Imagine you've just launched your new Shopify store, and you're feeling pretty good about it.
You've gone through the whole store, and you're confident that it is ready to launch.
But then, you start getting a few customer complaints or don't see the results that you were hoping for.
It turns out that you've made a few mistakes while setting up your Shopify store.
If that is the case, then don't feel sad about it. We all make mistakes, and no one is perfect.
Likely, you're still making a couple of Shopify store mistakes that you aren't even aware of yet!
I've been building my stores on Shopify for a few years now, and I've learned some great lessons from my mistakes along the way.
In this post, I will share those lessons by showing you 24 Shopify store mistakes!
Tip: Have you already created your Shopify account? If not, sign up by clicking this link here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!
Mistake #1: Focusing on optimizing your theme for desktop users
This is one of the first mistakes that new Shopify store owners will be making.
I can see where they're coming from. The desktop view in the Shopify theme editor is the default view, and working on editing your theme there is much more user-friendly.
However, you should focus on optimizing your Shopify store's theme for mobile visitors.
That's because your store will probably be visited more by mobile users than desktop or tablet users.
Mobile ecommerce sales have been growing for many years now. In 2021, mobile users already take up 72.9% of total ecommerce sales!
Takeaway: Make sure your website is responsive and looks great on mobile devices.
Mistake #2: Forgetting to customize the checkout process
Customizing the checkout process is something a lot of people forget about when creating their Shopify stores. Or, they just didn't know it was possible!
By heading to 'Settings' -> 'Checkout', you can click on 'Customize checkout' to upload your store's logo, change colors, fonts, and more!
It's important to make the checkout process match with the rest of your Shopify store's design.
It would be pretty weird for your customers if your store has a green-white-black color theme, and when they go to the checkout, they see a blue-white-black color theme, right?
Takeaway: Customize your checkout to match the rest of your store. The most important thing is to add your logo and configure the colors.
Mistake #3: Not configuring the shipping costs in the right way
The "Shipping and delivery" settings.
For a beginner, they can be pretty confusing:
- How do I set up the shipping rates?
- Do I need to create new custom shipping rates?
- Do I need to configure the "Packages" and "Packing slips" settings?
- How do the shipping zones work?
These are all questions that a beginner may have.
Luckily, Shopify has some pretty good documentation that will tell you more about how the shipping and delivery settings work.
Still, no one is perfect, and it's definitely possible to make mistakes here.
For example, when the shipping zones aren't correctly configured, people from some countries might not be able to purchase products on your Shopify store.
Takeaway: Make sure your shipping and delivery settings are correctly configured and do some test orders for a couple of different countries. Check if it's possible to order and if the shipping costs are correct.
Mistake #4: Using low-quality images
Using images for your Shopify store is very important.
If you're interested, check out this article on Medium that talks about the importance of images and how they can increase your customer's trust.
And when I talk about images, I mean good, high-resolution images.
Some Shopify store owners use low-quality images, which is a big mistake.
With low-quality images, customers can't determine if the product will meet their expectations.
As a result, fewer of them will make a purchase.
Takeaway: Make sure to use high-quality images on your Shopify store.
Mistake #5: Using images that aren't compressed
In the previous section, I talked about how having low-quality images is a big Shopify store mistake.
You should use high-resolution images, but remember to keep in mind their file size.
Placing lots of 4K images on your store with a file size of 10MB+ each won't do much good either.
It will make your store very slow to load. And as you know, that isn't good!
Use a tool like Image Compressor to shrink your images' file size to the minimum while keeping their quality intact.
Takeaway: Compress your images to improve your store's loading time.
Mistake #6: Paying too little attention to your store's design
It's important to take your time when building your online store. Don't rush it, because people will see that there isn't much effort put into your store!
It will just look effortless and plain:
For more bad store examples, check out this article here.
Instead, you would want to make your online store look more like this:
If you like stores with designs like this more as well, then check out these most successful Shopify store examples!
Don't forget that your Shopify theme is also an important factor that influences your store's look. Check out the best Shopify themes of 2024 here.
And you should check out these eight tips here to find the best theme for your Shopify store!
Takeaway: Don't rush your store design. Carefully consider which theme will fit the best with your store.
Mistake #7: Not having a favicon
You might think that this Shopify store mistake is a small detail, but in my opinion, it's pretty important.
A favicon is a small icon that appears in your browser's tabs.
Every Shopify store should have it. Here's how it looks if you don't:
Ugly, right?
You can upload a favicon for your Shopify store by going to your theme settings within the theme editor. There, most themes will have an option to upload a favicon:
If you're wondering how to create one, then check out this article here.
Takeaway: Upload a favicon for your Shopify store in your theme's settings.
Mistake #8: Using too many Shopify apps
Sometimes, it looks like some Shopify store owners think that they're in a competition for the highest number of installed apps.
They just go ahead and install every app that they find.
What they don't think about, is that every app you install injects code into your store's theme, slowing it down.
Besides that, too many pop-ups on a Shopify store distract the visitors and can scare them away.
Takeaway: Be aware that installing many Shopify apps can cause clutter in your store and decrease its loading times.
Mistake #9: Using too few Shopify apps
Don't get me wrong though, using Shopify apps is great.
It's not like you should remove every app from your Shopify store. That's a mistake as well!
Pretty much any Shopify store should be able to find a few Shopify apps that will help them get more sales, make the store look nice, or simplify a process.
One example of an amazing app that every Shopify store could benefit from is Cartloop.
Cartloop will retarget your abandoned carts by sending your visitors personalized SMS messages. That's right, personalized.
Check out how real the conversations look:
The great thing is that Cartloop offers risk-free pricing. It starts at 0$, and you will only have to pay when you profit from their services.
Check out our "Best Shopify apps" article to read more about Cartloop and find other amazing Shopify apps!
Takeaway: Install 3-8 Shopify apps on your store. Don't miss out on great Shopify apps like Cartloop.
Mistake #10: Not paying attention to abandoned checkouts
Cartloop brings me on to the next mistake: not paying attention to abandoned checkouts!
In the ecommerce purchase funnel, the people who have almost completed their purchase, the so-called "warm" or "hot" audiences, are the easiest to convert.
Unlike people who have never heard of your brand before, these audiences only need a gentle push to make a purchase.
So, it makes sense to pay a little extra attention to them, right?
To retarget that audience, you can use email marketing. Furthermore, you can use SMS marketing to recover up to 10x more abandoned carts than with email marketing.
And there are many more ways in which you can do retargeting. For example, take a look at Facebook Ads!
Takeaway: Don't miss out on extra sales from abandoned carts and checkouts. Retargeting these audiences can yield a much higher ROI compared to cold audiences.
Mistake #11: Not having the standard Shopify pages
As you know, trust is a critical factor for ecommerce stores.
When people are shopping at your store, they:
- Can't try out the product in real life before purchasing
- Have to give their payment info to a website they don't know very well yet
- Have to wait for a few days before the product gets delivered
So, if you want them to make a purchase, you have to make sure that you are and appear trustworthy.
One way to increase your visitors' trust is to add the 10 standard pages for a Shopify store.
These include pages like a refund policy, a shipping policy, and the FAQ page.
Takeaway: Increase your store's trust factor by adding the 10 standard Shopify store pages.
Mistake #12: Not optimizing your Shopify pages
Let me give you an example:
With an average order value of $40 and 10k monthly visitors, how much extra revenue would you generate if you optimize your Shopify pages and go from a 2% to a 3% conversion rate?
Well, let me tell you.
You would increase your revenue from $8k to $12k, an increase of $4000 per month!
And that's just from going from a 2% to a 3% conversion rate. For each percentage point that your conversion rate goes up, your monthly revenue will increase by $4000.
This calculation shows the importance of optimization. It's a great way to generate extra revenue without spending much more on advertising!
Here are two articles that will go over how to optimize your Shopify store and get more sales:
- Shopify Conversion Rate Optimization: 12 Ways to Get More Sales
- Shopify Speed Optimization: 7 Ways to Make Your Store Faster
Takeaway: Optimize your Shopify store to increase your revenue and profits.
Mistake #13: Making grammar or spelling errors
As a Shopify store owner, the last thing you want is your customers leaving your store because they find it hard to read what you have to say.
You can't afford for your customers to have bad experiences due to typos or grammatical errors.
Grammar or spelling errors make a Shopify store look extremely unprofessional.
They will decrease your customer's trust and your conversion rate, and increase your bounce rate.
Luckily, there is a solution: Grammarly.
When using Grammarly, it feels like you have an assistant that looks over your shoulder at all times and corrects all your grammar and spelling mistakes. What's more, this "assistant" will work for free and 24/7 (if you want)!
To read more about Grammarly and why you should use it, check out this article.
Takeaway: Make sure that your Shopify does not contain any grammatical or spelling mistakes. Double-check all your text with an app like Grammarly.
Mistake #14: Not having a pricing strategy
When it comes to pricing your product, you can't simply pick a price based on your feelings.
If you want to maximize your profits, it's not that simple.
In that case, you should think about a pricing strategy for your Shopify store.
In a pricing strategy, you consider various variables like product costs, perceived value, taxes, and more:
Using those variables, you can calculate your potential profit for each possible retail price of your product.
Since your perfect pricing strategy can depend a lot on the product that you are selling, we have written a guide that will help you develop yours:
Pricing Strategy: The Definitive Guide (2024)
It will go over some pricing strategies for different types of products, but will also go over questions like: "How to round your pricing?"
Takeaway: Create a pricing strategy for your Shopify store to avoid leaving money on the table.
Mistake #15: Not clearly displaying your shipping times
In my experience, shipping times don't matter as much as some people think.
Sure, you might make more sales with 2-day shipping than with 14-day shipping. But if you're selling something unique, most customers won't mind waiting a few extra days for it.
Let me give you an example:
Would you wait for 2-4 weeks for a sandwich maker that you can also buy in the store next door?
I don’t think so…
But what if it’s a special sandwich maker, that you never saw before and is also in your favorite color? Would you care if you might need to wait for 1-3 weeks before it’s delivered?
When it comes to shipping times, not communicating them well enough is a mistake that some Shopify store owners make. (For example, you can create a shipping policy)
If your 14-day delivery times aren't stated anywhere on your Shopify store, then your customers might assume that they will get their product within one or two days.
As you may guess, they will start sending you emails within a few days and will be very disappointed when they find out that they still have to wait quite long for their order.
In the end, this mistake can lead to returns and refunds!
Takeaway: Make sure to be transparent with your shipping times to avoid giving wrong expectations to your customers.
Mistake #16: Not writing a blog
Writing a blog around your Shopify store's niche can bring you a lot of free, organic traffic.
And who doesn't love free traffic?
Besides, free traffic isn't the only reason you should consider creating a blog for your Shopify store.
Writing articles around your niche also shows that you're knowledgeable about the niche you're operating in. Furthermore, it's a great way to increase your store's SEO score and keep visitors on your site for a longer time.
If you want to learn more about why a blog is great to have, I suggest watching the video below by Neil Patel:
Takeaway: Write a few articles and create a blog around your product or niche to improve your store's SEO.
Mistake #17: Not using Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel
As a Shopify store owner, it's crucial to analyze and track your visitors' behavior on your store.
Well, let me tell you that the most powerful tool for this is available for free: Google Analytics.
With this tool, you can analyze important metrics such as traffic sources and bounce rates. Then, you can improve your store and easily analyze if your changes helped.
Check out our Google Analytics beginner's guide if you want to learn more!
Another important tool to use for your Shopify store is the Meta Pixel. It tracks your visitors' behavior and saves their actions.
Using it, you can, for example, separate the audience who has only seen your content from the audience that has initiated a checkout already.
Speaking of, do you remember me talking about your "hot" and "warm" audiences being the easiest to convert?
Well, you can easily retarget them with Facebook Ads and the Meta Pixel. For example, check out this Facebook retargeting ad example:
If you're interested, you can find more Facebook ad examples here!
Takeaway: Use Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel to improve your store and get access to retargeting possibilities.
Mistake #18: Picking the wrong store name
The next Shopify store mistake on this list is rushing the process to pick a name for your store.
It's important to take your time and choose a great name for your store.
A great Shopify store name should be:
- Memorable
- Related to your niche
- Easy to understand
- Unique
Unless you're extremely creative, thinking of a name with these criteria isn't an easy task.
To make it a little bit easier, we have created an article that will give you 10 tips to choose the best name for your Shopify store. Check it out!
Also, you should know that if you've already started your Shopify store, but aren't entirely satisfied with your store name, then you can always change it to something else.
If you want to find out how, then take a look at this article!
Takeaway: A good store name is easy to remember and fits with your niche.
Mistake #19: You're not branding your store
With a branded Shopify store, you can differentiate yourself from your competition and get the opportunity to create a long-term ecommerce store.
Besides that, a branded Shopify store really helps to improve your returning customer rate.
Considering there is so much to benefit from, not branding your Shopify store is a pretty big mistake.
Without branding your store, attracting customers and building brand awareness will be much more difficult. Also, your store will look very similar to any other non-branded Shopify store.
To make branding your store a little bit easier, check out our 7 tips to brand your ecommerce store!
Plus, don't forget about the other things that you can brand, like the design of your packages. A supplier like HyperSKU can help you with this. (You can find more information about them here)
]Takeaway: Brand your Shopify store to keep ahead of your competition.
Mistake #20: Not knowing your ideal customer
When running a Shopify store or any other business, you must have a good idea of how your ideal customer looks.
An ideal customer is sometimes also called a "buyer persona".
For ecommerce stores, the most essential information to know about your ideal customer is their personal info, value & fears, negative info, and their interests.
But, there are more questions you could ask yourself as well. Take a look at the image below:
Knowing your ideal customer is really helpful when it comes to the marketing of your store and product.
For example, if you're doing Facebook Ads interest targeting, selecting the best audience to target will become so much easier!
Takeaway: Develop a buyer persona for your Shopify store using the image above.
Mistake #21: Not paying attention to your product's stock count within Shopify
This Shopify store mistake is for those who don't use Shopify's stock count system.
Actually, I was one of those people myself and I have also made this mistake!
I didn't pay much attention to the stock counts of the products I was selling.
After a while, I noticed that one of the products that normally sold very well didn't sell at all anymore.
After checking, I found that the stock had gone to zero. This resulted in the "buy now" button changing to "sold out"!
I fixed this mistake by setting all my products to "continue selling when out of stock" in the Shopify settings, and I've never had an issue with it afterward.
Takeaway: Pay some attention to your products' stock on Shopify. Change your settings to "continue selling when out of stock" to avoid missing out on extra sales.
Mistake #22: Not showing the shipping costs in a customer's cart
On an ecommerce store, high shipping costs are the number one reason why people abandon their carts.
But, some people will also leave your store if they can't find any information on shipping costs before the checkout.
You can avoid this Shopify store mistake by adding a shipping rate calculator to your cart page.
Another option is to install an app like this one to show your customer their estimated shipping costs based on their IP location.
Takeaway: Make sure to let your customers know what they will be paying for shipping.
Mistake #23: Thinking that you will get a lot of traffic without doing anything
It amazes me that some new Shopify store owners build a store with a completely wrong set of expectations regarding the marketing part.
When you ask them how they plan to get found by customers, they will just respond with something like: "Well, they will just be able to find be on Google, right?"
Sadly, it takes a lot of time doing SEO before you reach that level. With a new online store, using paid traffic will be the easiest way to get customers to your store.
For example, you could use Facebook Ads:
To learn more about marketing your Shopify store, check out this list of articles!
Takeaway: Be aware that you must put in the effort to get customers to your store.
Mistake #24: Not using the right payment gateways
If you're getting many abandoned checkouts on your store, this is a Shopify store mistake that you might be making!
Since there are so many payment gateways available for Shopify stores nowadays, it's important to do some research before setting them up for your store.
One particular thing you should look at is your target country's preferred payment methods.
For example, people in the US might prefer to pay with credit cards, while people in the UK might prefer paying with PayPal.
Check out our article about the 7 best payment gateways for Shopify stores to learn more!
Takeaway: When it comes to choosing which payment methods you are going to offer, choose the ones that most of your customers are already comfortable using.
Shopify store mistakes: A simple overview
Next up, you will find a table that presents all the Shopify store mistakes in a neat list.
What's more, you will find the key takeaway from each mistake in the second column:
| Shopify store mistake | Takeaway |
| #1: Focusing on optimizing your theme for desktop users | Your store will most likely be visited more often by mobile users. |
| #2: Forgetting to customize the checkout process | Make sure that your store's checkout matches the look and feel of your other pages. |
| #3: Not configuring the shipping costs in the right way | Make sure that your store's shipping and delivery options are configured correctly. |
| #4: Using low-quality images | Low-quality images make your store look unprofessional. |
| #5: Using images that aren’t compressed | Images with a large file size slow down your Shopify store. |
| #6: Paying too little attention to your store’s design | Think about which theme fits your store, and don't rush the store design process. |
| #7: Not having a favicon | Shopify stores without a favicon look unprofessional. |
| #8: Using too many Shopify apps | Too many Shopify apps may distract your customer and slow down your store. |
| #9: Using too few Shopify apps | Don't miss out on a few great Shopify apps. |
| #10: Not paying attention to abandoned checkouts | Retarget your abandoned checkouts using email or SMS marketing. |
| #11: Not having the standard Shopify pages | Don't operate your Shopify store without standard pages like a refund or shipping policy. |
| #12: Not optimizing your Shopify pages | Optimize your Shopify store to increase your revenue and profits. |
| #13: Making grammar or spelling errors | Use an app like Grammarly to avoid this mistake. |
| #14: Not having a pricing strategy | Use a pricing strategy to maximize your profits and avoid losing money without knowing it. |
| #15: Not clearly displaying your shipping times | Make sure to be transparent with your shipping times to avoid giving wrong expectations to your customers. |
| #16: Not writing a blog | Don't miss out on free traffic and start a blog for your Shopify store. |
| #17: Not using Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel | Retarget and analyze your visitors using these awesome tools. |
| #18: Picking the wrong store name | A good store name is easy to remember and fits with your niche. |
| #19: You’re not branding your store | Brand your Shopify store to keep ahead of your competition. |
| #20: Not knowing your ideal customer | Think about your ideal customer to make marketing your store easier. |
| #21: Not paying attention to your product’s stock count within Shopify | Avoid having a product set to "sold out" when it is actually still in stock. |
| #22: Not showing the shipping costs in a customer’s cart | Make sure to let your customers know what they will be paying for shipping. |
| #23: Thinking that you will get a lot of traffic without doing anything | Be aware that you must put in the effort to get customers to your store. |
| #24: Not using the right payment gateways | Offer payment options that your target audience knows and is already used to. |
What to do if you have a lot of traffic, but no sales?
If you have a lot of traffic on your store and checked it for all these Shopify store mistakes but still don't get a lot of sales, there are a couple of things that you should change.
For example, you can focus on improving your store, conversion rate, or trust.
For a complete guide on how to get more sales in this situation, check out our article: "Shopify: Traffic, but No Sales?"
Conclusion
Those were most of the Shopify store mistakes that you can make!
Remember, there's no such thing as perfection.
We're all humans, and we're not supposed to be perfect. We all make mistakes!
So, don't feel bad if you've made a mistake on your Shopify store or somewhere else.
The most important thing is to learn from it. That way, you can prevent it from happening again!
Also, Shopify store mistakes aren't the only mistakes you can make when running an ecommerce store.
If you're currently using Facebook Ads, then check out our article about 13 common Facebook Ad mistakes.
I hope you have learned something from this article, and I wish you a great rest of your day!
