Common E-commerce Development Mistakes That Can Limit Your Store’s Growth

Most store owners really put the effort in to launching their stores. They choose the products, agonise over the design, set up payment and delivery and hit go live.

However, when you actually launch your store, you may notice that you’re not seeing as many sales as you’d hoped for. Sales are flat and you’re spending more on advertising.

Often, this is down to how your site was developed. Professional e-commerce development services will make the biggest difference to your store. Having a slow site, poor mobile, confusing navigation and no SEO foundation can be holding You Back by losing you sales. These issues don’t seem like much individually but can really hold You Back with less traffic, sales and scalability.
The good news is, they are common and predictable mistakes!

Bloom Agency help brands create, improve and scale their online stores. Our e-commerce development services will help you create a well developed store, with good SEO and easy to buy from. Whether you’re looking to create a new store, redesign and existing one or to understand why your sales are not moving forward, we’ll help you identify what is holding You Back and fix it.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the most common mistakes we see in e-commerce development, how it’s holding You Back and how to avoid them to create a store that will scale nicely.

1. Not Optimising for Speed

Speed is a huge hidden killer when it comes to online sales. Customers don’t have much patience and if your site is slow they will leave.
Common reasons for a slow site:

• Large images and videos that aren’t compressed.
• Too many apps, plugins or scripts.
• Heavy themes with lots of features you may not need.
• Poor hosting or unoptimised code.

Fix: Optimise your images, remove any apps and scripts you don’t need, use a light theme, and ensure you test your speed on a real mid range phone. Optimising your speed will also help your search rankings! A good e-commerce development service will help you create a fast site from the start.

2. Not Optimising for Mobile

Most online stores will have the majority of their traffic on mobile. However, many sites are created with a desktop first approach.
This means you have small buttons, hard to read text, confusing navigation and frustrating checkouts.
Fix: Create a mobile first site. Ensure your buttons are large, navigation is simple, add sticky add to carts and keep your product content short and easy to scan. Try placing an order on your phone to see if there are any points of friction.

3. No SEO Foundation

Many stores are created and then optimised. This means SEO is an afterthought. Fixing structural SEO issues after launch can be a lengthy and costly process.
Common technical SEO mistakes:

• Unclean URLs.
• Missing or duplicated title tags and meta descriptions.
• No schema for products, pricing and reviews.
• Duplicate content from filters, variants and sorting.
• Poor internal linking for products, collections and content.
• Blocked or broken pages.

Fix: Plan your site structure, URLs and templates with SEO in mind. Have a technical audit done before and after launch. A reliable e-commerce development service will have SEO built into their service.

4. Complicated Navigation

If your customers can’t easily find what they’re looking for they will leave. As your catalogue grows and there is no clear structure, your navigation can become confusing, with lots of categories and products buried.

Fix: Keep your categories simple. Try to have products easily found within a few clicks. Add a strong search bar with filters, and ensure your labels are clear.

5. Complicated Checkout

The checkout is where you turn your interested customers into sales. Many stores lose sales here. Forcing customers to create an account, long forms, unexpected shipping costs and few payment options can cause them to abandon their basket.

Fix: Allow customers to checkout as guests. Keep forms short. Display the total costs early on. Offer your audience their preferred payment methods. Ensure everything works well on mobile. An e-commerce development service team can help you create a tailored checkout.

6. Too Many Apps/Plugins

It can be tempting to add more apps to fix issues. However, this can cause your site to become slow due to extra code. They can also cause conflicts with other tools. Often they will leave behind old scripts.
Fix: Regularly audit your apps. Only keep those that earn their keep. If you have a simple feature, consider having it built into your theme. This is a simple task for an e-commerce development service.

7. Focusing on Design

Your store may look amazing but not convert well. Fancy animations, auto playing videos, instant popups and unique designs can be frustrating for customers.

Fix: Focus on usability. Ensure buttons are easy to find, text is easy to read and information is easy to find. A good design should help customers to purchase.

8. Poor Product Pages

Product pages are the most important part of your e-commerce store. Many stores have poor product pages. With a few low quality images and 2 lines of text, customers won’t feel confident to purchase.

Fix: Add clear high quality images. Original product descriptions. Sizing and specification. Shipping and returns info. Real customer reviews. Answer any questions your customers are likely to ask.

9. No Security & Trust

Customers are giving you their personal and payment details. If they don’t feel safe or the site actually isn’t safe they won’t purchase. A security issue can really hurt your reputation.
Common issues:

• No SSL certificate.
• Out of date software.
• Unclear privacy and returns policy.
• No contact information.

Fix: Keep your platform, themes and plugins up to date. Use trusted payment gateways. Keep your policies, contact info and security easy to find.

10. No Scalability

A site that works for 50 orders a month may struggle when you get to 5,000. If your site has hard coded features, poor data structure and inflexible integrations it can be painful and costly to scale.
Fix: Build your site on a scalable platform. Use clean code. Plan your integrations with your inventory, shipping, accounting and CRM tools. Ensure you can cope with high traffic during sales and festive periods. Scalability is one of the main reasons businesses invest in e-commerce development services.

11. No Analytics

Without knowing how your customers are behaving you are guessing. Many stores are launched with no analytics, conversion tracking or events. This means you won’t know where customers are dropping off.

Fix: Set up analytics and conversion tracking. Track your funnel from product to purchase. See where customers are dropping off. Regularly review your data.

12. Not Iterating

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to think you’re done once you’ve launched. Customer expectations, search algorithms and technology are constantly evolving. If you don’t update your store it will slowly fall behind.

Fix: Think of your store as a living project. Review your performance each month. Do some small tests. Gather customer feedback. Make steady improvements.

Why E-commerce Development Services Can Help?

Many of these mistakes are easy to make and can be difficult to spot when you’re so close to your business. An experienced e-commerce development service will have a fresh pair of eyes and technical knowledge to help you:

• Create a fast mobile first store with a solid scalable foundation.
• Have a clean site structure with good technical SEO.
• Create a smooth checkout and payment process.
• Integrate with your tools.
• Test your site for speed, security and usability.
• Offer support and improvements.

Most of the time it will be much cheaper to get your development right than to fix any mistakes or lose sales.

Quick Check

• Is your store holding You Back?
• Is it fast on mobile?
• Is your navigation simple and your site structure clear?
• Is your technical SEO set up?
• Is your checkout short, clear and easy to use on mobile?
• Have you removed any apps/scripts you don’t need?
• Are your product pages answering customers questions?
• Are security and trust markers easy to find?
• Can you cope with more traffic and orders?
• Are you tracking your data?

If you answered no to most of the above you’ve found where to start! An e-commerce development service can audit each of these and fix any issues that are costing you sales.

FAQs

1. What is the most common mistake in e-commerce development?

Some of the most common mistakes are slow speeds and poor mobile. These issues will affect all your customers on all your pages. Even small delays can cause you to lose sales and hurt your search visibility. A professional e-commerce development service can fix these issues.

2. How will poor development affect my store?

Issues such as slow speeds, poor site structure, no SEO foundation and a complicated checkout will reduce your traffic, conversion rates and scalability. Over time these issues will compound and hold You Back.

3. Can I fix these issues on an existing store?

Yes! Most of these issues can be fixed. A technical audit will show you what is costing you the most. Many e-commerce development services will start with a technical audit.

4. How often should I audit my e-commerce store?

Most stores will benefit from a quick audit of speed, analytics and apps each month. A more in-depth technical and SEO audit should be done at least once or twice a year. Do an additional audit before any large sales or major changes.

5. When should I use an e-commerce development service?

Consider using a professional service if you’re launching a new store, planning a redesign, adding bespoke features or integrations, having issues with speed/conversion or scaling. An expert can often stop you from having costly issues.

6. Will a nicer looking store increase sales?

Not necessarily. Whilst appearance is important, usability, speed, trust and clear product information will have a bigger impact on conversion. The best stores have a good design but also a smooth, fast and reassuring checkout.

Final Thoughts

Most of the time your store won’t be held back by a major issue but by a few small technical and design issues. A slow page, confusing checkout and no SEO foundation. The great thing is, all of these issues can be fixed. Start by fixing the issues that are affecting the most customers. Measure your results and keep making improvements. With a solid foundation and the right e-commerce development service your store can go from being online to scaling nicely. If you’re unsure what is holding You Back, speak to our e-commerce development service team at Bloom Agency to have your store audited and see where you can make the most improvements.