If you missed the news last month, I have a new quilt pattern shop!
Psst – Stick around to the end for a celebratory sale!
One exciting, but also challenging, part of running your own business is when you outgrow your current set up. Over the past few months, I’ve been feeling the pinch of what my WooCommerce store was starting to lack, and last month, I made the move to Shopify. What this means is that I changed what system I used to host my shop. What does that mean for you? Well, the biggest part is that your customer experience is a quicker and smoother one! It’s more mobile-friendly, and it’s easier for you to access and download your purchases.
It’s something that I considered for a while, and I know that I’m not the only quilt pattern designer to do so. When I first announced the move, I had several discussions with fellow designers about the reasons for my move, so I thought it would be useful to share them here too. And if you don’t sell quilt patterns, then here’s a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at running my business!
WooCommerce vs Shopify
Automatic PDF Download
The biggest frustration for me with WooCommerce was that I couldn’t find how to automatically fulfill PDF pattern orders – I had to manually “complete” each order so that you could download your PDF pattern. And when over half of your customers live on the opposite side of the world from you, and thus are buying patterns quite literally while I was sleeping, it was getting to be a bigger and bigger problem.
Social Media Integrations
From a business point of view, and also technically, the social media integrations of WooCommerce are clunky and I was constantly having to fiddle with how it would (or would not!) integrate with MailChimp – my newsletter provider. With Shopify, I can now simply click on the button to add products to my newsletters.
Mobile-friendly
For customers, it’s becoming more and more common to browse and purchase on a mobile device, and my WooCommerce store wasn’t the easiest and smoothest to navigate via a smartphone or tablet. Shopify has a very user-friendly interface, making for a much nicer customer experience.
One good thing about WooCommerce was that it is a free platform to use on WordPress sites. But what it does mean, is that to be able to overcome my frustrations, I would have to pay up to improve and set it all up myself. It’s very much a DIY kind of option. So as improvement was going to cost money, I decided it was time to upgrade my store instead. Nevermind the fact that the aesthetics of the old store were frustrating me, and in need of an overhaul anyway!
While Shopify is not a free ecommerce platform ($31.99 per month), it comes with a ton of in-built features that has already made my life so much easier, and my business so much smoother compared to WooCommerce. It’s quite the opposite of the DIY style that WooCommerce is! Some of my favourite features that I’m using and/or excited to put to good use:
- Instant PDF downloads at checkout
- Integrates with Facebook Pages to offer a Shop option for physical products
- Integrates with Instagram to provide product links within posts
- Rich Pins on Pinterest – are favoured by Pinterest (given more weight in searches and recommended posts) and provide more info in the Pin
- Integrates with MailChimp – collects new subscribers at checkout, easy to link to products within newsletters
- Fantastic reporting and analytics about shop visits and customer interactions
- Abandoned cart emails to prompt customers to return
- An app that allows me to monitor things so easily on the go… that makes a fun cha-ching sound when an order comes through!
One big bonus of Shopify is that you can get a two-week free trial to test it all out and see how you like it. Being able to begin setting up my store properly “for reals” was what helped convince me that this was the right choice for me and my business – easy to use, personalise, and navigate from my end, and looks reeeeal nice from the front end! If you’re looking to move, or set up a new shop, I highly suggest using the Shopify free trial to see how you go.
And I haven’t forgotten the non-businessy people, AKA most of you… to celebrate (and to encourage you to try out the new system!) use the code SHOPBHQ to get 10% off all PDF patterns – includes the Aurora 6-month subscription! Use this link to automatically apply it to your cart. Sale ends 11:59pm, Friday (AEST).
This post contains affiliate links; I only recommend products I truly love!
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