You did your research. You put in the work. You launched your product. And instead of consumers flocking to your ecommerce store and sales flooding in… nothing, crickets. Despite all your hard work and preparation there isn’t a flood of sales coming in, there isn’t even a trickle.
So what gives?
One of the biggest questions that haunt so many ecommerce startups is why people aren’t people buying your product?
First of all, don’t let this bump in the road throw you off course. There are “entrepreneurs” all over social media talking about how their ecommerce store blew up in just a month and now they’re able to retire and live like a king in Patagonia.
Don’t get discouraged because this isn’t your story. Even if these people are telling the truth (remember this is social media we’re talking about here) it certainly isn’t the norm. You’re not a failure just because you’re not making 1 million dollars a month after a month or two or three, or three years.
If you’re serious about making your business work it will take time so be patient.
But being patient doesn’t mean sitting back and hoping sales will pick up. So here are a few things to consider about why people aren’t buying your product.
Marketing
People can’t buy your products if they don’t know about them. It’s as simple as that. If you just started a brand new ecommerce business the hardest thing to do is to make people aware and awareness is the first step to any marketing strategy.
So when troubleshooting why customers aren’t buying from you the first thing you need to do is analyze your marketing and who you’re targeting and how you’re targeting them.
People buy products that solve products or address pain points. If you’re talking to the right people but not the right pain points you’re marketing won’t appeal to them. On the other hand maybe you’re using the right messaging but not getting in front of the right people, that’s also a problem.
You need to target the right people with the right message in order to get results.
Once you get people to your site or ecommerce store you should continue the same messaging that you used in your marketing to create a seamless experience. If your marketing promises one thing that you don’t follow through with consumers aren’t likely to stick around.
Product/Market Fit
If you’re getting people to your site but they’re just not buying, it could be that you have a poor product/market fit.
What is product market fit you ask?
According to an article from PMARCA, “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
You can always feel when product/market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, usage isn’t growing that fast, press reviews are kind of “blah”, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.
And you can always feel product/market fit when it’s happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it – or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You’re hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can.”
If you’re reaching your desired target market but they’re just not converting it could be your product. At this point it’s time to learn more about your target market’s pain points and figure out how/if your product address these.
You might need to go back to the drawing board if your product is a dud. Or find a new target market that will find your product useful.
Product Pages
In our last blog we discussed 30 ways to reduce cart abandonment and many of the ways to do this link back to having good product pages. The same goes for figuring out why people aren’t buying your product.
Product pages that sell include:
- Bullet pointed description
- High-quality product photos
- Simple user interface
- Clear call-to-action
- Mobile friendly
- Reviews
- FAQs
For ecommerce shoppers high-quality image galleries are a must!
So is being mobile friendly. The majority of online shopping happens on phones now and if you don’t have a mobile friendly experience you’re probably losing out on a lot of sales.
If you’ve never gone through your own purchase process from start to finish, you need to. There might be an issue that’s glaringly obvious that’s keeping people from making a purchase. Asking friends or family to go through the process with fresh eyes is another great way to find out if it’s your product pages or purchase process that’s costing you sales.
Cold Leads
The best way to make sales to warm your leads up ahead of time. How often do you make a purchase from a brand that you’ve just discovered? Not very often if you’re like the average consumer.
According to a new study by Episerver, 92%of consumers will visit a brand’s website for the first time for reasons other than making a purchase. So If 100 people visit your site only 8 of those people are in buying mode. That doesn’t even guarantee that they’re going to buy but that they’re interested in making a purchase.
There’s no hard and fast number of how many visits it takes to actually close the deal but what’s certain is the majority of people aren’t doing on that first visit.
The best thing you can do is to start building a relationship with this person, try retargeting them with other offers and keep working on warming them up.
The Takeaway
Starting your first ecommerce company can be a HUGE learning experience as long as you’re willing to learn from it. Just because the sales aren’t rolling in yet doesn’t mean you’re doomed or a failure it just means that you have room to grow.