The e-commerce boom has undoubtedly improved the way we shop. But even today there are some limitations because of which customers choose not to make a purchase online. Here are some problems that customers face while shopping online and their solutions.
1. Quality Issues
Every customer wishes to purchase a quality product that meets or exceeds their expectations and serves the intended function. But the primary issue with online shopping is that there is no assurance of the quality of the items you purchase.
Solution
Getting your products inspected by a third party, adding quality assurance certificates and sharing detailed reviews and feedback can help you deliver quality goods.
2. Unprofessional Designs
Customers will be reluctant with an online store that has an unprofessional design or missing graphics. This signifies that your business is having trouble and you cannot update or fix your website. Your results page is one of the most crucial locations where a decent design can make or break a deal.
Solution
Ensure that your design is current, accessible and simple to use. Make sure to check out the tips on improving your search result page.
3. Poor Search Engine
Typos are very common when people shop online. Often customers do not realize their typos and look at the zero-result page assuming their product is unavailable. At times finding your product may take a while or produce a large number of irrelevant results making it frustrating for the customer.
Solution
Typo-tolerance and autocomplete are crucial factors that can help optimize search results. By accelerating search and ensuring relevant results, autocomplete will help lower exit rate, enhance conversion rate and probably even increase your average order value.
4. Limited Payment Options
Customers often encounter issues related to finding options while making a payment. They might be unsure of how to proceed with transactions that involve credit or debit cards and at times fear making online transactions as this involves giving away their details.
Solution
It is strongly recommended to provide a variety of payment options and ensure the
methods must be safe and secure. Payment modes like cash, checks, debit/credit
cards, BOPIS (buy now pickup in-store), prepaid cards and buy now pay later
transactions should be made available.
5. Tracking, Logistics and Delivery Issues
Customers have faith in you to deliver the goods when they click the button to buy from your online business. They may wish to track their products and a negative shipping experience may discourage a customer from making another purchase from you.
Solution
If you have a brick-and-mortar store in addition to your online store you can offer an in-store pickup or a secure drop box location. Providing a pickup option along with tracking details will assure the customers to shop online without worrying about package theft.
6. Hidden Charges
When customers are left with unexpected charges like surcharges, delivery services, tax, shipping and packing charges at the end of a check-out process, they get frustrated and tend to abandon the shopping cart. Your sales can suffer significantly if your prices are not communicated.
Solution
It is always advisable to display the price inclusive of all the charges, tax and any other fees. Adding up the cost of customs and shipping for international customers is obvious, but this too can be mentioned in advance.
7. Refund Procedure
Online purchases are often returned since you can not tell how good a product is until you feel it in your hands. Assessing the return policy before making a purchase is crucial. The same is true for guarantees, as most websites fail to state clearly what their replacement procedure is for a product.
Solution
Make your return policies as fair and transparent as possible. The return policies foster trust and make life considerably simpler for the consumers who want to return items, increasing your chances of retaining them as customers.
8. Insufficient Support
Customers may cite inadequate customer service as a primary motivator when making online purchases. If you do not offer support to your consumer you end up upsetting them in addition to denying assistance. More than half of the customers prefer contacting companies through emails or social media rather than using voice-based customer support.
Solution
To provide customers with a smooth shopping experience, e-commerce store owners should invest in enhancing their customer service through live chatbot, 24×7 customer support, well-trained staff and preparing a FAQ page, along with providing contact details. This will help in higher customer conversion rates, more devoted clients and a competitive advantage.
9. Poor Customer Experience
This could imply a design flaw preventing your website from functioning properly on a mobile or perhaps your website is cluttered with pointless pop-up ads or technical issues like timeout errors. These scenarios interrupt the experience of the user instead of enhancing it.
Solution
Ensure that your hosting provider is capable of the job and that your service is adequate for the volume of visitors your site receives during peak times.
10. Payment Failures
When making an online purchase a payment failure issue can be very confusing and frustrating and could lead to the abandonment of the purchase. There could be many reasons for this like a website crash or an invalid card number.
Solution
Always ensure that customers can make payments safely and securely on your website, payments are handled correctly and that orders are certainly placed and can be monitored at the same time.
11. Inadequate Security
When conducting a business online security is a huge concern. Customers frequently fear sending their personal information over the Internet and whether the website can be trustworthy.
Solution
E-commerce websites must implement security measures like password management,
fraud detection systems, anti-phishing software and encryption. They should also ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive information
12. Page Layout
It is important to concentrate on the product page design of your website, as a stunning
and expertly designed e-commerce product pages can bring gains, increase online visibility and boost sales.
Solution
Make sure your product page contains all the relevant information including the product
title, description, availability, cost, size information, pictures and reviews. Flutter and Xamarin are two frameworks that can surely help in designing and developing your mobile app.
13. Difficult Checkout Procedure
When the checkout process is very complicated users tend to abandon their carts. Unexpected or high prices and forced account creation are also some reasons why customers lose interest, get frustrated and leave their carts.
Solution
You can customize your checkout procedure to the demands of the user. If the purchase involves simple products, offer a simple checkout procedure.
