For e-commerce vendors who want to launch their business, Shopify store is the perfect platform. It provides a comprehensive approach to launching, overseeing, and expanding your business.
With the platform, you can create an online Shopify store, advertise to consumers, handle sales, and take payments. Not surprisingly, Shopify holds 32% of the e-commerce market today, with more than a million sellers across 175 countries using it.
However, despite the allure of potential success with Shopify, new sellers may encounter several challenges that can hinder profitability and growth. Being aware of these obstacles might help you overcome them and create a plan for handling them. We’ll draw attention to the issues that need to be resolved if you want your company to succeed in the long run.
Here are 6 Challenges that Can Affect the Growth of a New Shopify Store
Challenge #1: Stiff Competition
Since Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform, new sellers should be ready to face stiff competition. As of 2023, 500,000 apparel online Shopify stores run on the platform. Home and garden was number two on the list, with roughly 220,000 stores. Beauty and fitness and food and drink were the next most popular ones, with the numbers exceeding 100,000.
Whichever domain or region your business is in, you may have a hard time standing out among established competitors. Besides the ones with large customer bases and brand recognition, startups and small businesses may also give you tough competition. Ensuring that your store excels in look and feel can help you compete with the best in the market.
Challenge #2: Visibility and Marketing
New Shopify stores often struggle to build visibility and attract traffic. Ranking on top of web searches requires diligent effort as you need to have a robust search engine optimization plan. After all, beating thousands of competing websites to reach the first page is not a mean feat. You can consider hiring a Shopify SEO optimization expert for the job because it requires technical expertise.
The Branding Agency recommends a comprehensive approach to e-commerce SEO to achieve measurable and sustainable results. The success of an SEO strategy depends on following Google’s best practices and avoiding shortcuts. Leaving things to experts is the best way to address the visibility and marketing challenges for Shopify beginners.
Challenge #3: Customer Trust
According to recent statistics, the shopping cart abandonment rate exceeds 70%, indicating the challenge of customer trust. Buyers may worry about several things, from not being able to see the products in person to losing their data or suffering from online fraud. New store owners struggle to build credibility and manage customer expectations.
Establishing trust with customers decides the success of a new Shopify store. You can do it by going above and beyond with your products and services and ensuring great shopping experiences. Also, encourage customers to post positive reviews and testimonials and showcase them on your website and social media.
Challenge #4: Technical Issues
A 2022 survey revealed that the average conversion rate for Shopify was a meager 1.4%. The number does not sound great to a new store owner doing their best to attract traffic and make visitors stay around. Technical glitches or errors can hinder the purchase experience and reduce conversions for your Shopify store.
After all, no one wants to buy from a website that takes forever to load or fails to render seamlessly on mobile devices. To address this concern, you must ensure that your store is user-friendly, optimized for performance, and mobile-responsive. Every time a visitor steps in, they must have a top-notch experience.
Challenge #5: Inventory Management
Inventory management can be another reason to worry for new Shopify sellers. You may have everything on point when it comes to online experiences, but what if you fall short of timely delivery due to stockouts? While falling short is a reason to worry, overstocking can increase costs or cause wastage.
You may encounter challenges in areas such as managing stock levels, forecasting demand, and handling returns and exchanges efficiently. Creating a proper inventory management process can help you deal with the concern. You can also choose an inventory management tool to automate the process. Also, find reliable suppliers for just-in-time orders.
Challenge #6: Scaling Operations
With an annual revenue of $4.6 billion, Shopify offers incredible growth opportunities even to beginners. However, as your Shopify store grows, you may struggle with the challenges of managing increased orders, addressing customer inquiries, and handling logistics. They can become overwhelming for a business with limited resources.
Strategic planning and infrastructure investment enable smooth scaling of operations to accommodate further expansion. Additionally, think about outsourcing customer service and order fulfillment so you may concentrate on the essential aspects of managing your company.
Conclusion:
It can be difficult for business owners to expand a fresh Shopify store. However, you may always be one step ahead of the game if you anticipate and plan for possible obstacles. In the fast-paced world of online retail, having the right mindset is essential to success. It should be combined with careful planning, astute execution, and constant change.
