Getsitecontrol Insider

How to Sell on Shopify: Dos, Don'ts, and Best Practices

May 17, 2020 Getsitecontrol Episode 17
Getsitecontrol Insider
How to Sell on Shopify: Dos, Don'ts, and Best Practices
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

So, you’re finally made up your mind to launch your own ecommerce store. Awesome!

In this episode, we’ll walk you through the key steps to get you started. Plus, we’ll cover some proven tips on getting sales faster and share the tools to help you along the way.

Prefer reading this guide instead? There you go.

List of apps to help you sell on Shopify featured in this episode:

Here is a roundup of 15 Shopify apps to boost your ecommerce sales.

Create beautiful email signup forms, coupon boxes, and pop-up surveys for your store with Getsitecontrol.

Hi,

You’re listening to Getsitecontrol Insider. In this episode, we’ll talk about how to get started with Shopify: the dos, the don’t, and the best practices.

Stay tuned!

So, you’re finally launching your own ecommerce store – awesome!

While there are many platforms to choose from, Shopify is still the most popular one, with over half a million active stores and 40 billion dollars in sales.

It comes fully loaded with everything you need to launch an ecommerce store - even if you don’t have a developer. 

But for newcomers in the ecommerce world, the idea of setting up a store might still sound intimidating.

Well, here’s the secret. Creating and launching your store is only part of the job if you want to successfully run an ecommerce business.

Want to know what else matters? Can’t wait to start selling on Shopify?

We’ll walk you through the key steps to help you get started. Then we’ll cover some proven tips on getting sales faster.

So, what is Shopify and what does it provide you with?

Shopify is an all-inclusive platform that allows you to sell products without having to build an entire online store from scratch.

It provides you with:

  • Domain and hosting
  • Shopping cart software
  • Order management
  • Easy design tools
  • Website themes
  • Tools to build your brand
  • Free stock photos
  • And much more

And because Shopify provides all these tools, even brands with their own developers often choose to save time by using the platform.

The reasons to choose Shopify over other platforms are numerous.

First off, Shopify doesn’t leave its new users alone in the dirt to fend for themselves. If you’re a beginner in the world of ecommerce, they provide tons of support through their online academy, podcasts, blog, and guides.

You can also get 24/7 support if you get stuck.

Because Shopify is so popular, you’ll also find a rich selection of plugins on the Shopify app store that will help you add more functionality to your own site. That fact alone makes Shopify worth it.

Finally, Shopify provides you with a 90-day free trial.

90 days is plenty of time for you to set up a minimum viable store and decide for yourself whether you like the platform or not.

Alright. You’re ready to create your own store. Now what?

Technically, to get started with Shopify, you only need to make 3 steps:

·       Set up your account

·       Choose a theme

·       And add your products

Let’s start with the setup process overview

Your first step is to sign up for that free 90-day trial and choose a store name.

It only takes a minute or two to set up your store, and you can skip many questions at the beginning to finish the setup faster. 

However, you won’t be able to skip entering your business address, so make sure you have one on hand. If you don’t have a brick and mortar store and you don’t want to use your home address, consider getting a PO box.

Another suggestion is to Add a Domain right away. If you skip this step, your domain will remain yourstorename(dot)myshopify(dot)com. And that’s just not professional.

You can either connect an existing domain or buy a new one. If you buy directly from Shopify, prices start at $14 a year, which isn’t bad at all.

 

Step 2. Choose a theme and create your Shopify website

Now that you have your own domain, you’ll need to customize your theme. You can choose to shop for free or paid themes, depending on your budget.

We strongly advise you to pick a responsive theme, because if your Shopify store only looks good on desktop, you’re going to leak potential customers big-time. 

On Shopify, 69% of sales come from mobile devices, so definitely don’t overlook your mobile shoppers.

 

Step 3. Add your products

Now comes the fun part – adding the products you want to sell.

If you don’t have your own products, you can use a product-sourcing app right inside of Shopify.

If you do have your own products, you can either add them manually or in bulk using an intuitive dashboard.

Then, you’ll be able to customize pretty much anything about your products, including:

  • Title and description
  • Media files 
  • Product types, collections, tags
  • Pricing 
  • Inventory details
  • Weight and customs information
  • And much more

But once you do that, that’s basically it! 

You’ve set up your theme and uploaded your products – your online store is ready to roll.

Now let’s make sure you actually sell your products.

Setting up your Shopify store is just the tip of the iceberg if you want to run a successful business.

Now let’s move to the tactics that will help you make more sales from day one.

 

First, outline your email marketing strategy

The money is in the email list.

This saying is cliché by now, but it still holds true.

For every dollar spent on email marketing, the average return is $42.

Why is email so powerful? Think about it this way. When visitors land on your Shopify site, your store is just a tiny blip in their browsing history.

They may or may not buy. But if they don’t, chances are, they’ll never land on your store again.

Email marketing changes that. When you get access to your customers’ email addresses, you essentially purchase real estate in their email inbox.

And the easiest way to get people to join your list is by offering some type of incentive in exchange for an email. For instance, you can provide a discount or free shipping to new subscribers.

Then, if you send the right type of email campaigns, you’ll give them a reason to visit your store again and again.

Right now, there are more email marketing services than anyone can count. But for Shopify, Klaviyo is probably the best choice.

It integrates with Shopify directly, requires practically no manual setup and brings a list of powerful features – such as segmentation, predictive analytics, personalization, and A/B testing.

 

Another crucial piece of your strategy is email list building

Email marketing campaign won’t bring you much value if you only have few email subscribers, right?

To collect emails from your store visitors, you can use Getsitecontrol. It’s a user-friendly app that helps you create smart popups. When you add those popups to the store, they will prompt your users to take action and join your mailing list.

You’ll be able to customize these popups and make them match the style of your store. You will also be able to target different audience segments and use exit-intent technology to prevent shopping cart abandonment.

Plus, Getsitecontrol brings sticky bars to help you notify visitors about special deals and other tools to boost customer engagement. So, you should definitely consider signing up for a free trial.

 

The next important tactic is optimizing your store content for search engines

Unless you’re paying for traffic, the only way people will find your site is if your products show up on search engine results.

That can only happen if you’ve optimized your store and your products for SEO.

But what does that even mean?

First things first – you’ll need to do some keyword research to figure out what people are searching for in relation to your products.

Using tools like SEMRush, you can see popular search terms, how difficult it is to rank for them, and secondary keywords that can be used to help out your ranking.

Once you know what keywords you want to optimize for, you have two options: edit your product descriptions and images manually or use third-party plugins. 

Check out the episode description – we’ve linked to some of these tools there.

 

Here is another quick tip: run sales and promotions. Non-stop

In the ecommerce world, “business as usual” should mean constantly running sales and promotions. That’s just the reality.

Whether you run a flash sale on a specific collection or a huge 50% off sale for last season’s stock, make it obvious. Again, you can use banners, popups, and even entirely new home page designs if it’s an important-enough promotion.

Remember to email your email subscribers to let them be the first to know about the current deals. You should also consider running subscriber-only promotions and coupons that don’t show up on your site – only in emails.

 

Once you’ve covered those basics, make sure to add a review section

You can do an amazing job describing your products and optimizing your website, but without social proof, it might be difficult for potential buyers to trust you, especially if your brand isn’t well-known.

So a review section is a must-have.

There are several ways to implement this tactic, but it’s best to use a dedicated Shopify app for collecting reviews. 

For example, with an app named Yopto, you can have a star rating scale directly under the product name, plus a section at the bottom of each product page where customers will be able to upload photos of the products directly in their review. 

This means your site visitors get real proof that your product is shipped as advertised.

 

Finally, run a rewards and loyalty program

Rewards programs are very helpful for growing your store and attracting new customers.

And the best part – you don’t need to create anything from scratch. A Shopify app named Smile will help you build a points program or a referral system. 

As a result, not only will your customers come back over and over again thanks to the rewards they accumulate, but they’ll have incentives to recommend your store to their friends and family.

And that was the last tip for today. 

Remember, your ecommerce success entirely depends on how much effort you decide to put into it.

Be smart with your resources and choose tools that are fast and easy to use for the best return on investment. 

Need more marketing tips for growing your business? Then don’t forget to subscribe.

Thank you for listening! Until next time!

 

What is Shopify and what does it provide you with?
The reasons to choose Shopify over other platforms
You’re ready to create your own store. Now what?
Step 1. Set up your account
Ste 2. Choose a theme
Step 3. Add your products
How to make more sales on Shopify: email marketing strategy
How to make more sales on Shopify: email list building
How to make more sales on Shopify: SEO
How to make more sales on Shopify: run sales and promotions non-stop
How to make more sales on Shopify: add a review section
How to make more sales on Shopify: run a rewards and loyalty program