You spent a lot of time and effort setting up your store, only to find your Shopify store not getting sales like you hoped it would. But we’re here to help! Today, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to earn consistent sales on Shopify and what you can do if your sales leave something to be desired.
First, however, let’s start by answering an important question:
How long does it take to get sales on Shopify?
There’s no one answer to this question. Every Shopify store is different, and each will have its path to success. It typically takes around three to six months to start seeing consistent sales. This doesn’t mean you can sit back, relax, and wait for sales to start rolling in, though! Along with providing high-quality products, there are many best practices you can follow to increase your chances of success.
Reasons Your Shopify Store is Not Getting Sales
So, let’s talk about some of the reasons your Shopify store is not getting sales and what you can do about them.
Lack of product information
Would you have guessed this is one of the most common mistakes we see Shopify store owners make? If potential customers can’t find the information they need, they will likely move on to a competitor’s site. So, ensure your product pages are clear and concise and provide all the necessary details potential customers might want. This includes size, color, dimensions, weight, materials, etc.
Next, we’ll break down critical components of improving your product pages to get even more in-depth and help you fix what might hinder your success.
Product page optimization
First, let’s start with your product page title. This is the most critical piece of text on your page, so make sure it’s clear, concise, and to the point. Next, take a look at your product description. This is where you have a chance to sell your product and convince potential customers to hit the “add to cart” button. So make sure it’s well-written, persuasive, and free of typos or grammatical errors.
Then, take a look at your product photos. Are they high quality and professional looking? If not, consider hiring an eCommerce product photographer or a higher-quality camera to take new pictures.
And finally, make sure your pricing is transparent and easy to find. Nothing will turn off potential customers more than not knowing how much something costs.
If you take the time to optimize your product pages, you’ll surely see an uptick in sales.
Landing page optimization
Next, you’ll also want to ensure your landing pages are optimized for conversion. Your landing page is the first thing potential customers will see when they visit your site, so you want to make sure it makes a good impression.
Some things you’ll want to consider include:
- The overall design of your page
- The placement of your call-to-action (CTA) buttons
- The use of white space
- The inclusion of customer testimonials
Not sure how to optimize your shop’s landing pages? We recommend working with eCommerce experts. They’ll be able to help you create high-converting pages that will help increase your sales.
Product descriptions
Now let’s talk about writing killer product descriptions that convert. After all, this is one of your site’s most essential elements!
First, ensure your descriptions are easy to read and to the point. No one wants to read a novel about your product, so keep it short and sweet. Next, use persuasive language that convinces potential customers they need your product. And finally, be sure to include a CTA at the end of each description. Something as simple as “add to cart” can significantly affect conversion rates.
Including bullet points in your product descriptions is another handy Shopify tactic. They help break up the text (and add white space!) and make it easier to read, which can also help increase conversion rates.
Site Speed
Another reason your Shopify store is not getting sales could be your site speed. But unfortunately, it’s also one of a successful Shopify store’s most commonly overlooked components.
Site speed is essential for two main reasons:
- First, it directly affects your conversion rate. Even a one-second delay in page load time can decrease conversion rates significantly.
- Second, site speed is now a ranking factor on Google. So if your site is slow, you’re not only losing potential customers, but you’re also hurting your chances of being found in search results.
There are a few easy ways to improve your site speed. Make sure you use Shopify’s built-in CDN (Content Delivery Network), optimize your images, and avoid excessive apps and plugins.
Personalization and Customization
Next, let’s explore the importance of personalization and customization for your Shopify store. When you understand your target audience, you can better speak to their pain points. This creates a more personalized and relevant shopping experience, leading to increased sales.
There are a few key ways to personalize and customize your Shopify store:
- First, use Shopify’s built-in Custom Fields feature to add unique data fields to products, collections, pages, and blog posts. This allows you to add relevant information that will speak directly to your target audience.
- Take advantage of Shopify’s theme customization capabilities. With just a few clicks, you can easily change the look and feel of your store to better match your brand.
- Don’t forget about apps! Many powerful Shopify apps can help you personalize and customize your store even further.
Learn more about your target audience
Those are helpful ways to utilize what Shopify offers, but it’s on you as the store owner to learn more about your target audience so you can better speak to their needs.
Here are a few ways to learn more about your target audience:
- First, use Shopify’s built-in analytics tools to track who is visiting your store and what they’re doing while they’re there.
- Create a customer survey and incentivize people to take it by offering a discount or free shipping.
- Use social media to interact with potential and current customers. Not only will this give you valuable insights, but it’s also an effective way to build relationships.
Marketing Budget
Your marketing budget is another reason your Shopify store might not get sales. You might think your work is done, but it’s not the case! Along with building a great website, you need to ensure your marketing budget includes paid advertising.
So, how much should you spend on paid advertising? Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-all answer to this question. Your spending depends on factors, including your industry pricing, target audience, and more. However, you should spend at least 10% of your total revenue on marketing.
This may seem like a lot, but it’s important to remember that paid advertising is an investment. And if done correctly, it can lead to a significant return in the form of increased sales and brand awareness.
The Importance of Paid Advertising with the Right Target Audience
Now let’s get into the importance of paid advertising and how the use of SEO and Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads can propel your Shopify store growth.
You might think that as long as you have a website, people will find it and buy from you. But sadly, this is not the case. Even with the best website in the world, you won’t get sales if no one knows your site exists.
This is where paid advertising comes in.
Paid advertising allows you to reach a larger audience than you ever could organically. And when done correctly, it can be a very effective way to drive traffic to your Shopify store and increase sales.
You can use many platforms for paid advertising, but some of the most popular are Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads. Each platform has unique capabilities and strengths, so choosing suitable options for your business is important. That being said, combining all three is ideal for most companies.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a powerful paid advertising platform that allows you to place ads on Google.com and millions of other websites across the web. When people search for terms related to your products or services, your ad will appear in the search results. And if they click on your ad, they’ll be taken directly to your Shopify store.
Google Ads is an effective way to drive traffic to your Shopify store because it allows you to reach people who are already interested in what you’re selling. This is known as intent-based marketing, a beneficial way to increase sales.
Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads is another popular paid advertising to take advantage of for growing your business. It offers a cost-effective way to reach out to potential customers on Shopify.
When creating a Facebook ad campaign, you’ll need to create exciting and eye-catching ads that target your Shopify store’s specific audience. You can use Facebook’s targeting options to narrow your audience by age, location, gender, interests, and more.
Once you’ve created your ad campaign, you’ll need to track your results to see how well your ads perform. Facebook provides detailed insights showing how many people are visiting your ads, how many people are clicking on your ads, and how much money you spend on your ad campaign.
Instagram Ads
Finally, we come to Instagram ads to help you get more Shopify sales. Like Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads is a paid advertising platform that allows you to place ads on Instagram.
Instagram Ads is a great way to target potential customers who are using Instagram. Like with Facebook ads, you’ll want to create striking ads targeting your unique audience.
As with other platforms, you’ll need to monitor the success of your ad campaign after you’ve set it up. Instagram also offers extensive metrics to see how many individuals see your advertisements, whether or not they’re clicking on them, and how much money you’re spending.
Other Shopify Best Practices
Finally, let’s go over some of our favorite Shopify best practices that will help you increase sales:
- Use high-quality product photos: People want to see what they’re buying, so make sure you use high-quality product photos.
- Offer free shipping: This is a great strategy to entice people to buy from your Shopify store. People love “free!”
- Use discounts and coupons: Offering discounts and coupons is another strategy for driving traffic to your Shopify store and increasing sales. Just be sure not to overdo it!
- Provide excellent customer service: This is essential for any brick-and-mortar business, but it’s crucial for Shopify stores too.
- Be responsive to customer inquiries and complaints.
Final Thoughts
Increasing sales on Shopify can be challenging, but it’s possible with the right strategies. We’ve covered a lot of them in this post, but here’s a quick recap of some of the reasons your Shopify store is not getting sales:
- You aren’t providing enough product information
- Your site speed is lacking
- You don’t know your target audience or their pain points well enough
- Your marketing budget isn’t big enough
Ready to talk more about improving your Shopify success, your marketing efforts, and how we can help? Then get in touch with Blue Water Marketing today. We’re always happy to help Shopify entrepreneurs reach their full potential!
