Running an online business comes with diverse challenges, many of them universal. Owners of such companies are well aware that they have digital giants as well as brick-and-mortar stores to contend with. You might also already be tackling issues like logistics, customer retention, or returns.
Even if you’ve figured out how to tackle obvious obstacles, your endeavor might still suffer if you don’t also pay attention to less well-known challenges. We highlight six such challenges and offer advice on how to deal with them here.
In This Article:
A Sub-Optimal Website
An online business’s website is its only storefront, so it needs to be as polished and streamlined as possible. Attractive design consistent with your brand identity is a must. However, optimizing the website from a technical standpoint is more important.
No one wants to wait around for the site to appear, so prioritize loading tie optimization. Most consumers access the internet via smartphone or tablet now. This is even more apparent in developing markets where desktop use never took off. Developing for mobile should take precedence. Additionally, site navigation needs to feel natural regardless of the resolution or a device’s orientation.
Barebones Brand Identity
You’ve got a name & logo, a color scheme, and some products. Even if you do business in a niche industry, you’re likely coming up against competitors striving to stand out. Why should anyone choose your products and services over others?
Discerning customers care as much about a company’s journey and mission as the products themselves. A brand identity isn’t just an attractive landing page and an uplifting but generic-sounding About Us segment. It’s also championing a cause and actively promoting values your customers can identify with.
Who would you trust more? A faceless online store with a selection you’ve seen a thousand times? Or a personable company that offers the same goods but uses minimal, eco-friendly packaging or supports their local community?
Unfocused Marketing
Marketing is essential for a business’s growth. Done haphazardly, it can lead to more spending while not having the desired effect. It’s tempting to want to appeal to everyone, but a focused approach will yield better results.
Identifying and catering to your core demographic is the most efficient use of your time and resources. Craft surveys, perform A/B testing, and let existing customers chime in with suggestions and stories.
Once you have a clearer picture of whose needs your site serves the best, tailor your marketing efforts to attract more people within the niche. Satisfied customers are indispensable brand ambassadors whose word-of-mouth recommendations carry more weight than most marketing ever could.
Keeping Customer Data Safe
A successful online business processes thousands of transactions from as many unique customers. Identifying information like their names, residences, and credit card data is indispensable for each. Any responsible business needs to treat such data with heightened security.
To that end, you should encrypt and securely store any financial and customer data in the business cloud and locally. Cloud storage is effective since it frees up your company’s server resources while maintaining exacting security standards. Encryption and redundancy copies are part of the service, and file sharing becomes both more straightforward and easier to monitor.
Using a password manager designed for your company’s operating system, such as Linux can further safeguard your business’s sensitive data by generating and securely storing strong passwords for all accounts. This helps limit unauthorized access and reduces the risk of password-related breaches.
Companies rightfully set up most of their cybersecurity defenses outward to combat data breaches and ransomware. However, malicious insiders are an often overlooked factor that can do as much, if not more, harm. You can limit their activities by setting up role-based data access and automatically disabling ex-employee credentials.
Choosing the Right Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is an essential component of any digital storefront since it streamlines the checkout & payment process. It’s also the vendor you should scrutinize since picking the wrong one may lead to long-term headaches for you and your customers.
Ideally, the gateway should provide a prompt service and have minimal or no downtime. It needs to offer a diverse selection of the most popular payment options and perform the transaction process as quickly as possible.
Each gateway has different fee & regulation policies you need to understand and accept before committing. Identifying hidden fees or conditions that may change your initial terms is vital to adjusting your budget and expectations.
When shopping for a payment gateway, also account for the strength of their data protection efforts and whether they comply with standards like HTTPS and PCI-DSS.
Protecting Business Operations
Another essential tool for securing your online business operations is a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN encrypts internet traffic and masks your IP address, which can protect your company’s sensitive information from cybercriminals and prevent unauthorized access to business resources.
VPNs are especially valuable for remote teams or employees working from various locations. By encrypting data and creating a secure connection, a VPN ensures that sensitive transactions, employee communications, and customer data remain private—even when using public Wi-Fi or untrusted networks.
For businesses, choosing the best VPN with features like a no-logs policy, high-speed connections, and support for multiple devices is crucial. A robust VPN not only safeguards business operations but also enhances customer trust by showing that your company prioritizes cybersecurity.
Legal Compliance
Online businesses need to satisfy numerous additional criteria on top of complying with general and corporate laws. Does your company have all the licenses it needs to operate? Is your website compliant with customer protection laws like GDPR and COPPA? Are you making sure that any content displayed on your site complies with trademark and copyright law?
Being a stickler for regulation might dampen your entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s necessary for your online business to keep operating.
