7 Deadly Mistakes You Should Avoid To Grow Shopify Store

Why isn't my Shopify store growing? How should I drive more sales?

Shopify store owners struggle to find the right solution that answers these questions. Ecommerce shops are springing up like mushrooms.

One mistake can let your competition leave you behind in such cut-throat competition. And finding success in growing your eCommerce business has become tougher than you think.

But don't lose hope; the word tough isn't equivalent to impossible.

Growing your Shopify store doesn't have to be challenging. With little tenacity, clever marketing, and unique customer retention strategies you, too, can have your Shopify store's name among other successful.

In this article, we will take you across the 7 mistakes you should avoid growing your Shopify store.

1. Bad customer service

2. Poor Customer Experience.

3. Lack of social proof

4. Complicated checkout

5. Subpar SEO

6. Not concentrating on abandoned carts

7. Undervaluing repeat customers

Even the tiniest eCommerce blunders can negatively impact critical metrics like customer satisfaction and sales growth. In addition, it can hurt your brand's reputation by lowering your position among competitors.

Here's a video on all seven mistakes mentioned below -

Mistake #1: Bad Customer Service

Customers can— and will — switch to another company if they are dissatisfied with your service. According to studies, 59% of customers will switch to a different company to receive better customer service.

As a Shopify store owner, the best way to avoid this is to ask yourself the following questions:

Is customer service quick to respond?
Is the customer service representative friendly and helpful?
Is customer support available 24/7?
Is it possible for customers to contact you via all social media channels?

If you responded "no" to any of the questions above, it's time to address the elephant.

Customers expect seamless communication across all touchpoints. So, engage with them whenever they reach for help. Be on every channel and try to assist them whenever required.

If a chatbot cannot answer a query, immediately direct your customer to a live agent.

Could you not make them wait at any cost? MyAlice can be a savior in this regard, allowing your customer support team to manage all the customer conversations from a single dashboard! MyAlice is completely free to sign up and if you are an eCommerce store owner searching for a robust and responsive customer communications platform then MyAlice is definitely worth a look.

Mistake #2: Poor Customer Experience

Ever gone down the horror of losing one-third of your consumers in a single day? Losing them forever?

That is precisely what can happen following a single bad customer experience with your brand.

This explains why each staff member at Ritz-Carlton Hotels can spend up to $2,000 to rectify a negative guest experience.

Rob Kendall, who is a Shopify development expert says – Customer experience is everything. Take a look at Apple, he added. When you buy something there, you feel like you're product specialist is personally attending to you.

Everything is simple, clear, and laid out in a logistic fashion that promotes a smooth and speedy process from 'buy now' to checkout and beyond."

A fantastic customer experience, on the contrary, results in concrete benefits. Consumers who feel valued are willing to spend 16% more.

While most companies assume that investing resources in cutting-edge technology will amaze customers, these aren't as crucial to the experience equation. So what can you do to minimize this expectation gap?

Understand that customers want user-friendly websites and mobile apps
Automate conversations but do not ignore the human element of CX entirely
Ascertain that the employees are knowledgeable and understand consumer needs

Mistake #3: Lack of Social Proof

Let's assume Joe is a consumer interested in purchasing a high-end product from your store. However, he is hesitant about the purchase because there is no prior customer feedback. Thus you run the risk of customer turnover.

Facebook ads can't get you the sales that customer referrals can. 81% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family rather than the business itself. The more willing your customers are to promote your brand, the faster your flywheel spins and the more revenue you generate.

So, without being overbearing, encourage your customers to submit a review. Offer them incentives, like gift cards, reward points, if necessary.

Reviews should not be limited to certain products; rather, they should be all-out. Aside from reviews and ratings, other social proofs for your Shopify store may include:

Influencer endorsement: Social media influencers with a built-in audience of ardent followers can help your business gain traction.

Social proof: User-generated content can provide the additional reassurance customers need to get from "maybe I need it" to "must have it."

Social Media counts: You may illustrate your existing credibility by displaying numbers like social media reach, engagement rate, etc.

Mistake #4: Complicated checkout

You've put in a lot of effort to get people to visit your eCommerce site. However, 1 out of every 5 customers is likely to abandon their purchases due to a complex checkout process.

Your potential customer Joe finally decided to take the plunge and is about to make the expensive purchase. However, there are other factors that is preventing the transaction from being completed:

Mandatory account creation before checkout
Shuffling customers from one window to another
Limited payment options
Hidden or extra costs
Non-mobile-friendly checkout

One-page checkout is, without a doubt, the best option for clients. However, you can take it a step further with an in-chat checkout solution. If you wish to implement a similar service, MyAlice can be the right option to go for.

Mistake #5: Disregarding abandoned carts

If Joe abandons his cart, it is unwise for you to sit on the sidelines.

"Site owners need to pay attention to customer purchase drop-offs and abandoned baskets. Some of this is natural wastage, but if you're getting regular drop-offs, then maybe there's an error, or some other UI/UX roadblock that's causing people to leave and shop elsewhere. " - Rob Kendal, Shopify Development Expert.

Around 75% of individuals who abandon their carts are willing to return. In other words, the cost of retrieving an abandoned cart is much lower than the cost of acquiring a new customer.

Sending cart recovery emails has shown to be quite effective in recouping lost revenue. Studies show that 45% of people open these emails, 21% click-through, and 11% purchase. The email checklist includes:

A concise but striking subject line
Appealing images of the products in the cart
The total price of the product, without any hidden cost
Free shipping or loyalty program incentives
A detailed return-refund policy
Social proof like ratings, reviews, or customer testimonials
A prominent CTA button that directs to the shopping cart

Mistake #6: Undervaluing repeat customers

As a business owner, you must recognize your repeat customers - they are the cornerstone of a prosperous firm.

Companies derive 25% to 40% of their total income from returning clients.

Hence businesses strive to provide them with the maximum value possible. In the early days, its referral program made Uber so appealing. The company paid up to $20 to both a referrer and a new rider.

Here we present 3 tried-and-tested ways of extracting value from your repeat customers:

Incentives and discounts: Limited-time deals always drive quick purchases. You may offer discounts to your returning customers when they hit a certain purchasing threshold, such as 15% off their next purchase if they spend $100.

A BOGO (buy one, get one free) promotion is also a proven technique for boosting short-term repeat purchases.

However, if utilized too often, customers may begin to doubt your product quality. You can also collaborate with a neighboring company to offer reciprocal discounts from time to time.

Loyalty programs: One of the most treasured aspects of the retail purchasing experience is 'earning rewards,' according to 60% of online users.

Consider the punching card provided by Starbucks. Customers are enticed to consume more coffee in anticipation of the free cup of coffee they would receive once their card has been punched all the way through.

"People that buy and use gift cards points have a higher LTV than those that don't" - Lorenzo Carreri, CRO expert.

Companies with innovative loyalty programs experience 2.5x revenue growth as compared to competitors. Such programs thus help to retain high-end customers.

Here's the catch: Customer acquisition can be a costly affair. But with the right loyalty program and advocacy system in place, increasing your customer base has never been more affordable.

Just like Uber, you may reward your consumers who refer new shoppers.

Mistake#7: Subpar SEO

Consumers now conduct up to 70% of their research online before purchasing any product.

But who do you think will be more responsive to your marketing: Someone who sees a paid ad or someone who comes across a list of tips you published online?

Well, you guessed it right - it's the latter. According to HubSpot, almost 80% of people ignore pay-per-click ads.

So, make sure you have the right SEO strategy in place. If you can get on the first page of Google, you can capture 71.33% of all clicks. In contrast, if your store is pushed to the second page, only 0.78% of Google surfers will click on it.

"Store owners focus on quick wins. A site tested a popup design that increased conversions by 85% while removing one element from checkout increased conversions by 17%.

These lifts are mirages. Real conversion optimization is about refining your sales pitch and making it more surgical. That's what Shopify site owners need to focus on." - Rishi Rawat, Ecommerce Product Page Expert.

You want your target customers to land on your website and say, "This is exactly what I have been looking for!"

While SEO is keyword-driven, it takes more than simply dusting keywords throughout your content to improve ranking. So, how do you ensure that your website appears on the first SERP?

Create a simple SEO-friendly site
Optimize product pages
Publish long-form blog posts (with the right keywords, of course)
Create custom research reports
Build links to your store

Shopify's Winning Formula

Between 2016 and 2019, Shopify businesses contributed $319 billion to the global economy. Some of the most successful eCommerce brands, like Kylie Cosmetics ($630 million) and GymShark ($223 million), are built using Shopify.

So, how did these shops draw in consumers and turn a profit?

In this section, we'll examine the traits shared by the finest Shopify stores so that you get some ideas on how to make your Ecommerce site stand out.

Great products: A successful Shopify store sells products in a niche market. For example- Beardbrand targets not just men but men with beards. Being unique can help with word-of-mouth and social media distribution. For

Striking product descriptions: Great product descriptions, like that of Rocky Mountain Soap Co, can enhance conversion rates and SEO ranking. So, describe your products in ways that appeal to and address the pain points of your target audience.

Good product photography: Since buyers cannot touch or feel the products, a Shopify store's visual attractiveness is critical. ColourPop stands out among thousands of other cosmetic businesses because of its gorgeous design and lively colors.

Well-designed and mobile-friendly site: A well-designed online store makes it simple and quick for your site visitors to find what they're looking for. Consider the case of WP Standard. Their product pages have very few navigation buttons and plenty of white space.

Great customer experience: You'll discover the best-in-class customer experience in any profitable Shopify site. These stores provide the best browsing experience, product availability, checkout process, and customer support.

Strong social proof: As user-generated content influences purchasing decisions, it is an obvious approach to increasing your revenue. When you look at Gymshark's Instagram, you'll see that many of their posts are user-generated content of delighted consumers showcasing their Gymshark items.

Simplified checkout: When it comes to checking out, leading retailers take proactive steps to lower cart abandonment rates. For example- offering multiple payment methods and one-page checkout, allowing guest checkout, charging no hidden cost, etc.

Guilty as charged?

As stated before, achieving success in the realm of eCommerce is not quite as simple as it may appear. While you may be an experienced eCommerce store owner, this does not exempt you from making mistakes.

If your organization suffers from poor customer service, consider combining AI chatbots and human customer support personnel.

If your store's credibility and SEO score are weak, include as much social proof, blog posts, and customer reviews as possible.

Recognize your repeat customers and incentivize them enough to reap the highest customer LTV.

Don't take cart abandonment lightly. Follow up with cart recovery emails.

Stay mindful of the mistakes, and you'll be well on your way to joining the ranks of Shopify's successful merchants!

Do you find yourself chasing down new customers because current customers aren't sticking around, and you need to keep your eCommerce business afloat? Is it a sustainable strategy to run your eCommerce business?

We hear you saying no because it actually isn't. It's time you need to focus on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

In this competitive narrative, you can't really go far by keeping on investing in getting NEW customers rather than keeping your OLD customers. What you really need to concentrate on is maximizing your revenue from your present customers. And this is where customer lifetime value comes into play.

According to Tim Cameron Kitchen - CEO of Exposure Ninja, "In order to increase your customer lifetime value, you need to pull two levers. One, increase the number of purchases. And two, increase the purchase value of each customer. And of course, a good business will have a combination of both of these levers."

We want your business to have high customer LTV. So we noted down a series of pointers that you could follow to increase your customer lifetime value and higher profits. Before we dive into the strategies, let's start with the basics.

What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?

According to Omniconvert, "customer lifetime value (CLV) shows how much revenue a business can expect from one customer compared to how long the company predicts that customer will stay."

Customer lifetime value is an important metric for eCommerce brands to measure the average accumulating total of their purchase for some time.

Lifetime value helps you determine if your business will scale the ROI from marketing. It also helps you evaluate the retention strategy depending on how low or high your LTV is.

How To Increase Customer Lifetime Value

You can increase your customer lifetime value by either increasing your Average Order Value or Average Purchase Frequency. An increase in either of these metrics will rise Customer Lifetime Value. Apart from that, let's take a look at the other ways to increase CLV.

— Improve Your Customer Support

Treating your customer right is the core to increasing customer lifetime value. According to Tim Han, an international speaker and author from success insider - "treating your customers like family is the key to recurring customers."

Now we're not telling you to turn a blind eye to their red flags and keep on supporting them. But we definitely recommend you to go a bit above to give them special treatments. In fact, according to research from PWC, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. So enhancing your customer support is an absolute must.

A solid customer support strategy includes attention to the customer pre, mid and post-sale. Your customer support should cater to your customer at every stage of their buying journey. A great way to make sure your customer's queries are always answered in no time is by using an AI-powered chatbot. Having a live chat available can turn a customer question into a sale or complaint into a resolution. We recommend you check out MyAlice as their chatbot can actually automate your entire selling process from start to finish. And the best part is, MyAlice is completely free to sign up!

You need to make sure your customers are returning again and again for the delightful experience you provide.

— Send out occasional gifts

Who doesn't like free stuff? Especially when it comes as a surprise from a place you shopped from. We find ourselves leaning towards shops that offer great discounts or free goodies in most cases. And that's because this is a psychological trick that all of us fall for.

Lippincott's creative consultancy provided a scientific and psychological-based study called the "Happiness Halo" - proving exactly that. In the "Happiness Halo," the author stresses, "Appeal to customers' reason and they're yours for a day. Appeal to customer's emotions, and they're yours for a lifetime."

And nothing is more solid than sending gifts to appeal to your customer's emotions. It shows them that you care about them more than just a means of getting some sales.

We're not telling you to send out gifts 365 days a year to every customer for every purchase. But rather, identify your loyal set of customers and potentially loyal customers, and then send out occasional gifts to show them you care.

— Nudge Your Customers into Subscriptions

One of the most popular ways (that works) of increasing the number of purchases of your customers is by bumping them into subscriptions. They're one of the new trends of e-commerce. And they can be lucrative enough that we even see big names like GoPro getting into the subscription realm they previously didn't opt for.

You can nudge them into a subscription by displaying a subscription-biased pricing option of your product.

This basically means you will show the pricing option of a one-time purchase on one side. And on another, the pricing option is based on subscription. However, you need to show your customers how the subscription pricing will be more effective and profitable.

This will incentivize them to opt for the subscription rather than going for a one-time purchase.

Another way of getting your customers into subscriptions is by showing the subscription as the default purchase method. And if customers want to go for a one-time purchase, they need to click on that purchase method.

You can do to level up the subscription game by giving them an option to allow your customers to customize the time frame and the amount of product for the subscription. This way, they will not have too much stock of the product based on their lifestyle. And they are less likely to cancel the subscription altogether.

— Integrate Add-ons and Upsells

Another great way to increase the average order value of your customers is by adding add-ons and upsells. Big names like GoDaddy GoPro have been using this pricing strategy for years now, which has helped them generate more sales.

Everything that you throw at your customers before and after purchasing the products is for one thing - increasing the order value.

And therefore, there's an increase in customer LTV. Some of your add-ons and upsells features may seem annoying to your customers. But it's a genius idea for your business.

Since you are competing in a very competitive and price-sensitive space, If you want to maximize your customer acquisition, you need to maximize the value of every customer you get through the door.

By doing so, you can save the money that you would have otherwise spent on getting new customers. So you can now invest it in other business activities. Like - marketing. Which will help you build market share without increasing the price of their core product.

— Introduce Premium Versions

Introducing a line of premium versions of the same product can incentivize your customers to opt for better options. But, you need to make sure you can present it in a manner that demonstrates why the premium versions are better than the regular ones.

That way, customers who always want the best of everything are more likely to opt for the premium purchase. The pricing of the premium product will also be higher than the regular, which may be a problem for some of your customers. In such a case, you can introduce split pay for that.

Now split pay is absolutely everywhere and another massive trend of e-commerce over the last few years. One of the biggest players in the split pay market -Klarna, claims to increase the average order value by up to 58%.

Split pay will help you get more sales for your premium products and end up increasing the average order value for your customers.

Drawing Conclusion: Loyalty Brings Revenue

The right customer lifetime value model can boost your company's growth and progress in many ways. It puts more money in your business's wallet by lowering customer acquisition costs and saving money on marketing and sales activities.

Delivering a great deal of value, understanding the customers being in their shoes, prioritizing customer service are what they need to come back to you again and again.

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7 Deadly Mistakes You Should Avoid To Grow Shopify Store

Try MyAlice Today

Mistake #1: Bad Customer Service

Mistake #2: Poor Customer Experience

Mistake #3: Lack of Social Proof

Mistake #4: Complicated checkout

Mistake #5: Disregarding abandoned carts

Mistake #6: Undervaluing repeat customers

Mistake#7: Subpar SEO

Shopify's Winning Formula

Guilty as charged?

Do you find yourself chasing down new customers because current customers aren't sticking around, and you need to keep your eCommerce business afloat? Is it a sustainable strategy to run your eCommerce business?

What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?

How To Increase Customer Lifetime Value

— Improve Your Customer Support

— Send out occasional gifts

— Nudge Your Customers into Subscriptions

— Integrate Add-ons and Upsells

— Introduce Premium Versions

Drawing Conclusion: Loyalty Brings Revenue

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