Ecommerce development projects: the 7 most common pitfalls — and how to avoid them

An effectively implemented e-commerce system can generate significant revenue, increase customer engagement and streamline your business.

A poorly executed ecommerce development project, on the other hand, can lead to significant losses, operational disruption and reputational damage.

Here are the most common pitfalls:

1. Inadequate planning and strategy

Without careful planning that is aligned with your marketing strategy, you can end up with an e-commerce platform that quickly turns out not to meet your company's objectives or specific needs.

The platform may lack essential functionality for the company, may not support key business processes or may not fit the company's brand identity. At best, "only" the user experience will be poor, at worst the sales process will be inefficient — but the company will lose revenue either way.

Example: An ecommerce platform is being developed for a wholesaler that does not integrate well with their existing inventory and CRM systems. This makes day to day work cumbersome, fewer processes are automated than could be, and more manual work means more room for error. This leads to inventory discrepancies, order fulfillment problems and frustrated customers.

💡 The development team selected to build the ecommerce platform needs to know the business strategy of which the ecommerce store will be a part; they need to understand how the platform fits into your business objectives. With this information in mind, they need to gather details of your user needs and platform requirements before designing.  

2. Poor user experience and design

An e-commerce platform that does not provide a seamless user experience can hinder sales.

Complicated navigation, long loading times and a design that lacks usability can frustrate users, leading to high bounce rates, abandoned shopping carts and low conversion rates.  

Example: Customers find it difficult to find products, so they don't buy. Or they find the product they want to buy, but the steps of the buying process are not designed in a user-friendly way — in terms of functionality, design or both — so the less patient ones abandon the purchase. 

💡 The development team chosen to build the e-commerce platform must be skilled in UX/UI design. They should focus on making the interface user-friendly with intuitive navigation, responsive design and attractive visual elements.

3. Security vulnerabilities

If an e-commerce platform is not supported by adequate security measures, there is a huge risk that it will fall victim to a cyber-attack and customer data could be leaked.

Security vulnerabilities, leakage of confidential data from the system will certainly result in financial loss and reputational damage, but non-compliance can also have legal consequences and may even lead to fines.

Example: A company's ecommerce site could suffer a data breach due to weak security protocols, compromising customers' personal and banking data, and face a loss of customer trust and possible legal consequences.

💡 The team developing the ecommerce platform should have robust security measures in place (e.g. encryption, secure payment gateways, regular security audits). They should also keep up to date with the latest security standards and compliance requirements.

4. Integration challenges

Failure to integrate the e-commerce platform with other systems already in use in the company (e.g. ERP, CRM, inventory management) can lead to operational gaps and data inconsistencies.

Integration problems can lead to inefficient workflows and errors in order processing, inventory management and customer relationship management.

Example: The e-commerce platform is not synchronized with the inventory system, so there are constant overselling or underselling problems.

💡 Choose a development team skilled in system integrations who can create a seamless connection between your e-commerce platform and your existing business systems.

5. Scalability issues

If an e-commerce platform is not scalable, then as traffic and the number of transactions increase, performance problems will become more frequent.

Scalability issues can lead to slower loading pages, site downtime, poor user experience during peak periods, slowing sales and decreasing customer satisfaction.

Example: A major promotion or holiday season can overload an e-commerce site that was not designed with the ability to handle a periodic surge or steady increase in traffic over time. 

💡 The development team should design the platform with scalability and sustainability in mind. They need to use scalable infrastructure and technologies so that when traffic and transaction volumes increase, performance does not degrade.

6. Lack of post-launch support

If the e-commerce platform does not have ongoing developer support after publication, it will sooner or later run into technical problems and become obsolete over time.

Without regular updates and support, the platform may experience bugs, security vulnerabilities and performance issues. This can lead to a degraded user experience, malfunctions and crashes.

Example: During the holiday season, customers complain that pages load slowly and receive errors during the checkout process. Due to lack of immediate technical support, these problems persist for several weeks, resulting in a significant loss of revenue during the holiday season. 

💡 Choose a development team that offers comprehensive support and maintenance even after the launch of the e-commerce system. They should provide regular updates, quick bug fixes and ongoing support to keep the platform up and running for the long term.

7. Misaligned expectations and communication

Gaps in communication between the development team and the company and unclear expectations can lead to project slippage and failure to meet targets.

Poor communication about the timing, duration and deliverables of a project can result not only in delayed delivery, but also in increased costs and dissatisfaction with the finished product.  

Example: If the development team is not fully aware of the company's specific requirements right from the start, such as integration with existing ERP systems or the need for specific user roles, and has to redesign on the fly to ensure that the system will meet these requirements, then not only will there be a significant delay and therefore loss of revenue, but there is likely to be additional unplanned expenditure. 

💡 Choose a development team with whom communication is efficient and smooth, with whom you can easily find common ground, and who proactively offer solutions for the e-commerce system you are developing.