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Could Your WordPress eCommerce Website Hurting Your Business?
Off the shelf, WordPress is great for publishing and sharing content.
To make it work for ecommerce, however, the leading CMS platform requires some hands-on attention. Or, at the very least, there are a lot of hoops and hurdles that the ecommerce site owner needs to undertake to optimize their WordPress-powered website.
Sadly, many aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs aren’t learned enough in the field of web development/design or conversion rate optimization. So much so that when they attempt to transform their WordPress website into an ecommerce store, they end up making mistakes (both those that are and those that aren’t so obvious to the general public) that cause their web visitors to click away.To help you avoid the exact scenario that I described, I’m going to share with you several reasons why your web visitors are most likely turned off by your WordPress ecommerce site.
If you’re seeing a relatively high percentage of your site visitors click away without having bought anything, then you need to check these out.
1. Your pages load terribly slowly.
Consumers expect ecommerce websites to load fast. How fast, you might want to ask? Three seconds. If your page takes longer than three seconds to load, there’s a good chance your visitors would have already clicked away by then.
The thing with WordPress is it has thousands of installable plugins. There are plugins for dropshipping, content creation, search engine optimization, marketing, etc. In a lot of ways, the library of plugins that WordPress supports gives their users an unfair advantage over their competitors.
On the flip side, however, these plugins can have an adverse impact on conversion rates. This is because installing too many plugins can slow a website down. As an ecommerce entrepreneur, you need to be wary of this. You need to be choosy about the plugins you’ll install.
To help you determine if your website speed is still acceptable after installing all the plugins that you think you need, you can use an online tool like GTMetrix.
After entering your URL, the tool will show you its results after scanning your website. To show you how it works, I entered “bing.com” as an example:
GTMetrix shows you how fast or slow your website loads, and gives you a score.
Many factors can cause a slow page load speed, such as:
- Excessive plugins installed;
- Photos are extra large or not optimized;
- Numerous file requests (RTTs);
- JavaScript issues;
- Too much flash content, etc.
GTMetrix also recommends some actions you can take to improve your page speed. As you improve it, your conversions and sales will eventually improve.
2. You have a poor ecommerce interface.
Because WordPress doesn’t have any of the most crucial ecommerce functionalities built in, site owners need to put in some extra effort, transforming their websites into full-blown online shops.
They do the tasks that professional web developers and designers do — even if they don’t have the skills or knowhow to do it well. The result? The WordPress site ends up having missing or faulty ecommerce functionalities.
Not only that, but the website design and the experience it gives to the users also becomes less than stellar. If you want to build your ecommerce site with WordPress, you need to have an outstanding ecommerce interface. You can achieve that by installing reliable ecommerce plug-ins, such as BigCommerce.
Installing plug-ins like BigCommerce allows you incorporate ecommerce functionalities like shopping carts, wish lists, shipping, product integration, payment processing, and others, into your WordPress site seamlessly — all without you having to type countless lines of code.
3. Your product pages aren’t UX-friendly.
Customers hate it when they have a hard time finding your products, or if your item list is incomplete and your product pages aren’t categorized properly. They may also find your product pages dull when they’re not interactive, and have poor content or descriptions.
When ecommerce store owners build their product pages from the ground up, there’s a good chance their visitors will have a poor experience on the page. This is because the store owners are unfamiliar with what makes a user experience interactive and exciting.
When that happens, your customers lose interest and click away. You also lose opportunities for conversions and sales. If you have this kind of problem, you can fix it by hiring a professional website developer or conversion rate optimization expert.
These experts enhance your entire site UX/UI and ensure your product pages are primed for conversions.
4. Your site security is weak.
Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress are often vulnerable to cybersecurity issues like brute force attacks, SQL injection, and malware. Ecommerce sites like yours are hubs that see financial transactions, customer and business information, and other data assets valuable to you and the hacker.
Thus, it’s imperative that you secure your WordPress ecommerce site and make it obvious to your visitors that your site is secure — otherwise, they will only click away for fear of buying from a website that isn’t secure.
One way you can do so is by applying for a secure sockets layer (SSL) certification. An SSL-certified website with HTTPs is secure because it indicates that it’s encrypted; that is, a hacker has to access an additional security layer with encryption keys. You’ll know your website is SSL-certified when you see a padlock icon beside your URL and HTTPS instead of HTTP.
WordPress, when you first install it for your website, is not automatically secure. You must apply for SSL certification and protect your site with HTTPS.
5. Your site is not mobile responsive.
Did you know that 82 percent of Internet users in the United States have shopped from mobile devices? More and more people are now into mobile shopping because it’s convenient. That means they also value UX/UI (user interface) even on their smartphones and tablets.
As such, you must ensure that your website is mobile responsive. If your site is responsive, it is user-friendly and navigable. The components of your website, including banners and menus, will also remain intact and not disordered.
If you want to see how your site looks on mobile while on your desktop, follow these steps:
- Open your site on your browser.
- Right-click anywhere on your site.
- Select
The page will then look like this:
You can even choose to view it on specific devices, like iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Nokia, iPad, and more.
WordPress, as a platform, does support responsive page design. Some older themes, however, do not. When you select an ecommerce-centric theme for your WordPress site, be sure to get one that is also responsive. A good idea would be to use the best WooCommerce theme out there. You will rarely find themes that aren’t responsive, nowadays, but just in case, be sure to check.
Responsive design ensures that your web visitors not only have great UX/UI on desktop but, just as importantly, on mobile. Your customers can then enjoy browsing and buying from your ecommerce site wherever they may physically be, increasing your sales and conversions.
The bottom line
WordPress is ideal for blogging, and using it for ecommerce too is feasible – if you develop and optimize your site accordingly. If any of the reasons for repelling your customers apply to your WordPress-powered ecommerce site, you need to work toward resolving them.
As you enhance your WordPress site, you’ll be well on your way to keeping your customers and watching your sales skyrocket.
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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