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Streamline Your Shopify Experience
In today's fast-paced e-commerce landscape, keeping your Shopify store at its best is essential for success. Are you tired of waiting in long queues for updates, struggling with DIY fixes, and juggling web updates while trying to grow your business? It's time to say goodbye to the chaos and stress and say hello to a more efficient and effective solution: AE Media's Shopify Updates Intensive. Why Choose Our Shopify Updates Intensive? Are you wondering why you should opt for our Shopify Updates Intensive service? Here are some compelling reasons: 1. No More DIY Headaches: Say farewell to the days of…
Shopify Store Pitfalls to Avoid: A Casual Guide from Canadian Shopify Experts
As you learn more about your Shopify store, you want to make smart decisions to optimize your online presence. However, not all ideas that sound good are necessarily effective. Let's explore some of the most common pitfalls we see Shopify Store Owners making that might initially seem like a great idea, but could end up hindering your store's success. not all ideas that sound good are going to help you sell your stuff. 1 Designing a Pretty Logo in Canva and Using a Delicate Font: Creating a visually appealing logo is essential, but relying solely on Canva templates and using…
Are Paid Shopify Themes Worth It?
Are paid Shopify themes worth it? Short answer: Yes! Here are the top 5 reasons for why Adam (our Shopify Developer & Shopify Expert, but also all-around-thrifty-guy who likes a bargain) thinks A paid Shopify Theme is definitely worth it: Short answer: Yes! Fewer shenanigans is totally a win. Themes from the official shopify theme store are created by teams of experts, who also build how-to documentation and examples for the theme and provide support. In our experience themes purchased from Themeforest, CreativeMarket or Etsy generally don’t always offer the same level of fit and finish, high quality…
10 Ways You Might be Annoying Customers and Losing Sales
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:…
How to Cut Down on Customer Service Emails with your Shopify Website
Ever notice that when your sales go up, like on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, so do your customer service requests in your inbox? It can take a little of the joy out of the *new order happy dance* and make you feel exhausted and a little cranky at having to answer the same questions over and over. While you can’t fix the problem of people being hasty or obtuse, you can give yourself a little more breathing room here! Quick Tips that can help These are a few things you can do with your website to help people intercept their questions…
Three Things That Give Your Website a Killer First Impression
Your customers are giving you about 8 seconds before they decide if your service or products are for them. Shoppers have high expectations. eCommerce is normal for everyone now and your experienced customers are looking for a few things, right off the top. This doesn’t mean you need to worry about making a fancy website to impress people. Fancy doesn’t impress them. They want to shop quickly and easily. Quickly being able to understand what you're offering and how it helps them, quickly and easily navigating through your site, and connecting with your values, that’s what impresses them. If your…
Getting Your Website Ready for Inbound Holiday Traffic
I know you’ve all been working away at your holiday marketing strategies. Is your website ready for all the inbound traffic? The worst feeling is putting all of that effort into getting in front of your customers just to have a bunch of abandoned carts and low conversion. The worst feeling is putting all of that effort into getting in front of your customers just to have a bunch of abandoned carts and low conversion. Here’s one simple thing you can do to make sure your site is ready for your inbound holiday traffic and helps you sell more with…
How your Mobile Site Could Be Hurting Your Sales
Most of your customers are coming from Mobile. How do I know this? Because we see behind the scenes (and into the google analytics) of eCommerce businesses every day. In 2022, the stats show that more than 72% of overall online sales are from mobile. That’s huge! That means you really need to be giving the mobile version of your eCommerce site some love. For the DIYers in the room, you might be thinking this is great news because the Template you bought for your online store was tagged as Mobile Friendly, so your job here is done. But, no,…
The Not-So-Secret Secret Formula for Making Money Online
I bet you get messages in your inbox promising insider secrets to making money online. Thats because they made huge money in their business, they can show you how to do the same and if you just follow their prescribed path *exact steps included* you’ll be successful like them. Ugh. I hate this because it’s just marketing, playing on your fears and insecurities (because entrepreneur life is hard and everyone is a little bit insecure) & trying to get you to buy their thing so that you feel soothed and they become your hero. Because entrepreneur life is hard and…
Shopify Q+A: How a Custom Product Upsell Can Increase Sales
How can you make a better Product Upsell feature? One that will actually help you sell more stuff with less hassle. You know the one I mean, it shows up on the bottom of the product page showing off more things the customer might like? Normally, your theme chooses what it thinks should go there in terms of similar products. So if you’ve got a coffee table, it might show your customers other coffee tables. This feature is trying to help you out by showing your customers all the options to make sure they find the right one for them!…
Small Business vs Big Business Online: What You Need To Know
Have you got Pumpkin Spice in your drink today? Indulge me for a sec, what came to mind when I asked you that? This has a point about big biz vs you, the small biz owner and I’m getting to it so keep reading! Big Business has this way of being everywhere all at once. I’m not going to name names, but you know them, they’re so pervasive all you have to do is say something like pumpkin spice and you pretty much know what I’m talking about. Same with other big business brands in eCommerce. The thing about big…
Demystifying User Experience
User Experience is important because a good one allows you to sell more stuff and a bad one… cue the crickets. User Experience (UX) often feels mysterious and technical and fairly out of scope for many "regular" business owners. But it’s not. You can totally create a good UX experience on your site with a little understanding and some intentionality. And it really can take your site from crickets to making consistent sales. It involves all three of the website basics (message, design, function) and is the thing that ties them all together. Step 1: know your customers. Your website…
How To Easily Add A Wholesale Option To Your Shopify Website
We’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to sell products with a wholesale option on Shopify recently, so we’re sharing the answers here in case you’ve been wondering this too! Wholesale can feel like one of those things that is all at once an easy way to scale your business but also launching another ball to juggle. It can feel super complicated if you have to take wholesale orders separately and keep track of everything with spreadsheets and then staying on top of inventory… But if your website can take care of this for you so that your…
How Copywriting Helps You Make More Consistent Sales Online
Online business is a bit of a funny task, eh? Trying to do business with other humans, without any human interaction. Even though we’re doing business online, we’re still all just humans doing business with other humans, and for that to be successful you need to be able to connect. This is the job of copywriting. To bring the human element into an otherwise technical interaction. And in the context of making consistent sales for your online biz, copywriting matters a lot. A beautiful homepage that doesn’t give your site visitors any context of what they’re looking at is going…
What To Focus On For Consistent Sales In eCommerce
Do you ever feel a little spun around when it comes to what you should put your focus on with your website? Like, which are the important things that really matter and make a difference and which things waste your time and don’t bring you any more sales? These are the 3 areas that work together to get you consistent sales: Your message Design Function Sometimes we see beautiful/functional websites that aren’t making sales because there’s no connection point for their customers. Connection & relatability are huge for consumers in 2022, so the messaging on your site is important and…
Accidentally Getting In The Way Of Your Own Sales
This might be happening to you, and if it is, don’t worry, it’s super common! Something that comes up often when business owners are trying to create content for their website is this: Being tempted to make themselves the focus of their website. People ask me, “wait, what?! I thought “sharing our stories” was the way we connect with our audience & make ourselves relatable. I thought I needed to talk about myself and share my story on my website?!” And, “Isn’t my website my ‘business card’ online - the way I show everyone about me and what I offer?”…
How Avoiding Industry Jargon Helps You Make Sales Online
Using industry words doesn’t make you sound smarter. The days where you had to know all the fancy industry words to impress the people into thinking you’re the best so they’ll buy your thing are over. Same with big business words. over. Have you noticed this too? Industry jargon is one thing we don’t stand for here at AE, because it doesn’t help you. If your customers don’t know what you’re selling or why that matters to them within the first 8 seconds of visiting your website you’ve lost them. Industry jargon doesn’t mean anything to them. It only means…
How Unsubscribes Can Help Grow Your Business
Here’s an easy thing that you can do to help you build your business online. It’s SO easy that it often gets overlooked! Even some of the big brands aren’t doing this well. It’s this: use every connection point with your customers to build relationships. Even the small ones. EVEN the unsubscribe ones! Some brands don't bother customizing their unsubscribe notifications, but what's worse is when they do and they use the opportunity for a little jab or a slightly shame-y message. Don't do that. Every interaction you have with people is an opportunity to build a relationship…
7 Red Flags To Watch Out For When Hiring A Web Designer
You’re ready to grow your business and you know you need to take your website up a notch from DIY but it’s hard to know who to trust because the internet is full of people calling themselves experts because they took a quick course and made their cousin a website. ? It’s hard to know who to trust out there so here are 7 Red flags to watch out for when hiring a web designer: 1. They don’t have a portfolio (or you don’t like what they have) They should have their own website which has a portfolio section that…
Creating a Powerful Website and Making Consistent Sales
One thing we often see when we first start to work with clients on their Shopify websites is confusion around who exactly their customers are, and how to figure this out. This is totally normal. But since knowing who your customers are is key to being able to speak to them in a way that makes a connection (which leads to making sales), knowing who your customers are is a big deal! Let's clear up something we often encounter when we first start working with clients: knowing who your customers are so you can connect with them so you can…
Tips for Website Font Use
Here are some quick tips for choosing fonts to use on your website: Don't stretch or compress your fonts. It makes them wonky and hard to read! Don’t use too many different ones. Keep it to two main fonts with maybe one more if the situation warrants it! Don’t pair two different serif fonts together. They’ll compete for attention and accomplish the opposite of your goal: nothing will end up standing out. Use contrast. Pair bold, straight fonts with daintier ones. Use different fonts, weights, and sizes in different roles to establish what is important. Bonus: don’t use comic sans…
Design Day Intensive: Before & After for Danny Ray
Before and After time! Ever wonder what we can get done for you in a Design Day Intensive?! Slide the images below for examples! We worked with Danny Ray Magic to build a whole new (small) site with a series of 4 Design Days. This is a small but mighty version of their previous site. We spent a lot of time strategizing on the front end to make sure we were nailing the brief in the simplest/most efficient way possible. It was also one of those projects where we advised against Shopify! We ended up building a Wordpress site for…
Tips to make your Shopify Store Easier and Quicker to Run
Make it easier: here are two quick tips to make your Shopify store easier and quicker for you to run. Because who has time for things to be complicated or take a long time?! Clone a similar product rather than starting from scratch. In your back end click duplicate in the top right corner of your product page. Then all you have to do is change the details and the photo. Much easier than staring at a blank page. Remember to be careful to change the weight of the product, the price, the SKU, or the shipping options for that…
Design Day Intensive: Before & After for Dispatch
Before and After time! Ever wonder what we can get done for you in a Design Day Intensive?! Slide the images below for examples! We worked with Dispatch Restaurant to update their homepage during a Design Day. Adam put his design/layout skills to work to give the home page more of a wow factor; an initial impression of depth and quality that reflects exactly the depth and quality of their restaurant & food in real life. The task was to give that high-quality vibe but balance it with their fun and casual nature of “fine dining without the fuss” -…
The Perfect Homepage Hero
What’s a “Hero Spot” and why does it matter? The Hero spot is the section that your customers see first when they visit your site. It’s the very very most important! You have 8 seconds in which to connect to your customers. They need to know: What you’re selling Who it’s for Why it matters/what problem your thing solves. And they need to know it all in one glance. No pressure right?! Your customers need to see (within 8 seconds!) something they relate to that makes them go, “ooh, that’s interesting!” or, “I like that!” or, “yes! I need that!” …
Professional Homepage Tips
When creating a homepage it's easy to default to a welcome message. However, you don’t need a welcome message on your website. It doesn’t help your customers feel welcome or connect with them. To a lot of our customer's surprise, it’s actually one of the first things people will notice that tells them your site is not professionally built. It’s a subtle hint to them that maybe your product or your customer service is going to be less than professional as well. And we can all agree we don’t want this! The trick to your homepage is to make your…
Initial Website Set Up VS Real Life Testing
If you haven’t launched your first e-commerce site yet, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: When your website launches, it’s not quite done yet. We’d never launch half a website for you, but an important phase needs to happen in the evolution of your online store that we can’t control ahead of time: Real-Life Testing. Real-Life Testing is important to see how your actual customers interact with your website. A website is a living, evolving part of your business and a static website, that never changes, doesn’t support you. We get to work with business owners…
How to Set Up Product Pages That Convert
Do you know how to set up a great Product page? Or why that matters? Because if you set them up right, they make your life easier and more sustainable. They speak to your customers on your behalf and are a huge part of conversion. A good product page can take your online shop from good to great. Sometimes product pages are left as an afterthought (I mean, it’s one of the last stages of a website build so people lose steam at this point!) Don’t do that. You need your product pages to be on point! They help you…
How to Grow Your E-Commerce Business in 2021
Want to know one of the best tips to grow your e-commerce business in 2021? It’s based on all the data gathered from the monumental shifting trends that came out of 2020. ...and I know you might be stressed about learning One. More. Thing. Don’t be, it’s a good one: Dial back a little of your efforts on acquiring new customers and put that effort into your past & current customers. There are two reasons for this: 1. Customers want to be loyal. They want to support small business! And actually it’s easier for them to keep re-ordering from you,…
The 3 foundations for Consistent Sales and Growth
The three things that work together to help you make consistent sales with your website are: 1) You’re ability to connect with your customers through the written messages on your site 2) A well designed, easy to navigate & nice to look at layout 3) Buttons, links and a customer flow that functions well with no dead ends, broken links or complicated processes. This is why good web design is more than graphic design and more than nerdy code writing. It’s a balance of all three of those aspects. There’s both a science and an art to it. There’s a…
Black Friday//Cyber Monday Tips
What do you think? If you have a Bricks-and-Mortar store, how will you be handling Black Friday this year?! Canada Post is telling consumers to shop early this year to help with overwhelm and back logging in their system and to make sure you get what you need in time. So consumers are looking for deals now already! (We’ve noticed some big brands are already on top of this too) We want to make sure you’re set up for success with your website. Here are some easy things you can do to prepare your site for Black Friday // Cyber…
When NOT to Hire a Web Designer
We’ve laid out some solid website advice (in my own humble opinion, of course!) in this series on e-commerce. Now that you know all of our secrets about brand message, design, layout, logistics and SEO, it might just be time to try your hand at DIYing your first site! Sometimes you might benefit from NOT hiring a professional Web Designer. Wait, what? Am I advocating for DIY? Yep, sometimes you might benefit from NOT hiring a professional Web Designer. Even though we’re super passionate about providing people with top notch websites, sometimes we advocate for a DIY site. And here's…
Step 5: SEO – Simple
We’re here to help entrepreneurs to connect with their customers online! Our earlier posts in this series are there to help you make good decisions around setting your e-commerce site up for success. A beautiful and thoughtful look and message as well as a simple checkout process help you connect with your customers. But even after all of that, you won’t be able to connect with your customers if they can’t find you! This is the last in the series of 5 simple steps you can take to make sure your online store is as good as it can be!…
Step 4: Checkout Logistics: Get all your ducks in a row!
Here’s the bad news: the current average online shopping cart abandonment rate is about 70%! That’s a huge number of potentially lost sales! Why do carts get abandoned? Shipping costs A complicated checkout process Website issues Needing to sign up for an account Unfamiliar payment gateway ...and other reasons like comparison shopping, research, distraction, etc. The good news is... We're here to help you avoid some of these typical pitfalls so you can beat that average! Woot! Read on to see how you can complete more of your sales. Checkout Logistics are hugely impactful in connecting with your customers. Yep, it's…
Step 3: How to connect with your customers through layout
How’s it going with your online store? We’ve got 5 simple steps you can use to build success with your e-commerce website. You can find our earlier articles about Step #1, Message, here and here. Find an article about Step #2, the significance of imagery, here. Now for Step 3: A quick one about layout.I’ll try to make this fast and painless. Because, unless you’re a graphic designer, you probably don’t enjoy discussing layout! So here’s what you need to know about layout for a killer site that allows you to get noticed and sell more stuff with less hassle:Typography. …
Step 2: Imagery
How's it going with your online store? Are you making meaningful connections with your customers? You can find our earlier articles in this series about the first step, Message: Why your message is so important to the design of your website, and how to begin to discover and clarify your message. Now for Step 2: How to use imagery to connect with your customers.Your business is solving a problem for your customers! The job for your website is to connect with your customer clearly and directly about how you’re going to do that! You now know how to do that…
Step 1: Message
We want to help you succeed with your online business. Previously, I mentioned the 5 Simple Steps to Get Started with your online store. I talked about why message is king and why we always start with the message before the design when we build websites. (Short version: it builds connection with your customers.) How do you discover and clarify your message? Your message might seem easy at first, because it’s probably obvious, right?!! Just say your business name front and center... Or use industry buzz words to inspire mystery and curiosity about your business?! There's more to it than…
5 Simple Steps to Get Started
Have an online business or thinking of starting one? What roadblocks have you encountered so far? Maybe some things have tripped you up as you manage your website, or maybe you don’t even know where to begin! We’ve learned a bunch designing and launching e-commerce websites over the last 15 years. Read on for 5 simple steps to success with your online store! A good e-commerce website is made up of these main things: Message (and all of your written content) Imagery (photography, videography, iconography/brand design) Layout (and functions) Coordination of Logistics (taxes, shipping, payment gateway) SEO (optimization for findability)…
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