The Real Reason You Aren’t Hitting Your Ecommerce Goals

Sometimes, it feels like you’ve hit a wall. No matter what you try or how you try it, online revenue refuses to go up. You just can’t move the needle.

While this experience can be maddening and even confidence-shaking, don’t worry! Unless you have an incredibly high market share, are in a fully saturated market, or have 100% conversion rate, you DO have room to grow.

The trick is identifying the specific areas in which optimization will boost conversions, increase revenue, and move you toward your ecommerce goals.

So, where should you start?

Trouble Hitting Ecommerce Goals? Line Up the Usual Suspects

Stores struggling to hit their ecommerce goals often discover problems lurking in one of three areas (we like to call these “areas of opportunity”): product, customer, and communication.

1. Check Your Product

If your ecommerce store is underperforming, the problem could lie with your product. This doesn’t necessarily mean the product itself isn’t good. It could mean customers aren’t using your product in the way you intended or your product isn’t serving the need you expected.

Take a good look at your product and, more importantly, how it’s being used. Are there any problems with design, functionality, durability, etc., that could be hurting your product’s usefulness? Are purchasers using your product in the way you expected?

Gather customer feedback to make sure your product is serving its intended purpose well.

2. Target the Right Customers

Another common saboteur of ecommerce goals is customer mismatch. Maybe you’ve identified the wrong target customer, or maybe you need to expand to new segments who would get value from your product.

Here, again, gather feedback to find out how customers are actually using your product and why they say they need it. If you discover you’re not hitting the bullseye, then shift toward a target audience with the specific need you discovered. Or, if you need to expand your audience, explore what other segments have this same need and tailor your marketing to appeal to them.

3. Clarify Your Communication

It’s possible to be spot on with your product and target audience, but to miss the mark in your communication.

Maybe your messaging doesn’t convey what you intended, or your website or ad funnels confuse customers. Or, maybe your target market simply isn’t active on the channels you’re pursuing.

First, make sure your brand reputation is solid. Do people have (legitimate) complaints? What can you do to address those?

Next, make sure your value proposition comes through in your website copy, advertising, and social media. The messaging should be clear and consistent.

Finally, double check the customer journey. If customers get confused or frustrated anywhere during their experience with your brand, whether that’s on the homepage, at checkout, or in an ad funnel, it won’t matter how good your product or messaging are. A poor customer experience torpedoes all your other efforts.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Okay, you’ve checked and rechecked your product, target market, and messaging, and all are on point. If you’re still having trouble hitting your ecommerce goals at this point, are you just out of luck? Absolutely not!

Now is the time to turn to conversion rate optimization (CRO).

With a solid foundation to work from, CRO implements data-driven, test-based changes that directly impact ecommerce goals. It can involve anything from what color should that button be to which discount should we offer to get more conversions.

To get started, check out our series on CRO and how it helps companies reach their ecommerce goals.

Invest in Innovation

Businesses don’t typically stand still; they’re either growing or shrinking. If you feel stagnant, you’re likely already losing ground.

How do you avoid this problem? Invest in innovation from the beginning.

Disrupt your process. Disrupt your business. Look for incremental AND radical innovation.

If you wait until you actually feel behind before you start investing in innovation or R&D, it’s already too late. Instead, make it a practice to invest a percentage of your budget into innovation on a regular basis, ensuring long-term growth and success for your business.

Leverage Outside Help to Reach Your Ecommerce Goals

It isn’t always easy to identify problems and opportunities within your own ecommerce sales funnel. You’re in too deep. You know everything that went into those decisions; you can’t simply rid yourself of that baggage.

You need a fresh set of eyes.

It’s the classic reason companies hire consultants: Outside eyes can spot problems and growth opportunities that internal teams never could.

Asking for help isn’t just a great life practice. It gets you to your ecommerce goals, too.

Metacake specializes in helping businesses break through apparent revenue ceilings and continue to grow. We identify areas of opportunity and provide actionable insights to help your company reach its ecommerce goals.

If you’re ready to break through to new revenue, drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you!