E-Commerce Retailers: Learning From Mistakes
July 2nd, 2009Speak to any entrepreneur and he/she will tell you that you will make mistakes, but the key is to learn from those mistakes. This is absolutely true of e-tailers as well. So, we decided to ask our panel one question:
Q: If you were starting all over, what one thing would you not do as you started your online store?
Craig Wolfe, President, Celebriducks
I’d definitely put more attention into getting the exact look of the site I want from day one. Because we kept evolving, it was more like adding on additions to a house and never really getting the final look and feel we should have started with from day one. So eventually, we know we are due for makeover even though people enjoy the site. We can do better now!
Betty Miller, Manager, Magic Senses
I would probably not look at my business as a hobby, like I did in the first couple of years… but as a luxury brand that’s growing as we speak!
Lisa Sorrentino, Head Boob, X-Chrom
Underestimate the number of competitive threats that can quickly flood the online environment.
Eileen Parker, Cozy Calm
Underestimate the number of competitive threats that I tried to make my product offerings too broad. Online, people are looking for something specific that they can’t get in a brick and mortar store—or not at the right price. I would not have made the same market assumptions as my competitors can quickly flood the online environment.
Deb Babcock, Blue Sky Pottery
The one thing I would have done is been more careful when I listed my shop name. This site does not let me change the name from when I first signed up using my email address. Therefore, now I have to spend a little more effort with my avatar and other tools to make sure people know that a shop called, ‘dbabcock’ is really a pottery shop named Blue Sky Pottery, run by an artist named Deb Babcock.
Kevin Ward, Global Crafts & Gifts With Humanity
I would probably not use an open source shopping cart - while the open source nature of a cart such as oscommerce has enabled us to tailor the system with modules to our needs in a way most bespoke carts can not be adapted, the reality is that developing and maintaining the cart in-house does create sustainability issues. We would also look outside of our own brand and seek partnerships with other shopping channels much earlier.
Sandy Raddue, Striking Graphics & Embroidery, Inc.
I wouldn’t throw the site out for general consumption, with a huge publicity and advertising push, without a LOT of usability analysis. Our launch didn’t go well - not because we offered the wrong stuff - we just offered it in the wrong way. It was very difficult for our customers to input their CUSTOM orders.
Teresa Fritchi, Managing Director/Chief Creative Officer, Thistle & Broom, Limited
Probably not mix our efforts with educating people down to the tiniest nuance about Scotland and the importance of what’s behind this products – I would just sell great stuff from Scotland.
Ana Maria Echeverri, Owner/President, FunIQToys Inc
I would have learned more about SEO before I set up the store. I first created my store, then learned about SEO, so now I have to re-create my pages for optimization purposes.
Ben Robinson, Bike Trailer Shop
Everything has been a great learning experience and nothing has really been a total disaster. I really can’t think of anything I would not do, but I can think of many things that I would do earlier and more efficiently (getting serious about our blogging efforts for example).








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