Yes, mistakes are going to happen from time to time—no store or person is perfect. When they do occur, your ability to adapt to change and make necessary adjustments is going to make all the difference.

In working to help stores increase their conversion, it seems the same myths and mistakes are continually present. It’s shocking so many stores fail to notice or take action upon these but maybe it’s a lack of not knowing where to start or where to focus attention.

Here is a list of what could be considered the top sixteen mistakes (and myths) many ecommerce stores fall into:

1. Thinking that driving more traffic to your website will increase sales. (There are two types of traffic in general. Knowing which one to go after is the key to increased sales. More is not always better—that is, unless the right elements are in place to maximize sales from it.)

2. Weak site design in relation to your target market. (i.e Do you design for your market or do you just design a site thinking that alone will sell your product?)

3. Not marketing enough or properly. (You can’t make sales if nobody knows you exist. Marketing is critical but it must be done correctly to gain the maximum benefit.)

4. Try to sell the wrong product online. (Think that just because you have a product it’s gonna sell? Think again. Unless you’ve done your homework first, you may be surprised to find that what you think you’re trying to sell is actually very different in your customers eyes.)

5. Not testing your site to find what really works. (If you ignore your site the results will show.)

6. Not optimizing your product pages for increased conversion. (Your product page has a single overall objective with sub roles that help meet that objective. If you don’t know what this is you have no chance of getting users into your checkout process at all.)

7. Inadequate site usability. (hint: There are a number of things that can help you determine if usability is a problem and then help you improve upon this. Usability is like the Yellow Brick Road to more sales.)

8. Lack of comprehensive marketing plan. (This is one of the number one reasons most ecommerce businesses are destined for failure before they even start.)

9. Too many obstacles to shopping. (Adhering by the KISS principle is crucial to helping customers do their job.)

10. Poor customer service. (Do you answer your customers questions before they ask them? Knowing what they expect and at what moment will improve your customer service.)

11. Failure to prepare a proper foundation for success. (Proper planning is the first step toward ecommerce success. A weak foundation yields weak results. A strong foundation results in great rewards.)

12. Poor Order fulfillment. (This is self explanatory for most … for others the answer is not so clear.)

13. Not taking advantage of optimizing the Customer Experience your business provides from beginning to end. (If you don’t know what this is then you are in real trouble.)

14. Poor checkout procedures. (i.e. Think that providing a checkout alone will close the sale? Think again. Without the right elements in place you’ll find the only thing that increases is your shopping cart abandonment rate.)

15. Failure to focus and specialize. (You can’t be everything to everybody. Doing so will get you no where.)

16. Failure to provide proper customer assurances at the right times and in the right locations. (A few simple tweaks of your site can mean the difference between increased sales and nothing.)

If you make even just one of these mistakes, you are likely losing sales and hurting your ability to maximize your sales.

Many store owners make over half of them. That’s a whopping 50% minimum. Become a member of Ecommerce Amplifier today and turn these typical problem areas into profit centers! There’s no reason to wait—for each minute you wait, more sales are being lost.