Shopify is a great platform to build your e-commerce business on. It’s known for its ease of use, has a great community, and is very flexible. But, like any other platform, it has its own set of rules and best practices. If you don’t follow them, you might end with a sick e-commerce business.
What makes your store sick? By applying some old school marketing techniques and practices, you might end up with a store that doesn’t convert well, management is a pain, and every new feature you add to your store is a nightmare. So, let’s dive into the five don’ts to make your Shopify e-commerce business grow healthy and strong.
Don’t overcomplicate your product hierarchy
Store owners often make the mistake of creating too many product categories and subcategories, thinking it will help their customers find what they are looking for. That might be useful if your store sells completely different products for different audience (like the ones we have on Amazon, eBay, etc.)
But in reality, it just makes harder for the staff to manage everything. Shopify does not provide subcategories (developers usually create them artificially using tags or metafields) and there is a good reason for not having them.
Subcategorizing your products in hierarchical way makes them limited to a specific category. Products don’t usually fit into one category. They can be a part of multiple categories. For example, a perfume can be a part of “Women”, “Eau de Toilette” and category related to a brand.
Instead of having subcategories, make sure your products are organized into collections in a single-level flat hierarchy. Let’s say you are selling clothes. Put all of the shirts into the ‘Shirts’ collection. Then, the second tool comes into play – tags! Use them to separate shirts by type (e.g., long sleeve, short sleeve, etc.). Use tags to determine new arrivals, sale items, etc. This way, you can easily create filters for your collections, which will make it easier for your customers to find exactly what they are looking for.
Don’t go with the flow
There are many stores that take aggressive marketing as a serious approach. When customer lands on a shop, they are bombarded with popups, flashing banners, and other messages that obstruct customer’s path to the checkout.
This is a big no-no. Instead, focus on creating a great user experience. Make sure your store is easy to navigate, and that your customers can find what they are looking for. Instead of having popups, you can use a simple banner at the top of your store’s page. This way, you will not annoy your customers, but you will still be able to promote your products and offers.
When it comes to rewarding your customers with a discount, don’t reward them because they stayed on your store for a certain amount of time (enough to see a popup with the discount code). Instead, surprise them on the cart page, just before the checkout, for their will to buy something from you.
Don’t bloat your store with apps
This one is every Shopify developers’ nightmare. There are many apps that can help you with some part of your store’s functionality. However, you can quickly go overboard with them.
Having many apps can slow down your store and affect its SEO rankings and conversion rates. If there are apps that you don’t use, remove them from your store. Don’t just turn them off, because their code will still run.
If your store requires a lot of apps for its functionality, consider hiring a Shopify developer to help you resolve this out. Many app functionalities can be replaced with custom code. This solution will make your store faster and more reliable.
Don’t forget your loyal customers
You can easily get caught up in the excitement of obtaining new customers. However, don’t forget about the loyal ones. These customers will keep coming back to your store, and they are the ones who will recommend your store to their friends. Make sure you reward them for their loyalty. Thankfully, Shopify can help you with this.
Start first by creating customer segments based on their purchase history. Then, you can send them targeted emails with special offers, discounts, and other promotions. A happy customer is a loyal customer, and a loyal customer is your best marketing tool.
Don’t ignore your store’s analytics tools
Whether you are using Google Analytics or Shopify’s native analytics, be sure to look at their charts properly. If you want to improve your store’s performance, you need to know what’s going on.
Shopify provides you with a lot of data about your store’s performance. You can see how many visitors you get, how many of them convert, how much money you make, and much more. Use this data to make informed decisions about your store’s future.
If you are unsure what to do with the data, a good Shopify Developer can always help you. They will be able to analyze your data and provide you with actionable insights.
Conclusion
Keeping your Shopify store healthy and growing is not easy, but it will be worth it. To sum up, always look at your store from two different perspectives – the customer’s and the staff’s. Both of them should have a great experience when using your store. Having a great user experience will make your customers happy, and the life of your staff will be much easier 🙂
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