, and theme.
- Chances of security threats
- Deteriorated performance
- Slow loading speed
- Loss of search engine rankings
Solution:
You must maintain your eCommerce website regularly to make sure it’s always healthy and updated.
If you can’t spare time to maintain your website or if you don’t possess the necessary skills to maintain your site, you must hire a website builder to do this job for you.
Hiring a full-time website builder may cost you a lot therefore you must engage a web developer to maintain your website on annual basis.
Recommended post: 11 Reasons for you to hire a web developer to maintain your website
#4 Site crashing
Many things can cause a website to crash.
If the server is too slow, then it will take forever for your website to load. If the server is too busy, then people will get error messages.
If the site is not updated regularly and its codes suck, then it may crash.
Solution:
To avoid the abrupt crashing of an eCommerce website, you must update it regularly. Its plugins and themes need to be updated regularly.
Also, you can consider subscribing to a reliable yet reasonable web hosting company that can provide you the best-performing servers.
#5 Tax issues
There are a lot of things to consider when setting up an eCommerce business.
Taxes are one of those things that you can’t afford to ignore if you want to run a successful business.
Different countries have different tax slabs, and you need to make sure to comply with them.
Especially if you are planning to sell to global customers, you need to make sure that your website has the ability to charge the tax according to your customers’ location.
Solution:
There are lots of plugins & modules that your web developer can integrate with your website and allow you to define different tax slabs for different countries.
So when your customer’s checkout to pay for their products, they will be charged respective taxes according to the billing location that they have used to create their orders.
#6 Selling customized products
Selling customizable products can be a huge challenge for your eCommerce business.
Since there are no fixed costs associated with the customized products, your website can’t show a flat price for them and allow the customers to buy them.
Some of the great examples of customizable products are curtains, apparel, jewelry, etc.
Solution:
Your website designer can integrate an additional form to the product page of your eCommerce store so that your potential buyers can enter their specific sizes or measurements and derive a cost according to their requirements.
Of course, building a customized eCommerce website can cost you more than creating a basic online store.
But you can easily search for and hire an affordable web developer who can help you to create your custom website.
#7 Competition
When it comes to eCommerce, competition is everywhere. You can’t escape it.
If you’re not competing on price and you’re not competing on convenience, then you’re going to have to compete on experience.
If you can create a better experience for your customers, you’ll be able to convert more people and generate more revenue.
Solution:
One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to create a user-friendly & intuitive website.
In other words, your eCommerce website must provide the best user experience for your potential buyers to stay on your online store and buy your products.
You can hire an experienced web developer who can help you to create a profitable website.
Recommended post: 7 Great UX practices to create a profitable eCommerce website design