After spending months developing and creating her site, Annie launches her ecommerce store with the hope of boosting sales for her business. She waits a couple more months and much to her dismay, she’s not seeing an increase in sales.

Annie is puzzled. She says, “My ecommerce site is not selling. What am I doing wrong?”

Like Annie, you may be wondering the same thing. If your site isn’t driving the sales you desire, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got six common problems you may be experiencing with selling on your website, plus solutions to those problems!

P.S. Want to learn new ways to grow your ecommerce business? Join 150,000+ marketers by subscribing to our email list!

Why is my ecommerce site not selling?

When you sell your products on your website, you may not be generating the volume of sales you desire. So, why is this happening? Here are six common reasons your site is not selling plus solutions to each problem to help you improve sales on your website!

Problem #1: You’re not driving the right traffic

One of the biggest reasons why your ecommerce site is not selling is that you may not be driving the right traffic. You can define traffic as “the right traffic” if you’re attracting users who are interested in what you have to offer. If you attract users that aren’t interested in your products and services, it won’t benefit your business since they likely won’t convert.

So, what causes you to drive the wrong traffic?

The accuracy of your target audience can greatly influence your traffic, so it’s crucial that you target the right users. Equally as important is the keywords you target.

Solution #1: Establish your target audience

The first solution to improve sales on your website is to establish your target audience. To help you drive the right traffic, look at your current customer base. You’ll want to establish common characteristics like:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Location
4. Hobbies
5. Interests
6. And more

Make sure you establish these characteristics so you can target the right people for your business.

Solution #2: Target relevant keywords

If you have your target audience established, the next step is to ensure you’re targeting the right keywords. You can find keywords by conducting keyword research, and you can use a keyword research tool like KeywordsFX to help you find the right key terms.

When you conduct keyword research, focus on targeting long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords contain three or more words. These terms are best for your product pages because they’re specific, which means that the people who search them have a specific search intent.

Once you find relevant terms, you’ll integrate them into your site. Make sure you integrate them into your title tag, meta description, and body text of your pages. It will help you rank in search results for these key terms, so you can drive more qualified traffic to your ecommerce store.

Keep in mind that just because you target specific keywords doesn’t mean you’ll rank for them. Ranking highly in search engines is an art that takes time and dedication to master!

Additional Reading: Rank Higher In Google Search Results

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Problem #2: You’re not optimizing your pages

If your ecommerce site isn’t selling, it may be because your pages aren’t optimized.

Optimizing your pages helps ensure that they have the best chance at ranking in search results, so you can drive the right leads to your page.

Without an optimized page, you won’t rank in search results. You won’t drive relevant traffic to your page, which means you won’t earn sales for your business.

Solution: Optimize your pages for search engine optimization (SEO)

If you want to optimize your pages to drive the right traffic, follow these SEO best practices:

1. Integrate relevant keywords: Using relevant key terms on your pages will help you rank in relevant search results.
2. Ensure your site loads quickly: Users don’t want to wait for slow-loading pages, so you need to ensure your site loads quickly. Use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to find out how you can improve your site’s load time or invest in page speed services.
3. Make sure your site looks good on mobile: Google takes the mobile version of your site into account, so you need to ensure you have responsive design integrated into your site. Responsive design will help you deliver a positive mobile experience, so people stay engaged on your site.

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Problem #3: You don’t have call to action (CTA) buttons on your page

When you’re selling on your website, you want to guide your audience towards a specific action. For example, you may focus on getting them to join your email list to get them to buy one of your products.

If you don’t have clear call to action (CTAs) on your page, it may be what’s preventing you from selling more products.

CTAs guide your audience to the next step. You can use CTAs to:

1. Guide users to a product page
2. Guide users to a relevant content page
3. Guide users to add a product to their cart
4. Guide users to check out
5. Encourage them to click to see a special price for your product

Without CTAs on your page, your audience won’t know how to proceed.

Solution: Create CTAs that pop off the page

If your ecommerce site is not selling, try integrating CTA buttons on your page to guide users to take a specific action. When you create CTA buttons, make sure they stand out on the page. For example, Target uses a bright red CTA that pops of the page and catches the shopper’s attention.

Additionally, make sure your CTAs are descriptive. In this example from target, you can see that their CTAs tell users exactly what will happen if they click the button — clicking the “Pick it up” CTA will lead the shopper to fill out an order to pick up their order at Target.

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Problem #4: Your navigation isn’t clear

If you’re saying, “my ecommerce site is not selling,” you may need to check your navigation.

Your navigation bar is a critical component of your website since site visitors use it to find what they’re looking for on your site.

If your navigation is disorganized, your audience will struggle to find the products they want. If you have too many tabs on your navigation, you may overwhelm your audience and make it difficult for them to figure out where your product is organized.

Additionally, if you don’t have a search bar on your navigation, you’ll make it even more difficult for your audience to find the products they want.

Solution: Organize your navigation

Organize your navigation so it’s easy for shoppers to find what they need.

In this example from NFL shop, you can see that their navigation has broad categories to help shoppers find products fast. They have categories to shop by men, women, and children, or by product type, like jerseys, hats, and t-shirts.

This navigation makes it easy for shoppers to find the type of product they need fast. Additionally, NFL Shop includes a search bar at the top of the page, so users can search for specific products.

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Problem #5: Your checkout process is complicated

If you want to improve sales on your website, you need to analyze your checkout process. Many companies make the mistake of having a complicated checkout process, which deters people from completing their order.

The most common mistake companies make is requiring customers to create an account to checkout. Many people just want to buy the products and go on their way without having to take time to create an account.

Another common reason that an ecommerce site isn’t selling is too many steps in the checkout process. If you require shoppers to fill out multiple steps in the checkout process, they’re less likely to complete their order. Shoppers want to checkout fast — having too many steps in the checkout process can lead them to leave the page.

Solution: Simplify your checkout process

Make your checkout process painless for your audience. You can improve sales on your website by following these best practices for checkout:

1. Eliminate steps: If a step isn’t absolutely necessary to processing and shipping the order, skip it. Whether it’s creating an account or asking for a phone number, eliminate steps that aren’t fundamental to your checkout process.
2. Don’t require signing up for an account: Give your shoppers the option to checkout as guests. You can ask for an email to deliver order tracking information and then follow up later inviting the shopper to make an account.
3. Offer multiple payment options: You can easily lose sales if you don’t offer payment options your audience wants to use. Try offering multiple payment options with your checkout process to create a more seamless shopping experience.

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Problem #6: You’re not using different methods to market your site

If you’re wondering why your ecommerce site is not selling, it may be because you’re not promoting it enough. You shouldn’t use just one strategy to promote your company. If you only use one channel, you limit your reach and hinder your business from growing online.

You need to use different methods to help you reach people who engage through different channels. There may be people who want to engage through social media, but there may be others who like to read content to learn more about your business.

Solution: Use multiple channels to drive more qualified traffic

If you want to improve sales on your website, try using multiple channels to drive more people to your page. You can use multiple digital marketing channels, like:

1. SEO
2. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
3. Social media marketing
4. Social media advertising
5. Content marketing
6. Email marketing
7. Video marketing

By using these different marketing channels, you’ll create new opportunities for leads to discover your business and turn into sales for your company.

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Sell products on your website with WebFX

If you want to go from “my ecommerce site is not selling,” to “my ecommerce sales are skyrocketing,” WebFX is the marketing partner for you. As a full-service digital marketing company, we offer all the strategies you need to promote your business online.

We create campaigns that drive results for your clients. In the past five years, we’ve driven over $2.4 billion in sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients. You can feel confident that we’ll construct a campaign that drives results for your business.

If you want to improve sales on your website, contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our digital marketing services!