Starting your own online business is a really ambitious effort – exciting and daunting at the same time. However, even the bravest of entrepreneurs need to know the difference between starting an online business and making it last.

Long term profitability can only be confirmed if smart business decisions are made from the get-go, and mistakes are avoided. After all, we know the infamous phrase: prevention is better than cure.

That’s why it’s your job to prevent your e-commerce business from failing before it even gets the chance to kick off. Lucky for you, we’ve got a list of some common blunders to avoid:

Not Knowing your Target Audience

People often launch their products on a whim, with little to no research on who wants to buy it – in their minds, the target audience for their product is “anyone”. This is very misleading, since you still have no concrete idea about who your store is for.

This part of setting up your business is where you build your own niche. In an increasingly competitive business environment, such a targeted niche is what sets your business shining on the map. So identify who your product is made for, so that you can stand out from the rest.

Not Researching your Competitors

This detail is often overlooked – after all, you’d rather “mind your own business”. But in a world as competitive as the e-commerce world, you need to mind your own and your competitors’ businesses!

In simple words, you can’t launch a successful e-commerce presence if you don’t know who you are up against. Learn where you stand, and seek out improvements by looking into what other competitors are like – what’s their target audience? How do they reign in their own customers, and how do they retain them? Getting a clearer picture of the playing field makes sure your game is on point.

Disregarding Customer Service

It’s easy to forget just how important customers are to any business – their purchases confirm your profitability. Don’t forget to return them the favour!

In fact, customer service for an online store should always exceed that of brick-and-mortar stores. Since there isn’t any face-to-face interaction, people end up leaving your company entirely if they are not satisfied – it’s a lot easier that way.

Let your customers know that their voice matters to you – be quick at replying to questions and resolving complaints. Emails, monthly surveys, or even a live-chat feature can do wonders!

Underestimating Inventory

If one thing could deal a death-blow to your business, this is the one – since an e-commerce business is so heavily reliant on online operations, even the smallest miscalculations can cause a ripple effect in inventory orders.

The answer to problems caused by automated systems is simple: automation. Once tasks like inventory counts, updating stock levels and the like are automated, random errors caused by manual labour are removed entirely. That way, inconsistent inventory orders will be the least of your concerns.

Oscar POS function a lot more than a simple retail shop billing software; it’s inventory management software lets you stay on top of your inventory at all times with advanced features like updating stock levels in real-time, low stock alerts and automatic stock counts.

Not Beefing up your Website

When we say beef up, we mean it – from SEO tools to website security, your website needs to be on top of its game.

E-commerce stores lack one thing that brick-and-mortar stores have – a physical presence. In order to strengthen that online presence, your website should be fully optimised: it needs to be secure against any cyber attacks, it should have pages that do not lag when loading, and should not contain any broken links.

You can take it a step further by optimising your website through SEO – this helps carry your website to the front page of any relevant searches. Here, you need to take note of the most popular and relevant keywords that people search for, and carefully incorporate them into your content.

The main factor that plays a role in an e-commerce store’s success is research. Only with adequate research can you know where you stand in the present, and where do you want to see your business flourish in the future.