The E-Commerce Mistake Everyone Makes (Including Us)

After building 40+ e-commerce sites, you'd think we'd have it figured out. But there's one thing that catches us every time: product data.

Not the technology. Not the design. The actual content.

Here's what usually happens:

Week 1-3: Build beautiful product pages, slick checkout, responsive everything.

Week 4: "Okay, we need product descriptions, photos, specifications..."

Week 5-8: Waiting. Waiting. Following up. Getting a spreadsheet with missing columns. Following up again.

Week 9: Launch delayed because half the products don't have images.

We've tried everything. Content workshops. Template spreadsheets. Automated reminders. The problem persists.

Why? Because collecting product data is boring. It's not strategic. Nobody gets promoted for "uploaded all product photos on time."

What actually works:

Start data collection before design. Make it the first milestone, not an afterthought.

Assign one person on the client side as the data owner. Multiple people means nobody's responsible.

Ship with what you have. A store with 50 complete products beats a store with 200 incomplete ones. Add the rest post-launch.

Build placeholder systems. When data is missing, show something helpful rather than broken pages.

The uncomfortable truth: most e-commerce projects don't fail because of technology. They stall because the content isn't ready. No amount of developer skill fixes that.

If you're planning an e-commerce project, start photographing products and writing descriptions today. Seriously. Before you hire anyone.