When opening a business on Shopify, there are a few common Shopify mistakes that store owners usually make. Over 600,000 stores are powered by Shopify, which made it one of the most popular options. This is why a good number of businesspersons are getting interested in opening a store at Shopify.
But doing business at Shopify is a form of eCommerce business. Online businesses require different strategies and rules than brick-and-mortar businesses. As a result, businesses usually need to correct things at the beginning. Initial mistakes increase the risk of encountering difficulties and huge losses at the beginning of the business.
In this article, we will try to summarize 15 common Shopify mistakes that owners must avoid when starting a new business. So, let’s see what mistakes new Shopify stores need to avoid.
What are the Common Shopify Mistakes?
- Lacking of a Unique Brand Name or Logo
- Insufficient Product Variety
- Providing poor service to customers
- Avoiding Spending on Advertising
- Not Paying Attention to Cash Flow and Operating Costs
- Avoiding The Use of a Secure Payment Gateway
- Providing an easy payment procedure
- The Lack of High-Quality Photographs
- Not Having a Strict Return Policy
- Absence of Social Media Usage Proof
- Lack of Sales and Discounts
- Choosing Not to Use Email Marketing
- Not Taking Actions Regarding Customer Feedback
- Imbalance in app usage
- You do not have Enough Patience
Mistake 1- Lacking of a Unique Brand Name or Logo
Shopify store owners who want to make it in today’s cutthroat eCommerce sector need to establish their brand with a memorable name and logo that stands out. You must pay close attention to these two details to stand out in this competitive industry.
As an online store, you want to stand out from the competition by providing a memorable experience for customers.
Spending effort on developing a memorable brand name and logo that differentiates your business from the many others offering the same products or services increases the likelihood that customers will interact with your brand and ultimately make a purchase.
Mistake 2- Insufficient Product Variety
Shopify is the best place to create a brand. Businessmen usually sell their products on Shopify to grab the attention of specific criteria of customers. But a mistake they make is selling the same products over the ages.
Some store owners stop modifying their product catalog after creating a brand. As we already know, the eCommerce business sector is competitive, so, with modifications, a store can easily stay caught up in the eCommerce race.
For example- a store owner doing custom business at Shopify usually sells t-shirts; now, to become trendy, he must sell other apparel products such as socks, mufflers, hoodies, etc. If you are new at Shopify, try to bring variations in the product to grab customers’ attention.
Nielsen found that 59% of shoppers are more likely to purchase products from well-known companies.
Mistake 3- Providing Poor Service to Customers
Providing top-notch customer service is important for both new and old customers. But here, we are especially talking about new businesses. Creating a professional and knowledgeable support team could be the representative of your business of service.
Some businesses use bots to provide customer service. In this case, we suggest providing human service because communication can create a strong bond with customers. That is impossible for a chatbot.
One aspect of customer service is how prompt you reply to online inquiries. What you say in reply to inquiries and feedback posted on social media. How to handle client complaints by phone and electronic mail. A customer service interaction is any time a consumer needs your help or attention.
32% of customers in a PwC survey said they would quit buying from a brand they otherwise adored if they had a negative encounter with it only once.
Countless businesses provide low-category customer service. They do not even message back to the customers. Which ultimately creates drawbacks for your Shopify business. So, if you are a new businessperson at Shopify, try not to avoid the importance of providing
Mistake 4- Avoiding Spending on Advertising
The lack of a sufficient marketing budget and improper allocation of marketing funds is the first seemingly insignificant but potentially catastrophic error. Having a clear idea of the budget available to the marketing department.
According to Statista, In 2020, companies expected 13% more revenue total spent on advertising.
Spending money on paid campaigns, outside contractors, tools such as social media publishing software or graphic design tools, and paid sponsorships and promotions. It’s important to calculate your budget early so that you may distribute funds fairly. Consider the marketing channels that are the most important and productive.
Mistake 5- Not Paying Attention to Cash Flow and Operating Costs
You should have a solid understanding of accounting principles before launching an eCommerce business. Most business leaders should put more emphasis on revenue growth at the expense of profit maximization. Shopify found that small businesses spend an average of $40,000 in their first full year of operation.
The importance of cash flow is highlighted by a recent study by U.S. Bank, which found that improper cash flow management is among the leading causes of business failure. Cash flow issues were determined to be the primary cause of failure for 82% of small enterprises in the survey.
For your business to thrive and grow, you need to generate more money than it spends. Everything must have a price tag, including marketing, overhead, product development, packaging, shipping, etc. It’s important to remember that not all sales result in a net gain.
Mistake 6- Avoiding the Use of a Secure Payment Gateway
Your business will be at serious risk if you don’t employ a secure payment gateway to process your online transactions, as fraudsters would have far easier access to your customer’s bank card details.
75% of respondents to a National Cyber Security Alliance survey expressed concern about the safety of their financial information when shopping online.
If you utilize a trusted, encrypted payment gateway, your customers can feel safe to provide their credit card information. The secure payment gateway safeguards businesses from fraudulent transactions as well as invalid or expired cards, insufficient cash, canceled accounts, and credit limit abuse.
As a new store owner at Shopify, try to use a safe payment gateway because it is really important to gain customers’ trust.
Mistake 7- Providing an Easy Payment Procedure
To Reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts, making the checkout process quick and easy is mandatory. If the checkout process takes less time, customers will likely leave the store without buying.
Sometimes, it is reasonable to ask for certain personal details from the consumer at checkout. If the checkout process is not easy, then it is quite impossible to divert a customer till the checkout process.
The Baymard Institute found that if the payment process is too difficult or takes too long, 28% of online shoppers will abandon their carts.
In such cases, first of all, using an incredible app according to your business type can encourage a customer to complete his shopping cart process.
Secondly, made plans to retarget customers who have abandoned their carts. After all, they were already interested in your store or product enough that’s why they were. You can easily retarget them with minimal effort.
Mistake 8- The Lack of High-Quality Photographs
Keep in mind that images are the main attraction of your site. It could be an image of a product, a scene, or information. It’s important not to dismiss the main gesture of a picture. Because the visual appeal of a product image can be the deciding factor in whether or not a customer makes a purchase, to do, image optimization is required.
If you have high-resolution photographs that are too large to upload, you can use an image-resizing tool to reduce their file size. It is also possible to choose a fixed size for all of your photographs and lower their overall dimensions.
Keep in mind that, don’t utilize blurred or low-resolution photographs on your site. If you don’t do this, customers will think you’re not serious about running a legitimate business. They will panic and leave forever if this happens.
An Emarketer poll found that visual representations of products were the most influential factor for 75% of online buyers.
Set a good background that naturally complements your product. If you need to be more knowledgeable about product photographs, You’ll need to hire a professional photographer since Shopify doesn’t provide this service.
Mistake 9- Not Having an Ideal Return Policy
How expertly you carry out your commercial dealings is of the utmost importance. Customers will see a positive image of your company if your refund policy is prominently displayed alongside your privacy policy and terms and conditions agreement.
This level of professionalism will benefit your company in many ways. It will help startups who are seeking to establish a loyal consumer base. Customers are more inclined to purchase from businesses whose websites clearly outline all applicable policies. That store will appear to them as one stocked with legitimate merchants.
According to Returnlogic.com, 90% of adult US customers claimed that an easy returns policy was vital when determining where to make a purchase.
Allowing returns without a reimbursement policy in place makes, using an incredible app according to your business type can first suggest that you need to visualize the returns to prevent further returns appropriately.
The goal is to avoid upsetting either existing or potential clients. It’s a simple measure taken to discourage customers from abusing the return policy. If a consumer buys a shirt for a special occasion, wears it, and then tries to return it to the store, the store may refuse to accept it because it is now worn.
Maintaining a customer database will help you identify repeat offenders and eliminate their unprofessional behavior.
Mistake 10- Absence of Social Media Usage Proof
A large and active social media following is one type of social proof, while positive evaluations on your website or in search engines are another. Both of these can make potential clients apprehensive about doing business with you.
When a business first opens, it’s natural that there will be fewer reviews and a smaller social media following. Increase the number of people following you and subscribing to your content by maintaining active social media profiles and publishing engaging content.
If you want more reviews, you can remind customers after they’ve made a purchase or offer them a discount on their next purchase if they leave one.
Mistake 11- Lack of Sales and Discounts
When it comes to a new eCommerce business, giving discounts and offers is an important aspect of making a store well-known to customers.
A new store’s motto should be “make its brand well-known rather than “gather more profit because expecting profit at the beginning of a business is quite impossible. So instead of gathering profit, giving discounts to grab more customers would be more beneficial.
80% of respondents to a RetailMeNot study said they were more likely to buy from an online retailer if they were offered a discount or promotion.
Customers usually expect discounts on different holidays, and if you are just launching your store close to those moments, use the time ideally.
Mistake 12- Choosing not to Use Email Marketing
Email marketing can potentially convert readers; it will do just that if done correctly. Email conversion rates can be improved by putting more effort into segmentation. Using your collected data, divide up your mailing list into specific categories. Ignoring the importance of using email marketing is a mistake in eCommerce.
To target a particular demographic running an email marketing campaign has no alternative.
Mistake 13- Not Taking Actions Regarding Customer Feedback
A Shopify business owner or marketer must know what consumers want before releasing a new product, brand, or service. If you undertake market research before releasing your product, you may gauge interest from potential buyers and get feedback on how to enhance it. Read this article to know, how to get reviews from your customers.
However, you won’t know the full story until clients have had a chance to try out and evaluate your product or service. Furthermore, their requirements and standards change over time.
Mistake 14- Imbalance in-App Usage
In Shopify, it is easy to install different apps anytime. However, installing too many apps on your shop will make your customers confused.
Also, if you use too many pop-ups, customers may become frustrated and decide to leave your site. Shopify apps should be chosen wisely, and you should avoid installing any incompatible with your theme.
However, if you’re limited in your app selection, you may do more work manually. Choose one or two best apps for the majority of your tasks.
For example, if you are a B2B wholesaler, use a bulk order app for Shopify. Rather than email automation or a cart-abandonment notification app. Because these tasks can be done manually.
Mistake 15- You Do Not Have Enough Patience
The last mistake that you need to be aware of is to be patient. The success of a business depends on consistency. You can only make your business successful after some time. It will require investment, hard work, strategy, and time.
If you’re someone who doesn’t have enough patience, then being a successful businessman at Shopify is quite tough. Because eCommerce business is already quite tough, expecting quick growth in an eCommerce business is like daydreaming.
An App That Can Help You to Avoid Common Shopify Mistakes
As we already know, Shopify has a good number of app collections in the app store. Store owners can install any of the apps they want.
In these thousands of apps, we can suggest an incredible app that can help you boost the performance of your new Shopify store. This app is especially good for those businesspeople who do B2B wholesale business at Shopify.
Though this business is done for wholesale businesses, this is a versatile app that has various business-centric features and options. Let me show you an example of this app:
Here you can see a store owner at Shopify using a bulk order app named MultiVariants – Bulk Order App. This app allows customers to order several products in a short period.
This opportunity is not possible at Shopify by default. In Shopify, when a customer wants to order in bulk, he needs to perform back-and-forth steps, but this app does not require such things.
If you have started a B2B wholesale business on Shopify, do not just traditionally run your store. Try the app and find potential. This app was an example; choose an app according to your business type.
Bottom Line
Making mistakes in a new business is always common, and when it is about an eCommerce business, the chances of making mistakes reach a peak. To avoid major Shopify business errors, underline the mistakes mentioned so you can run a smooth, profitable business at Shopify from the beginning.
