There are many advantages for a business to have a web platform to offer its products and services. Despite this, and although the growth rate of e-commerce is positive, there are still specific barriers that prevent e-commerce from being fully exploited. The reason for this situation could be summed up in one word: distrust. And it is that, although indeed, new technologies are already an active and integrated part of our day today, we must not forget that they are still a novelty for many cautious users.
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The obstacles of ecommerce
Fear of sharing personal data
Consumers are very reluctant to share their data with merchants as more and more information is required to register. The obligation to share your address, telephone number or even the data of your national identity document has become a factor of rejection of ecommerce for many consumers. The distrust that revolves around offering personal data is accentuated in the economic field. According to data from the INE, for consumers to start shopping in ecommerce, payment gateways must be diverse. Ecommerce consumers like to be able to decide which payment channel they are going to use, depending on which one deserves the most trust. The most used is the credit card, the Paypal service,
Refusal of shipping costs
You enter an ecommerce. You take a tour of all the available products, evaluate those that interest you and enter them in the shopping cart. When you pay, you realize that the amount has changed, now being increased by shipping costs. What do you think is the reaction of more than half of the buyers? Indeed, abandon the purchase.
Shipping costs are, on many occasions, the cause of a potential buyer not making their purchase online. This is because the consumer does not like to see the price of their order increased for something so intangible, so the experts recommend that the products already have that expense at their initial price.
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Problems with the cast
If you are a regular at shopping online, indeed, it does not seem strange to you that this is one of the most significant handicaps of ecommerce. And it is that, since you receive the delivery notice until it is formalized, a million things can happen that happen to have you waiting at home for hours so that you finally turn out, without knowing very well how “absent.” Offering a collection point or more excellent delivery facilities would be the way to avoid this problem.
Complicated returns
Sometimes the return policies are so strict and require so much effort to make consumer satisfaction disappear entirely. The result of this experience is usually the refusal of a new purchase. This is the case of that ecommerce that does not allow you to return for free that requires that the original packaging be kept or does not have a physical collection point. Eliminating this border is very simple, and the benefits for companies are enormous.
Unattractive ecommerce
On many occasions, the barrier is given by an unattractive or difficult-to-navigate website. If it is difficult to find the product you are looking for or the images of it do not show it clearly, it is most likely that ecommerce will fail. Although having a navigable website is essential for SEO positioning, users must have a positive experience.
Poor adaptability to new mobile devices
It may seem a lie at this point. However, many electronic stores are not adapted to mobile phones. Because most internet consumers use their mobile devices to access the web, the immediate need to adapt ecommerce to all devices seems obvious.
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Distrust of the product
The fear of receiving a completely different product from the one purchased is another barrier to ecommerce and is one reason why many consumers prefer to buy physically. To prevent this from happening, you should offer as much information as possible about the product in question, with professional photos and even a section so that the buyers themselves can upload their photos and opinions. This will generate confidence in the rest of the consumers and will favor the online purchase.
This mistrust has given rise to two phenomena that would have no place without new technologies: showrooming, which consists of carrying out a physical examination of the product in the store and buying it online, and webrooming, which is just the opposite, the consumer becomes informs through the network and purchases the product in a physical store.
The keys to overcoming ecommerce barriers
Considering the barriers that consumers encounter when making a purchase online, we can extract a series of keys to avoid these small obstacles. Some of them are:
- Simplify registration processes or offer the option to buy without registering.
- Have all the possible payment channels so that the consumer chooses the one that best suits their possibilities.
- Eliminate shipping costs by including these in the total cost of the products so that the final sum is not increased and the consumer knows the money he will spend from the first moment.
- Work with professional delivery companies and have collection points in cities.
- Have a clear and straightforward return policy.
- Offer an updated, orderly website with quality images and a search engine.
- Adapt ecommerce to mobile devices, including the payment gateway.
- Have an App for ecommerce.
- Offer the possibility of saving the shopping cart for the future.
To learn more about your e-commerce characteristics, we recommend that you read the ecommerce administration guide and become an expert. You can also take a step further and take a course to learn how to implement your virtual store simply; various platforms will allow you to transfer your business to the digital universe. Complement your training with a course on electronic commerce, and your business will be a real success.
Also Read: SEO Tips For Your eCommerce Content Strategy
