Top 16 mistakes to avoid when developing an eCommerce store in 2022

Top 16 mistakes to avoid when developing an eCommerce store in 2022 Achieving success in e-commerce isn’t a cakewalk. To remain competitive, retailers must keep their website up to date with a solid business plan and features. With so many e-commerce businesses actively existing, not giving importance to the website factors such as UI, features, SEO, etc. could lead them to financial losses and affect their customer base. Hence finding the right e-commerce development firm with skilled developers is critical to address such concerns. E-commerce developers assist businesses in creating sustainable online stores with captivating UI to catch user interest, user-friendly features to reduce bounce rates, and ideal SEO to boost online exposure. In this blog, we will learn about the mistakes that e-commerce developers make when developing e-commerce stores, as well as the difficulties they confront. Wrong CMS and failed measures Measurement is set up incorrectly “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” is still the most relevant phrase to remember when setting up a new eCommerce project Many set up events incorrectly or forget to measure key parts of the funnel at all - leading to a lack of insight into how the site can be improved Wrong content management system To ensure all listings can be displayed accurately, developers have to choose and leverage a fitting CMS Some systems, for example that of Web flow usually limit the amount of items per collection list to 100 for large eCommerce shops, that limit can be reached very quickly -Jan-Philipp Peters, co-founder of BitsForDigits Limited search functionality One major ecommerce development mistake I see in many websites is limited search functionality. Customers will be frustrated by a faulty search function, especially if there are many products listed on the website. Customers are more likely to purchase a product if it is easily traceable through a website's search button. Moreover, a proper functioning search tool should be paired with rich product descriptions that contain the necessary keywords and product attributes. -Eric McGee, Sr. Network Engineer at TRGDatacenters A flashy font use in website A common mistake for eCommerce developers to make is forgetting to put themselves in their prospective customers' shoes. A flashy font may be exciting, but is it readable? Your copy may convey that you're excited about your products, but does it provide immediate value? At the end of the day, eCommerce developers should always try to anticipate the feelings and behaviors of their target audience. - Bea Tanese, Content Specialist at ShipMonk Over-designed layouts and ignored voice search functionality Developers while making an eCommerce store, don't prioritize content for voice search above all else. Plenty of eCommerce stores put most of their time, resources, and budgets towards optimizing for mobile devices. Paying more than $5 for a domain name. If you're adding to your existing site, use the free service Over-designing layouts and profiles instead of just getting something basic up quickly (but still looking good). Remember this is an Ecommerce Store, not a blog or social media site like Facebook or Pinterest. You should be thinking about mobile displays when designing layouts in case customers are searching through your store on their mobile. - Farhan Advani Marketing Director of BuyHerePayHere Read More: How important the theme is in eCommerce? A/B testing for E-commerce business For larger e-commerce businesses, the process may take up several months up to a year. After several months of putting effort into something that is supposed to look great, only, in the end, it doesn't necessarily work fine with the users. But the problem with revolutionary changes is that once you've made a decision, there's no coming back to what you've had before. What I think they should be interested in instead are evolutionary changes. Designing a simple page and adding more content later is not the most elegant solution, but it is the solution that doesn't involve staking everything on one roll of the dice. Small, incremental improvements that are accompanied by A/B tests allow every business to quickly find out what works / will work and what doesn't / won't, and which direction pays off and which simply doesn't. This incremental approach can save them plenty of time and money. Not to mention that the risks of getting something wrong are minimal because every change can be tested, and only those that promise to work are implemented. So, as much as some e-commerce may welcome the idea of a complete makeover, it simply pays off to take an incremental approach. - Faizan Khan, Marketing Expert at Webtute Desired payment method We build SaaS tools for businesses, and we also develop websites for eCommerce businesses. Here is one challenge we have identified Failing to Offer Various Payment Options Consumers want to enjoy the freedom of being able to pay with the means they prefer. You also need to provide security, ensuring that they feel secure enough. If you restrict how they pay, they might decide to go somewhere else where they feel comfortable with the means of payment. As the developer works on your website, remind them to offer diverse payment methods to accommodate the desired payment method of all customers. - Harriet Chan, Co-founder of CocoFinder Accurate response to endpoint As a developer, being specific and informative with user-facing feedback is usually the way to go, but in an e-commerce setting, it can be detrimental or even dangerous. For example, requiring too-specific address input formats will lead to lowered conversion rates. Or worse, returning an accurate response to an endpoint like “forgot password” can lead to an attacker enumerating user accounts, which is akin to a data breach. -Alexis Wirth, Operations Manager at Swenson He Fast loading speeds and good navigation The main mistake that many eCommerce developers are doing is cluttering the website. I know there are studies that the XYZ plugin increases the conversation rate by X. But you can't just pile up plugins and expect better outcomes. Most visitors and potential customers won't even stay on your page if the loading time is slow. Your goal needs to be to create a great customer experience. That starts with incredibly fast loading speeds and good navigation. Have pop-ups and plugins when they feel natural and skip them if they disturb the customer engagement. Given that your product is awesome, just focus on providing enough information, good pictures, and fast loading speeds Use GooglePageSpeed Insights to get a score for your website. Don't launch before achieving at least 85%. -Howard Gordon Co-Founder ofCustomplasticpart Imbalanced design and lack of product information Lack of information Developers do not provide contact and address thinking it is an online operation. It is an incorrect perception. Contacts and addresses provide credibility to eCommerce. Lack of balance in design and features Most developers tend to focus on one thing and disregard others. For example, security features will be so robust that checkout for consumers becomes a headache, or the layout and design of web pages will be so cosmetic that it makes finding options and products inconvenient. Lack of product description Developers are so invested in visuals that they undermine the value of the text. Photos of products can never convey what exactly it does. Lack of description leaves the consumer guessing and finally moving to other websites. -Nathan Hughes, Marketing Director at Diggity Marketing Neglecting SEO strategies 'Neglecting SEO is one of the biggest mistakes eCommerce developers do whilst building eCommerce stores. URL structure is one of the main ones as it improves user experience which is also an important factor of SEO. Having a logical URL structure with page hierarchies can improve the overall experience of your site. In addition, many technical SEO aspects are also forgotten about when developing an eCommerce store. Meta tag placements, schema, and breadcrumbs to name a few that are often overlooked but the smallest of changes make the biggest difference.' -Millie Henderson, Work at Surge Marketing Solutions Product search optimization The biggest mistake we encounter with eCommerce sites is that they do not optimize their product pages for search demand. This is a major issue since you may be consuming your time advertising your product in a way that no one will utilize to find it, which shows it will go unnoticed. For example, optimizing your product page for 12-cup coffee pot while people are searching for a Cuisinart 12-cup coffee pot might significantly reduce your position in SERPs. You might as well be invisible, to be honest. Spend some time analyzing search demand and the terms people are using to locate your product while creating your headlines, title tags, and product descriptions. - Shiv Gupta, CEO of Incrementors Speed optimization and mobile-first design One of the biggest mistakes I see is web developers not focusing enough on performance and speed and focusing on JavaScript-heavy functionality that a small percentage of businesses will actually use. Though the mobile-first design is far from new development, the number of stores I see that prioritize desktop functionality over a simple, mobile-first design remains significant. The problem facing most developers (and me, for that matter) is that the functionality that will help a website garner traffic is never apparent nor especially amazing. Most elements that make a store visually appealing actually hurt its growth. - Burgess Powell, Owner of HouseFM Complex check-out process, inadequate search engine Complex check-out process One of the most damaging mistakes that many eCommerce developers make is creating an overly complex checkout process. The reality is that the more steps you put between the customer and their completed purchase, the more the chances are that they will simply abandon the purchase. This means instead of asking the customers to sign up an account before they make a purchase, you can offer them a “check-out as guest” option so that people can avoid that tedious process and quickly enter their billing and shipping information Inadequate search engine Most customers often know what it is exactly they are searching for, and as such, many will opt to utilize a search engine instead of going through the categories and filters. So, whenever customers encounter a website with an inaccurate search engine, they are often discouraged from pursuing the item they were looking for any further and are more inclined to quickly find it on another website instead. As such, you need to ensure that the search tool that you are designing offers customers precise results and also offers them the right filters they need to refine their results. - Eden Cheng co-founder of PeopleFinderFree Searching for a reliable NopCommerce development company for your business? CONTACT US Optimize e-commerce website user experience In the world of eCommerce and web design and web development, design is the vehicle to support your brand message and represent your fantastic products and services. The primary factor in creating a positive shopping experience and leading to higher sales is customer loyalty. There is nothing to fear if you include user reviews on your eCommerce site, but I am here to tell you that it will only win if reviews are reviewed and involve real buyers of the product. . An eCommerce business that makes it difficult for customers to search for products and make a purchase can be a frustrating experience. Customers can be annoyed if they have even the slightest trouble finding a particular product on your website. So, work on user-friendliness, easy navigation, and intuitive user interface that enhances customer experience greatly. Your eCommerce platform will not only determine how you present and sell your products to customers, but it will also determine how you attract users and how you grow your business over time. From website design and customer service to the right products and platform, the development of eCommerce portals helps you achieve your place in the eCommerce industry. Not only will you be sure that your eCommerce site is optimized for success, but also you will build a following of satisfied and loyal customers who will be thrilled to buy your products from time to time. The creation of the perfect product page is the most important priority especially as it brings in great conversions which contribute to the company's turnover. -Mr. Gigi J.K. Founder/CEO of Virtina Wrong platform, poor design, low-quality images Choosing the wrong platform The platform that you build your store on matters a lot in the long run. You need to offer the best features with your website design and failing to choose a platform that offers those features can prove to be detrimental. Poor design Many developers fail to design their homepage that serves their own and the customer’s needs, e.g., complicated navigation, and too much white space. Low-quality imagesn Putting product images that weren’t taken with proper lighting or aren’t high definition can deter customers away. - Neil John from One Computer Guy Multiple Reasons “The internet is currently dominated by ecommerce businesses. In the current market, there are a plethora of Ecommerce companies to choose from. However, only a few handful are capable of surviving in such a hostile environment. This is due to the various mistakes that ecommerce developers make while creating the website. They are: Poor customer service The most important thing for you to concentrate on is customer service. Customer service is always vital, even if clients will only be purchasing online and will not be interacting with customer service in person. Insufficient product descriptions The product description is just as important as the product photos. Try to offer a thorough description of the product to cover all of the selling aspects, while also answering questions regarding how the item is manufactured, what it does, and how it works. Desktop-only site design The majority of today's transactions are conducted via mobile phones or tablets. This is due to the compatibility of the website. As a result, make sure your website is mobile-friendly or device-independent. Poor site navigation Your e-commerce site should be simple to use. People should be able to browse via photos to the product page. View more information about a product and return to the site by clicking on the header at the top.” - Timothy Woods, Owner of Carnivore Style “Long checkout process After deciding and adding their chosen products to the cart, the buyer should be able to make their purchase swiftly. The checkout process should be simple and not take long; you should be done in a few clicks. If a customer finds it difficult to complete, they will simply go to another website. This is the reason why the option to checkout as a guest is so popular these days; people don’t want to register an account every time they make a purchase. Insufficient product images and descriptions This is possibly the biggest mistake that eCommerce developers make. High-quality images allow customers to get more product information before purchasing. Since customers can’t hold the product or see it in person, it is imperative that the developers provide images of the products from all angles. Without adequate images of a product, you cannot expect any customer to purchase it. The same applies to product descriptions; this is how the developer can provide a detailed description of the product, including the specifications, features, materials, etc. Limited shipping options Customers from all around the world will be browsing your platform, expecting to have shipping options for their specific country. Developers should focus on adding a variety of different shipping options at different price points and with varying delivery times. This will encourage international customers to purchase products from their website as it offers convenient shipping options.” - Isla Sibanda from Privacy Australia “Hiding contact information When customers send over their credit card information, they want to know they’re working with a legitimate organization. They want to know that if they have an issue, they can talk to a real person and get the assistance they require. It is a mistake to not provide contact information when creating an eCommerce store or to hide it in such a way that the consumer cannot easily find it. Customers are less likely to trust the website and, as a result, less likely to conduct business with you. Lack of social media presence Not including social media is a mistake since it is one of the powerful stages for marketing products. Also, it is extremely difficult to run a business nowadays without a social media presence. For example, Facebook and Twitter are excellent choices for promoting channels that allow consumers to spread a few words about your items and website. Lack of payment options Accepting Visa or MasterCard, or only accepting payments through a PayPal account, is another mistake that developers make. There is no longer any justification for this since there are other customers who use American Express but don’t have or desire a PayPal account. What about the person who doesn't have a credit card and prefers to pay with their bank account? To maximize the number of orders, developers should offer as many payment options as possible.” - Katherine, Director of Spyic “Most entrepreneurs just want to start their business right away especially if they have the budget and just want to double or triple their profit in no time. What they don't know is that there are important things that need to be considered first. The first thing is identifying your niche. This is tied up with you knowing how to reach and pitch for your business in your market. Not knowing your niche is the same as not knowing your customers and audience. Sooner or later, your business will fail. After knowing your niche, you now have a better grasp of your purpose and target market. But you also need to make sure that your platform and website layout, as well as navigation, are user-friendly. This can help you expand your online store experience and attract more customers. Poor website design may lead to your customers being frustrated or worse, not making any transactions at all! If you have all these set up already. You are now closer to reaching your goal. But before that, you also need to know that eCommerce requires commitment and customer service. Being focused on your product and profit but not investing in customer service satisfaction will still lead you to nothing. Seeing your website properly set up with a variety of products but bad customer service? This fails their expectations from you. You need to listen to your customers and their feedback, treat them carefully and build your eCommerce business much better upon that." -Mico Sulla CMO of Blue Bird Fitness Reinventing the wheel It is very tempting to create every functionality of our platform from scratch. However, doing so leads to several problems, especially in a production environment. A pre-existing solution is developed and tested by a large number of developers, testers, and users. Our reinvented solution might take considerable time and effort to reach the level of maturity at which the existing solutions are at present. Further, our users may face issues with our system that may badly affect the popularity of our new platform. It can easily avoid all this by using an existing, time-tested solution. We should only do customizing solutions to issues if it directly impacts our branding and capacity to provide something unique. Complicated checkout After making a choice, the consumer should be able to buy fast. And the checkout should be quick and straightforward. If a client has trouble checking out, most likely, they will abandon the transaction and switch to some other platform. We should provide “checkout as a guest” so customers may skip establishing accounts and other tedious procedures. Keep the signup process to one screen if feasible. However, a non-intrusive message should be there requesting users to register for better management and tracking of their orders. Redundant product descriptions Replicating the product descriptions from the manufacturer is not going to attract search engine traffic to our platform, leading to lower rankings. The first reason is simple: poor website hosting, design, and marketing lead to eCommerce failure. Failure to comprehend the competition and develop a niche product would almost certainly result in eCommerce failure. A bad eCommerce site turns off clients. It's easy to say but hard to do. Failing to partner with a great design firm leads to the site's failure rate. 40% of buyers will not purchase if shipping is not free. A difficulty with checkout could be the cause of this. A whopping 68.8 percent of customers abandon their shopping carts on eCommerce websites. Checkout mistakes are expensive. Inventory management and marketing involve product photographs and descriptions. Ecommerce websites have only one shop window. Lack of practice increases failure rates. Advertising and marketing cost a lot of money. Content marketing for eCommerce websites should be SEO-focused. It will generate more free traffic than sponsored ads. Ecommerce websites invest in advertising haphazardly or not if they don't have a strategy for getting their products to market. Investor confidence diminishes when results aren't as expected. The failed death spiral has now begun. A better approach is the solution.” - Daniela Sawyer, Founder of FindPeopleFast “Following are some mistakes that you find in eCommerce store development: Insufficient product description A product image and name are never enough to convince a customer. When purchasing online, people look at detailed product descriptions. With short descriptions, people usually skip products. Poor image quality The product images you use on your eCommerce website speak volumes about the quality of your website and the authenticity of your product. Pictures with poor quality depict unwanted or fake products. Therefore, a high-quality image is essential for any product on an eCommerce website. Complex navigation As customers take action on an eCommerce website, they like to know what process of the purchase they are on. Therefore, navigation is essential to track this process. Common mistake eCommerce developers make is not to include any navigation on the website. Poor search, sort, and filters Different buyers visit your eCommerce website with different intentions. Some want to search for products using keywords, and others apply filters to the shortlist. Many eCommerce websites include minimal options to sort, filter, or search for products which makes it difficult for customers to find relevant products.” - Alex Williams CFO of FindThisBes “Complex checkout process: Customers want to shop and make their purchases as easy as possible. Making the checkout process complicated will result in them abandoning the purchase altogether. Lack of shipping options: Most websites nowadays offer multiple shipping options for the customer’s convenience. As a developer, if you give customers a lack of shipping options on your website, they will turn their attention elsewhere. Desktop-only site design: Failure to ensure a mobile-optimized website can be the biggest mistake for an eCommerce web developer. Almost everyone uses their phones to access websites and has a desktop-only site design will only give off a negative impression” - Rbea Hmam Business Head at Almowafir “Running an eCommerce store is not an easy feat, it requires a deep understanding of the different elements in the market and continuous learning. Here are a few mistakes that we often see eCommerce developers make: Creating a CMS from scratch: It requires in-depth programming knowledge and can prompt even seasoned developers to make mistakes Ignoring security issues: As you are responsible for your company’s and consumers data, you need a CMS that protects against hacks and breaches Unattractive design and copy: Your homepage design and layout should complement the type of products you are selling, otherwise, the website would not engage the audience Complicated checkout process: This can cause customers to become frustrated by the number of steps during checkout, and inevitably abandon their purchase decision” - Aviad Faruz CEO at Faruzo “Placing inadequate product images with minimal descriptions on their e-commerce platform. This limits the ability of potential customers to make informed decisions on whether to purchase products or not. Using an ineffective search engine optimizer (SEO) strategy. Developers must ensure that potential customers can search for their e-commerce platform online using a variety of keywords. Creating an e-commerce platform that only uses a desktop design. This doesn't take potential customers viewing the company's website on their mobile phones or tablets into account.” - Robert founder of Tool Tester “They don’t improve customer service, which is an essential part of building an eCommerce store. You can’t simply avoid it since the customers are now buying online, and there are no face-to-face interactions. Another common mistake is that developers put significantly less emphasis on offering proper product descriptions. It can push your customers away because they don’t know what they are purchasing. Not having a logo is a big mistake because there is zero brand visibility which is never good if working in a competitive market. Not having images can be bad because customers require the website to be eye-appealing; otherwise, they will get bored and click away and buy something from a more appealing website. Lastly, providing incorrect contact information is one of the most common mistakes that eCommerce website developers make. It hampers the credibility of the brand.” - Patrick Smith, Editor-in-chief at - Firesticktricks “Not optimizing the site for mobile devices. An e-commerce store that looks great on laptop and desktop screens but is substandard on mobile devices points to a crucial design flaw. Going with a poor theme. If the theme of your online store is poor, such as very dark or very light, the website visitors would leave the site and not come back. The theme color should be neutral and go well with the logo of your brand. Not providing enough payment options. These days, customers look for more payment options than just cash-on-delivery or credit cards. Try to integrate more options, such as PayPal and digital wallets.” - Perry Zheng CEO of Cash Flow Portal “Mistakes include: Forgetting to secure staging environments. Choosing known passwords Not vetting third-party plugins Using common subdomains for staging environments, i.e., dev, staging, old, etc. Not enforcing two-factor authentication (2FA) The importance of two-factor authentication (2FA), web application firewall (WAF), and third-party plugins are just as important during development as they are in production. Developers frequently forget to secure their staging environments. Several recommendations include: Vet third-party plugins. Plugins developed by third parties are the major source of malware attacks. Educate clients on the importance of choosing a unique password. Previously used passwords can be found through known data breaches. Enable 2FA across staging and production environments. When it comes to your staging environment, use the zero trust model. Use your firewall to only allow your client or developer IP addresses. Obfuscate your staging subdomains. Oftentimes, developers will copy all production data to staging environments that lack proper security. Hackers frequently check for use of development subdomains, i.e., staging, old, development, dev, etc. Hackers will capitalize on this weakness to steal customer names, addresses, order information, and other personally identifiable information. Tight security protocols with minimal obfuscation in both production and staging environments can go a long way in deterring attacks. Educating yourself and your clients on proper security hygiene should be at the top of your to-do list. It may be the difference between a failed eCommerce store and a successful one.” - Sam Jadali, Founder of Host Duplex Conclusion For merchants, moving their operations online has become critical. However, with so much competition, success in e-commerce is not so easy. To attract visitors, an e-commerce website with user-friendly features and a glitch-free design is required. In this article, we discussed the types of errors that eCommerce developers make when creating e-commerce websites. It will assist retailers in understanding the issues associated with moving their business online.

Kapil Panchal

A passionate Technical writer and an SEO freak working as a Content Development Manager at iFour Technolab, USA. With extensive experience in IT, Services, and Product sectors, I relish writing about technology and love sharing exceptional insights on various platforms. I believe in constant learning and am passionate about being better every day.