Tips to help keep your Shopify store fresh
It’s Shopify’s e-commerce world and we’re just living in it. Since its inception in 2006, Shopify has become THE e-commerce platform. Not only does it allow you to sell your products online, it has everything you need to have a successful online store. You get customer support, payment processing, inventory management, and shipping. It even allows you to customize your store with various templates and themes, and has a huge library of apps to help grow and support your business. It is the self-proclaimed all-in-one commerce platform to start, run and grow a business.
With Shopify making business 101 so easy, the real challenge most people face with e-commerce stores is standing out from the crowd. With the right tools, you can grow your e-commerce store to any level you want. Here is how to make a unique Shopify store.
How to make your Shopify store unique
Choose the best theme for your brand
Think of your website theme as your website’s wardrobe: It’s going to be the first thing people notice when they land on your site. If it’s outdated or irrelevant to your business or brand, it’s going to confuse your audience. Having the right theme will affect your website performance, user experience, atmosphere, and how your site feels. Shopify has plenty of themes that allow for further customization. Some themes are available for free, but most of them go for $140 to $180.
The templates are categorized according to industry, so you can choose the category that fits your business. When selecting a theme, there’s more to consider than just your budget; think about how you want to display your products, what your competitors are using, your necessary features, and the user experience. When it comes to the theme, don't worry too much about the color schemes and the typography. You can customize them later! If you want to get really customized, you can always get the help of a freelance developer to choose and adapt the best theme for your store.
Improve loading times
The page loading speed can help reduce the bounce rate on your store. Users will get frustrated and leave your site if it loads too slowly (and their next stop will be your competitor's site). Page load speeds can reduce conversions by 7%! Google also ranks faster sites highly, so improving your site load times will be good for SEO and the user experience.
Is your head spinning yet? Don’t worry, we got you. Implement the following techniques to help reduce load times:
Compressing images
High-quality product images will increase your sales–but not if they take longer to load. Try compressing images using online tools to reduce the file size by half while keeping the quality of the image intact.
Get rid of nonessential widgets
Too many widgets, apps, and other plugins can affect the site loading times. Remove any nonessential widgets to streamline your website and keep customers’ eyes on your products.
Don't use third-party themes
We’ll say it again for the people in the back: Shopify has a large library of themes for you to choose from and customize. If you do decide to go with a third-party theme, make sure it’s not slowing down your site's loading time. If you suspect this may be an issue, contact the developer of your third-party themes to identify ways to improve the load times.
There are several Shopify apps you can use to improve page loading speeds, like Fuzz, Page Speed Booster, or Hyperspeed. We recommend doing some research to find the app you can use with your Shopify store.
Build your brand loyalty
Every business needs customer loyalty if they are going to achieve any level of success. Repeat customers will bring more business to your online store because they are highly likely to make a purchase. Plus, they are more likely to leave positive reviews and spread the word about your brand and products if they’ve returned to purchase again and again.
So, how do you build your brand loyalty to keep customers coming back for more? Engaging with and building relationships with previous customers is the key. If you have an established rapport with your customers, you can more easily encourage them to leave reviews on your site. Positive reviews creates trust with new prospects. You'll get more customers coming to your online store in no time!
Make your site different
Using a template site builder means you risk creating a store that looks like the others. You can avoid that by going the extra mile. Check out the following ideas to make your e-commerce Shopify store shine.
Site photography
The Shopify photography style determines your site's appearance. You can display your unique personality by stylizing your promotional and product photos. Having a plain white background is suitable for traditional and professional sites but your imagery doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop there. Consider your product on a colorful background, in lifestyle settings, adding models interacting with your product, and video. Keep in mind 93% of online shoppers say visual appearance is the deciding factor of whether they purchase or not, so don’t skimp on having professional photos and videos of your products.
Copy
You can also use text to showcase your brand’s personality. If your target audience is young, use emojis and casual lingo. Use formal language if you want to increase customer trust. The tone you use in your copy is not only restricted to the home and about pages, but it also should apply to your product descriptions. Consistency is super important here so they understand and identify with who you are as a business and a brand.
Shopify settings
You can customize your themes to give your site extra personalization. Customize your color scheme, logos, and typography. You can also choose unique ways to show off your social media buttons.
Update your site regularly
Always keep your site looking fresh and maintained by updating it regularly. Updating it regularly will attract more customers. Update your site when you post a new blog, launch new promotions, add new images, or refresh the product list.
Hone your conversions
Even after building your site, you still need to optimize your target audience. This where user testing can come into play to help guide you on how to optimize conversions.
One effective user test to optimize conversion rates is A/B testing. With A/B testing, you can tailor your site according to your customers' needs by learning directly from them and their actions. Try A/B testing with:
- Navigational options
- Location of CTAs
- Phrase the labels
- Use colors for specific buttons
- Design your social media buttons
- Use images that promote conversions
How do I make my Shopify pages look better?
When it comes to your Shopify pages, you need to do more than pick a fresh design. Customers need to be able to find the product information they want–and fast! One way to do that is by creating exceptional product pages. Your product pages don't have to be boring or one-size-fits-all, but there are a few things you need to include to improve Shopify product pages. Below are the must-haves to create better-looking pages:
Have great images
One of the first things people will spot when they get to your Shopify product page are the images. The images are essential because they show your customers what to expect in the product and give them a feel for your brand overall.
Always use high-quality images that showcase your product. Images will give customers an idea of what you are selling. Don't forget to put the right quality, size, format, and image name.
Optimize the product title
The title of the product helps search engines identify what your page is about. The product title should have the name of the product. You can also add the dimensions or size of the product. Remember, less is more here; resist the urge to overstuff the title!
Have authentic customer reviews
Reviews are an excellent way to build trust with your customers. The reviews should be from real customers. Make it possible for customers to leave reviews on your online store. Check out the free Product Reviews app, which provides installation instructions along with how to manage reviews and edit their layout.
Unique description
You may be tempted to use the product description given by the manufacturer, but that’s boring and you’re not boring! Write a unique description that explains the problem your product solves. This is a great opportunity to inject your brand voice for personality and consistency sake.
Call to action
The call to action on a Shopify product page is arguably the most important part of your site: the buy button. Make sure it stands out. Use white space around the call to action, keep it center stage, and experiment with its placement, text, and style where possible (all of these experiments would be great A/B tests!).
Can you edit the Shopify store once it's live?
Yes! It's possible to edit your Shopify store while it's live. You can add a new theme and make changes on the fly - your customers will not see any changes until you publish it. You can make updates to your current theme by going to the online store > actions > duplicate. You can work on that duplicated version until you’re done with edits. Click publish, and the changes will be made in the live version.
Any changes you make to the collections, products, or menus in the back end will show live in those areas as long as they are linked to the current storefront. Shopify allows you to make changes without affecting the user experience of your store.
What to consider when updating a live Shopify store
As your store grows, you'll want to enhance its look and feel to boost sales, traffic, and your conversion rates.
Customized themes and templates
Shopify makes it easy to swap your themes without interfering with your store operations, as long as you don't make changes to collections or products in your design. If you’re just changing up the design, that could be a community template or a Shopify theme. It’s a little more involved if you’re wanting to make significant changes to your collection or products.
To keep things running smoothly, the easier route is setting up a separate development store to develop your theme and preview the designs. Make sure the development store matches the live environment. By doing so, you can bring the new themes to the live site. Update the collections while still on the existing theme before you activate the new theme. The new page templates will not be available until your new theme has been activated.
Modified collections
Modifying your product structure can cause a butterfly effect you should be aware of. You should do a complete review of the setup and make any adjustments to the products before rolling out the theme. The workflow below will help you make minor changes to a live site:
- Duplicate your current theme. Make sure you give the new theme an explicit name to avoid confusion.
- Make the changes to your duplicated copy.
- Save changes.
- Test the changes in the preview.
- Publish your theme.
The changes you make to the duplicated copy will not affect the published theme because the duplicated theme will pick up the changes you have made to your Shopify store. If a customer adds a new product, you can access it from the duplicate theme. If you make changes to the navigation, it will show up on the live store. You can keep products and pages until you are ready to display them. The changes you make to the navigation will be seen publicly immediately after saving them. You can keep your products and collections private until you want to make them live.
The e-commerce world is a competitive one but with the above tips and tools, you can build your store and stand out–no matter the strategy you use. With the right product, you can always build a successful Shopify store! Grow your Shopify store and launch new Shopify products with soona’s Shopify starter pack.
Contact us today to get started.
Tips to help keep your Shopify store fresh
It’s Shopify’s e-commerce world and we’re just living in it. Since its inception in 2006, Shopify has become THE e-commerce platform. Not only does it allow you to sell your products online, it has everything you need to have a successful online store. You get customer support, payment processing, inventory management, and shipping. It even allows you to customize your store with various templates and themes, and has a huge library of apps to help grow and support your business. It is the self-proclaimed all-in-one commerce platform to start, run and grow a business.
With Shopify making business 101 so easy, the real challenge most people face with e-commerce stores is standing out from the crowd. With the right tools, you can grow your e-commerce store to any level you want. Here is how to make a unique Shopify store.
How to make your Shopify store unique
Choose the best theme for your brand
Think of your website theme as your website’s wardrobe: It’s going to be the first thing people notice when they land on your site. If it’s outdated or irrelevant to your business or brand, it’s going to confuse your audience. Having the right theme will affect your website performance, user experience, atmosphere, and how your site feels. Shopify has plenty of themes that allow for further customization. Some themes are available for free, but most of them go for $140 to $180.
The templates are categorized according to industry, so you can choose the category that fits your business. When selecting a theme, there’s more to consider than just your budget; think about how you want to display your products, what your competitors are using, your necessary features, and the user experience. When it comes to the theme, don't worry too much about the color schemes and the typography. You can customize them later! If you want to get really customized, you can always get the help of a freelance developer to choose and adapt the best theme for your store.
Improve loading times
The page loading speed can help reduce the bounce rate on your store. Users will get frustrated and leave your site if it loads too slowly (and their next stop will be your competitor's site). Page load speeds can reduce conversions by 7%! Google also ranks faster sites highly, so improving your site load times will be good for SEO and the user experience.
Is your head spinning yet? Don’t worry, we got you. Implement the following techniques to help reduce load times:
Compressing images
High-quality product images will increase your sales–but not if they take longer to load. Try compressing images using online tools to reduce the file size by half while keeping the quality of the image intact.
Get rid of nonessential widgets
Too many widgets, apps, and other plugins can affect the site loading times. Remove any nonessential widgets to streamline your website and keep customers’ eyes on your products.
Don't use third-party themes
We’ll say it again for the people in the back: Shopify has a large library of themes for you to choose from and customize. If you do decide to go with a third-party theme, make sure it’s not slowing down your site's loading time. If you suspect this may be an issue, contact the developer of your third-party themes to identify ways to improve the load times.
There are several Shopify apps you can use to improve page loading speeds, like Fuzz, Page Speed Booster, or Hyperspeed. We recommend doing some research to find the app you can use with your Shopify store.
Build your brand loyalty
Every business needs customer loyalty if they are going to achieve any level of success. Repeat customers will bring more business to your online store because they are highly likely to make a purchase. Plus, they are more likely to leave positive reviews and spread the word about your brand and products if they’ve returned to purchase again and again.
So, how do you build your brand loyalty to keep customers coming back for more? Engaging with and building relationships with previous customers is the key. If you have an established rapport with your customers, you can more easily encourage them to leave reviews on your site. Positive reviews creates trust with new prospects. You'll get more customers coming to your online store in no time!
Make your site different
Using a template site builder means you risk creating a store that looks like the others. You can avoid that by going the extra mile. Check out the following ideas to make your e-commerce Shopify store shine.
Site photography
The Shopify photography style determines your site's appearance. You can display your unique personality by stylizing your promotional and product photos. Having a plain white background is suitable for traditional and professional sites but your imagery doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop there. Consider your product on a colorful background, in lifestyle settings, adding models interacting with your product, and video. Keep in mind 93% of online shoppers say visual appearance is the deciding factor of whether they purchase or not, so don’t skimp on having professional photos and videos of your products.
Copy
You can also use text to showcase your brand’s personality. If your target audience is young, use emojis and casual lingo. Use formal language if you want to increase customer trust. The tone you use in your copy is not only restricted to the home and about pages, but it also should apply to your product descriptions. Consistency is super important here so they understand and identify with who you are as a business and a brand.
Shopify settings
You can customize your themes to give your site extra personalization. Customize your color scheme, logos, and typography. You can also choose unique ways to show off your social media buttons.
Update your site regularly
Always keep your site looking fresh and maintained by updating it regularly. Updating it regularly will attract more customers. Update your site when you post a new blog, launch new promotions, add new images, or refresh the product list.
Hone your conversions
Even after building your site, you still need to optimize your target audience. This where user testing can come into play to help guide you on how to optimize conversions.
One effective user test to optimize conversion rates is A/B testing. With A/B testing, you can tailor your site according to your customers' needs by learning directly from them and their actions. Try A/B testing with:
- Navigational options
- Location of CTAs
- Phrase the labels
- Use colors for specific buttons
- Design your social media buttons
- Use images that promote conversions
How do I make my Shopify pages look better?
When it comes to your Shopify pages, you need to do more than pick a fresh design. Customers need to be able to find the product information they want–and fast! One way to do that is by creating exceptional product pages. Your product pages don't have to be boring or one-size-fits-all, but there are a few things you need to include to improve Shopify product pages. Below are the must-haves to create better-looking pages:
Have great images
One of the first things people will spot when they get to your Shopify product page are the images. The images are essential because they show your customers what to expect in the product and give them a feel for your brand overall.
Always use high-quality images that showcase your product. Images will give customers an idea of what you are selling. Don't forget to put the right quality, size, format, and image name.
Optimize the product title
The title of the product helps search engines identify what your page is about. The product title should have the name of the product. You can also add the dimensions or size of the product. Remember, less is more here; resist the urge to overstuff the title!
Have authentic customer reviews
Reviews are an excellent way to build trust with your customers. The reviews should be from real customers. Make it possible for customers to leave reviews on your online store. Check out the free Product Reviews app, which provides installation instructions along with how to manage reviews and edit their layout.
Unique description
You may be tempted to use the product description given by the manufacturer, but that’s boring and you’re not boring! Write a unique description that explains the problem your product solves. This is a great opportunity to inject your brand voice for personality and consistency sake.
Call to action
The call to action on a Shopify product page is arguably the most important part of your site: the buy button. Make sure it stands out. Use white space around the call to action, keep it center stage, and experiment with its placement, text, and style where possible (all of these experiments would be great A/B tests!).
Can you edit the Shopify store once it's live?
Yes! It's possible to edit your Shopify store while it's live. You can add a new theme and make changes on the fly - your customers will not see any changes until you publish it. You can make updates to your current theme by going to the online store > actions > duplicate. You can work on that duplicated version until you’re done with edits. Click publish, and the changes will be made in the live version.
Any changes you make to the collections, products, or menus in the back end will show live in those areas as long as they are linked to the current storefront. Shopify allows you to make changes without affecting the user experience of your store.
What to consider when updating a live Shopify store
As your store grows, you'll want to enhance its look and feel to boost sales, traffic, and your conversion rates.
Customized themes and templates
Shopify makes it easy to swap your themes without interfering with your store operations, as long as you don't make changes to collections or products in your design. If you’re just changing up the design, that could be a community template or a Shopify theme. It’s a little more involved if you’re wanting to make significant changes to your collection or products.
To keep things running smoothly, the easier route is setting up a separate development store to develop your theme and preview the designs. Make sure the development store matches the live environment. By doing so, you can bring the new themes to the live site. Update the collections while still on the existing theme before you activate the new theme. The new page templates will not be available until your new theme has been activated.
Modified collections
Modifying your product structure can cause a butterfly effect you should be aware of. You should do a complete review of the setup and make any adjustments to the products before rolling out the theme. The workflow below will help you make minor changes to a live site:
- Duplicate your current theme. Make sure you give the new theme an explicit name to avoid confusion.
- Make the changes to your duplicated copy.
- Save changes.
- Test the changes in the preview.
- Publish your theme.
The changes you make to the duplicated copy will not affect the published theme because the duplicated theme will pick up the changes you have made to your Shopify store. If a customer adds a new product, you can access it from the duplicate theme. If you make changes to the navigation, it will show up on the live store. You can keep products and pages until you are ready to display them. The changes you make to the navigation will be seen publicly immediately after saving them. You can keep your products and collections private until you want to make them live.
The e-commerce world is a competitive one but with the above tips and tools, you can build your store and stand out–no matter the strategy you use. With the right product, you can always build a successful Shopify store! Grow your Shopify store and launch new Shopify products with soona’s Shopify starter pack.
Contact us today to get started.
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