15 Fatal eCommerce Mistakes Even Big Brands Make

Your business plan and product might be stellar, but if you’re suffering from a lot of common eCommerce mistakes, then it won’t matter at all.

A lot of seemingly small eCommerce mistakes can seem harmless at first glance, but after a while, they can really slow down your progress or even hurt your business if not taken seriously.

So how do you identify what mistakes you’re making so you can fix them?

Well, we created a detailed list you can use to figure out if you’re suffering from any of the most common eCommerce mistakes.

The Top 15 Worst eCommerce Mistakes of 2025

1. Picking the Wrong eCommerce Platform

With the sheer amount of eCommerce platforms out there, it’s hard to know which one suits your business best. Even with thorough research, the perfect eCommerce platform might require coding knowledge that you may not have.

This is without adding all the plugins and different features that each one has, which could benefit your business.

Luckily, we created an article comparing all the best eCommerce platforms that you can read right here. With this, you can easily compare all the most popular options.

Knowing which eCommerce platform to pick is vital if you want to start your eCommerce journey correctly.

For a quick start on your eCommerce journey, Shopify or WooCommerce is perfect for a small business store.

2. Poor Customer Service

Not caring about your customer service is one of the worst eCommerce mistakes on the list. Issues are part of business, and being able to solve a customer’s problem should be your utmost priority when possible.

But how are you supposed to solve any issues if you don’t have an easy way for customers to contact you?

Customers shouldn’t have to dig to find an email to send their complaints to. They should be able to click a button and get into a conversation with someone.

We get it though; having 24/7 customer support with human employees can be very expensive, especially if you’re a small business.

Worry not; with the rise of AI, chatbots have also started becoming a lot more mainstream.

Setting up an automated chatbot is a perfect way for your brand to deal with simple customer requests and complaints automatically.

The complex complaints or issues can be sent to a ticket system for you to handle manually.

3. Zero SEO Optimization

When it comes to eCommerce mistakes, very few can hit your business as hard as not having any sort of SEO strategy set.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy designed to rank higher on Google with content and well structured pages.

Pay-per-click and ads on social media can only take you so far. If you don’t have any way to bring in traffic organically, you’ll start losing money in no time.

There are different tools, like Ahrefs, to get your SEO strategy started, but it takes quite a bit of research and knowledge to do this.

Does getting an SEO strategy seem daunting? No worries; we can help you get started.

4. No Testimonials or Customer Reviews

Having some sort of social proof set on your website is a must-have if you want consumers to trust your product and give it a chance.

Potential customers don’t want to read five paragraphs of your brand explaining how amazing its products are. They want real people talking about the good and bad aspects of your products.

Without zero testimonials or customer reviews, it’s very difficult for consumers to trust your brand at all.

As far as eCommerce mistakes go, having zero social proof on your website is high on the list.

5. Not Defining Your Target Audience

Not knowing your target audience is the same as screaming into the void.

How are you going to sell your product or service if you don’t know who you’re talking to?

While you’re bound to get customers here and there, if you direct your focus to a specific audience, your sales will go up almost instantly.

Find out what your target audience is, create a customer persona for your products, and use it as your basis for any sort of marketing content you create.

6. Having Zero Security Features

Nothing makes potential customers leave faster than seeing that your eCommerce website has no security measures at all.

There is a bare minimum when it comes to security that every website should have, and that is an SSL certificate.

While you can stop there and call it a day, having extra security is always good and will protect both you and your customers from thieves stealing information.

If you want to make sure your customers know that they’re protected, you can use things like the Verified SSL Secure Trust Badge. This allows you to place a badge anywhere on your website to show that your website is protected.

Proper security for your website should be a priority if you haven’t added any at all.

7. Content that is too Similar to your Competitors

While creating content that is similar to other brands is bound to happen after a while, making sure that your content and website stand out is very important.

With so many brands out there, the last thing you want to do is look like a carbon copy of another brand, or worse yet, a bad imitation. Make sure that your content stands out by adding a different twist to it, be it on social media or your blog.

Customers will always gravitate toward the brand that is doing something different and unique.

While this is definitely not one of the outright worst eCommerce mistakes on the list, it is good to make it a common practice to check if your content is too similar to that of your main competitors.

8. Only One Shipping Option

Come on now, if you only have one shipping option in 2025 then you’re purposely trying to lose sales.

Consumers want options when it comes to shipping. Long gone are the times of having one option.

Free shipping is a lot more common nowadays than it was before, too. We don’t expect you to provide free shipping on every order. However, set a minimum amount for customers to qualify for it.

This incentivizes customers to spend that little bit more to get free shipping on their order.

Apart from free shipping, having express options for faster shipping is a nice addition for customers who don’t mind paying a bit more to get their items quicker.

9. Few Payment Options

Having a lack of payment options is like shooting yourself in the foot while you’re about to cross the finish line.

You worked hard to get a customer to fill their cart and reach checkout. But then, it all falls apart because your website doesn’t accept their preferred payment method.

Making sure your website accepts most, if not all, of the most popular payment methods should take priority on your list of things to add to your store.

And luckily, doing this is quick if you are using one of the popular CMS platforms for your website. Most of the popular payment options should come with the CMS, and if they don’t, then you can add them with checkout plugins.

Remember, potential customers won’t go out of their way to make an account just to pay for an order with your preferred payment method. So, make it as easy as possible for them to pay with no hassle.

10. Mediocre Web Design

If your website looks badly made and feels clunky to navigate, then people will leave and look for an alternative. Your website is the cornerstone of your digital presence, and not taking proper care of it will only lead to more issues down the road.

First impressions are VERY important in the digital world. Consumers will judge your brand as a whole based on the first 5 seconds of opening your website. From website load times (more about this below) to how presentable your main page looks.

Your main page should be easy to navigate and should guide consumers toward CTAs and important pages. All this while keeping your branding consistent between all the pages.

But we get it; creating a website from scratch or redesigning an existing one takes a lot of time and hard work. From planning what CMS to build your website on to what eCommerce platform is best for your brand. There are a lot of options to consider when creating a new website, and it should be carefully considered.

Want to improve your website’s design but don’t know where to start? Let us help.

11. No Page Speed Optimization Whatsoever

Slow-loading websites get no traffic at all. Why? There are a few reasons.

For one, Google considers page load speed a ranking factor, so the slower the page is to load, the worse it ranks.

Secondly, people don’t want to wait.

If your website takes over 3 seconds to load on mobile, then people leave altogether and find another website with a similar product.

While it might not seem like a big issue at first glance, the reality is that having a slow-loading website is one of the worst eCommerce mistakes you can make in 2025.

If your website loads slowly, visitors will leave. They may even avoid it later when they need a product you offer.

There are a few ways you can fix your website’s slow loading times, like:

• Optimizing Images: Compressing images in WebP format will significantly reduce the file size of each image and, in turn, make the page load faster.

• Limit HTTP Requests: By reducing the number of requests your page sends to the server hosting the resource, you can improve your website’s load times.

• Limit External Scripts: External scripts such as CTA buttons and CMS plugins need to be loaded every time a page loads. By reducing the number of items your page has to download, you can speed up your website’s load time.

12. Zero Mobile Optimization

It should come as no surprise that having a website that is mobile-friendly is a must in 2025.

Having a website that isn’t mobile-friendly is the same as closing the door on more than 50% of potential visitors.

As far as eCommerce mistakes are concerned, having no mobile optimization on your website is very high on the list.

Shopping on a mobile device is the norm nowadays, so making sure your website runs perfectly on all devices is a must.

We always recommend a mobile device-first approach when creating a website so it’s easier to lay good foundations and scale from there.

If you already have your website created, then optimizing for a better mobile experience could take a lot more work.

13. Bad CTAs

Call to action (CTA) is one of the main ways for you to direct consumers toward products or services you want to sell to them. Knowing where to place CTAs is entirely dependent on how you structure your website.

One of the most common eCommerce mistakes brands make when it comes to CTAs is making them too bright and desperate. While you do want customers to look at them and potentially click on them, you want it to be in a way that feels like they want to do so.

Putting a neon yellow CTA that covers a quarter of the screen will only cause visitors to leave your website.

14. Zero Trust Signals Anywhere

We mentioned the importance of having good security earlier in the article, but now we want to talk about the importance of showing all those security features somewhere.

You might have an amazing security system, but if you don’t show what type of security you have on your website, then your visitors will have no idea.

People want to know what type of security your website has so they feel secure when buying products from you.

We highly recommend that you put all the main security badges on your checkout page so customers don’t get cold feet due to security reasons.

15. No Guest Checkout

We’ve all been there; we’re about to buy a product, and as we’re about to go to checkout, we get a notification saying that we have to log in to an account to order.

While we get why you’d want to force visitors to create an account, making sure they are able to get the product they want with as few restrictions as possible is vital.

Cart abandonment percentages are already shockingly high; you don’t have to add even more reasons for customers to abandon their carts.

Make it so they can place an order without having to create an account while giving them the option to create an account if they choose to do so.

Get a Mistake Free eCommerce Website that Converts With Blacksmith

Most eCommerce mistakes on this list had a similar issue; they all forgot to focus on the consumer in one way or another. From lack of security to not having a mobile friendly website.

There are a lot of mistakes you can make in your eCommerce journey, but luckily you don’t have to work on them by yourself.

Here at Blacksmith, we are passionate about everything related to eCommerce. From creating a whole website around an eCommerce store to fixing mistakes like the ones in this article.

With our eCommerce Development Service will provide modern solutions to all your eCommerce problems while showing you progress every step of the way.

Still unsure if we’re the right fit for your brand? Let’s get on a call so we can explain how 2025 can be your brand’s best year ever.