Subscribe
Sign in
General
p/generalShare and discuss tech, products, business, startups, or product recommendations
Start new thread
Umut Sönmez

Why do small businesses fail on eCommerce?

by•

I read lots of reports that most small businesses are not successful on the internet. There are some exceptions, of course. But the result stays the same. After some research, I saw that Shopify is expensive to start. The small business owners cannot see the value. So they skip this. Then there is WooCommerce. It is cheaper but it is harder and more expensive to implement. This time, small business owners do not have enough resources. That's why I am testing a new platform for small businesses. - You can start your store in under 5 minutes. - 0% transaction fees. - Listing the first 10 products is free. This may help small business owners to beat the competition. https://vetrinalive.com

Add a comment

Replies

Best
Chirotpal
E-commerce operations are time consuming, they're doable but consumes a lot of time - I believe this is where many fail as they fail to maintain a balance between operations and business growth.
Umut Sönmez
@cpd_2k5 Great point. How can we improve those processes?
Chirotpal
@umut_sonmez That is a very interesting question, I wish I knew it all. But some of the major pain points that I faced were: 1.Getting Products on the platform mainly when you're a marketplace (if you're a D2C it's still simpler) - sellers don't want to do a lot of work but a lot of information is needed per product for customers to be interested. A simple solution to on-board sellers and their products would be a game changer in the market. 2. Managing RTO's - this is a big pain not only from finance but standpoint but customer satisfaction as well and for some reason at least in India around 40 - 50% of shipments result in RTO's - this is cash burning at it's best. 3. Tackling Accounting & taxes - there are solutions available but they're complicated as well (from implementation and understanding perspective). 4. Better User Experience of the App - This is a never ending process and there's no way by which one can easily understanding what needs to be done - all analytics solutions are about marketing and re-targeting but none (as far as my knowledge) goes about UI/UX improvements - it is always a guess work and thus hit & trial. 5. Integrating Shipping providers - Most of them wants volume in sell which many start-ups won't have and they're very expensive as well to begin with. And many more I guess but, these 5 points are definitely big pain points when you've a small team and limited cash burning capability.
Umut Sönmez
@cpd_2k5 These are important observations. Thank you for your ideas and sharing them with us.
Giuseppe Avagliano
I think that for a lot of small business owners, opening an online store is something hard to achieve for several reasons: 1) eCommerce platforms out there are not so easy to use. You have to practice a lot and you must ask for help from experts in many cases. 2) Subscription pricing is high and many platforms also apply transaction fees up to 6%. This is a huge amount of profit taken from the owners and discourages from the start. 3) Opening an online business requires the same hard work you put in your brick-and-mortar store. This is something not clear to everyone and small business owners often think that once you created your personal online store, the game is done and that starting from that day, customers will start to flow magically. In my opinion, cheaper platforms, easier platforms, and more education on e-commerce business and marketing strategies can encourage small business owners to start and win.
Umut Sönmez
@giuseppe_avagliano Great ideas, thanks for sharing!
Antonio Silvestre
In my opinion, one of the factors that discourage small businesses to go online is because their native approach to customers is very personal in their brick-and-mortar stores. With an eCommerce, this approach must be converted into good storytelling that shows to customers who you are and with tools that allow also you to be more close to customers during and post-purchase, for example, through live chats. More education on how to do online business is required.
Umut Sönmez
@antonio_silvestre Totally agree! We need to show them the opportunity.
I think because of lack of resources.
Umut Sönmez
@daniel_henry4 Human or money: which one blocks more?
Zhen Chen
@daniel_henry4 very much so. Marketing is probably most critical part of this. In general, e-commerce has a lot of things to worry about than marketing: product searching, sourcing, inventory, storage and fulfillment. These things all add up and take away your time, especially if you start out as a single person army. All those will require your time and $$.
Simeon Zdraveski
maybe lack of perspective and dedication
Umut Sönmez
@simeon_zdraveski1 I totally agree with this. Small business owners cannot see what is coming.
Meenank Minnu
Lack of marketing skills. They may have the best products ever but they don't know how to sell online. They see tutorials, try implementing and fail at them. That's why my approach has always been videos, posts, community so business owners can come forward and share their problems.
Umut Sönmez
@superminnu This is great approach Meenank, thanks for sharing!
Marija Ilievska
Thank you for this post, it is a useful read :)
Michele Cimmino
Really interesting ! Thank you for posting
Marina Chichel
Great idea!
Tracy Williams
I think because of lack of experience. When I started my business, e-commerce was an important part for me, but I didn’t know anything about it. So, I decided to contact experts, I found cirkul customer service here https://cirkul.pissedconsumer.co... and they helped me to succeed on the internet.
Umut Sönmez
@tracy_williams1 Thank you for the resource, let me check it!
Abdelkarim Stambouli
I'll give it a try, it looks interesting, thanks for sharing.
djamel cherbal
Interesting !! Thanks for sharing
Nora Hevesi
Great - sounds really interesting!
Alessandro Durni
I think that a business failure is based on so much aspects, such as for example the shop owner that's not able to make the products truly inviting for the customers adding options and detailed informations, or the difficulty to create a good design shop. So I think that the failure is based on the tools that the shop owner uses, to achieve some actions in a simple way, helping him to start to sell in a fastest way with less work.
Umut Sönmez
@ad_ld This a great observation, totally agree with you!
Chris Enokela
Nice piece, really informative
Dalem Nazim Abdelaziz
Some think having their presence in the digital world is the GOAL - but it is only the first step!
Ramy Abadlia
Great thank you for sharing !
Dragos Popescu
Moving your business to online is not an easy task. Thanks for these insights.
Ivan Battimiello
Thanks for posting, I will try it for sure
vijay kumar
Basically, having an E-commerce platform for whatever business in which you engage is not enough for business expansion, this is where most entrepreneurs fail. Most businesses fail because they don’t take the right way to do business. Bad long-term strategy(business should grow faster, and become more dominant faster). Bad product and bad product development/strategy. Bad marketing and bad marketing strategy. Bad management. Bad supply chain(including Manufacturing). All strategies should be optimal for reaching and achieved or surpassed. All departments should do a stellar result.