I created a shopify store 2 months ago, wanted to get my feet wet and see how it is. After all the free you just pay shipping and handling craze, and also the SAVE 80% off methods seemed so great, all tee-spring guys were switching from T to S. Grass is greener right? LETS TRY IT!
I registered a domain, setup a site, and found some good suppliers on aliexpress. These suppliers met my criteria, over 98% feedback rating on minimum 1000 feedback, items are good quality, good price and in range.
Went ahead, had them added to my shopify store, and started launching ads and split testing them. Orders started coming in, it was cool – but then I realized, FUCK I gotta fulfill these orders and not just do the marketing part (which is what im best at, and enjoy the most)
Had to take the orders that came in, export them into excel, email it to supplier in china, then wait for an invoice, pay it, then wait for them to fulfill it which can be anywhere from 24-96+ hours depending and receive the USPS tracking #s.
During this time, customers would start emailing the customer service line bitching and complaining WHERE is my order. Sheeet, another job – deal with customers, especially a ton of idiots (because its a rule, that there’s always gonna be the 20% that will take and waste 80% of your time) so yea, customer service woopy. Some right away DEMANDED refunds, or they would file with paypal disputes; so refunds went.
Then when items shipped, customers got the tracking #’s and a week would go by, item didn’t arrive – again customer service emails, demanding refunds and asking a gazillion questions. Mind you these are items that were FREE and they just Pay S/H.
Right away, I hated this customer service piece related to shopify, and I also hated having to export orders, and send them to supplier and then wait until they ship it out, then fulfill in system and give clients their tracking #s.
SURE it can be solved by an employee, but you can only afford an employee once you are breaking even AT LEAST (but hopefully profiting). I was doing this on my own, just to get a feel for it – didn’t want to assign any internal workers to it, because its not even close to breaking even.
I also observed that if you do the FREE + S/H many times you will get comments like SCAM, RIP OFF, and tons of negative feedback’s which also affects your account badly. Jeez.
The truth is ..shopify is a pain in the ass; if you are an affiliate marketer like me who enjoys coming up with angles, and running campaigns, and optimizing and you hate dealing with people, that bitch, whine and complain and refunds, and suppliers, and a dozen other things – then trust me Shopify is not for you.
But yea.. I am not going to quit, because I know there’s money in eCommerce and I want to add it to my pie, but I am now taking a break to re-group and rethink the strategy. Sharing my story; to give you insights in case you are thinking Teespring is shit, and the grass is greener. Think twice!
After reading this post, if you are still interested in Shopify, you can read the post about 8 tips to increase your conversation right or How to find winning products.
6 thoughts on “Why I shutdown my shopify store [and what I learned from running one]”
Try with normal priced things, you will get better customers and better margin although some will still want refund and complain.
That’s exactly the direction we’re going in; no free because in my experience free always attracts cheap asses – and cheap asses cause 80% of problems.
I used to do the ecommerce thing but I was using the drop shipping selling straight razors, shaving equipment and accessories. Compared to affiliate marketing it was easier to make money as affiliate marketing is twice as hard. But yes you got a great point, customer service is a hassle especially when an order is delayed or goes to the wrong address and then it’s on your hands to solve it.
Thanks, yea I am solving this on the next stores by already hiring someone to handle it so I don’t have to deal with the bad part.
Ended my shopify experience almost as fast it started for the same reasons.
I think using a fulfillment house would resolve that kinda problem ! maybe amazon ..