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Why do small businesses fail on eCommerce?
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
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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.
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@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.
@cpd_2k5 These are important observations. Thank you for your ideas and sharing them with us.
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.
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.
One thing is that you are not targeting the right audience. Proper market research, SEO, running the correct ad campaign, and competitive market pricing are some of the significant factors that define the path of your eCommerce business.
@qudsia_ali totally agree. These are specific topics and how a small business owner can overcome these issues? Maybe a ready kit that shows them what they exactly do?
@umut_sonmez Yes, a ready kit might be helpful, but it can only cover the basics. Every industry has different parameters which the owner has to identify himself.
@qudsia_ali @umut_sonmez Yeah we've been building a platform to tackle this, to allow any business identify their audience, develop their strategy and go to market. It's great at the general basics of how to develop and launch your business (which I do think are super critical and often where most businesses fail) but might miss some of the super granular industry-specific potholes. The AI has constantly surprised us on how granular it gets, however.
@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_zdraveski1 I totally agree with this. Small business owners cannot see what is coming.
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.
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.
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.
Some think having their presence in the digital world is the GOAL - but it is only the first step!
Moving your business to online is not an easy task.
Thanks for these insights.
