How to Grow Your Shopify Store from Scratch?

Fact: there are over 375000 online stores that are using Shopify for ecommerce

These are great numbers – mainly because, Shopify has made it immensely easy to create an online store. There’s so much competition due to this reduced barrier to entry that more and more stores who previously hesitated to take the leap are all online now. But the journey of an online store does not end there – there is no substitute for hardwork. Building an online store and leaving it to luck is a recipe for stagnation. So, how do you grow your online business?

• Online is one thing – mobile is a whole new world. Go mobile too.
• Your store is online 24×7 – so sell more products. A physical store has limited stock – online store does not.
• 65% of sales come from previous customers, so get the word out to your existing customers.
• Surprise and delight customers with offers, discounts and sales.

The better you are at communicating with customers online – the more your Shopify store will grow.

Customer Retention is Crucial for Online Stores Too

The point is, if you are losing existing customers, you’ll need to be pulling in huge amounts to find new customers to make up for it. Customer retention is a more sure way of increasing profits.

Here are a few way to do so:

• Regular email communication whether it is about your business or new products on the shelf or anything – touch base with existing customers regularly.
• Surprises to delight existing customers – a discount code or a trial offer for a new product – it’s your choice.
• Abandoned cart emails – to remind them about the purchases they left without completing the transaction.
• Birthday emails – to put a smile on their faces – it’s good for your brand.
• Loyalty points is a very common way to engage existing customers

Make sure that your ecommerce store keeps existing customers coming back… while you also plan for gaining new customers and growing.

Optimization is not an Option – It’s Mandatory

Again, your Shopify online store will not be automatically ‘found’ by customers – you need sweat and hardwork to get customers to visit your store. How? Optimizing the store for online presence is one way.

Here are a few pointers:

• Video content – video content helps customers understand what the product is exatly.
• Optimized product descriptions – unique and with the right keywords.
• Images – high quality images and appropriately tagged.
• Product reviews and recommendations – this is one way customers are going to trust your brand. Make sure they are genuine.

Above all, present your brand as a story – someone who cares about what the customers care about – it goes a long way in creating trust and building customer relationships.