Why Do Shopify Stores Fail- 8 Mistakes to Avoid

If you’re planning on starting your own eCommerce business using Shopify then you’ll want to know that a lot of people fail at it. You’re probably thinking anyone could start an online store and succeed but that just isn’t true. Shopify stores fail for many different reasons, and you need to make sure that yours is not one of them.

Shopify stores fail because they don’t have a clear plan, sell the wrong products, and have no idea how to get the right people to their website. Without money to invest, where to get suppliers, and a basic understanding of shipping it’s likely you’ll fail before your store even opens.

To avoid these and other mistakes you need to have a basic foundation in place before you even start. In this article I’m going to share the eight reasons Shopify stores fail and what you can do to fix this.

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1. No Clear Plan

If you simply start a shopify store, then good luck. Most people need to have a plan about the store months before they start selling.

Important Tip: You need to select a niche market rather than going with a general topic.

A plan is the key blueprint that will provide you with guidance whenever your store still seems a dream.

First, take a look for someone who might be able to help you create a plan. You want to talk to someone successful who knows what they are doing and genuinely wants to help you out.

Websites such as DropShipLifestyle.com are filled with people who are willing to mentor you and help you overcome some of these mistakes.

Seriously, you should have an ironclad and mentor-approved plan before you even register for the Shopify website!

That’s the best way for you to get started. There are plenty of people who have seen success on Shopify and who want to replicate that success with you, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.

2. Selling the Wrong Products

Unlike other stores, you’re not the middleman, and you need to consider the type of product that will earn you the most with the least amount of sales.

With that in mind, you shouldn’t be selling smaller objects like phone casings. These items are very low prices and it will take thousands of orders in one month in order to make any profit.

You should instead sell higher-priced products that go into the realm of $1,000 to $5,000 and that way you can deal with fewer orders that pay a much higher amount, vs having more orders that pay low.

It seems like a four-figure price point out of the gate might scare away most buyers, and normally you would be correct.

However, those that stay will be very invested in your product. If you put a lot of thought, marketing, and care into what you happen to be selling, then you’ll make those four-figure sales a lot faster.

3. No Traffic

Once you get your Shopify website all set up, you might want to just sit back and get the traffic to come in.

However, before you can get some traffic to your website, you need to do your best to bring people to your website.

Every single word on your Shopify website needs to be optimized for google search, so people can easily find your products, especially if you are promoting something inside a niche with a lot of options

You should try to learn about SEO and other forms of internet marketing that will get you listed on Google because whenever someone wants to search for your work, they should get to your store page without any trouble.

If you have a niche in the fashion selling industry for instance, then you need to make sure that your website comes up in the results outside of all the other fashion storefronts.

If you aren’t a strong writer, you can use some capital to purchase a few Google shopping ads.

Quick Tip: Google Shopping Ads are the best way to get started driving quality traffic to your Shopify store.

These advertisements are one of the best ways to bring people to your storefront because the ads show off your products and your prices all while people are searching on the website.

The Google shopping advertisements are also tailored to be shown to people interested in your work and account.

If you have a fashion niche, then your google shopping ads will only appear to people who are in the fashion industry.

Those are the people who are most likely going to click on your storefront and open your product.

4.  No Money to Invest With

One of the biggest problems that people do whenever they start a shopify store, they do it from being broke.

You shouldn’t go into Shopify with the clear intent of only making money but never spending it.

This business requires investment, and you need to invest money into the storefront, the investment into the Shopify platform, and you need to invest in the Google Shopping Ads.

You shouldn’t be going over the top with your investing, but you will need to become comfortable spending some of your money before you can make money.

Have a few hundred dollars set aside to invest in your website and use that money wisely. As your store grows you can invest more and more in ads to grow your business.

This will give you the best course of action, and allow you to use a bit of money to continually improve your website.

5. No Clear Brand

If you don’t know what you sell, then you need to figure it out before you start selling your products.

You need to pick a niche and figure out what you want to sell. Your brand should communicate what you want to sell, and you should know what you want to sell with your brand as your customers come on the website.

You shouldn’t try to sell everything under the sun, but instead pick the niche of your storefront and then stick with it.

If you sell fashion supplies, stick to selling those. If you are selling light fixtures, then stick with them.

Diluting your brand and trying to sell everything will only make you less effective.

6. Not Enough Suppliers

If you aren’t creating the Shopify objects yourself, then you need to have suppliers to sell your product and stock your store.

You don’t want to just rely on one supplier, and instead, you need around 20 to 25 suppliers to really open up your supply chains.

Some of these suppliers are going to be very popular and be your top suppliers, and others might just be suppliers.

Still, you should make sure that your suppliers are enforcing the MAP (minimum advertised price) so their prices will always be at a low enough price for you to make a profit and that no one else can undercut your prices.

After all, you don’t want to cut yourself out of a profit!

7. Not Easy To Ship Your Product

One of the biggest problems for Shopify shop failures is that you underestimate shipping.

It’s not enough to simply have the product get bought on the website, you need to ship that product to the buyer and that can cost a bit of money depending on where they live.

Don’t ship products that are too heavy (more than 100 pounds) because then you won’t be eligible for working with various big major carriers.

Quick Tip: Offer free shipping if at all possible. You may have to figure this cost into the sale but it may be the reason someone buys form you and not someone else.

You should be able to ship your product on all the major characters, including USPS, FedEx, and UPS.

You can also offer free shipping on larger orders, which will make your customers happy and might even make them buy more from you.

8. Not Setting the Right Prices

You shouldn’t set any price you want for your Shopify store. Instead, you should focus on figuring out what your competitors are offering for their similar products.

Try to use that as a baseline for your work, and set your prices either higher or lower than your competitors.

One quick tip to undercut your rivals while still making long-term profits is through subscriptions. Set a slightly cheaper price for products people are likely to buy multiple times.

They get it for less money but sign up for a subscription to have the product delivered periodically whenever they need it. All you need is a subscription box fulfillment service to make this happen and you guarantee repeat purchases.

Take your time to find the right pricing, and try to figure out what prices your customers are willing to buy.

Once you find a price place, you should stick with it and only lower it through sales and raise it for special changes to your stop.

Your prices should be relatively stable because that’s what your customers want to see.

Try and talk to a mentor, or someone else in your same niche, to make sure that you have a solid price line for your products.

Stick With It

One of the many reasons that a Shopify account will fail as we try to figure out what percent of Shopify stores fail, is because people give up too soon.

You aren’t going to see massive audience engagement and growth during the first few months on Shopify and you won’t see any massive riches.

However, don’t give up. It takes a lot of time to get into the world of making money on Shopify, but if you don’t give up on your storefront, then you can break into that world and start to have a successful storefront!