5 Website Development Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Ecommerce Store's Sales

Let me tell you the story: One that's about passion, setbacks but ultimately victory. We're a website development company in Dubai, and we've worked with tons of ecommerce business owners eager to create online shops. They aim for these places not just to sell stuffs, but also to give their customers something special. Sadly, we've watched these entrepreneurs make common website errors that slash their sales and profits big time. These small problems can pile up and cause unhappy shoppers, deserted shopping carts, and sale opportunities slipping away. 

Being a company that has fixed loads of ecommerce sites in trouble, we've come faceface with these troubles. A slick and easytouse site is key for products and keeping buyers coming back. With so much competition online nowadys the quality of your website can make or break your success.

The Impact of Your Website's Quality

The caliber of your website is crucial. It can draw in customers or send them running. Consider this, a survey from Websitebuilder.com found that 88% of people shopping online won't come back to a website after a bad experience. That figure emphasizes just how critical it is to finetune your site.

Therefore, it's vital to pinpoint and fix the blunders in web development that are losing you money. Below, I'll outline five frequent errors seen with ecommerce sites and offer practical tips for enhancing your website for better performance.

Slow Page Load Times

Nothing frustrates online shoppers more than a slow loading website. Google research shows that more than half (53%) of mobile users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. That's a big part of the potential customers you're missing out on.

When it comes to e-commerce, speed is key. Slow loading pages don't just drive impatient visitors away - they also hurt your search engine rankings, increase bounce rates, and tank your entire conversion meter

Improving load time on your website should be a priority. Some basic strategies to test are minifying your images, minimizing your CSS and JavaScript code, and using a content delivery network (CDN) to serve files from servers near your customers can make a huge difference even taking just a second out of your loading page.

Confusing Navigation

If your customers can’t easily find what they’re looking for on your website, they may get frustrated and shop elsewhere. And it's not just navigation menus - a 2022 study by Baymard found that 60% of shoppers would abandon their cart if the checkout process was too complicated or confusing.

When it comes to e-commerce, a clear and intuitive navigation is an absolute key to driving sales and customer loyalty. If your website can’t deliver a smooth, hassle-free browsing and shopping experience, you’re essentially leaving most of your potential customers behind on a digital storefront.

Optimizing your site’s navigation system should be a top priority for any serious Internet marketer. The goal is to create an information system that seamlessly guides customers through your sales funnel, from discovery to purchase.

Some basic listening techniques:

• Clear and descriptive category labels that align with how your target audience thinks and searches.

• Logical, product grouping that makes it easier for customers to find the right products.

• A well-designed testing system with minimal requirements, easy access to support, and flexible payment options.

•  An outstanding, user-friendly assessment service that produces relevant, quality results.

• The website has search engines, breadcrumbs, and other resources to help visitors not get lost.

• Mobile-optimized menus, tap targets, and checkout flow provide an intuitive experience on small screens.

By prioritizing navigation utility, you'll create an eCommerce experience that engages customers, reduces friction in the buying process, and makes consistent sales growth make your business a win-win for you and your customers.

Lack of Mobile Optimization

We’ve all heard it before, but it’s worth repeating: mobile browsing is king. In fact, with over 70% of online shopping now taking place on smartphones and tablets, it’s absolutely essential that your website is optimized for the small screen experience.

Despite this massive shift to mobile, too many eCommerce businesses still treat their mobile sites as an afterthought. They assume that a "desktop-first" approach will suffice, without knowing to what extent they are alienating most potential customers.

The statistics speak for themselves. A 2023 Statista report found that 53% of global web traffic now comes from mobile devices. And that trend shows no signs of abating. If your online store doesn’t offer a seamless, hassle-free experience on smartphones and tablets, you’re essentially leaving a large portion of your potential sales on the table.

What constitutes proper mobile optimization? Some highlights:

• Practical Design: Your website itself needs to change and reconfigure its layout to provide the best viewing experience and accessibility on every device from desktop to mobile.

• Large Tap Goals: Create a cramped and streamlined UI that generously sizes and spaces buttons, links, and other interactive elements to accommodate the natural constraints of smaller touch screens, a surefire way to frustrate phone users.

• Mobile-Friendly Checkout: Purchases should be processed on smartphones and be frictionless. Reduce required form fields, provide autofill functionality, and ensure a clean and uncluttered checkout flow.

If your current ecommerce site isn't checking all these boxes, it's time to make mobile optimization a top priority. Take the time to thoroughly test your website on a diverse array of devices, and make any necessary adjustments to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience regardless of how customers choose to access your online store.

Having a Complex Checkout Process

Giving customers a variety of secure payment methods is essential for driving conversions. The checkout process should be the smoothest part of the customer journey, not a hurdle race.  Longwinded forms, hidden fees, and limited payment options can all contribute to cart abandonment. Research from PYMNTS.com shows that over half (56%) of shoppers will abandon their cart if their preferred payment option isn't available.

Make sure to offer a wide range of popular digital wallets, buy now/pay later solutions, and traditional credit/debit card options. The more flexibility you can provide, the more customers you'll be able to convert.

Here's how to streamline your checkout:

• Allowing customers to check out without creating an account 

• Only asking for relevant, necessary information 

• Use automated address shortcuts

• Use a single-page checkout system 

• Show shipping costs early in the process

• Have a clear returns policy available before checkout

• Prioritise mobile-friendly design
  

Skipping SEO Optimization

In ecommerce, being found by shoppers is crucial. Even if your website looks amazing and is easy to use, it's pointless if no one stumbles upon it. Here, search engine optimization or SEO plays a vital role.

SEO helps you tweak your site and content to make sure they appear higher in search results without paying for ads. When done right, this can seriously boost your traffic, customer leads, and sales.

But many online stores don't focus enough on SEO. They're too busy with how the site looks and feels that they ignore the essential SEO work needed behind the scenes.

This mistake can cost them a lot because according to research from BrightEdge, organic searches bring in over half of all web traffic. That means over half of your potential customers are finding sites through Google, Bing, and other search engines. If your ecommerce store isn't showing up prominently in those results, you're missing out on a massive opportunity.

Some of the key SEO best practices ecommerce businesses should focus on include:

• Keyword Research: Identify target words and phrases to find similar content. Optimizing your site’s content, product pages, and metadata around these keywords is important.

• On-Page Optimization: Make sure your pages are formatted properly, using headlines, alt text, internal links, and other features that indicate relevance to search engines accordingly.

• Technical SEO: Address crawlability, indexability, and site speed issues that could be holding your store back in the rankings.

• Content Creation: Develop a strategy for creating informative, engaging content (like blog posts, buying guides, videos) that attracts and converts search visitors.

• Off-Page Optimization: Build up your domain authority through tactics like link building, local SEO, and social media engagement.

When executed effectively, an SEO-driven approach can be a major competitive advantage for ecommerce brands. It helps you get found by ready-to-buy customers, drive high-quality traffic to your site, and convert those visitors into loyal, repeat customers.

As we wrap up, these errors in website development might appear minor individually, but when combined, they could greatly affect the sales of your online store. Rectifying these issues can result in a smoother and more delightful shopping journey for your clientele, ultimately resulting in boosted sales and revenue expansion.

Why Choose Royex Technologies for Website Development in Dubai

Royex Technologies is a leading website development company in Dubai, providing website design, e-commerce & mobile application development on all scales with quality & flexibility. We have already developed various websites on WordPress, Magento & Umbraco to provide to our clients. Our team of developers has years of experience in website development. We have worked on various projects and know what it takes to build successful websites. We stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends in the industry to deliver the best results. Furthermore, we understand that each client has unique needs and requirements. We offer customized app development services to cater to your specific needs. We work closely with you to understand your goals and provide solutions that fit your requirements. 

Contact us via email at info@royex.net or call us at +971566027916 with your requirements. Let’s make it happen.