So the day has come. Ever since you decided to start your store, youâve been thinking about the launch. Make sure you are ready to go with the Dropship Agent official checklist!
Why a launch checklist is necessary.
In the 1930s, the U.S. Army Air Corps held a competition for airplane manufacturers competing to secure a contract to build the militaryâs next long-range bomber. Boeing produced a plane that could carry five times as many bombs as the army requested, flew faster and further than previous bombers. On the day Boeing demonstrated its Flying Fortress, the plane lifted up off the tarmac, stalled at 300 feet, and then crashed in a violent explosion.
Investigations discovered the crash wasnât caused by a technical or mechanical error, but instead by pilot human error. The B-17 could fly faster and further than any other bomber in history, but that meant it was extremely complex to operate the new systems. The pilot ended up being so preoccupied with all the different systems that he forgot to release a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls, which caused the crash.
AND THUS THE CHECKLIST WAS BORN
Thanks to that checklist, Boeing pilots flew 18 of the bombers for a combined 1.8 million hours without incident, proving the planeâs worthiness to the U.S. Army. Furthermore, a study by the New England Journal of Medicine famously found that checklists help decrease complications and mistakes in medical care.
Even though your Shopify store might not be as complex as a B-17 plane, having a checklist is vital to ensuring that you have accomplished everything you wanted to. So, it makes sense to create a simple, effective checklist when youâre launching your Shopify store. Letâs explore how to do just that.
Your Shopify Checklist:
A completed Shopify store checklist should have the following:
Custom domain
Having a memorable business name not only helps customers come back and order more but also makes your brand more trustworthy. This part is very important!
Pages set up
Make sure you have all your pages set up and ready to go! A proper home page goes a long way! The more transparency you provide your customers, the better chance you have of getting them to convert. Include a FAQ, Privacy policy, shipping policy, TOS, Refund Policy, and a contact page to set yourself up for success
Business logo
People tend to remember visuals more than words. A logo gives your store a face and helps users remember who you are. The placement of the logo plays a very important role as well. Try to find the perfect size for your site!
Custom Business Email
Having a professional email attached to your store goes a long way. Customers feel more comfortable buying something if the site has a professional email or phone number.
Optimized Product Pages
Product pages will make or break your business. Put time into crafting your product descriptions and only use high-quality images. Your productâs perceived value decreases significantly if your images are not high quality. This is one of the most important things on todayâs checklist
Mobile Site Optimization:
Make sure your site is optimized for mobile usage as the majority of your visitors will be on a mobile device!
Working Payment Gateways
So many store owners forget to set up their payment settings before they launch and end up wondering why they arenât getting sales. Dropship Agent suggests that you test a transaction always before you go live. Add this to your checklist!
Completed Checkout Process
This part of our Shopify checklist ties into the last point. Go through your checkout process yourself and see if there is anything that wasnât completed. Look at your site as if you were a customer.
Shipping Settings
The average online shopper in 2020 would rather pay $29.99 + free shipping than $24.99 with $5 shipping.
âFree shippingâ is often a bit of a psychological game. Free sounds a lot better than paying for something! You may be able to find a way to integrate all costs into the ticket price of your products. This eases customersâ minds to know that there wonât be any upsells or extra charges when checking out.
SEO Optimization
No Shopify checklist is complete without SEO optimization. The best way to get organic sales is by showing up in search engines! SEO can be optimized in many different ways.
In 2014, Conductor suggested 64% of all web traffic comes from organic search, compared to 2% from social, 6% from paid search, 12% direct and 15% from other referral sources.
Here are some ways you can boost your sites SEO:
- Optimize for mobile
- Use quality content
- Meta description and title tags
- Properly tagged images
- Good domain name
- Social media presence and consistency
- Speed up your page loading time
- Update your google my business listing
- Leverage reviews
- Use keywords
Abandoned Cart Recovery:
Why would you want your customers to come to your site add to cart then never complete a purchase? This is where email and sms abandoned cart recovery plays a huge role. Imagine reminding your customers 5 minutes after they abandon their cart with an additional 10% discount most people will take up that offer. Why? Because they are saving money. You want to have abandon cart sequences set up not only for giving incentives to come back and purchase but also for you as the business owner to have as little lost revenue as possible. Humans easily get distracted and busy with life so little reminders like this go a long way.
Proper Apps Installed
No Shopify store is complete without the right apps. Make sure you have an app for sms retargeting/abandonded checkout recovery, upsells, downsells, reviews, trust, and security!
Understand Your Customers
In order to continue to build a better image for your business, youâll need to understand what your customers like and donât like. Customer surveys are a great way to show that you care about the customer experience and to improve weak points of your store.
Behavioral data can help you understand and define:
- Where do your shoppers mainly come from?
- How many actually purchase?
- Where do customers drop off?
- Does your site have any bugs or usability issues?
A Marketing Plan
Every business needs to have some sort of plan. Operating blindly isnt the smartest of routes to go. Dropship Agent suggests that new store owners take the time to write down their goals on a paper. Once you have your goals written down. Break them down into sub goals and form a daily checklist on how you plan to accomplish them!
Prep For Success
If your store starts to do well, consider finding a proper sourcing agent. Sourcing your product can unlock cheaper prices, better quality control, faster shipping, custom packing and more.
If youre doing 20+ orders daily, reach out to us. We would be happy to get a quote for you!