5 Ways to Launch a Successful Shopify Store

Shopping online is a convenient option for consumers. There’s no need to go to a store, search for a product or face annoying salesmen. Many people today are choosing to do the majority of their shopping online. As business owners, selling online can simplify their work and simplify their marketing. The Shopify process makes having an eCommerce store even easier. It not only helps you build and design a commerce website, but it also can support you throughout the growth of your business. Shopify works in tandem with social media marketing and the dropshipping Business. Many people today are really drawn in by social media and respond well to connecting personally with a product. Dropshipping is a unique tool for business owners because it takes away the need for product inventory. Dropshipping companies order and ship products directly to the customer for you. That means no storefront costs or large storage facility. Shopify can be your platform for an easy website and sales. Shopify is a great resource to effectively sell your products. You can customize a commerce website in a few days. But before you dive into building your store there are few things you need to know. Here are the best ways to launch an awesome Shopify store.

5 Ways to Launch a Successful Shopify Store

1. Upload Professional Photos and Videos

If your website isn’t aesthetically appealing, people will quickly lose interest in your content. Photo and video media play a big role in this. You will need to have a good variety of high-quality material on your hands to post as content on your website. Hiring a professional photographer or videographer could be very beneficial to market your product. You can use this media not only on your website but also on your social media platforms. If you have a professional camera, do some research on how to take professional pictures as well as how to edit them. One great thing about Shopify is that you can easily browse through other business stores. Looking at different themes and designs, you can get a better idea of how you want yours to look. Notice how their cover photos and product photos are well done and really draw you in. You want to capture your audience with crisp photos and inspiring videos. This is the first way they even come to your store in the first place. If you make your product look enticing through the media, they will want to buy it.

2. Create a Personal Connection

There are many online options for today’s consumers. How can you set your business apart from the multitudes? The best way to makes sales is to make a connection with your customers. What is the mission statement of your business? Or, what makes your story or your product unique? These are questions you need to ask. Your product is geared toward a specific audience or specific need, so play to that group of customers.

• Who is your audience? Look at aspects like demographics, income, shopping patterns, and interests. You can gather this market research through social media, email surveys or reviews.
• Keep your customers updated through social media and email marketing. They should be the first to know about new products or special discounts.
• Make sure your customer service is exceptional. This means responding quickly and solving problems the best you can. Also, publically apologize for negative reviews and thank those who gave you a great review.
• Team up with another company to glean from their existing customer list. One of the best online options is to offer guest blogging for their website. Most companies will allow you to link your business in the article and in your author’s bio.
• Show them the face of your company by going live and connecting with them via face-time and webinars. If they know you and your story, they are more likely to purchase products from you.

3. Utilize Shopify SEO

If you want people to find your product you have to make your website searchable. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can help you get certain keywords and links that bump your store higher on search engines. Shopify’s Merchant Success Manager outlines a business SEO checklist to help searchers easily find your store:

• Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console
• Submit your site map to Google Search Console and check for navigation errors.
• Use Google’s Keyword Planner so you can know what words are being searched and how much. Link keywords in your content to bring people to your product.
• Use one strong H1 heading for each page, but not more than one. Keep these titles concise and under 60 characters. Google displays page titles between 50-60 characters, so make the most of this space. The meta description on Google will be around 150 characters, so use important keywords and the strongest copy for this.
• Have a strategy for building links to your website. The more relevant links you have in your store, the easier it will be to search. Look at how your competition is getting a link in marketing articles and websites. It’s a good idea to reach out to various platforms and request mentions for your product.
• Plan a simple marketing strategy by thinking about the customer. What kind of questions will they ask about your product? You should already have answers and how-to’s available on your website. Use short and sweet marketing articles that use keywords to bring people to your store. All your content should be unique and customized, so that means writing your own product description. Adding customer reviews to your products can also be helpful.
• Build your store on social media and start a following. Social media is an effective platform to market your product and connect people to your story.
• Make sure your mobile and desktop versions are user-friendly and are fast-loading. Google also has guidelines for websites to help them have the best SEO practices.

4. Customer Service with Shopify Ping Messaging

Instead of having customers contact a phone number or email, you can use instant messaging right within Shopify. Shopify Ping messaging is just over a year old, but it is making all the difference in customer service. Beyond customer service, Ping streamlines marketing campaigns through its digital marketing assistant program, Kit. It can help you manage a variety of Facebook ads and email marketing all at once. Kit will also recommend keywords to use in your campaigns. When you are messaging with a customer and they decide to purchase a product, you are able to do the whole transaction through Ping. The conversations from both the store and Ping are all integrated. Having live chat on eCommerce sites has been proven to create customer-brand connections and boost sales. Since this feature is already a part of Shopify, there is no reason not to use it.

5. Market on Social Media

Having a strong social media presence can be huge for your brand. But, which platform do you start with, and how can your campaigns be successful? First, you need to have a social media marketing strategy. There are five things you need to think about when creating a strategy:

• What are your goals? Define your targets and how you will measure progress.
• Who is your target audience? Think about the demographic you want to reach. Research how they respond to social media marketing and on which platform.
• What kind of creative content can you use? You will want to have a theme of what your posts contain and what they look like. A consistent schedule of posts is also important so you aren’t figuring out what to post everyday.
• Which channels will be present on and can realistically maintain? It’s better to be strong on one platform than spread yourself thin across multiple sites. Each platform has strengths in different areas, so you will want to avoid simply duplicating content.
• How will you schedule and implement your social media marketing? Posting content to get the most views and interactions takes a bit of research. Thankfully, there are a fair amount of scheduling tools to help you, such as Trello, Hootsuite, and Buffer.

Design and Launch a Great Store Shopify takes some time and research at the beginning. You don’t just want to launch any random commerce website. You want your site to have a lot of traffic and sales. In order to achieve that, however, you need to put the time, energy and investment into the initial set up. You can find many resources to help boost your product on Shopify. When you sign up, you will see the amount of support they offer for all aspects of business, not just the eCommerce store. They have weekly info videos and plenty of how-tos for new and seasoned business owners. One reason Shopify is so huge is it simplifies your online marketing and sales. Even if you don’t have a business yet, they can help you start and grow an online commerce store. Make your business strong by developing your Shopify store. Through this modern platform, you will see tremendous improvements in marketing and sales.