How To Unlock Your Business Potential With Multiple Shopify Stores

In the world of Shopify online stores, expanding your reach and catering to specific customer groups are key strategies for achieving success. By tapping into a wider audience and tailoring your offerings to their unique preferences, you increase brand visibility and establish a diverse customer base. 

In this article, we’ll look into the importance of having multiple Shopify stores and how to manage them properly. We’ll also explore how Upscribe enables merchants with several stores to attract, grow, and retain subscribers through powerful out-of-the-box tools.

Let’s get started.

What Does Managing Multiple Shopify Stores Entail?

Managing multiple Shopify stores means running multiple Shopify businesses—simple!

These businesses can be tied to a single Shopify account or multiple. They can belong to a single brand or multiple distinct brands. They can sell the same products or focus on different categories, niches, segments, etc.

Managing multiple Shopify stores can yield all kinds of benefits (that we’ll touch on in a moment), but it also brings unique challenges. It helps to have a solid understanding of what to expect before launching.

Why Manage Multiple Shopify Stores?

Managing multiple Shopify stores might seem like a hassle, but there are plenty of compelling reasons why it might be worthwhile:

Expanding Into New Countries

The most obvious example is international businesses registered as separate legal entities. Having separate country-specific stores can simplify all kinds of critical operational processes—from compliance and accounting to localization and marketing.

Separating your regional Shopify stores is a simple (but highly effective) way to separate each store’s data, making tracking performance and ensuring compliance easier.

Target Customer Segments or Niches

It’s also frequently the case that stores specialized in different niches can benefit from being hosted separately. 

For example, Nike is an apparel brand that targets a wide range of customers. 

NOCTA is a Nike subbrand that targets a more specific, fashion-minded segment. By separating these products into separate stores, Nike can focus on their core brand messaging while creating experiences that resonate with both groups.

Distinct Product Lineups

Lastly, having separate stores allows you to offer distinct product lineups (or collections) in each store. This can be helpful if you have products or services targeted differently based on region, price range, or customer segment.

Having several stores also opens up opportunities for optimization and testing—you can determine which specific product lineup works best in a particular market or region and tailor the products accordingly. This can help you grow your business in a more targeted and efficient way.

How To Create and Manage Multiple Shopify Stores

Step 1: Create Another Store

To run multiple stores under one account on Shopify, you typically need to go for Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus allows you to have as many stores as you need, starting with the ten that come with the plan.

Simply follow these steps:

• Log into your Shopify account
• Go to the Shopify login page
• Click “Create another store”

If you don’t have Shopify Plus, you’ll need to create separate Shopify accounts for each store you create. It’s not a huge deal—but it does make the process of managing your stores more complicated since you’ll need to log out and log in each time you switch stores.

Step 2: Add Products and Optimize Your Store

After setting up your store, the next logical step is to list products.

Since this isn’t your first rodeo, we’ll keep these instructions brief. Just remember to prioritize high-quality product photos, videos, and detailed descriptions.

Shopify also includes many features that you can use to customize your store and make it more appealing to customers, like: 

• Unique themes
• Product reviews
• Shipping options

Use these strategically to create a great customer experience.

Step 3: Integrate a Product Information Management (PIM) System

If you create multiple Shopify stores for different regions, you may need to manually update product information across the stores on a regular basis. This can take time and decrease efficiency.

A unified product information management (PIM) system can simplify product information updates. A PIM system is a centralized hub that stores and manages your product data, such as descriptions, images, videos, prices, stocks, and categories.

Integrating a PIM system to Shopify lets you update the product information on all your stores simultaneously, simplifying the process and preventing errors like wrong pricing or outdated images.

Step 4: Set Up Store Language

To go international with numerous Shopify stores, you should set up different languages for each. Configure several languages for international stores to appeal to diverse customers efficiently.

Language options for your Shopify store can be configured in the languages section of the settings. You can set numerous languages for your store and the store’s default language under the Shopify languages settings.

Step 5: Choose a Centralized Order Management System

Order management from multiple stores can be complicated, with fragmented information producing confusion. Centralized order management streamlines multi-store processes by consolidating data and allowing for more efficient tracking and delivery. This method keeps critical details organized, reducing inefficiencies and improving processes.

If subscriptions are part of your business model, it helps to use a dedicated subscription order management tool like Upscribe.

Upscribe is designed with customers in mind. The platform incorporates a highly customizable and enterprise-grade customer portal that engages subscribers and keeps them coming back. Upscribe also allows for passwordless login, reducing friction and making ordering much more accessible. 

Upscribe is committed to providing merchants and customers with a hassle-free experience of managing subscriptions.

Step 6: Streamline Your Customer Service Operations

Centralizing customer assistance provides a handy center for query and order data management. It allows for tracking feedback data, improving the product development process. 

Using email or platforms like Zendesk, noted for its user-friendly interface, streamlines customer support tickets across numerous stores. This implementation improves employee communication and client interactions, increasing retention rates.

Best Practices for Managing Multiple Shopify Stores

Take Advantage of the Shopify App Store

Finding the correct Shopify tools can assist you in centralizing all of your stores and divisions.

You can use Shopify App shop plugins and connections to centralize shop management and streamline manufacturing processes.

Securely Switch Between Shopify Stores

Having multiple Shopify stores linked to the same email address is crucial to ensure seamless navigation between them without compromising their security. 

To keep all your Shopify stores accessible in one place and reduce the risk of unauthorized access, use the store switcher in your Shopify admin. For enhanced security, ensure that you verify the email addresses of both yourself and your staff for each store. Once email verification is completed for a store, you can switch between your different stores with complete security.

The store switcher feature ensures that account permissions and settings are specific to each store, making it easier to manage staff roles and control your account effectively. Enhance security by integrating two-step authentication and external login services through the store switcher. This comprehensive approach maintains the integrity and safety of your e-commerce operations.

Optimize Each Store Individually

If you have multiple Shopify stores serving multiple niches, iIt’s essential to adjust the product information and design to meet these differences. Every store must be optimized individually, with customized content and promotions that fit their intended audience.

To achieve success, A/B testing is a crucial approach. You can evaluate new site variations’ effectiveness and conversion rates by testing various site designs, country-specific offers, URL structures, and regionally appropriate content. This iterative strategy guarantees that each store’s target audience is engaged, increasing engagement and transactions.

Manage Inventory and Orders through PIM

Shopify typically does not allow multiple stores in a single account without paying for Shopify Plus. However, there’s a more cost-effective solution. 

Utilizing a Product Inventory Management (PIM) app provides a central dashboard to oversee all your stores. By syncing your stores with a PIM, you can update your inventory, product info, and orders in one place, and these changes will automatically apply to all your stores.

Get a Help Desk

Running multiple Shopify stores can be extremely difficult, especially when dealing with customer requests, complaints, and queries. With a helpdesk tool, you can quickly provide quality customer support to your customer. 

A helpdesk is a central hub for handling customer inquiries from all your Shopify stores. It lets you deal with customer requests via email, live chat, and social media, consolidating customer communication.

Conclusion

The capacity to grow, target specialized customers, and handle varied product lines is critical to the success of online businesses. Implementing successful strategies for creating and managing multiple Shopify stores can increase reach and revenue.

At Upscribe, we give subscription Shopify businesses an all-in-one platform for managing subscriptions, growing their active subscribers, and enhancing customer experience.

Get started with a demo and see what Upscribe can do.