Why Is My Online Store Underperforming? A Guide for Magento
Magento is one of the most popular platforms for building online stores. Everyone interested in e-commerce has heard of Magento’s many advantages, and many sing high praise for its robust features and flexibility. But what if you have set up your store and it does not work as intended?
If you are frustrated with your Magento store not performing as expected, we will give you some ideas about what could be checked and improved to change this situation. The reasons behind low-performing online stores can be very complex, but sometimes, the solution is surprisingly simple. Let’s take a closer look at some common issues that may be causing your Magento store to underperform.
Why Isn’t Your Shop Performing Well?
There could be several reasons why your Magento store is not performing as expected, from technical issues like slow hosting and poor server configuration to marketing flaws and lack of customer support. Figuring out the main reason for your website’s underperformance is crucial to implementing the necessary improvements.
In fact, these apply to all online stores, not only Magento ones, so if you are using another platform or are just considering reaching out to Magento migration services, these suggestions are still relevant!
Magento Issues: Assess and Address Them
To find out the reasons behind the low performance, you will need to thoroughly assess your Magento store. This assessment should include both the technical and non-technical aspects of your website.
On the technical side, you should check both the backend and frontend for potential problems such as slow loading times, broken links, and outdated plugins. Additionally, examining your server configuration and hosting provider can help identify any performance bottlenecks. On the non-technical side, analyzing your marketing strategies and taking a closer look at the customer experience you are providing can also give you an idea of what can be improved for efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Technical Issues: How to Solve Them?
You may not be aware that there are technical issues affecting your online shop until you thoroughly investigate the problems your store has. When you find the reason for the technical issues, you can hire professionals to work on your website optimization project or address the problems yourself. Let’s take a closer look at what may be wrong on the technical side of the store.
Loading Speed Issues
Sometimes, a slow-loading website is the reason for your shop’s lack of traffic and low conversion rates. Almost 40% of visitors will leave your page if it’s taking more than 4 seconds to load. Imagine how many potential customers can be lost if your website takes too long to load! Consider changing your hosting provider or optimizing your website’s content to improve loading speed, as it can not only turn prospective clients away but also negatively impact your search engine rankings.
Store Crashing Down
If your store is unprepared to handle high traffic, it might crash during peak periods, resulting in poor user experience and lost opportunities. This can be particularly damaging during holidays and special promotions when there is a spike in online shopping. To prevent this, ensure that your website’s infrastructure is reliable enough to handle occasional surges in traffic.
JavaScript Problems
Magento 2 relies on JavaScript a lot, so it is important to address any JavaScript issues that may arise. Conflicts with other scripts on your website, outdated or incompatible JavaScript libraries, or coding errors can all be the root of these issues. If you don’t deal with these on time, your customers might find your store’s functionalities to be unresponsive, glitchy, and broken altogether.
Other Common Issues with Magento Stores
Sometimes, the problem is not the website nor its infrastructure but rather the marketing and UX strategies implemented for the Magento store. Ineffective SEO practices, lack of proper campaigns, confusing user interface, and cluttered visuals can contribute to a poor user experience and therefore to low conversion rates. Fortunately, there are easy ways to fix most of these issues.
Poor SEO Practices
Good SEO can improve how high a website ranks in search engines like Google. But bad SEO can lose you time and money. It is important to ensure that you follow the best SEO practices and avoid the ones that can lead to penalties from most search engines. For example, never engage in keyword stuffing – Google knows when websites are trying to manipulate their rankings by overusing keywords. Another bad practice is content spinning, which is when you take an already existing piece of content and only edit it to not be considered a duplicate. It will not work, and search engines will treat it as a plagiarized piece. Focus on creating original, high-quality content, and it will be okay.
Non-Intuitive UI
The user interface is one of the most important aspects of a website, as it directly impacts the user experience. If your shop is not user-friendly and intuitive, visitors may struggle to navigate and find what they are looking for. 85% of consumers choose the competitor if the user experience is poor, so it is crucial to prioritize a seamless and logical design. If people feel confused about how to use your website, they are likely to leave and never return. This is one of the reasons why businesses invest in UX design and usability testing. Remember to keep your UI accessible so all shoppers can easily navigate and interact with your website, too!
Visual Clutter
Did you know that colors and the layout of your store’s website can make a whole lot of difference? A cluttered and disorganized design can overwhelm users and make it difficult, if not impossible, to find what they are looking for. Avoid flashing images, bright colors, and excessive use of animations, as these can distract users and negatively affect their overall experience on your website. To avoid turning off potential customers, try to keep your store design minimal and clean and make the path to purchase as straightforward as possible.
Solutions for Ineffective Magento Stores
Sometimes, it is one of the reasons we listed, and sometimes, it is something entirely else. If you are not sure what causes your shop to underperform, it might be beneficial to reach out to a Magento web design company. Specialists can perform a thorough audit of your page and tell you if the problem lies in the shop infrastructure or if there are external factors contributing to its ineffectiveness.
Whatever the issue is, do not despair – there are always solutions available to improve your store. When in doubt, seeking professional help can make a significant difference. Don’t be afraid to go above and beyond to improve your shop’s performance. Even the tiniest change can have an enormous impact!