The final part of will deal with the extras that you can add on to your Shopify site as well as ways that you can market your website without spending money doing so. You’ll learn how to optimize your site for search engines, how to use social media to market your site and still retain your followers as well as taking advantage of time-sensitive factors like trends when they happen so that you can make as much money as possible and allow your eCommerce website to reach its full potential. From extra features to social media, this section is all about making your eCommerce site as good as it can possibly be.
You may not be aware that there are many other applications and software connections that you can integrate with your Shopify store. With all of the various programs that are being added each month, it is likely that even this list, current at the time of the writing, will be outdated by the time this book reaches you. But if you understand some of the programs that are now available, you will be able to find more of the same in the more recent programs offered, or simply newer versions of the ones mentioned here. At the very least, when you have completed this chapter you should be able to know where to look for add-on applications that will make it much easier to run your Shopify store.
Accounting: Accounting is one of the most important parts of your business management. You need to keep track of what you are spending and how much, so that you can make adjustments that will make your business as profitable as possible. In addition, you’re going to need a down-to-the-penny tracking to report your taxes and have all of your paperwork in order if you need to defend your accounting in an audit. Luckily, Shopify can be integrated with some of the biggest third-party accounting software packages like Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero and more.
Inventory Management: You’ll also need a way to keep track of your inventory and the tools that are offered by Shopify may not have every feature that you require. You can automate the process of replenishing inventory as little or as much as you’d like. You can track what the frequency of item sales so that you can get recommendations on which ones you need to replenish right away and which ones you can worry about later one because the chances are lower of them selling, and you can even automate the process of ordering if you like. Whatever inventory management setup you prefer, you can find a software solution that will provide it.
Customer Service: When it comes to customer service, you want to go the extra mile. You need people to feel as if they can get in touch with someone if they have a problem because otherwise, they might not buy from you in the future. There are a number of automated solutions that you can integrate into your Shopify store that will make your customer service better and easier to manage. From feedback and comment systems to live chat support, there are many ways that you can integrate third-part applications to make your customer service great.
Social Media Management: Social media management isn’t just a good idea in today’s online business, it is absolutely vital to the success of every eCommerce website out there. Social media management is definitely one of the aspects of your site that has the most automated tools associated with it. Whatever social media platforms that you are using, there is probably an application compatible with your Shopify store, and for the major ones, there are many. Shopify already has some integrated Facebook and Twitter tools available.
Marketing: Marketing is something else that you might need some extra help with. Because marketing is important no matter what kind of business you are in, but difficult to manage if you are a one-person eCommerce website, automated tools that help you market your products are definitely a plus. Often, marketing is combined with social media, but there may be other avenues that you’re pursuing as well.
Sales: If you want to create more sales, you need to implement some compatible third-party programs that concentrate on things like upselling a customer, or giving them impulse buying options, as well as things like customer loyalty programs that make them want to come back.
Reporting: There are definitely some reporting tools that are already integrated into your Shopify store, but if you want to get more information than what these standard tools provide you might have to install third-party applications that give you more comprehensive reports. Things like what your customers viewed before they made a purchase, how long they spent on the purchase page, which products they skipped over and most definitely where they came from to get to your site are all details that you can gather and analyze to make your sales numbers higher.
Shipping: Shopify probably has one of the best shipping programs already integrated into the store. The way it works is this: a customer purchases an item from you, including the shipping cost. You then purchase the postage-included shipping label from Shopify at a discount – with the amount of the discount depending upon which plan you are currently enrolled in – and send your customer’s item on its way. However, if you don’t want to use the integrated shipping tools for whatever reason, Shopify does allow you to set up your own custom shipping options.
Misc. Tools: There are far too many tools out there that can be integrated into Shopify to include a list here, but what might help you further are some suggestions on where you can find these programs. One of the richest resources is right on Shopify’s own user forum. There are probably hundreds of threads with programs that can be integrated into Shopify, and if you have a particular question, there are other Shopify users there, some of them with many years of experience, that can help.
