Shopify common issues and their resolutions for the new users

Online business can indeed be a great start up idea, however, it also has its own rollers and boulders. Shopify is an all-in-one powerful solution for every commerce venture with ready-made templates for building sites, it has its drawbacks, and several well-known problems can be faced by all the new Shopify common issues for users. In this post, we will look into some of these issues and try to offer ways to some of these things with a view of freeing up your efforts when managing your new Shopify store.

1. This is due to the fact that choosing a theme may prove to be a challenge especially on the part of students.

Problem:

New users have problems with the choice of the proper theme for their store. Having so many options out there, it may be quite challenging to find a theme that will fit your brand and also given the functionality you want.

Solution:

• Define Your Brand Identity: It is important to have a concept of the brand in consideration especially when browsing the themes. This will assist to eliminate the options.
• Filter by Industry: Filtering of themes according to the business niche is one of the unique features that you will get from Shopify. Submit this feature for the correct themes to be offered based on the area of interest.
• Preview and Test: The preview function helps you visualize a theme and its appearance with the products and brand colors. Some many themes also giveoption to use the theme for free for a certain duration, normally a week.
• Read Reviews: Read discussion forums and comments to discover what more people have to say about their experiences with the theme and its support.

2. Navigating the Shopify Dashboard

Problem:

As it has been mentioned earlier, the initial sight of the Shopify dashboard may cause confusion due to vast possibilities that a company can have at the table.

Solution:

• Take the Tour: Shopify has an easy start tour that can help user familiarize with the tool’s fundamental characteristics. Don’t skip this step.
• Explore the Help Center: Unlike most e-commerce platforms, Shopify has a rather informative Help Center with articles and videos describing all features of the tool.
• Use the Search Function: When looking for a particular setting or icon, for instance, there is a search bar on the top of the dashboard.
• Start Simple: First of all it is necessary to strengthen the first principles. Some of the critical things that the store owner should do before exploring more advanced features include creating a store, products, and collections and basic settings.

3. Setting Up Payment Gateways

Problem:

Payment gateway implementation is usually an issue since there are several fees involved as well as dealing with several currencies.

Solution:

• Use Shopify Payments: Otherwise, for the barebones installation, you should consider using Shopify Payments. It is perfectly suitable for your store and is compatible with multiple forms of payment.
• Consider PayPal: gmail can be changed to include PayPal as a secondary method to increase customer confidence and another way to transact.
• Check Fees: Remember the transaction fees which are charged by various payment gateways. Generally, Shopify Payments provides the most favourable rates for Shopify users.
• Test Your Setup: It also requires conducting a trial order to check that the payment gateway response is normal and there are no problems with the checkout.

4. Managing Shipping Options

Problem:

Fulfilment of shipping can also be a bit complex especially when carrying out the operation across various zones or different shipping companies.

Solution:

• Use Shopify Shipping: Shopify Shipping provides affordable prices with the top carriers and helps with the shipping procedure.
• Set Up Shipping Zones: Vendor shipping zone – This should be based on the location where ships its products. This assists in setting the right prices for the shipping services to charging appropriate prices for the delivery services.
• Offer Free Shipping: It can also be useful to introduce free ship for several minimum orders to increase the number of clients.
• Automate Label Printing: Shopify allows you to purchase and print shipping labels right from your admin; thus, this saves time and is very accurate.

5. SEO Optimization

Also Read: How to Grow Your Business with Shopify: Unveiling the Path to E-Commerce Success

Problem:

SEO is often ignored by the new users and that is very unwise given that it is useful in driving traffic to your store organically.

Solution:

• Use SEO-Friendly Themes: Pinpoint a theme that is SEO friendly with neat coding and that will not slow down your site.
• Optimize Product Descriptions: Create product descriptions that will cover target keywords and be beneficial to the users at the same time.
• Utilize Meta Tags: Change the titles and descriptions of the pages and the products to incorporate the necessary keywords.
• Create a Blog: Therefore, updating a blog associated with the store with fresh materials will ultimately benefit the store in the form of increased traffic and better SEO.

6. Handling Inventory Management

Problem:

Management of stock is not very easy particularly when you have a vast variety of products in your shop.

Solution:

• Use Shopify’s Inventory Management Tools: Shopify also comes with inventory management tools where you can set stock levels, puts alerts to when the inventory is low or out of stock and even manage the variants.
• Integrate with Apps: In addition, there are numerous apps for Shopify App Store to manage inventory and it goes beyond forecasted counters and integration with other channels.
• Regular Audits: Always count your stock as a way of checking the levels of stock and especially if there are some additional stocks in the store.

7. Customer Support Challenges

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Problem:

Closely related and essential is the need to offer quality customer support; nonetheless, handling queries and issues could be a headache.

Solution:

• Use Shopify’s Customer Service Tools: There are diverse facilities that Shopify provides under the customer service feature, it is the email option with the choice of templates, and the facility of live chat.
• Create a FAQ Page: This way, an effectively created FAQ page can save time of frequently asked questions for the expert and offer prompt assistance to the customers.
• Automate Responses: Canned responses can be utilized by the business to handle frequently asked questions, while customers’ complaints should be attended to as soon as possible through creating workflows.
• Integrate a Help Desk: You could try using tickets for customers help desk such as Zendesk or Freshdesk and improve the effectiveness of customers’ support.

9. Customizing Your Store

Problem:

New users are also challenged in the aspect of the customization of the store in relation to their brand.

Solution:

Learn Basic HTML/CSS: Every occasional change that you want to make on your store layout can be done by basics HTML and CSS code.
Use Shopify’s Theme Editor: Shopify’s theme editor is simple to use and this is because you can customize your store without coding.
Hire a Developer: In case of the advanced customization, it is recommendable to seek services of a Shopify Expert or a developer.
Utilize Apps: Apps you can use is countless and all of them is created to extend the main functions of your store.

10. Marketing and Promoting for Your Store

Problem:

In this context, getting traffic and sales could be a bit daunting most especially to newcomers in the store business.

Solution:

Leverage Social Media: Employ social media apps for marketing the store and for interaction with the customers.
Run Ads: Buy Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or Google advertisement to help in the advertising to the customers your store.
Collaborate with Influencers: Collaborate with influencers in your area of specialization as it will increase your market base.
Email Marketing: Make use of the email lists and send out newsletters to your customers from time to time.
Offer Discounts and Promotions: Rewarded based promotions with discount: fix to attract new customers and increase customer retention.

Not for Readers

Like with any other type of business, there are certain difficulties and perils inherent in beginning a Shopify store, however with appropriate planning and tools, these problems can be civilized, and an effective online business established. Some of the issues that you can solve include theme, payment, shipping, search engine optimization, inventory, customer service, cart abandonment, customization and marketing among others; helping your customers have a perfect shopping experience, while at the same time creating the perfect foundation for your store to thrive in the long run. Remember, patience and constant practice is the way in mastering the strategies of Shopify and the path to successfully running your online store.