Running an ecommerce business can feel like an uphill battle. You can get up and running pretty quickly, for sure. But once you’re active, with a full website, product catalogue, and plenty of time on your hands, you can end up feeling like you’re going nowhere.
You get the same amount of traffic, with a few good days here and there. You get the same followers liking and commenting on your posts. You’re making the same amount of sales each month, give or take a couple either side.
Stagnation isn’t a great foundation for success. But when you’re not sure how to break out of it, growth simply feels impossible.
What Makes Growth Feel Impossible?
In the ecommerce world, there’s a few elements that are probably weighing you down right now. You want to grow, you’d love to in fact. But the idea that you’d have all sorts of new, more crushing challenges on your shoulders is holding you back.
However, it’s important to remember that these are just feelings. They’re not facts. And there are various ways to work with the difficulties and make them more manageable.
So, if you’re an ecommerce business owner, what makes growth feel impossible for you? It’s likely one of the factors below:
You’re a One Person Business
This is the number one challenge we’d say. When you just start running an ecommerce business, it feels like you’re fine to do so alone.
Then, you start to get a bit busier. Your customers get a little more demanding. Your marketing takes more creative juice than you’re sure you can give. All in all, it’s quite the effort sink!
As such, when you think about expanding outwards from here, the idea that you need to sink more time and energy into your store might just turn you off from the whole possibility in the first place.
How to tackle the challenge:
- Hire warehouse space elsewhere
Not only do you get more space to keep your products, but you also get a team of fulfilment specialists to do the finding, packing, and sending for you. More room in your house, fewer boxes to trip over, and a bit of help.
It’s an expense you might not want to fork out for, but the time and effort it’ll save you is absolutely invaluable.
- Get an international delivery partner
Again, if you’re already struggling with shipment and delivery off of your own back, the idea that you need to start arranging international deliveries might just be a bit too complex.
But don’t get bogged down in the details here. You’re simply going to need a global fulfilment partner on your side instead.
Social Media Doesn’t Seem to Do Much for You
You post, you wait for engagement, it doesn’t come. You add posts to your story, or you repost them, to make it easier for your followers to take notice. Again, however, it just doesn’t feel like you’re getting as much engagement as you think you should.
Ultimately, it just doesn’t feel like social media really does all that much for you. You started off well, but now you’ve hit this weird limbo where even your current followers don’t seem to pay you much mind, let alone any potential new followers.
How to tackle the challenge:
- Look at what you’re posting
There are a lot of different elements involved in creating social media content that performs well. The first step to getting back on the right track is to ask what your content says about either your product or brand.
And you need to try and be objective here. Take a look at your last few posts. Are they interesting to look at? Do they offer any fun? Do they ask for interaction, and make it easy to give that interaction?
- Try more video content
Static posts can form part of your social media content, but they shouldn’t be the only thing you post. Video content performs better than any other on social media. Creating videos on a regular basis is likely to push up your engagement and bring regular new followers your way.
You’re Not Very Visible on Google
Where does your ecommerce store rank on the search results? It’s unlikely to be the number one result, as you don’t have the same long standing reputation or budget as the bigger companies.
However, that doesn’t mean you need to be as far back as page 8 or 9 either. But when you find yourself there, it feels like you’ll never manage to push your ranking even a page closer to that top spot.
How to tackle the challenge:
- Ramp up your SEO
Know your audience. Arrange your keywords. Create content!
Add a blog to your site and start writing. And make sure it’s the kind of content you would love to read. From product recommendations to tips and tricks, offer as much advice and insight as you possibly can.
Make sure your webpages have been indexed properly as well. You want a search engine to know you’re there, and for that to happen, your pages need to be crawlable.
And if you haven’t already, make sure you’ve got a Google Business profile that firmly signals your brand’s name, reviews/reputation, and product quality.
When Ecommerce Growth Feels Impossible, Tackle the Causes
Of course, you’ll need to lock down these root causes, as you won’t be able to tackle them without knowing what they are in the first place.
But once you’ve got an idea, you can get to work on getting over the obstacles and breaking out of the stagnant space you’ve found yourself in. That’ll make growth feel so much more possible for you and your online store.
So, use the list above to spark a bit of inspiration for your own ecommerce growth. Whether you’re struggling with being a one person business, or you’re having trouble ranking any good on Google, there are various ways to tackle the challenges you’re facing.