4 Common Mistakes That Will Spell Doom Your Ecommerce Business

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4 Common Mistakes That Will Spell Doom Your Ecommerce Business

By Martins Lasmanis | Entrepreneur Magazine | April 11, 2024

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Today, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t — at the very least — played with the idea of launching an ecommerce business. Selling online continues to gain traction among everyone from established brick-and-mortar businesses to individuals taking their first entrepreneurial steps.

While, yes, setting up an ecommerce store is easier than ever before, unfortunately, getting sales and succeeding is as difficult as it ever was. Perhaps even more, given the growing competition. As the CEO of an on-demand consumer goods platform, according to the author he has noticed that people succeed in many different ways, but they often fail in the same ones. It’s hard to spot a success story before it happens, yet it’s easy to tell if a business will struggle. With that in mind, here are the four most common mistakes people make that you should avoid when starting an ecommerce business.

1. Succumbing to perfection paralysis.  Perfectionism is a common vice among first-time entrepreneurs in particular, as they have no grasp of what constitutes “good enough.” People go to great lengths to imitate the industry’s best examples while forgetting that the bigger companies often have entire teams of developers, designers and copywriters doing what the entrepreneur is trying to manage alone. “Doing things right” is simply unrealistic.  Instead, it may be wise to take a page out of a product developer’s book and focus on an MVP – a minimum viable product. The idea behind an MVP is that you do the minimum required to get a functional product or, in our case, a store. And then, once it’s up and running, you can iterate, improve and polish it to your heart’s content. This will help overcome perfection paralysis and focus on what really moves the needle.
2. Selling to everyone.  Speaking of moving needles, building a brand without understanding your customer is like navigating without a compass. The ABCs of entrepreneurship will tell you that for your business to be successful, it must answer a real need. But it falls on your shoulders to identify who exactly has that need. More often than not, it’s a small subsection of people.  This audience will have unique characteristics, including demographics, preferences, pain points and more. Successful businesses leverage these factors to craft tailored messages, to choose the best advertising platforms and to further develop their offering.  Experience shows that a laser-focused approach beats a broad net every time.
3. Refusing to adapt or admit mistakes.  Failure is an inevitable part of early entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, it is also at this early stage that people are most idealistic. They have resolute expectations of how everything will work, and they become tunnel-visioned on bringing this specific idea to life rather than building a successful business.  As you might expect, this initial vision is usually misguided. Do you want to stand out with a super distinct brand voice? There is a reason why nobody else is doing it. Do you want to bring a product to a new audience? There is a reason why this audience hasn’t been interested in that product.  The hallmark of a high-potential business is the ability to recognize when their idea doesn’t work and pivot toward an alternative.  Note that this isn’t only about your business idea but all your business activities, including design, marketing, product, etc. If something doesn’t work, adapt.
4. Trying to juggle everything alone.  To go from idea to first sale requires a wide variety of skills, meaning solo entrepreneurs must wear many hats. They need to be designers, copywriters, website developers, user experience experts, accountants, partnership managers, and marketers—and all of this without even mentioning the product itself, which includes design, sourcing, logistics, photography and more.  Some people manage, and it’s admirable. But you don’t have to go at it alone.  For example, aspiring entrepreneurs get sucked into learning peripheral skills, e.g., graphic design, when, in reality, they need little more than a logo, which would cost $5 to get from a freelancer on a job site. Worse yet, people get burned out from the constant learning and abandon their business ideas just because they can’t manage something that they could have paid someone else a few dollars to do.  Sure, those who struggle through like to wear their adversity as a badge of honor. Taking pride in doing things the hard way is human nature. But it’s not necessarily good business.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Selling online continues to gain traction from established brick-and-mortar businesses to individuals taking their first entrepreneurial steps.
2. While, yes, setting up an ecommerce store is easier than ever before, unfortunately, getting sales and succeeding is as difficult as it ever was. 
3. There are the four most common mistakes people make that you should avoid when starting an ecommerce business.  One, instead of succumbing to perfection paralysis launch minimum viable product, the iteration will continue.  Two, selling to everyone.  Experience shows that a laser-focused approach beats a broad net every time.  Three, refusing to adapt or admit mistakes.  The hallmark of a high-potential business is the ability to recognize when their idea doesn’t work and pivot toward an alternative.  And four, trying to juggle everything alone. Taking pride in doing things the hard way is human nature. But it’s not necessarily good business.  So get help. 

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Topics:  Startups, Entrepreneurship, e-commerce