October 2016 App of the Month: Reduce Checkout Fraud October 11, 2016 19:00

Many challenges arise as your online business grows. One of them is dealing with fraudulent transactions. This is when a fraudulent credit card is used at checkout. This can cause a lot of havoc by disrupting your inventory numbers, automated shipping, causing chargebacks, etc. However, Shopify store owners have a free way to start reducing fraudulent transactions on their store.

In this post, we take a look at online fraud statistics and do a quick walkthrough of the Fraud Filter app by Shopify.

Use an FAQ Page on Shopify to Quickly Answer Questions October 5, 2016 19:00

An FAQ page on Shopify can be a useful addition to your store as it can serve a number of purposes. As your store grows, there may be questions that are not addressed in your sales copy or products’ description. Instead of leaving these questions unanswered until customers hear back from your support team (which may just be you in the beginning), add an FAQ page to address commonly asked questions.

In this post, we’ll take a look at how an FAQ page improves customer experience, tips for building one, and Shopify apps that can help.

Customer Happiness – September 2016 October 3, 2016 19:00

Hello! This post breaks down our customer service team’s performance metrics for September. Our happiness reports give us a way to constantly evaluate our performance and to share our goals publicly each month.

For September, our goal was to maintain our happiness ratings, and continue to decrease our response times. Here’s how September compared to August:

September 2016 App of the Month: Get Product Reviews Through Emails September 27, 2016 19:00

In the past, we’ve written about how to encourage customers to give reviews for your products. Shopify makes it easy to showcase and manage product reviews through their free Product Reviews app.

In this month’s featured app, we take a look at how you can build upon the Product Reviews app to actively and automatically seek reviews from existing customers.

September 2016 Edition: Top Free Shopify Apps September 20, 2016 19:00

Time for another edition of our quarterly list of top free Shopify apps. In this post, we take a look at an app that lets you display different currencies, a URL shortener that helps you track sales, and deliver documents as PDFs to customers within emails.

These apps are free to use, or have a premium versions available with more features.

Tips to Manage Social Media for your Shopify Store September 13, 2016 19:00

There is a lot that goes into building your brand and increasing sales on your Shopify store. Part of the marketing effort is usually spent to manage social media profiles as this can help build and foster a community of your audience. This can be a lucrative driver of traffic and sales – as was the case for Trendy Treehouse using Instagram.

However, social can start taking up more time and energy as there can quickly be a lot of things to track. Here are five tips to help you better manage your social media profiles with some helpful tools to schedule and automate posts.

Customer Happiness – August 2016 September 6, 2016 19:00

Hey there! Today we’re taking a look at our customer service team’s performance metrics for August. Our happiness reports give us a way to constantly evaluate our performance and to share our goals publicly each month.

For August, our goal was to bring happiness ratings back up to 100% and ensure our average response times were within 12 hours. Here’s how August compared to our July report:

How to Sell Internationally with Shopify August 31, 2016 19:00

eCommerce sales are growing globally as more people have access to faster technology and better commerce infrastructure, and as the middle class rises. Given this growth, it is important to sell internationally on Shopify as this can open your store to new markets and increase your revenues.

According to eMarketer, eCommerce sales continue to grow globally and will reach $1.9 trillion in 2016.

ShopStorm Stories: Trendy Treehouse August 23, 2016 19:00

In this first ShopStorm Stories interviews, we talk to Tara Johnston from Trendy Treehouse about her experience selling on Shopify. Trendy Treehouse is an online custom clothing line selling t-shirts, blankets, and more.

Below is the interview, along with a summary of the discussion. If you have any questions, please put them in the comment section of this post.

August 2016 App of the Month: Custom T-Shirts and More with Printful August 15, 2016 19:00

If you’ve wanted to sell custom clothing or other products but aren’t sure how or where to source manufacturing, keep inventory, set up fulfillment, etc., things might have just become a lot easier with the Printful service. The service allows you to select from their list of products, customize and add them to your Shopify store, and sell them at a markup. Printful manages the production and fulfillment of all orders placed through your store.

In this post, we will go over the service, and follow steps to set up a product on your Shopify store using Printful.

Customer Happiness – July 2016 August 8, 2016 19:00

Howdy! Today we’re breaking down our customer service team’s performance metrics for July. Our happiness reports give us a way to constantly evaluate our performance and to share our goals publicly each month.

In July, our goal was to bring happiness ratings back up to 100% and improve our average response times. Here’s how July compared to our our June report:

Order Status Page Best Practices for Shopify August 2, 2016 19:00

The order status page is an important part of the eCommerce journey as it is the last page after checkout is completed. Customers may have browsed only parts of your website, but all customers see this page after they complete their purchase.

By default, the new order status pages show shipping location for certain carriers, and order details like purchased products, billing information, and shipping information. The page also includes a link to continue shopping on your store. However, there’s a lot more you can do with the space available on this page.

In this post, we list 8 things you can include on your order status pages to improve engagement, gain advocates, and create a better customer experience.

3 Tips to Speed Up Your Shopify Store July 26, 2016 19:00

We have all come to expect fast load times that create seamless experiences from our online browsing. Your customers expect the same from your Shopify store. Load speeds are something you would never hear about if everything is perfectly optimized, but will certainly affect your customers’ experience if they’re not what customers expect. In such cases, you will need to speed up your site to keep customers engaged.

In this post, we’ll take a look at how slow sites can impact sales, and go over three tips to improve your store’s speed.

Mid-Year Check: Tips to Gain Shopify Sales July 20, 2016 19:00

As we get to a little over halfway through the year, let’s take a step back from all the shop tips and store enhancements you’ve been reading about. In this post, we will focus on things that we all try to look for in eCommerce stores. These are often part of our objections to purchase from a particular store, and you can gain Shopify sales by addressing these.

Here are five basic things that can help overcome these sales objections, and that customers seek in Shopify stores.

3 Key Metrics for Repeat Customers July 18, 2016 19:00

Every Shopify store I talk to wants the same thing: to build a base of loyal customers who love their products and buy from their store regularly.

Wanting and having are different things, though.

Some stores try and take a quantitative approach by signing up for every analytics service they can and measuring all the things. Others take a more qualitative approach and try to find common characteristics their customers share and create an experience that they believe will resonate with their customers.

The problem with both approaches is

Customer Happiness – June 2016 July 14, 2016 07:00

Today, we’re breaking down our customer service team’s performance metrics for June. Our happiness reports give us a way to constantly evaluate our performance and to share our goals publicly each month.

Here’s how June compared to our our May report:

July 2016 App of the Month: Shopify Email Themes from OrderlyEmails July 6, 2016 19:00

In this month’s featured app, we take a look at how you can customize standard Shopify email templates using different email themes. You can use the app to enhance your transactional emails, which are an important part of lifecycle emails.

In this post, we take a look at why you should customize transactional emails, how to install and set up the app, and how to automatically apply your store design to your emails.

How to Manage Unhappy Customers for your Shopify Store June 29, 2016 19:00

Part of running a successful Shopify store is great customer service. As your store grows, there may be times when some customers are not satisfied with the products they received. When you have unhappy customers, it is important to understand where their expectations were not met, and keep some principles in mind to manage and create a great customer experience.

In this post, we look at five tips about customer service that can help you impress an unhappy customer, to hopefully turn them into advocates.

How to Calculate Sales Tax for your Shopify Store June 22, 2016 19:00

Sales tax can be one of the most onerous operational things for your business selling on Shopify. Sales tax implications can vary greatly depending on the structure of your business, and the region you operate within. It is up to the business to remain compliant with sales tax laws in the applicable regions, and there can be lots to think about.

In this post, we will do a quick overview of when you need to charge sales tax, how to set it up in Shopify, and some Shopify apps to help you manage sales tax.

Shipping for Shopify Stores 101 June 14, 2016 19:00

There’s a lot of thought and effort that goes into coming up with a product that customers want to purchase. As a new Shopify store owner, you want to focus on selling your product and create a good customer experience. Part of this experience is shipping for Shopify stores, which can also have a huge impact on your margins and profitability.

In this post, we’ll go through an overview of all things related to shipping for new store owners including some key terms, different ways of structuring shipping costs, and some Shopify apps and services you can use to manage your shipments.

June 2016 App of the Month: Shippo for Shopify June 8, 2016 19:00

As your Shopify store and inventory grow, managing shipments can become more and more complex. Many times, merchants may use different shipping providers, and use each provider’s online portal to manage shipping for that provider. This can become cumbersome as your shipping information is spread out in different places. This is where the Shippo for Shopify app can help.

In this post, we will look at how you can use Shippo to manage all aspects of shipping in one place, and the different options provided by the app.

Customer Happiness – May 2016 June 6, 2016 19:00

Howdy! Today we’re breaking down our customer service team’s performance metrics for May. Our happiness reports give us a way to constantly evaluate our performance and to share our goals publicly for each month.

In May, we looked to improve happiness ratings while maintaining our previous decreases in average response times. We also wanted to increase replies within 12 hours. Here’s how May

June 2016 Edition: Top Free Shopify Apps May 31, 2016 19:00

In this quarterly list of top free Shopify apps, we outline two apps that you can use to improve search engine optimization (SEO) for your products, and two apps that can help boost sales for your store.

All apps are either completely free, or have a free starting plan.

May 2016 App of the Month: Product Reviews App May 24, 2016 19:00

We recently wrote about how to encourage product reviews from customers and featured the Product Reviews app by Shopify. The app allows you to add a reviews area to your product pages, and manage these reviews, including bulk actions.

In this post, we take a deeper dive into the free Product Reviews app and look at the various options in the app.