6 biggest marketing mistakes ecommerce brands make (and how to avoid them)

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Build inventory: check.

Launch your online store: check.

Create a few popups to start growing your email list: check.

Now it’s time to launch some ads and start bringing in the customers, right?

Not so fast.

Being eager is great, and it means you’re ready to grow. But acting too quickly without a clear strategy can lead to wasted budget, stalled growth, and a lot of unnecessary stress.

The truth is, even seasoned ecommerce brands slip up when it comes to marketing. George Matovic, founder and CEO of InboxFortress, notes that he sees brands who repeatedly make the same mistakes: “They often don’t prioritize customer experience or fully understand their audience. Content tends to be repetitive or lacking, and there’s usually no clear reason to choose their brand over others. Messaging can be confusing, and short-term metrics like CPA are chased at the expense of brand strength. Planning is minimal, and email deliverability is poorly managed — many of my clients first come to fix that, but stay on for help with strategy, retention, and customer journeys.”

That’s why I’ve pulled together six of the most common mistakes, with expert tips on how to avoid each one.

6 mistakes ecommerce brands make

Running a successful ecommerce business isn’t just about great products and a sleek website. It’s also about making smart marketing decisions.

But with so many channels, tools, and strategies to choose from, it’s easy to take a wrong turn. Some mistakes are small and easy to fix. Others can quietly eat into profits or stall growth altogether.

In no particular order, here are the common marketing missteps ecommerce brands make:

Runnings ads without a retention strategy

Launching paid ads is often seen as a surefire way to bring customers in, but it’s important not to jump in too fast. For one thing, ads can be costly before they start generating a return — you have to find the winning version that reaches the right people and resonates with them.

But once the ads do start generating traffic, then what? A lot of those visitors will leave, even abandoning their cart before checkout. And of those that become paying customers, it’s important to have a retention strategy in place to try and turn them from one-time customers into repeat buyers.

As James Ollerhead, co-founder and managing director of Rage Creative, says: “New ecommerce brands often throw cash at paid ads but fail to capture and nurture those hard-earned customers. Build your email and SMS list from day one — it’s the cheapest way to drive repeat sales and maximize every acquisition dollar.”

The sentiment is echoed by Shoplazza’s digital marketing manager, Matthew Liang: “The number one mistake that indie brands make is running their site like a popup shop for one-night stands, blowing budgets on flashy ads to lure strangers while ignoring loyal fans. Your store isn’t a TikTok thirst trap. It’s a VIP lounge — 60% of indie site revenue comes from repeat buyers (who, ironically, get treated like background noise).”

To fix this, Matthew advises: “Automate post-purchase emails and turn abandoned carts into love letters. Use SMS for VIP updates. Bake loyalty perks into your site. Your site’s not a billboard, it’s a home, so decorate accordingly.”

This also ties in with the importance of keeping in touch with your existing customers. Joey Sweeney, head of growth marketing at Big Cartel, feels that brands are often too focused on customer acquisition at the expense of customer retention: “The biggest and probably most common mistake ecommerce folks make is obsessing over acquiring new customers while neglecting the ones they already have. They pour money into ads to attract strangers, but their existing customers feel forgotten after the first purchase. Your best customers are already in your database, waiting to be delighted.”

Not optimizing product descriptions for SEO

SEO isn’t just about getting your homepage ranking, while paid ads do the heavy lifting of bringing traffic to your product pages. Your product pages should also be factored into your SEO strategy — by doing this, you’ll bring organic traffic to your site but, more importantly, the purchase intent will be high because these visitors will have been searching for that specific item.

Big Cartel’s growth marketing manager, Karsyn Ansari, explains: “A well-structured, benefit-focused description not only improves conversion rate by building customer confidence, but also improves search engine visibility when paired with strategic target keywords relevant to your product. Ready-to-buy customers are searching for products like yours, so put in the work upfront to capitalize on high-intent organic traffic.”

Ignoring customer data

According to David Bradbury, founding partner of the agency May the Growth be With You, not enough brands are collecting data of customer preferences. Of asking people for specific information as they become subscribers, David says it “enables brands to personalize their welcome automations relative to the subscriber’s reason for subscribing.”

The logic is simple: you ask a question related to your products, and use the answer to personalize the experience. David explains: “So for a skin care brand, ask the subscriber to confirm their skin type when they sign up, then use this data point to tailor your comms to address this specific skin type, and watch your conversion rates fly.”

This level of personalization ensures your emails aren’t generic, and the extra relevance to your audience should translate to higher engagement and revenue.

If you didn’t collect this information when your subscribers signed up, it’s not too late. “A lot of people overlook the power of popups for existing accounts,” says Felix Keith Schuster, founder of the marketing agency Schustertrade. 

“Most of the time, I see great statistics for non-subscriber popups on new accounts, but they fail to follow up with existing users to gather more valuable data like their name, birthday, etc. This information can be extremely useful for personalized offers, discounts, and targeted promotions.”

Over-relying on discounts

Discounts are a powerful tactic — they’re effective at converting new visitors into customers, turning existing customers into repeat buyers, and shifting inventory when you need to clear it. But it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.

Katie Williams, a director at Avo Digital, explains: “Instead of conditioning customers to wait for sales, focus on building a strong brand narrative, leveraging personalized email flows, and creating exclusive, VIP-style product drops. This builds long-term loyalty and keeps margins healthy.”

Treating all traffic sources as equal

“We have noticed that all traffic does not convert the same way,” says Tomisin Smith, founder and lead strategist at 26 Digital.

Brands probably know this intuitively already — after all, purchase intent is different depending on what stage in the marketing funnel somebody is in. Yet Tomisin observes marketers don’t necessarily factor this into their strategies.

“It’s best to create a strategy that helps you apply tailored messaging to website visitors from different sources,” she says. “So for example, creating dynamic homepages based on customers who are returning or new. This fosters conversions and personalization.” 

Limiting yourself to your industry

There’s a tendency for marketers to look within their industry for ideas and inspiration. And while this is a good idea, it’s also worth looking further afield, according to Pija Ona Indriunaite, Omnisend’s brand director.

“Exploring marketing efforts from different industries will bring a fresh and unique perspective to your communication,” she says. 

By broadening your horizons this way, you may find new ideas for promoting your products, or speaking to your audience in a manner that your competitors aren’t — which can help you to stand out in the best way.

Wrap up

These mistakes can cost brands to miss out, but what’s worse is the fact many of them aren’t aware that they’re making them in the first place.

That’s why they can be your biggest opportunity as an agency. These mistakes give you a clear path to demonstrate your value, refine your pitch, and position yourself as the strategic partner ecommerce brands need.

Whether it’s tightening up the marketing strategy, fixing funnel gaps, or improving ROI from ad spend, your expertise can turn missteps into momentum.