When discussing with many companies what they face as a biggest challenge when trying to grow their revenues it is often said that the challenge is not innovation - it is the ability to commercialize and communicate it to the audience.

Let's have a look at the major obstacles.

1. Time required Selling new products is challenging especially when  introducing new behaviour. On average selling new products requires a much larger investment and training than selling items known to a public. Therefore any company investing in innovation and selling products not previously known must keep this in mind.

2.  Which products to sell?
Today many cheap and user friendly platforms have eliminated the barriers of entry, it is fairly easy to launch your own online store.Amazon is taking over the eCommerce world with their massive online product catalog.  Their marketplace and fulfillment services have enabled sellers from all over the world to easily reach paying customers.Let’s not forget about Aliexpress.  They’ve simplified product sourcing by giving access to Chinese manufacturers within a couple of clicks.All of this has made it very difficult for retailers to source unique products unless you they decide to manufacture your own.

3. Making yourself attractive to right customers
Online shoppers don’t shop the same way as they used to back in the day.  They use Amazon to search for products (not just Google). They ask for recommendations on Social Media. They use their smartphones to read product reviews while in-store and pay for purchases using all sorts of payment methods.Lots has changed including the way they consume content and communicate online.  They get easily distracted with technology and social media.E-commerce companies must figure out where their audience is and how to attract them efficiently without killing their marketing budget. They must market smartly.

4. Generating right traffic
Digital marketing channels are evolving.  Retailers can no longer rely one type of channel to drive traffic to their online store.They must effectively leverage SEO, PPC, email, social, display ads, retargeting, mobile, shopping engines and affiliates to help drive qualified traffic to their online store.  They must be visible where their audience is paying attention.

5. Converting visitors into shoppers
Driving quality traffic and nurturing leads is key if you want to close the sale.  At a certain point, you need to convert those leads in order to pay for your marketing campaigns.Retailers must constantly optimize their efforts in converting both email leads as well as website visitors into customers.  Conversion optimization is a continuous process.

6. Retaining your shoppers
Attracting new customers is more expensive than retaining the current ones you already have.Retailers must implement tactics to help them get the most out of their customer base in increase customer lifetime value.

7. Using data & Business Intel
E-commerce companies must understand that they have all of the data and intel they need in order to make targeted campaigns. Email marketing is still proven to be an effective channel which can be made specific based on the customers previous shopping behaviour. This is a direct communication link which should not be underestimated.

8. Achieving profitable long-term growth
Increasing sales is one way to grow the business but in the end, what matters most is profitability.Online retailers must always find ways to cut inventory costs, improve marketing efficiency, reduce overhead, reduce shipping costs and control order returns.

9. Choosing the right technology & partners
Some online retailers may face growth challenges because their technology is limiting them or they’ve hired the wrong partners/agencies to help them manage their projects.Retailers wanting to achieve growth must be built on a good technology foundation.  Online retailers must choose carefully who to work with. Understanding that in today's world not being programmatic means losing profitability.

10. Understanding their own Key Strategy & focus areas and growth
Retailers must consider what is their key strategy and focus area is to further their growth. This is true especially in small-to mid size e-commerce retailers. Understanding your own limits is also key to further growth and taking a considered approach that one can not do everything at once means is a difficult but a very necessary part of furthering growth dynamically.