According to one study, Ecommerce websites have about an 80% failure rate. Other researchers claim it’s as high as 97%. Why are these numbers so huge, and what can you do to insure your success online?

Many claim one of the reasons the failure rate is so high is because an ecommerce business can be easy to set up and for only a small amount of money. Having created hundreds of ecommerce websites over the past 20 years, I can assure you that setting up an online store is NOT easy – it takes a significant amount of work. Professional photographs of every product from multiple angles, combined with well-written sales copy alone can be both time consuming and expensive, not to mention the technical aspects.

Too much competition is also cited as a reason for the high failure rate. With over 1 billion websites out there, this is in fact a real issue. Why would someone come to your website in the first place, and if they did manage to find there way there, what would make them buy from you?

Almost everything imaginable is now for sale on Amazon at prices that are hard for most people to match, so buying from your little commerce shop is unlikely. Yet, competition alone is the only reason ecommerce websites fail.

It takes more hard work to succeed online than offline because people can’t feel and see what they are buying. You have to be better than your physical competitors, in every aspect of your business. The reason Amazon has been successful is not because they have lower prices than everyone else. Its because they do EVERYTHING better than everyone else, including lower prices. If you want to compete in the online business world, there is something you absolutely MUST do. You mustwork your website with as much passion and effort as you do your physical business. Costumers don’t just show up because the website has been built. Having a great website built for you is only the beginning of your work. Now you have to get people to actually come to your website. This does not happen by magic, just because you have an SEO optimized site. You have to drive traffic to your online store, just like you do to your physical store. Amateurs attempt to do this by sending out press releases, blogging, and posting on social media. This can be very slow and ineffective. Professionals, on the other hand, realize that the best way to do this is to pay for the traffic (don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be expensive).

There are two ways that you can do this:

1. Word-of-mouth. Find affiliates or joint-venture partners who are in a similar space as you are and leverage their followers by offering to pay a commission when they drive traffic to your website. Forbes recently produced an article indicating that “Influencers Are the New Brands“.  They state that influencers are the new celebrity endorsements. In fact, data from influencer marketing platform MuseFind shows that 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than a traditional celebrity endorsement. With that being the case, let your affiliates market to their lists and then pay them when they make a sale.
2.  Advertise. Digital advertising is the best way to drive lots of traffic to your website. You can target people specifically who match your ideal customer profile, and once they have visited your website, even if they don’t buy anything on their first visit, you can target them again and again by create ads that “follow” them around as they visit other sites on the Internet. And all this can be done for a tiny fraction of traditional advertising.

Digital advertising can be a boon to your small business, even if you don’t sell products online. But don’t make the mistake of only advertising during the holiday season. As Henry Ford said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” Yes, you should advertise during the holidays, but because so many other people are advertising during this time of the year, you face more competition, which results in fewer eyeballs and higher costs. Be consistent – get started now but advertise throughout the New Year. When you do, you may just find that your business overcomes the odds and you end up being successful online.

Call WebStorees Ltd ay 877-924-1414 to get started.

Greg Jameson