So you just started a new Shopify store a week ago, and you can’t wait to start making money online. You check your statistics and see that thousands of users have viewed your site.
That sudden jolt of adrenaline and joy comes to a screeching halt when you view another stat; you have no sales.
If this sounds like you, then you’re not alone. It’s prevalent for new e-commerce stores to falter a bit in the beginning. You may ask yourself, “What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t my website selling anything?”
There are many reasons why your website might not be selling good, including poor design, lack of responsiveness, and more. You can use techniques such as upselling and bundling to boost your sales.
What matters is that you do something about it sooner than later. If you want to learn why your website isn’t selling anything, then you’re in luck. In this post, we’ll be going over candid tips and tricks you can use to get those sales to start rolling in.
Diagnosing the Issue with Your Store
If you notice that you aren’t selling any products, it’s time to play doctor for your Shopify store. It would be best to discover why you’re getting traffic but aren’t converting them into sales. Conversely, if your store is getting no traffic at all, you’ll need ways to attract visitors.
One of the best tactics you can use is to check out your store through the eyes of a new customer. You can do this solo, or you can bring a fresh pair of eyes in to try out your site.
Either way, you’ll get some insight into what your user experience is like for your store.
Your user experience, or UX, is what customers feel when visiting your store. UX design is a critical part of any successful website. While someone else navigates your site, ask them what they think about everything.
Is the website easy to navigate? Are there clear images and descriptions for each product? Does the theme or color scheme interfere with the shopping experience? Is the copy too dull without a call to action?
These are all questions you should ask yourself or the person navigating your site. Doing so will help you uncover the weak points of your storefront. Once you know what the issue is, you can go about fixing it.
Fixing Your Navigation Menu
Let’s say that you discover that your navigation menu is either missing or confusing. Header navigation has become a mainstay of e-commerce shopping.
Large retail sites make use of detailed headers outlining their products.
If you’ve visited any major e-commerce store, you’ve seen this in action. For a clothing store, the header might look like this:
- Men’s clothing
- Women’s clothing
- Sunglasses
- Accessories
- Seasonal wear
- About Us
- Contact Us
- FAQ
As you can see, every clothing category gets a button at the very top of the page. That way, customers can quickly and easily get to the page that they need.
So if your e-commerce store is missing a clean header bar with clear categories, it’s time to add one. Many customers will leave your site if they can’t find what they’re looking for within a few seconds.
Fixing Poor Design
For a customer to trust an e-commerce store, it needs to look staunchly professional. Your online storefront is no different than a physical storefront. It represents the quality of your business as a whole.
Picture this; which store would you shop at in the mall?
- One store has chipped paint, no decor, and bars on the windows
- The other has a shiny sign, clean interiors, polished concrete floors, and tasteful art
The clear choice is the one that looks professional and high-end. The same is true for any Shopify store. No one will want to shop there if you have a poor design with clashing colors and a confusing layout.
It’s well worth investing in a Shopify expert to help you create a beautiful storefront. You can work with a theme developer or an independent designer.
Fixing your flat design can be the boost your store needs to start moving products.
Another crucial part of your design is your product photos. If customers can’t see your product and what it does, they won’t waste their time ordering it.
So what do your product photos look like right now? Are they blurry and out of focus? Is the camera too far away for the customer to get a good look? Do you not have multiple angles for each product?
Beyond your product photos, stock images are essential for filling in the gaps. You can find lots of stock images for free online.
Incorporating Digital Marketing
Have you done any marketing for your Shopify store? If not, then that’s definitely why your website isn’t selling anything. Marketing is so critical to the success of any business. If you don’t have any marketing strategies in place, here are a few easy ones to use:
- Email marketing. It’s both the simplest and most effective form of marketing. Not only that, but it’s effortless to get started. You can begin building an email list in lots of different ways. An effective tactic is to create a squeeze page that offers a freebie (such as an ebook) in exchange for an email address.
- Niche marketing. If you sell products targeted at a niche, you can check out user forums related to it. That’s especially true if you sell products related to a hobby. Reddit is a great place that you can post for free. You can link to your store and provide reasons why your product is so valuable.
- SEO tactics. You can use SEO tactics if you want to see your Shopify store rise in search result rankings. We recommend hiring an SEO consultant to help you find keywords to target. You can also build a backlink presence by asking others to link to your store.
Improving Poor Responsiveness
For an e-commerce site to succeed, it needs to be very fast and responsive. If your page doesn’t load after five seconds, then most users will leave your website. If you notice that you have an exceptionally high bounce rate, it could be a clue that your site runs slow.
Pull up a browser and load your Shopify store. Try to take note of how long it takes to load. Not only that, but see how long it takes to complete an entire transaction. Does your payment page lag? Are specific options not there?
Beyond speed, your e-commerce site needs to work across multiple devices. A majority of customers today are going to shop via their mobile phones. To test your site, try pulling it up on your phone, tablet, and PC.
If you notice that certain graphics or pages don’t show up on mobile devices, you know you have a huge issue. Luckily, you can hire a Shopify expert to help make your store compatible with all devices.
Incorporate Product Bundling
A popular and effective way to boost sales is to use product bundling. That’s where you offer a group of complementary items as a single sale at a discounted rate. Bundles are very popular, as customers feel like they’re getting a great deal.
- Gift bundles. You can bundle products together for certain holidays as well. Customers are often under lots of stress during the holiday shopping season. A convenient gift bundle that does all the thinking for them is perfect.
- Bundles to move inventory. Bundling is a great way to move slower selling items as well. If you want to move stagnant inventory, offer it as a bundle at a discount.
Bold commerce offers an excellent app for product bundling, if your interested follow this link.
Upsell and Cross-Sell
Upselling and cross-selling are two very effective revenue boosters. Here’s a quick definition of both:
- An upsell occurs when you convince a customer to upgrade to a premium version of a product. You can also convince them to go with a more expensive product.
- A cross-sell is when you add other products to the order. An easy example is adding fries and a drink to a burger.
There are lots of ways that you can do both with your Shopify store. Your checkout page is your best friend for using both upselling and cross-selling.
To upsell, you can recommend premium products before your customer checks out. To cross-sell, you can go with the classic ‘customers also bought’ section.
Use the Bold Upsell App
Finally, we recommend making use of the Bold Upsell app. You can find it on the Shopify App Store, and it’s a fantastic tool for upsells. It offers a seamless shopping experience where offers will trigger and match upsells. It’s effortless to set up and start using, and there’s a 14-day free trial.
Essential features include:
- Tracking upsell performance
- Data-backed upsell recommendations
- Offer upgraded versions of each product
- Cross-sell complementary products to your customer carts
- You can schedule offers in advance to save time
- Increase your conversions
As you can see, the Bold Upsell app is the ultimate tool to use for upsells and cross-sells. If you want to boost the sales of your Shopify store, then it’s a necessity. If you want to start upselling using the Bold app follow this link.
Why Your Website Isn’t Selling Anything ( quick video )
Final Takeaways
You should now know why your website isn’t selling anything. A successful e-commerce store needs a sleek design, robust marketing, and responsiveness. When you throw the Bold Upsell app into the mix, nothing can stand in your way.
For more great content to help you develop your Shopify strategies, check out the rest of the merchant posts on the site. If you want to see a list of our top recommended Shopify apps visit this link here.
