Here are 10 ways you might be annoying customers and losing sales with your Shopify Website. These are the most common pitfalls we see again and again on Shopify sites that are not converting.

Your customers are experts at shopping online. They have short attention spans and first impressions count. They’re used to a certain standard when shopping online and that’s not because they’re high maintenance, it’s because they value convenience.

Since convenience is key, the goal is to make things as easy as possible for your customers to buy your stuff.

So take it from a seasoned Shopify Developer: you might accidentally be annoying your customers by making things difficult on them and losing sales.

you might accidentally be annoying your customers by making things difficult on them and losing sales.

Here are 10 of the most common pitfalls that could be hurting your sales:

1 A welcome message

Welcome messages are old school. People are not new to the internet anymore and don’t need to be walked into your site. They’re coming in blazing and looking for signals that they’re in the right place. You’ve got only a few seconds to connect and help them understand if your product or service is right for them, don’t waste precious time on words that don’t make an impact.

2 Forgetting to make your website about your customers (making it about you instead)

Again, gone is the era where people are buying things because of any mystery or cool factor, or even because you said it was good. People buy something that impacts them, solves their problem, fills a desire or meets a need.

People are going to buy your stuff because it connected with them. To do that you need to speak your customer’s language and tell them about all the benefits of your products, and how those benefits will solve their problem, fill their desire or meet their need.

Keep the focus on your customers.

Writing content for the internet is hard and this one is subtle and easy to mix up. If you need help with this, reach out to a copywriter!

3 Not getting to the point quickly enough

Again, you’ve only got a few seconds to let your potential customers know if you’re right for them or not. Don’t be too wordy on your website. People aren’t reading as much as you think they are and if there are too many words, they’re likely to just skip them all.

You need a succinct tagline that tells people who you are/what you do, who you do it for and why it matters that’s visible on their first impression of your website. Other content should be written in short digestible chunks. Use of bullet points when you have a lot to say!

4 Not having easy, clear, or enough Call To Actions

Help your site visitors buy your stuff by giving them plenty of opportunities.

Make your Call To Actions simple, clear and obvious and make sure they’re in easy to access spots and repeated often.

5 Not having high quality photos

These days, if you’ve got a good eye you might be able to do your photography yourself, but one thing that sets apart a Shopify Website that looks professional from one that looks DIY (and therefor looks more trustworthy) is well shot, well thought out and consistent photography.

High quality photography can help your home page build connection and aspiration for your customers, making them stick around (lower that bounce rate!) and build a desire for your products.

Good photography on your collections pages is important so that you can have everything looking consistent. Don’t underestimate the difference between a collection page with random photography. It looks disorganized and sends a subtle signal that your site isn’t professional.

6 Having too many clicks between your customers and what they really want

Again, your customers are looking to buy things with as much convenience as possible. Believe it or not, every click between your homepage and check out is a barrier to your sale. Simplify this process for your customers whenever you can. When they have to click your menu to find your collections and then click again for a drop down, you’ve got two clicks where one would have worked and you’re racking up those barriers. Drop downs are not your friend here. Try to have all the info someone needs to buy your product accessible with a scroll instead!

7 Making it hard for your customers to find your products by making them search for it

If all of your products are behind a Shop tab, you’re definitely losing sales. Use your Collections to help sort things in an intuitive way for your customers and then show them those collections in your menu. Use your homepage to feature the best sellers and/or stuff you want to sell more of. If people have to search for what they want and then go through a bunch of pages or products that are not what they’re looking for, they’re going to bounce for sure.

8 A menu that looks like this: Home|Shop|About|Contact|

Your customers want ease and convenience. They want to see what you’re selling right away!

So, instead, use all of that prime menu real estate for your best selling products or collections! This helps customers find what they’re looking for faster, it shows them their options at a glance and opens up the possibilities of more sales for you.

But where does all that other stuff in your menu go? Well, here’s a secret: people don’t need Home, About, or Contact, as much as you think they do.

Get rid of Home (people know how to get there), put About, and Contact in your footer and use your menu to proclaim all of your beautiful products.

9 Not having a privacy policy

A privacy, Terms & Conditions and Returns Policy is just a necessity. Besides making you appear more professional, providing safety for your customers to feel confident to Add to Cart and check out, it also covers your butt in any legalities. Shopify helps you out with templates for this, but it’s a good idea to consult your lawyer on legal matters just to be safe.

10 Using a budget platform (not naming names here but you know the ones!!)

This is a safety thing here. Customers who buy are customers who trust you. Even if you’ve caught their attention and done a good job connecting, showing them the benefits of your product, if they sense your website isn’t professional, has glitches or isn’t secure, they’ll be too nervous to hand over their money.

Did any of these surprise you? Let me know in the comments below.

Want to chat about a custom strategy that can help you avoid these pitfalls and create a site your customers love that helps you make money? We’ve got the Shopify Support you need to tweak the important areas of your site to make sure you’re not accidentally annoying your customers and losing sales. Connect with us here to tell us your frustrations or to set up a free time to chat.

10 Ways You Might be Annoying Customers and Losing Sales

Here are 10 of the most common pitfalls that could be hurting your sales:

1 A welcome message

2 Forgetting to make your website about your customers (making it about you instead)

3 Not getting to the point quickly enough

4 Not having easy, clear, or enough Call To Actions

5 Not having high quality photos

6 Having too many clicks between your customers and what they really want

7 Making it hard for your customers to find your products by making them search for it

8 A menu that looks like this: Home|Shop|About|Contact|

9 Not having a privacy policy

10 Using a budget platform (not naming names here but you know the ones!!)

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10 Ways You Might be Annoying Customers and Losing Sales

Here are 10 of the most common pitfalls that could be hurting your sales:

1 A welcome message

2 Forgetting to make your website about your customers (making it about you instead)

3 Not getting to the point quickly enough

4 Not having easy, clear, or enough Call To Actions

5 Not having high quality photos

6 Having too many clicks between your customers and what they really want

7 Making it hard for your customers to find your products by making them search for it

8 A menu that looks like this: Home|Shop|About|Contact|

9 Not having a privacy policy

10 Using a budget platform (not naming names here but you know the ones!!)

Blog Series

Categories

Recent Posts

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