This is a guest post from Heroic Search. So you have a killer product that you can’t wait to get to market. You want to launch an online store but aren’t quite sure where to start. Good news. You’ve come to the right place. But before you think about marketing or promoting your brand, you have to figure out how to sell your product. Enter Shopify. With over 600,000 merchants, Shopify is one of the biggest ecommerce platforms in the world, packed with features that help businesses reach their full potential. If you already have a Shopify store or if you’re still on the fence, have a read through this article to understand how Shopify and its many features can kickstart your ecommerce business.

Make the Most of Customer Groups

One of our favorite Shopify features is Customer Groups, which lets you segment your customers according to a number of variables. These include things like location and purchase activity. Once you’ve segmented your customers, you can then send them tailored content, emails and promotions/discounts.Personalization is one of the things customers appreciate the most these days. They are fed up with brands offering them products they’re not interested in and emails that have no relevance to their immediate needs. It shows a laziness and lack of care that just isn’t acceptable in 2018. Not just this, but you - the merchant - lose out too. Imagine that you send the same promotional email to all your customers. However, it only resonates with a select few. This means you’re going to have an incredibly low conversion rate. By splitting your customers into groups, you’re able to send them tailored, specific and personalized content, which increases sales and consumer loyalty.

Shopify and SEO

It doesn’t matter how cute your online store looks - you can’t make sales without traffic.Site traffic comes from many different paths. Some will come from social media, some will be referrals from current customers and others will come from Google. To maximize traffic opportunities from Google and drive more of the right customers to your store, you need to work on your SEO efforts. We know… that sounds scary. The good news is that Shopify makes this as easy as possible for you.Shopify helps you easily edit your URLs, meta descriptions, title tags and ALT tags for images so that you’ve got a better chance of ranking. You also have a list of apps to choose from. Shopify gives you tips and tricks on what to do, and even covers most of the basics for you by default.

Improve Customer Service With Chatbots

Customer expectations are higher than ever. As such, it’s imperative to have impeccable customer service.However, one of the problems merchants have struggled with is answering customer queries in a timely fashion. According to research, customers see 60 minutes as an adequate response time. Any longer and you’re venturing into the dangerous path of bad customer service. To help you with this, Shopify makes it easy for you to add chatbots to your site. While Shopify itself doesn’t provide the chatbots, you can use companies like Instabot to do so.As well as improving customer service, chatbots can also improve other aspects of your business. They’re able to work around the clock so that your brand is “always on.”

Provide a POS System

Using a POS system with your online store is also a no-brainer. Shopify’s POS credit card reader is free for businesses new to Shopify POS. With it, you can take payments from the palm of your hand, all of which sync up to your online store - bridging the gap between online and offline sales and making inventory management manageable.Allowing your customers the option to pay with their mobile phones should be an integral part of every eCommerce stores omnichannel strategy in 2018. It’s really simple to add this extra sales channel onto your Shopify store, too.

Build Trust With Content Marketing

Lastly, Shopify make it easy for you to create, maintain and promote a blog on your website. The only thing they can’t help you with is the actual writing part! (I mean, there are some things you have to do yourself. But we also have a killer content team here at Hawke who would be happy to help you out on that front.)Why write a blog? A blog that educates, informs and even entertains your customers about your products helps to build trust. It also positions you as an expert in your industry and can be the difference between a prospect making a purchase or not. Additionally, when done correctly, a blog can boost your SEO efforts so that you’re more visible to more of the right people.

More Than Just Selling

All in all, being a merchant on Shopify means you’ll be able to do more than just sell your product. Be sure you’re making the most of all that Shopify has to offer! By following the tips in the this article and utilizing Shopify’s extra features, you’ll be well on your way to ecommerce success.