The growth of eCommerce in recent years clearly indicates its profitability. However, a profitable industry is not always a bed of roses. Like other industries, eCommerce also has some obstacles, and companies deal with eCommerce challenge(s) with their unique approaches. So, to have a successful year ahead, it is essential to have an idea about the possible eCommerce challenges. This article will narrow down the 10 biggest challenges of eCommerce marketing websites in 2022 and their possible solutions.
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2. Identifying and Attracting Perfect Customer
3. High Expectations of Buyers
5. Stringent Return and Refund Policies
10. Unstable Customer Retention and Loyalty
Source: Statista
Well, we do not aim to scare you with the challenges. Instead, we want to help you with the best strategies to cross these hurdles. However, eCommerce sales are expected to reach 7.5 trillion by 2025, almost 75% higher than 2020’s sales. This article will narrow down this growth, and it is essential to take proper strategies. So, let’s dig into the eCommerce website 2022 challenges and find their solutions.
What are the eCommerce Challenges in 2022, and how to Get Rid of these?
1. Cyber Security
Cyber security is one of the most dominant challenges for eCommerce websites in 2022. The major security threats in eCommerce right now are:
- DoS and DDoS
- Malware
- MiTM or Man in the middle
- XSS or Cross-Site Scripting
- Fraudulent information
- Phishing
- Spamming
- e-Skimming
- Mal Bots or special Bots
57% of Cyberattacks on eCommerce came from bots in 2021. All these lead to low page traffic and low sales. That’s why insider threat management is so crucial now.
Read: 5 Security Basics Of Launching An Online Store
Solution: Choose Solutions with High-end Security Features
To combat the security threats in eCommerce, it is essential to choose high-end security solutions. In addition to adherence to data protection, and security plugins, picking a reliable platform is mandatory. Furthermore, merchants can consider Magento solutions for eCommerce with advanced security options. Its top-notch security systems aim to keep merchants’ and buyers’ data protected within.
Read: Why Choose Magento for eCommerce? 10 Convincing Reasons
Get your highly secure eCommerce store with Magento. Find out how Magento solutions work
2. Identifying and Attracting Perfect Customer
Right now, eCommerce is experiencing an evolution in buyer demand. As a result, it is becoming difficult to identify and attract potential buyers.
Determining the ideal buyers helps decide the product type, marketing strategies, campaigns, etc. So failing to identify the potential customers is a mistake at the grassroots level that can cause a major problem to the overall business operations.
Also, read: Switch to Magento PWA before losing customers over a slow-loading website
Solution: Use Offers, Discounts, SEO, and Improved Quality Products
No matter who the target customers are, attractive offers, free samples, and discounts help to add more appeal. Therefore, include proper marketing and selling strategies to attract the customer. Moreover, improved product quality is undoubtedly an option to get the buyers on your page.
Also, with proper SEO strategies, you can pull organic traffic to your page. Additionally, you can attract buyers by improving your online presence with social media. At present, enterprise-level companies are choosing partnerships with companies that serve their target customers directly. It offers a better buying experience altogether.
Read: When Google Ads and SEO combine, you grow like Destination Gold Detectors
3. High Expectations of Buyers
While talking about buyers, their expectations have to be addressed. After spending substantial time in eCommerce, buyers expect businesses to meet their customized demands. For example, once they make purchases from Amazon or Etsy, they expect all the sites to be as dynamic as these. However, fulfilling such demands becomes definitely a challenge, especially for start-ups’ eCommerce marketing websites.
Solution: Use Mobile-friendly, Dynamic Options for a better Digital experience
One unfailing solution to this is a mobile-optimized user experience. Even though it is a big challenge and may be unaffordable for some companies, it is a necessity right now.
If you face budget constraints, picking Magento PWA can be an excellent alternative. Moreover, these are app-like web pages that offer a dynamic experience to buyers. Also, the pages of PWAs are very small in size. As a result, it loads the pages faster and responds better.
Read PWA for Retail Industry – The Present, Future, and Beyond!
Use of PWA offered Almutlaq Furniture a superior performance in terms of meeting the customer demand. Read their success story to know more about it
4. Cart Abandonment
Due to unsatisfactory user experience, a major challenge in the eCommerce scenario of 2022 is cart abandonment. Some common causes of cart abandonment at present are:
- Slow page loading
- Complicated checkout process
- Additional charges during payment
- Unsafe payment gateways
- Forceful account creation
- No clarity in price – extra cost added during checkout
Check: HubSpot Magento Integration
Solution: Shorten the Buying Process
The first and foremost need to reduce cart abandonment is to make the proper buying shorter. For example, the checkout must not take more than a minute, including payment. Also, transparent pricing, easy navigation, fast page loading, and guest account purchasing facility can reduce cart abandonment rates. Along with these, you can retarget the users who abandoned their carts with extra discounts.
Also, read: A Quick Guide On Reasons And Solutions For Checkout Abandonment
5. Stringent Return and Refund Policies
Strict return and refund policies often hinder converting visitors into buyers. At present, 5-15% of purchased products are returned. Sideways, some customers feel reluctant to purchase due to stringent return and refund policies, like:
- Return to be placed within 5-7 days of purchase (short duration)
- High return shipping cost
- Refund to be reflected on other accounts/apps instead of bank account
- Delayed refund
- Refund to be reflected on next purchase
- No return and no refund policy
Resolving these issues has become a big challenge for many eCommerce marketing websites.
Solution: Add Flexible Return and Refund Options
Return policies affect purchasing decisions, and merchants greatly lose customer retention. That’s why merchants have to stay flexible with these. They can add free returns and long-duration return acceptance to their stores. Similarly, they can offer the refund amount directly in the source account to resolve refund issues.
All these tactics help merchants to gain the faith of the customers. Good return and refund policies will make buyers feel valued even after making a return. As a result, they may get back to your store.
Check: Tips on creating Return Policy for ecommerce store
6. Improper Price Calculation
Buyers of 2022 are smart enough and conduct a price comparison before purchasing anything. A buyer will always want the best product at a reasonable price. For this, manufacturing the best quality product is not enough – you have to set a competitive price. As it is not as easy as it may sound, it becomes a major challenge for eCommerce.
Solution: Use Paid and Reliable Pricing Tools
To set a competitive price, you can take the help of any paid and reliable pricing tool. Use marketing and selling strategies like FOMO, sales, special discounts, seasonal offers, free samples, free shipping, etc. These strategies can make your product price appear comparatively low.
Read: How can an effective discount pricing strategy help grow your online business?
7. Analysing Competition
Competitors are always a threat in every industry – once buyers find better alternatives, they do not look back. Now, competing with other companies becomes a challenge for many eCommerce companies as too many strong competitors sell the same or similar products.
Solution: Choose Unique solutions
Competition is an unavoidable part of any business. In eCommerce, competition is way too high because of higher profitability. To combat this dominant eCommerce challenge in 2022, you need to plug-in uniqueness in your product and services.
You can add sustainable products to your store as these products are in demand. It will also help you to match the vibe of potential customers. You can also analyze your competitors, the features of their products that buyers like, and their selling strategies. Also, compare their products with yours to determine how you can improve your products.
Analyzing competition does not refer to imitating the competitors. Instead, it means taking up proper strategies to remain competitive. So, analyze your competitors seriously.
Create your unique eCommerce marketplace with our assistance and have a competitive advantage
8. Supply Chain Risks
In 2022, buyers come with diverse shipping preferences, which creates big challenges for eCommerce websites. Some prefer quick deliveries for free. On the other hand, some opt for sustainable shipping and wait longer for the deliveries. Some buyers are even willing to pay for green packaging and faster delivery. eCommerce store owners often lack multi-shipping options. As a result, they may not fulfill users’ expectations.
The situation is harder to manage in cross-border logistics as it becomes difficult to track shipments properly. As a result, deliveries get delayed unnecessarily.
Solution: Add Shipment and Delivery Options and Employ Intelligent Monitoring
eCommerce store owners can add a variety of shipping options to meet buyers’ preferences. Similarly, they can pick third-party extensions to offer multiple shipping options. These extensions enable the buyers to check the available shipping options, shipping cost, and expected delivery date on the product page.
To combat cross-border logistic issues, use intelligent inventory management and monitor the supply side. It brings clarity to the supply chain. As a result, the delivery time gets reduced.
Read: Best holiday shipping strategies to boost your ecommerce sales
9. Resistance to Subscribe
eCommerce companies that work on subscription models often come across this challenge. Customers are generally not willing to take subscriptions. Also, some users are unwilling to renew their subscription after it ends. Statistics say that around 40% of users have canceled their subscriptions. As a result, the eCommerce company finds it difficult to generate the expected revenue.
Solution: Attract Customers with Personalized Recommendations
The main reason behind not taking a subscription is incorrect audience mapping and lack of business relevance. If the users find the products or services of the stores useful, they will be hooked on the subscriptions. The use of AI to send personalized notifications based on previous searches can be very helpful here. So, plugin innovation and technology wisely.
10. Unstable Customer Retention and Loyalty
Customer retention is very unstable at present as customers have many options. Once a brand fails to satisfy the customer, it loses loyalty. The latest statistics say that a majority of ecommerce businesses have around 25-30% returning customers. However, it has become unachievable for many companies.
Offering a pleasant experience throughout the journey is another challenge that eCommerce will face in 2022. As a result, customer retention reduces.
Solution: Daily Engagement, Referrals, and Ratings
A smart way to enhance customer retention is to keep them engaged. You can use push notifications, emails, reviews, and ratings to keep the engagement high. The use of referral marketing can also improve customer retention to a great extent. Altogether, these ask the buyers to return to your eCommerce store again.
Read: What are the top Ways to Improve App Engagement & User Retention?
Impact of eCommerce Challenges
If you overlook these eCommerce challenges beforehand, these may bring your business down the wrong path. In other words, you must have concrete plans to face the challenges. Otherwise, the competitors will beat you. That is why we have focused more on the solutions than the challenges. Unless you plan to combat these eCommerce challenges, it may lead you towards the followings:
- Revenue loss
- Decreased investment in technology
- Poor user experience
- Low traffic
- Insufficient funds for logistics
- Low cross-border business opportunity
- Overall economic loss
So, it is essential to have contingency planning, whether you are a start-up or an enterprise – planning how to handle eCommerce challenges in 2022 is a must. Furthermore, the eCommerce industry not only survived but also flourished during the pandemic only because of proper planning. Therefore, plan your eCommerce business to face any challenge in 2022 and achieve success. With Adobe Commerce solutions, you can now easily prepare your eCommerce business to face these challenges.
Winding-up
In a nutshell, eCommerce will come across many challenges in 2022. Now, strategizing how to use solutions will be easier because you have understood the possible eCommerce website challenges. Furthermore, challenges help prepare a contingency plan for your business to have a successful future ahead. You can also check the top eCommerce trends in 2022 for better planning.
About CedCommerce
CedCommerce offers future-ready solutions so that your eCommerce store can face any challenges in 2022. CedCommerce is a Magento Bronze partner. Also, it is the winner of prestigious awards like Deloitte Tech Fast 50 India, Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, and Magento Innovation Lab. Furthermore, ur experts are set to keep you ahead in the competitive eCommerce scenario.
Drop your eCommerce business requirements to us or have a session with our experts