Lesser-Known Challenges of Running an E-Commerce Store

Whether you spell it as ecommerce, e-commerce, or eCommerce, one fact remains unchanged. Most of the readers will now put on their thinking caps, and try identifying this ‘unchanged’ factor. Let’s not stretch it too far for them and try their patience. Irrespective of the way you spell or write it, what remains unaltered about ecommerce is its huge importance in the business domain. That is not all. Ecommerce has become a part of the laymen’s vocabulary today.

From aspiring entrepreneurs to dedicated shoppers, ecommerce has proved to be the buzz word. If you are dreaming of pitching your startup, you might not even have to develop your own services and products.

Ecommerce grants the opportunity of drop shipping from 3rd party manufacturers or purchasing products from distributors, thus reselling them online. However, things aren’t that easy as they might be sounding.

A Series of Challenges

Apart from the common challenges faced by businesses, ecommerce store owners bear the brunt of additional issues too. Particularly while launching their stores, they ignore lesser-known issues that can give them a hard time ahead.

If you wish to know about them, here’s your guide.

1. Shipping Challenges

Your ecommerce store might just be reselling products from several other manufacturers. Even then, the safe and secure shipping of these items is entirely up to you. Resellers usually face the following hassles here in this context.

• Damaged During Transit: You already have the products in your warehouse after shipping them from the supplier. In case, any damage occurs while transiting from your location to the receiver, it will be solely your responsibility.
• Losses during Transit: First-time entrepreneurs often fail to pay increased attention towards transit losses. But that is what they should be doing. The undependable postal networks make overseas shipping even tougher than ever! Packages get lost midway, and excise duties are also imposed at times.

Costs get added, and your product becomes more expensive than it actually is.

2. Drop Shipping

Drop shipping refers to the process of direct shipping of goods from distributors or manufacturers to end-customers. There is no need of stocking the product in between, thus making the procedure highly cost-effective.

• Concerns about product quality: Drop shippers are not that concerned about product quality. The concept might seem to be quite profitable on the first go, but won’t be effective in the long run. The absence of stocking and checking will never let you know about the quality of the product inside. And you might as well ship fake products.
• Unnecessary expenses: Drop shippers also charge hidden membership fees from customers and also have to bear the burden of chargebacks from consumers.

3. Managing Product Inventories

Even if you take a look at the largest consumer goods business, you will find them struggling with demand planning and management. There is no denying its importance in the supply-chain, and e-retailers need to take up the matter seriously.

If you are ready to launch your ecommerce store, you must know the art of managing product inventories.

The next time you plan on starting your ecommerce store, please be aware of these challenges, till we get back to you for more on this topic.