Top 4 Challenges That Every E-Commerce Site Faces

As e-commerce grows, the challenges grow with it. Whether security, product feed generation, or preparing for large influxes of traffic, here are the top four challenges that every e-commerce site faces.

1. Site Load Time

While users’ expectations of how websites should perform have grown, research by Radware indicates that the top 500 American retail sites are actually 16% slower than they were a year ago. But how does load time affect your bottom line? 5 seconds loading time experiences 35% fewer page views, a 105% higher bounce rate, and 38% fewer conversions (source).

 2. Payment Fraud

Consumers are still wary of the risk of fraud while shopping online. According to a 2013 Lexis Nexis study, nearly one in three identity fraud victims choose to avoid certain merchants after victimization. Customers’ card and bank information can be easily stolen if a merchant does not take the proper security measures. According to the National Retailer’s Federation, the average retailer loses 0.68 percent of revenue to fraud. Doesn’t sound like much? The true cost of fraud for e-retailers also includes fees, time, and overhead. Another priceless effect of fraud is tarnishing your customers’ trust.  

 3. Using Data Effectively

Using data to influence communication strategies is still in its infancy. Using multi-touch-point analytics and attribution modeling, and identifying the best performing channels, e-commerce managers can discover the right timing to push the right message to the right customer. In a recent IBM Business Tech Trends Study, it was reported that 75% of small businesses said they planned to invest more in big data analytics.

4. Mobile Traffic

As mobile traffic grows exponentially, e-commerce retailers need to adapt to their changing user base. According to research by Business Insider, mobile shopping now accounts for nearly one-fourth of online purchases.

Although mobile commerce is growing, only a small portion of e-retailers are considered mobile friendly, in that they have a responsive or adaptive site that is easy to use on a mobile device, or app. Those that are not mobile ready are getting chewed up and losing sales to those who are.  According to ComScore, mobile traffic accounted for 50% of holiday season site traffic in 2014. That is a 25% increase from last year.

As e-commerce becomes a higher percentage of retail growth, the challenges grow with it. Are you prepared for the e-commerce challenges that will be present in 2015?