Common Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up Your Shopify Store

Are you starting your online store and expanding your business through Shopify? There is no doubt that this start can be exciting for you. However, at the same time, it can be challenging, especially for newbies. A successful Shopify store has an error-free and strong Shopify store setup. However, a little negligence can break the success of your online store. You may also face low traffic, sales loss, and a down conversion rate. We'll find some common Shopify store mistakes in this blog to eliminate these risk factors. Furthermore, we'll explore various tactics to avoid these errors.

So, don't waste any time. Let's dive in!

Common Shopify Mistakes to Avoid

Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform for building online stores. It is easy to use and offers advanced, powerful features. However, various merchants can make different mistakes while setting up their online stores. Here are common Shopify store mistakes to avoid for a successful business.

We divide these common Shopify store mistakes into three sections:

• Mistakes Before Designing Shopify Store.
• Common Shopify Store Mistakes While Designing.
• Common Mistakes After Launching Your Online Store.

Common Shopify Mistakes Before Store Startup

There are a few mistakes made by the merchants before starting store design. The common reason behind these errors is that: Those merchants consider these factors irrelevant. Let's dig into these common Shopify store mistakes:

No Business Plan

Starting a business on Shopify without proper planning is the biggest mistake of merchants. Also, it is the most common Shopify store mistake made by beginners. There are various factors behind a business plan such as doing proper research, deciding your budget, and many more.

Choosing a random product, that does not suit your business and does not fit the market, will become a big disaster for you in the future. According to Startups, 42% of business startups fail due to “no market need”.

Choosing a non-market-fit product is not the only reason. However, there are also other factors such as:

• Some entrepreneurs start a Shopify online store simply because they think others are doing the same. So, they don't plan for their business.
• While some merchants choose a product based on thinking that the demand for that product is high.

However, what about business planning? Blindly following in the footsteps of others and not thinking about your budget, market fit, and competitors is not a wise decision.

How to Avoid Mistakes

Make a proper business plan that includes the following things:

1. Set your budget first.
2. Research the product according to your budget.
3. Make pricing structure.
4. Research marketing channels for your products.
5. Research your competitors' selling points, such as how much they charge for products and how they market themselves. Identifying your competitors' unique selling points can help you set up your Shopify store.

If you're a new Shopify merchant, you should have a proper business plan. Researching products, competitors, product value, and other factors will help you to grow your online store.

No Listing Planning

After business planning and selecting a product according to your brand. The next step is listing planning. Most merchants' mindset on this part is that: they'll plan listing after store creation. However, they forget this step in the excitement of quickly launching the product.

The listing plan includes product content writing according to your target audience. For example, if your product is about automotive, you'll write the content accordingly and target the audience of this category.

How to Avoid Mistakes

Write the human-readable plus SEO-optimized product content. Also, include relevant keywords to increase SERPs and target the exact audience.

The benefit of planning listing content before store creation is:

• You can launch your product immediately without any hassle.
• Writing product content before store creation helps you to target the audience better.

Common Shopify Mistakes During Store Setup

It is important to avoid common mistakes during the design process to create successful Shopify stores. Let's explore some common mistakes one by one.

1. Selecting the Wrong Theme or Template for the Shopify Store Setup

Selecting the wrong theme or template when designing a Shopify store can cause many issues in the future. For example, slow loading time and not being responsive on mobiles. This increases bounce rates and low conversion and sales. According to Think with Google, 53% of mobile users leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Choosing the right theme for your Shopify store is essential. Because it is the foundation of your store’s design and functionality. Most beginners choose themes solely for their visual appeal rather than usability. This leads them to end up with slow and unresponsive theme designs.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• First of all, choose a theme that aligns with your brand, not because it is visually attractive. We provide a complete guide on how to select the best Shopify theme, you can check this article.
• Choose a fast-loading and responsive theme, especially on mobiles.
• Test the selected theme before finalizing it.

2. Poor Navigation and Site Structure

Your online store site structure and navigation are important because they guide visitors around your site. For example, finding a specific product or finishing purchasing. Mostly beginners ignore this section and end up with a hard-to-use website. Complex navigation is a common Shopify store mistake and it frustrates visitors and forces them to leave your site. This increases your store bounce rate and reduces conversion. Not only this, it badly affects your brand identity.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Keep the navigation design simple and easy to understand. Don't load it with too many menus and categories. Just focus on the essential products and categories and ensure they are easy to find.
• Use simple and clear descriptive labels for categories and subcategories. Additionally, add a search bar on the top. This will help visitors to easily find what they are looking for.
• Optimize your product pages and ensure your product pages are well-organized. Make sure your product contains all necessary information e.g., description, images, price, and reviews.
• Ensure that all features, links, and buttons are working well by testing your website. Also, testing the navigation system is easy to use.

3. Ignoring Mobile-Friendly Listing

After selecting a theme according to your brand identity. The next part is to list the products for your online store. If you already plan the listing for your site, then it's easier for you to list them. Ensure your listings are mobile-friendly and well-optimized.

According to Statista, the percentage of mobile users is 62.54 in global website traffic. If your website doesn't work on mobile then you may lose potential customers.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Optimize the videos and images for the listing process. Compress images and video file sizes without losing their qualities.
• Test your listings on different screen sizes, especially on mobile devices. Ensure everything works well on different screens.

4. Ignore Store Optimization for SEO

Now the most important and common Shopify store mistake usually made by beginners is ignoring store SEO optimization. SEO optimization is important for ranking your store on the top of search engine result pages (SERPs). Most merchants are unaware of this powerful feature which means they're ignoring their site traffic and sales.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• To avoid this mistake, the first important thing you should do is: "Do Keyword Research". A proper keyword helps you a lot to target the exact audience. Add these keywords to your product title, description, meta tags, alt text, and URLs.
• Optimize your product descriptions and naturally add the top keywords about the products. Additionally, include essential details such as color, size, and materials.
• Social media plays a vital role in improving your website SEO. Different social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook can help you to rank your products and services.
• Add backlinks from other websites. Backlinks enable your website to rank pages in search engines.

5. Ignore High-Quality Product Images

Images of your product are important elements because it is the first thing your audience views. However, merchants can unintentionally make this common Shopify store mistake. There are various cases of ignoring high-quality product images.

• Most of the merchants don't realize the importance of high-quality images. They end up with unappealing and low-quality images.
• While some merchants list products with high-quality images. However, they forget to compress image file size and end up with a slow-loading website.
• Some merchants compress images for faster loading but forget to check whether the compressed images are still of high quality. Because sometimes compressing the image file size reduces the quality of the images.

Various research shows that most people shop online after seeing more pictures of the product. Therefore, ignoring the quality of images means losing your customers and conversions.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Use clear and high-quality images. However, remember to compress the image file size. Because high-quality images have bigger file sizes.
• After compressing the images, ensure the compressed images are still of high quality.
• Show your product images from various angles.

6. List Product with Less Enough Product Description

Listing with a short or incomplete product description leads to low conversions and sales. Most merchants forget this essential part in the excitement of instant product launches. Visitors don't buy products from sites that have incomplete product descriptions. This common Shopify store mistake causes an increase in bounce rate and reduces conversions.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Write a description that reflects your product features. Add the top research keywords in your description to rank your product in search results.
• Use bullet points in your product description. So it will be easier for customers to read. Also, mention the important details in bullet points. Because few visitors concentrate and read bullet points and buy the products.
• Include the reviews in your products. Rating and reviews help customers to understand how well your product is performing. It also increases customer loyalty.

7. Ignore Discount Offers

One of the common mistakes made by beginners is they ignore discount offers on the biggest sales. Offering discounts in a better way can help you to increase sales and conversion rates.

In contrast, ignoring discounts reduces the traffic from your site and increases the bounce rate. To attract more visitors and convert them into customers. It is important to learn how to give discounts well.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Offer discounts on seasonal sales such as 11.11 deals, Black Friday, and more. Because of these deals, you can get more visitors and convert them into customers through discounts.
• Use discount codes to give special discounts to your customers. Additionally, give rewards to your loyal customers by giving them special deals. This enables your loyal customers to buy more from your shop.
• Offer bundle discounts to customers. This enables customers to buy more than one thing at once.

8. Ignore Multiple Payment Options

The checkout process is an important part of the Shopify online store. Different audiences use various payment methods and it is essential to include more than one payment option. Many visitors leave the product in the checkout process because they don't find their payment method. It increases the cart abandonment rate and reduces sales. The complicated and too-long checkout process is another reason for the bounce rate.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Avoid this common Shopify store mistake by adding different and popular payment methods. This helps customers to find their suitable payment option with ease.
• Use different payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe. Because these popular gateways support multiple payment options. This helps users to find and select easily the method they want.
• Integrate different payment ways such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay.
• Ensure your checkout process is simple and does not contain unnecessary steps that frustrate customers. Also, ensure that your checkout process is safe and meets industry standards to protect customer data. This increases customer confidence.

9. Ignore the Transparent Shipping and Return Policy

A transparent shipping and return policy is an important part of the Shopify store setup. Because it increases customer loyalty. However, most merchants make this common Shopify store mistake during online store setup. Most visitors leave their carts and do not shop from your store because they don't know about the shipping charges. Not only shipping cost, but return policy also plays a role in cart abandonment rate. Non-transparent return policy reduces customer trust and ends up with reduced sales and conversion.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Ensure the shipping charges, delivery time, and return policy are transparent. So the customer does not get confused or frustrated.
• It will be more effective if you provide the tracking information to customers. So any customer can track its order status easily.
• Make your return policy in such a way that it is transparent and helps customers to return anything without frustration.

10. Ignoring Social Proof

In today's fast and competitive era, setting up a successful online store is a challenging task. A successful business involves various factors such as choosing the right products or marketing your store. Not only this, the online stores' social proof takes the brand to the next level. However, many merchants forget to add social proof to their online store. A store without social proof is less recognizable and trustworthy. Social proof is an essential and powerful psychological phenomenon. It urges people to choose products that have reviews and ratings. Simply we can say that products that have social proof are in higher demand than those that do not have any social proof.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Ensure that you display the reviews and ratings on product pages.
• It is best practice to share your social media and follower counts on the homepage.
• Display the trusted customer remarks on your About page or homepage.
• Furthermore, you can get help from influencers to promote your products on social media.

11. Ignore to Provide Customer Support.

Another common Shopify store mistake is not offering customer support. It is essential to ensure that your customers feel supported and get great customer service. It increases customers' loyalty and enables them to shop again from your store.

Online stores that offer no customer support are less recognizable. Visitors leave the site that has no support services which increases bounce rate and reduces conversion.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• There are different ways to provide customer support to your visitors such as email, phone, or live chat.
• A clear and complete product description makes clients use customer support less because they get all the details in the product description.
• Create FAQs to answer the most common and frequently asked questions about customers.
• Be honest and transparent with your customers about products, shipping, and return policies. Additionally, provide support to your customers after they purchase anything. This will help you to ensure that your customers are satisfied with your product.
• You can also invest in a help desk system to clear the queries and concerns of your customers immediately.

12. Ineffective Use of Email Marketing

Email marketing is an effective plan for promoting products, services, and brands. However, the use of email marketing ineffectively is another common Shopify store mistake. This is due to the lack of marketing knowledge. A merchant who is unaware of email marketing misses the chance to increase sales and revenue. Email marketing offers various advantages to Shopify merchants:

• Email marketing is a powerful way to increase sales and customer relationships. It is a conversion-rich and low-cost way to market online stores.
• It helps merchants to encourage customers through sign-ups and pop-ups.
• Email marketing also enables you to provide customers with discounts, deals, and promotions. These techniques increase organic traffic, conversion rates, and growth in your online stores.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Create an email list by displaying the pop-up message of the sign-up to your visitors and customers. Sort these emails into groups based on likes and dislikes.
• Use personalized emails to target specific people or groups about deals and discounts.
• Also, ensure that your emails are mobile-responsive by using clear subject lines and CTAs.
• Continuously monitor the results of email marketing campaigns, such as CTRs, open rates, and conversion rates. Use the data and insights to make data-driven decisions.

Shopify allows merchants on the Basic and Shopify Plus plans to send 10,000 free emails at the start of each month. If you need extra emails, you must pay $1 for 1000 emails. However, if you are familiar with email marketing apps like Klaviyo or Privy, you can use them.

Common Mistakes After Shopify Setup

Once your Shopify store is set up, it does not mean everything is done, you can start selling your product, and you need to do nothing else. NO, NEVER!

After the Shopify store setup, there are still important tasks you need to do continuously to increase your sales, revenue, and growth. However, many merchants ignore these Shopify store mistakes. Let's dive in and explore these mistakes one by one:

1. Ignore Regular Store Updating and Maintenance

After you set up your Shopify store, regular updating and maintenance are important to keep up-to-date and stay competitive. This helps you to meet the customer's requirements. However, most of the merchants make this common Shopify store mistake and leave this vital part. Ignoring this essential part means,

• You ignore the better user experience.
• Leave your store insecure.
• Ignore the Shopify SEO optimization part which means not ranking your store on SERPs.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Regularly update your Shopify store. For example, update your store's themes, plugins, and software. Also, update the content of your website regularly. It also helps you to improve your Shopify store security and keep your customer-sensitive data safe.
• Test your store to ensure everything works well and fix the problem right away.
• Optimize your Shopify SEO by regularly updating product descriptions, meta tags, and alt text to improve search engine rank.
• Regularly track the performance of your Shopify store using analytical tools. This helps you to make data-driven decisions.

2. Not Investing in Advertising and Marketing Efforts

Advertising and marketing are essential parts of a successful eCommerce store. Not investing in this part means you are missing out on potential customers and hurting your success and business growth. Not only that, it reduces conversion rates and brand awareness.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• First of all, make a proper marketing plan for your business and list your goals, targeted audience, and channels.
• Invest in advertisements to boost your sales and reach new customers. There are various platforms in which you can invest such as Google ads, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads.
• Use email marketing to promote your products, services, and brands. It enables you to provide customers with discounts, deals, and promotions.
• You can also make informative content about your products such as blogs and videos to get more customers.

3. Fail to Analyze and Track the Store Performance

The worst common Shopify store mistake made by merchants is failure to analyze and track the store performance. Many companies keep tracking the store performance to make important decisions for their businesses. However, many online stores leave this essential task that badly impacts their store performance and competition.

How to Avoid Mistakes

• Set your goals and metrics for your store such as AOV, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. Use various Shopify store analytic tools or third-party analytical tools to analyze and track store performance.
• Check your inventory performance on various Shopify reports to analyze best selling products. You can also conduct A/B testing to see what works best by comparing different versions of your store.
• Set you time to review your store performance regularly such as weekly or monthly. So, you can update and maintain your Shopify store accordingly.

Shopify online store for your business is a great start. However, making common Shopify store mistakes can lead this success to a big failure.

eCommerce Dev Biz professionals explained all the common mistakes made by the merchants before designing, while designing, and after designing the store. We don't only highlight the common mistakes made by merchants, we also provide you with a solution for them. If it's difficult for you to set up an online Shopify store or you have any queries and need assistance, you can book a free consultation. We are always here to help you build your Shopify store with a team that does Shopify, all day, every day.