Shopify can help you easily create an e-commerce website. However, you may find your e-commerce website development get a bit daunting if you do not have an expert Shopify developer to help you navigate through the nuances of everything that Shopify has to offer.
A lot of people make the mistake of missing out on important aspects while they spend too much time on things that do not matter much when they create a website.
Here are but 7 neat tips for you to build a successful e-commerce Shopify website.
#1 Enrol With Shopify Community
There is a lot of good information on the Shopify community that you will find very useful when you create an e-commerce website using this platform.
There are all sorts of help for budding entrepreneurs to succeed – like ideas on shipping & fulfillment, wholesale & drop shipping to payments, and online store design.
Enroll in the Shopify community to take advantage of these resources and engage with other members to get new ideas & answers to your queries.
#2 Go For Free Trial First
Before you hire a web developer to start formal web development, make use of Shopify’s free trial period to explore the platform and experience the platform’s features.
Do not think that selling online is easy – it needs total commitment and lots of effort.
Explore the Shopify platform fully to see how it can make you more effective in building and running your online store.
#3 Go For Custom Navigation
Exposing the customers to too many options leads them to a condition of analysis paralysis, which could make it difficult for them to reach a decision. This leads to frustration and eventually to high order abandonment rate.
Your web developer can help to build custom navigation, so the products and collections can be prioritized for efficient conversion.
Casual A/B testing can also be enabled by editing these custom navigations in the Shopify CMS.
#4 Go For Custom & Premium Themes
Shopify comes bundled with beautiful, contemporary, crisp, and classy themes which give your Shopify store a premium look & minimal web development cost.
However, they are no match for a premium theme or a custom theme developed by your Shopify developer. These allow you to embody your own unique spirit while separating your store from so many similar-looking ones out there.
#5 Make Full Use Of Product Tags
Product tags make it easy for customers to find related products. They can be used internally for the creation of Collections. However, search benefits the most from the use of tags.
Faceted search can be created by using tags, which can be used by customers to filter products by tag-defining attributes for eg. color attributes, such as “Red”.
#6 Simplify Checkout Process
One of the biggest reasons for customers to abandon their shopping cart is that they do not want to create an account and the site forces them to. This leads to a loss of sales opportunities, just when they were about to convert.
Allowing guest checkout is recommended by Shopify (especially for mobile customers).
Shopify even goes the extra mile to make it easy for your web developer by having the default option set as a customer account disabled.
#7 Use Best Shopify Apps
You can find a lot of useful plugins/apps on Shopify App Store to help you run your online store effectively.
Your Shopify developer can deploy these apps on your store to:
- Making Your Store Safe – Shop Protector
- Increasing your visibility – Smart SEO
- Giving you social proof – Product Reviews
- Increasing your sales – Easy Contact Form
- Assisting your customers – Nudgify
