Top Biggest E-commerce Challenges in 2021 and How to Overcome Them

An E-commerce store is undoubtedly the main weapon for the growth of any active business out there. As per the recent statistics, more than 82% of the well-established brands are now marking their online presence and proving the power of the online marketplace. Besides, top marketing enthusiasts and experts claim that there would be a significant rise in e-commerce platforms by the end of 2022.

The rapid rise of online stores last year followed by the increasing mobile users is the potential reason behind such expectations. The present market scenario after the pandemic is indeed making the people witness the growth and thus welcoming all offline businesses.

But, like the offline market, even e-commerce platforms come along with some challenges that a business must face to be successful. If you are new to the digital marketing world, here are the biggest challenges in online stores in 2021 and how to overcome them.

1. Engaging the audience and making them the purchasers

It is a mere fact that besides being an easy approach to the audience, the online marketplace is highly competitive as well. Both the startups and well-established companies need to strive and do their best to engage the audience with their offerings and user experience.

On the other hand, the potential customers these days are well aware of the Internet and how to reach the alternatives to a specific business. So, it was never this tougher to engage the audience and make them purchase a product or service.

Solution

The first and foremost thing to do as an e-commerce business is to make sure if you are targeting the most relevant audience. Secondly, ensure whether your website is working seamlessly to meet their requirements.

If those two factors are up to the mark, all you need is to learn from the competitors. Do some research, take professional advice or the guide from Pathlock.com and then improvise to take your strategy to the next level.

2. Advancing the customer experience frequently

An e-commerce platform will potentially become successful on the internet only when it provides the best user experience over the active competitors.

But, reaching the expectations of the present targeted audience of 2021 is tougher as they are mature internet users. This means any potential customer can easily shift to any other alternatives if the user experience is not up to the mark.

Nowadays, shoppers expect a similar experience as of the local offline store but reliably and effortlessly. But, this aspect is often accompanied by factors like great optimization, faster processing, and readily available options to navigate anywhere they want.

Solution

Start with having a clean website and improve the user experience in all ways possible. Several ways are used by different businesses keeping the targeted audience in mind. Well, the considerable common aspects include easy navigation, clear CTAs, and flawless optimization.

3. Possibly cyber and data security

One of the biggest challenges faced by e-commerce businesses and every online business is security breaches. Being a customer-oriented platform, you need to preserve the customer’s data related to their profile and payment methods. But, any technical issue or security breach can cause severe damage to regular operations.

Besides just loss of data and chances of mishandling by the intruders, such issues can also cause immense brand damage. After such an issue, potential customers are most likely to lose trust in the company with their data, which leads to disaster for any online business.

Solution

Installing security plugins and having trusted and efficient malware protection software support and data certificates is the best way to protect data from cyber-attacks. One can find several plugins out there for e-commerce platforms.

4. Building customer loyalty

It is quite hard to build customer loyalty with the internet flooded with tons of options for an e-commerce business. To sustain the heavy competition in the online marketplace, a business needs to ensure that once a customer purchases something from the showcase, it must return.

It is estimated that the success rate in selling a product/service to an existing customer is around 70%, whereas making the new customer is just 10%. So, it is clear that a business can’t sustain itself without customer loyalty.

Solution

Providing excellent customer service by using the demographic locations and the user profile data is the best way to build customer loyalty. With this information, a business will return provide the most relevant offerings for the customers without the need to search for them. So, ultimately, the existing customer is purchasing again from the same platform without surfing around the internet for the required thing.

5. Choosing the right technology partner

Approaching the right audience, engaging them with the right environment, and making them purchase the offerings is a tough task. So, a dedicated technology partner to create a website, maybe a mobile application, and manage them in the topnotch condition is essential. With a professional companion, it is hard for an e-commerce platform to grow.

Solution

The Internet has almost everything, starting from the list of renowned, reputed digital marketing experts to the guide to approach them. All you need is to make sure your chosen service is most favorable for your needs by considering all essential factors.

Lastly

An e-commerce business may come across some other challenges like choosing payment gateways and shipment methods. But, by facing those five challenges in the online marketplace, it is easier to learn about the market and potential customers’ preferences to move forward.