Have you already figured out that having a Shopify store isn’t as easy as they say it is? You also see a lot of other stores in your area closing, right? Here are some of the reasons!
People who work 9 to 5 are leaving their jobs to start their own businesses on Shopify, which is known for its great business opportunities. When you look up Shopify, you’ll find hundreds of articles about how to use the drop shipping method to open a store and make a lot of money with a small amount of money. Even though there are a lot of rich people with Shopify stores from all over the world, is it really the best way to get rich? In forums and social media, there are thousands of posts where people complain that they don’t make any sales, even though they get visitors every day. Every day, Shopify stores are shut down because they can’t keep up with their own costs. But what’s happening?
Over the past few years, e-commerce and Shopify have become the same thing. However, there are other platforms out there, and you can check to see which one would work best for you. There are alternatives to Shopify if you want to use a different platform.
Drop shipping is a great way to get your online store up and running. But you’ll need a lot of skills to make your store stand out from all the others that sell products from AliExpress or eBay. In one of our other articles, we talk about a business model other than drop shipping that can help you make more money.
We’ve found that there are many things that can cause this to happen. In this article, we’ll list the mistakes that can kill a business and force Shopify store owners to close their stores for good or for a while.
1. Starting a business with the goal of “getting rich quick”
Why do most people use Shopify to open their own stores? Because they have read everywhere that this is one of the best ways to quit their jobs and become successful business owners. When you search for “Shopify” or “drop shipping” on Google, you get thousands of results saying that this is the answer to all your money problems and that you can get rich quickly, in a few weeks, with little work. You only need to set up your store, and Shopify has the tools you need to do that—you just need to buy one of their plans. You get products from a supplier and send them a summary of your orders when you need to. The supplier sends everything to your customers at that point. You don’t get dirty, and you never have to worry about how to ship the goods. Simple, right?
Shopify “virtual assistants” (VAs) and “gurus” (experts) are always posting about how they got rich with Shopify. But if you start your business thinking that the only thing you will need to do with the store is manage orders, you are wrong. Having a store is a lot of work. You have to get customers, keep them, and keep them interested. You also have to set your store apart from competitors, update products, and use marketing techniques, among other things. Also, it won’t make you rich in just a few weeks. You have to pay for your Shopify plan, the plans for the apps you use, marketing costs, and other ways to get more people to your site. Many people close their Shopify stores after a few days or weeks of not making any money and having a long list of things to do every day. This is a false story that people spread on the Internet, and if you don’t do enough research first, it can kill your business.
2. Ignoring to do the Maths
If you don’t plan and figure out your costs before you start your business, you will probably run into fees you didn’t expect. Shopify’s pricing structure and what each plan has to offer should be carefully looked at. But you will have to pay for more than just the platform. Don’t forget about design, shipping, marketing, apps, and other things. Here is a list of what you can expect to pay when you open a new Shopify store:
- Subscribe to Shopify
- Subscription to a product-sourcing application
- App subscription billing
- Paid design (If you do not want to use the free designs)
- Building with a storefront
- Digital marketing (Facebook Ads, Remarketing, Email marketing, Cart abandonment, Adroll, Adwords, social media influencer etc.)
- SEO (if done by a third party or app)
- The supplier has to pay a monthly or yearly fee (if you are working with real suppliers, not people from eBay or Etsy)
- The prices of the items you order from the supplier (it is covered by the payment of your customer)
- Shipping costs
- Costs of a fulfillment center or courier service (if necessary)
- Employees (If you are a big store)
- VAs (if necessary)
3. Not having a plan
If you jump into e-commerce without a business plan, you are making a big mistake. If you don’t know how your field works, your conversion rate will be low, you won’t get many visitors, and in the long run, it won’t be worth it to keep your Shopify store open. You need to decide what your goals are, how you’re going to get customers, and how you’re going to keep them. Think about the whole buying process from the customer’s point of view to make sure you don’t leave anything important out of your plan. Find out how to answer things like:
- How will you set yourself apart?
- How are they going to find you?
- What are you selling?
- Did you make sure that your home page says what you want it to say?
- What will be the first thing they see in the store?
- How will they be able to see the goods?
- How will they get the money to pay for it?
- What if they don’t buy anything and leave?
- What if they leave it behind?
- How can you get these people to come back to your shop?
- What happens after they buy something?
- How will you keep track of your stock?
- How will you get the orders filled?
- What do you do if they want to get in touch?
- What if they ask for a guarantee?
- How will the orders be sent?
There are many more questions that could be added to this list, since it doesn’t cover branding, employees, payment gateways, policies, etc. Do your research before opening the store, because ignoring the initial investment of time and energy into your business will have a big effect on how customers feel, how happy they are, and, of course, how much money you make.
4. Refusing to do competitor and niche analysis
Have you already decided what you want to sell? Great! Did you look at your competitors and how your niche works? No? So, that’s a really big problem. If you want to do well in e-commerce, you will need to look at your competitors and figure out how you are different. You need a name, a message, and a way to solve a problem that sets you apart from everyone else. You won’t know how to beat your competitors if you don’t know how they treat their customers and do business. Test orders or signing up for their mailing list is always a good idea because you can see how they talk about their products and market them. This strategy gives you an edge over others because you can see what they don’t have, what could be better, and what strategies you can use. Even if you like a certain type of product and think you’ve found the best place to buy it, there may be many other stores that sell the same things. These are important things you need to deal with and solve.
When it comes to your niche, you need to decide which country is the best place to sell that type of product. You need to know if those products or services really sell where you want to sell them. Google’s Market Finder is a great piece of software that can tell you if your idea will work or not. This tool shows you the top countries in your search that have the biggest market share. You should also think about how often people buy that product, because that will affect how you price and market it. You need to figure out who your product is for. If you try to sell to everyone on the Internet without ever mentioning who might be interested in your products, you will never be a successful business owner.
5. Using suppliers from another side of the world
Drop shipping is based on suppliers, who can be located anywhere in the world. Basically, you don’t need to worry about shipping and delivery because you, as the store owner, don’t take care of it. But one of the most important parts of making an online store is choosing a supplier who serves your customers. Sadly, many people don’t realize how good it is. The problem with this is that if you choose a supplier that is far away from your target audience, they will have to wait at least a month to get it. People today can’t handle this length of time. Most of the time, we expect our orders to be delivered within a week at most. If we don’t, we start to feel insecure and wonder if we’ll ever get those things. We’ve seen a lot of Shopify store owners looking for an alternative to this model because customers are leaving, asking for refunds, or writing bad reviews of their products.
If you’re about to open a store, we don’t think this is a good idea at all and would strongly advise against it. Instead, you should always look for reliable suppliers who are at least on the same continent as your target market. But the better, the closer. This way, you can keep your store from getting complaints, losing money, and getting a bad name. Choose local sellers to make sure your customers are happy and to keep them from getting stuck.
Merchants have only recently realized how important it is to ship goods quickly. We run a Facebook group for wholesalers and retailers that has more than 17,000 people from all over the world as members. In a survey, we asked them what the most important things were to them when choosing suppliers. Here’s what they said in response:
6. Avoiding to differentiate your store
Because of the first reason we talked about, hundreds of Shopify merchants sell the same or similar products. Because the basic drop shipping model was so popular, dealers started selling products they bought on Etsy, Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress. Because of this, shops in the same niche will sell the same things. First of all, this is bad because they will have to work harder to get where they want to be in the market. To show customers why they are better than all the other shops, they will need more money and more ideas.
Because of the first reason we talked about, hundreds of Shopify merchants sell the same or similar products. Because the basic drop shipping model was so popular, dealers started selling products they bought on Etsy, Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress. Because of this, shops in the same niche will sell the same things. First of all, this is bad because they will have to work harder to get where they want to be in the market. To show customers why they are better than all the other shops, they will need more money and more ideas.
7. Branding error
Many stores don’t know what they want to sell before they open. We’ve seen a few Shopify merchants who want to start their store with a wide range of goods and then narrow it down later. It’s the same problem as not doing a niche analysis. If you don’t know what kind of products you want to sell, it will be hard to know how to talk to your customers. You will have to run different marketing campaigns for each type of product and spend hours figuring out how customers act because their actions will be so different. You won’t be able to come up with a single plan for every step of the buying process. Because of this, you will spend most of your time on never-ending small tasks instead of focusing on one specific group of people to increase sales. Not to mention that potential customers won’t understand what you’re trying to say when they come to your store. They won’t be able to think of your business as a way to solve one of their problems.
8. Using faulty product sourcing apps
No matter what kind of e-commerce method you use in your store—drop shipping, remote warehousing, or something else—you will need an app that works for you and your customers. When it comes to how products are imported and changed, there are big differences between product sourcing apps. If you order from Ali Express or eBay and want to use drop shipping, you will need a different app. On the other hand, you will need a different kind of app if you want to work with files from trusted local sources.
Please keep in mind that when you open your store, it is very important to think about the fundamental differences between the tools for managing products. If you choose one that doesn’t meet your needs or has a lot of bugs, it will be hard to keep your inventory up to date. Just think about it: if you think the application is working perfectly in the background when it isn’t, customers will see wrong information on your website. When it comes to the number of items in stock, this can be a big problem. If the product is already out of stock at your supplier and your app doesn’t update it correctly, your buyers will pay for an item that isn’t available. These things can hurt the way people think of your store. People will give you bad feedback, which makes it less likely that people will buy from you in the future. Read our other article if you want to know how to find the best app for your needs.
9. Selling out of stock products
This mistake is similar to the one before it. The most important thing you need to do to be a successful Shopify entrepreneur is to keep your task up to date. If you skip this step, your customers will be less happy and your sales will go down. Don’t forget to set up automated management of your products so you don’t have to update them manually or have to sell products that are out of stock. If you choose a good product sourcing tool, it will handle all of these tasks for you, giving you more time to work on other important business tasks. Why would you spend most of your day importing and updating your inventory one by one by hand when successful companies have already come up with a better way? dropship-empire can help you reach your business goals in the best way possible. We offer a free 7-day trial, so don’t wait any longer and try out our service.
Always keep in mind that if you want to be successful, the customer should always come first.