8 Online Store Mistakes that Can Turn Off Shoppers

Don’t let these common shopping cart mistakes turn away shoppers from your site

It’s essential to inspect and evaluate your online store every now and then. You never know when you’re doing something wrong or missing out on something important that’s making you lose a huge amount of traffic and potential profit every single day.

Here’s a wake-up call to alert you on common online store mistakes that actually turn off shoppers.

Mistake #1 – Not Having a Contact Page
This may sound like a far-off mistake for many online entrepreneurs. But if you’re a newbie in the biz, there’s a great chance you were not able to include a contact page in your online store. Perhaps the details are there somewhere in your website, but there’s no separate or dedicated contact page.

Even if you’re running your business from your own home, you should at least mention the city and state and provide a valid phone number with voice mail service. This way, shoppers are more assured that you’re a legit site.

Mistake #2 – Showing Distorted Photos
Even if you used a professional camera and originally had spectacular photos of your products, if you don’t resize them to suit the thumbnails or required size on your store, they won’t appear so spectacular after they’re uploaded. They might actually look distorted or stretched, surely turning off customers.

Remember that visuals are BIG when it comes to online businesses. Make sure to resize your photos to be a perfect fit. Check them out before publishing.

Mistake #3 – Having a Slow Responding Website
Many are not aware that the leading cause of a slow responding online store is high resolution pictures. Of course you want your photos to look professional, but this can be done even without the use of large files! Some stores make use of 2MB photos which appear really good and do not cause any delays when visitors click on tabs or move from one picture to another. A lengthy loading time can bore and exasperate shoppers, especially if they actually have good Internet connection in the first place.

Mistake #4 – Forgetting to Renew Your SSL Certificate
How would you feel if you visited a website and got the “This Connection is Untrusted” sign? Definitely frustrated and turned off. New visitors will especially tend to head on over to your competitors’ websites! Even returning customers may get ticked off.

This happens when you don’t renew your SSL certificate. People are likely to find your business suspicious and will not want to buy anything from your store. Furthermore, there’s a risk on the personal information released by buyers because of the unencrypted data.

Mistake #5 – Including Plenty of Pop-Ups
What’s another reason to turn off shoppers? Annoying pop-ups! It’s like having a poster flashed onto your face or a billboard spring up from the floor without warning while you’re looking through the items in a physical shop. Now that can be a major turn-off, especially if it occurs more than once or if web users can’t even find the X button easily.

Mistake #6 – Requiring Registration Upon Checkout
When a customer is about to pay for an item but is asked first to fill out a registration form upon checkout, there’s a great chance that he or she will just leave. You don’t want to risk this, right? So it’s definitely better to provide the option to check out as a guest rather than lose a sale.

Mistake #7 – Presenting a Lot of Confusing Buttons to Click
Many merchants love offering a one-click checkout option, which customers have repeatedly appreciated. When you have plenty of options, each one with an individual button, it can get confusing and overwhelming. Even if you offer different payment methods, it’s essential to keep everything clean and simple.

Mistake #8 – Utilizing a No-Charge Shopping Cart Software
Some start-up companies and newbie entrepreneurs on the Internet opt to use a free shopping cart software online. It’s definitely a turn-off because you won’t seem so legit and professional in the eyes of shoppers. Furthermore, there are numerous wonderful features you’ll be missing out on which can significantly boost the experience for your store visitors.

You’re fortunate to have gone through these common mistakes that many online store owners have committed in the past. At least you can make sure to avoid them in order to increase traffic to your store, improve your conversion rate, and boost your online reputation.

Joe Palko is the CMO of 3dcart. Prior to joining 3dcart in 2011, Joe was a true internet pioneer co-founding his first e-commerce website in 1994 which later sold to America’s largest mail order pet supply retailer in 2007. Joe also co-founded Solid Cactus in 2001, which was later sold to the Web.com Group in 2009.