What makes an e-Commerce business fail?
E-commerce is the same as normal commercial enterprises…it simply takes place on the Internet. And the reasons that e-commerce ventures fail can often be similar to the reasons that standard industries fail.
Firstly – Frankly … I just don’t give a damn! Your attitude about your own business will affect everyone else’s attitude about it. Every web visitor, every person you speak to, every twitter and FaceBook contact. They’ll know, without you telling them, exactly how you regard your business.
It’s easy to tell if your attitude to your e-commerce venture has become a little lacklustre; When you don’t post for weeks on end, When you haven’t put out a new product or service for the last six months, When you say your business would be great if it wasn’t for those $#%^& customers, When you whine about how hard business is and how all those successful A-listers must have had friends in the right places And lastly – When you’re expecting to be an overnight success and you’re surprised that you aren’t both rich and famous after six months.
It’s so easy to set up an online business these days — just whack up a WordPress.com or Blogger site and off you go.
Need graphics? Pick up some clip art free Logo and website header? Business cards? You can get freebies from Vistaprint, why pay money for a designer and printing? Newsletter list? Send that from your desktop with Outlook.
The only problem here is that your online presence (and therefore, your business) looks like you set it up on a shoestring – and nobody trusts a company that can barely afford to even set itself up. The overall impression to visitors and potential clients get is that you’re (i) broke, (ii) cheap and (iii) unprofessional.
There are some things you can do free or low-cost and no one will notice. Your website is not one of them.
Don’t get me wrong here, you don’t have to go to the other extreme and mortgage your house to pay for the website. You do however need to make sure that your site has a clean, professional look, that it’s easy to navigate, and that your web presence makes you look worth the prices you charge. Leave it to the professionals.