Since the birth of the internet, it has opened doors for huge opportunities, to small entrepreneurs who have just started earning from their online business venture. Business owners opting to start an online business may face a number of potential risks and rewards. Before deciding to take your business online, you must determine whether you are prepared to confront the potential risks associated with the ecommerce business. Also, you must determine whether the possible outcome of the business will nullify these risks for you. Moreover, you should be able to define the costs incurred for starting an online business and also must considerably benefit from the business in order to justify the money spent.
There could be some serious risks that must be assessed before launching an ecommerce business. When you set your budget, targets, and strategies for your business, one thing that is most commonly ignored must be considered – the risks of ecommerce!
Through this blog, we have tried to lend you a helping hand to understand the risks that are associated with running an online store. If you are planning to start selling online really soon, take a pause, go through the risks we mention here, and be well-prepared for any storms that may arise in your future venture!
Risks of Running an Online Store
The one big fat benefit of moving your business online is the increased exposure. With an internet connection and the right use of search engine optimization, people from around the globe can find you from the comfort of their homes, without even meeting you for once; all within a few keystrokes! As compared to the traditional offline marketing methods such as print advertising, word of mouth, etc., a strong online presence can give you web traffic from not only your local consumers but also from foreign consumers. Although these benefits are quite lucrative to convince you for starting an online business right away, we need you to look into the following risks of running an online store and make an informed decision or at the least be prepared for everything that’ll be served on your plate:
Online Security Breach
Every online business, including the ones you are planning to start, is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and security breaches. Such online security risks may include unprotected web services, phishing, and website hacking. With the development of technologies, many hackers have also come up with the ability to breach any company’s network in order to access their confidential information. Therefore, it becomes quite essential for your ecommerce website/store to be strongly secure. For this, your data management practices must be on par with the security standards.
Intellectual Property Infringement
The infringement of intellectual property is another common security threats faces by many ecommerce businesses. When it comes to ecommerce businesses, protecting the IP is of prime importance. This includes protecting the website logos, products, taglines, images, taglines, web content, and other icons. The infringement of intellectual property and copyright rules can turn out to be a costly affair for the ecommerce business. For this, you need to make sure that you are employing strict security policies as well as practices.
Poor Authentication Methods
If you have employed poor authentication methods in your online business, then, my friend, you are highly at risk of cyber-attacks! If you authenticate your consumers only using an ID and password, then chances are, this information is easily stolen or misused. You must make sure to use strong authentication methods for strong online security that can potentially combat such attacks. For this, the best way is to employ two-factor authentication, like the one done in one of the most popular messaging applications – WhatsApp. Such multifactor authentication processes are the perfect way to secure your online business. With multifactor authentication, an additional security layer is added to the authentication process with verification codes being asked for logging in apart from the user ID and password.
Warehousing and Logistics
Running a truly successful warehousing and logistics operations in ecommerce can be quite tricky. If not done right, you might not only waste your precious time but also your money, and eventually, your consumer satisfaction will be at stake! Studies have found that a huge lot of consumers find guaranteed delivery dates as a crucial factor in shopping online. Therefore, you must be sure that the products you sell do not go out of stock, and efficient stock management would greatly help you with the same. Moreover, you can consider opting for professional delivery services that would help in the timely delivery of the products to your consumers in the right condition. After all, consumer satisfaction is what every online business thrives on; what about you?
Consumer Disputes
It is one of the biggest problems accounted for by many online businesses in the ecommerce industry. In such cases, consumers seek a refund for disputed orders. Mostly, disputes arise when the consumer is charged for the order but does not receive any confirmation of the order or get delivered with the same. While some times, it may arise when the consumer gets charged twice for a single order, when the product description does not match with the actual product that is delivered to the consumer, and the list can go on. However, there are chances of fraudulent refund requests as well. Therefore, you must make sure to avoid consumer disputes in order to get saved from such fraudulent requests. Also, you can consider using security steps such as the ones mentioned earlier to determine the authenticity of the consumer as well as the order for which the refund is requested.
Credit Card Frauds
Stolen credit card information and doubtful transactions are two of the most common risks associated with ecommerce businesses. Not only hackers, but anyone can use stolen credit card information to make an online transaction. However, as an online seller, you can try avoiding such frauds by being PCI compliant, using Secure Socket Layer authentication, and other such security measures.
Low Ranking
From all the risks out there for your online business, digital marketing and SEO can also be serious ones. Since Google’s algorithms keep changing, your ranking can be drastically affected. Low ranking implies low web traffic on your ecommerce website/ store which eventually refers to poor sales. Therefore focusing on digital marketing and especially smart SEO tactics is of prime importance when it comes to selling online. Now many businesses take this risk on a lighter note and therefore fail to get ranked in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Therefore, you must be sure that a professional SEO expert is taking care of your website as it rightly must be done. They will be able to determine the right keyword, find the right tool, as well as make a highly effective social media strategy for your business.
Conclusion
All the above-mentioned risks along with their possible solutions can surely help you overpower the risks with benefits. However, in case you are still skeptical about this, you can consider seeking expert web development services such as Builderfly Ecommerce Platform that can not only help you curb the risks associated with taking your business online but also help you grow your online presence in the right direction.
