Setting up an online store is challenging. When a business is past that stage, it may seem that the most time-consuming and technically complex tasks are over. Yet proper Shopify maintenance is as critical and equally big a chunk of work. It is as significant as inventory management or marketing.
You probably have people responsible for store selection and promotion. Just like that, it’s better to have someone experienced to manage the technical side of the digital store. With a Shopify professional in charge of your website’s ongoing support and maintenance, running an e-commerce business becomes much more manageable.
How’s that? Instead of spending hours researching and resolving what often appears to be a simple glitch, you delegate it to a professional. This person saves you hours on resolution and minimizes reputation risks and expenses. Staying competitive, going through, and optimizing performance are other benefits of ongoing support.
In this article, we’ll explain more about store maintenance. Let’s find out what it entails, why it can be challenging, and the benefits of a Shopify support and maintenance plan.
Keeping competitive edge
40% of people are willing to pay more to view a product in AR before buying it. Other research shows that using 3D content lets businesses increase conversions by up to 94%. These numbers prove once more that staying competitive requires adaptation to trends. Adaptation entails changes. And changes always concern the store’s tech stack and further maintenance.
At DigitalSuits, we take a flexible approach to maintenance. We offer two retainer plans with fixed prices and a custom plan tailored to your needs. Each of them includes, among other things:
- dedicated Shopify developer, Project Manager, and Tech Lead
- real-time chat in a messenger you choose
- on-request strategy meetings and website audits
- a 48-hour initial response for non-urgent issues
- immediate attention to critical issues
- most tasks completed within 24 hours, and more.
With the support encompassing the mentioned, you get a zero-downtime guarantee. The Shopify support team shares regular updates and reports on your store’s performance and progress. With this information, you can take a proactive approach to store management and development, adapting it easily to the changing customer needs.
This adaptive Shopify site maintenance lets it stay efficient. It is essential amid evolving technologies, user expectations, and the competitive landscape. Making software versatile and adaptable requires the corresponding expertise. Here are a few practical examples that fall under this category.
Refreshing and redesigning themes
As we write this article, there are 185 Shopify themes. Dawn, introduced as part of the Shopify 2.0 upgrade, is the most popular. Given the platform's simplicity, merchants can set up many things without help. Still, to create a unique and engaging store, you need to customize and maintain the theme by reacting to platform changes.
A theme redesign or refresh will eventually be necessary. Shopify experts, with their constant monitoring, will ensure that you do it at the right time. They’ll also take care of navigation, usability, and responsiveness.
Designing and setting up pages
Sometimes, it’s enough to customize or update only selected pages. Specific page designs for checkout, seasonal offers, success pages, etc., can increase conversions. With a Shopify Support Package, you can regularly roll out new templates and visual designs. Staying relevant and experimenting through A/B tests facilitates withstanding competition.
Connecting apps and integrations
Shopify App Store and integrations with external tools also help merchants stay competitive. Analytical tools provide actionable insights into user behavior. Apps for loyalty program management, gift cards, price customization, and similar tools let you use these insights properly. A maintenance expert will select and connect the solution that suits you best.
Preventing issues caused by poor maintenance
Some believe monthly Shopify support & maintenance is not mandatory if they don’t intend to innovate. A pretty basic setup can indeed work well for a business. However, some issues come as collateral damage of missing regular maintenance. For example:
- outdated themes, integrations, and plugins
- accumulated data and multimedia
- broken links and accumulating redirects
- outdated product listings and inventory data
- out-of-date product descriptions and content
- difficulty managing security and performance.
These issues pose a severe risk for a store. Using outdated software leaves businesses vulnerable to cyberattacks, data breaches, and unauthorized access. Irrelevant content makes users question a merchant’s credibility. Lack of regular monitoring and analysis results in poor SEO performance and difficulty identifying areas for improvement.
In other words, Shopify website maintenance often works as a preventive measure. It secures your business from common problems. Even with a minimum number of support hours monthly, merchants can keep a competitive edge. It’s enough to keep everything working.
Enhancing customer experience
There are many ways to improve the e-commerce customer experience. Monthly maintenance and support services are the basic strategy. Shopify development experts keep an eye on vulnerabilities and look for new opportunities to improve UX. They are available and ready to address problems, perfect customer experience, and develop new features.
Addressing problems and working with objections
Let’s start with some numbers. Over half of consumers shop online for free delivery. Around 38 percent are motivated by coupons and discounts. Many more never complete a purchase they start. The average shopping cart abandonment rate is over 70 percent these days.
How does this help merchants? It provides ideas on where to start your analysis and review. Customers expect businesses to know them. They want brands to address their problems or help find solutions. Learn what motivates your audience to buy from you and what prevents it from completing purchases. The support team will offer relevant store enhancements.
Perfecting customer experience
Sometimes, problems hide behind the little things. These can be inconvenient banner placement, complicated navigation, or heavy images that take time to load. A missing preferred payment or delivery option is even more demotivating. Luckily, these things are very easy to fix. With a monthly Shopify support retainer service, it’ll take minimum time.
Forging new features
No matter how great a platform is, there’s an edge to what you can set up. Most likely, some coding will be involved. Speaking about an online shop, there’s hardly a limit to innovation. Social commerce, AI, XR, and other emerging tech are changing the e-commerce landscape. They can keep you rolling out new functionalities or at least occasional updates.
If you intend to add new features at any point, it’s best to have a regular Shopify technical support team. Thus, you won’t need to look for experts whenever you need to add something. This person or team will also be familiar with the store’s architecture and particulates. Together, these factors allow for fast updates.
Examples of customer-centric improvements
The list of customer-centric improvements can include very diverse points. If your store is new, the improvements may be very practical and rather basic. If you are all set up and ready to experiment, they get bolder and more challenging to implement. Such improvements include but are not limited to the following:
- responsive design optimization
- enhancing product search functionality
- personalized product recommendations
- image optimization and code cleanup
- integration with customer support systems
- improved product descriptions and imagery
- smooth multi-channel integrations
- personalized post-purchase engagement.
Sending a personalized email and integrating AR tools can work equally well at different store operation stages. The Shopify maintenance team will help you locate bottlenecks and prioritize improvements. Then, they’ll proceed with changes that can put ideas into action.
Technical support and troubleshooting
Over seven million websites globally use Shopify. More than 700 million buyers shop in these stores. Shopify is known for its high performance and good support. This extensive reach surely has a solid technical base and 24/7 support. Yet, it doesn’t mean merchants never face any issues. And that’s especially relevant for stores with custom settings and code.
Shopify support and maintenance services are crucial in technical support and troubleshooting. Having an emergency response team to tackle glitches and defects enables uninterrupted work or at least quick issue resolution. It gives merchants more control over quality management, platform configuration, and daily technical support.
Quality management and bug fixing
A software maintenance team's key task is ensuring an e-commerce platform works correctly. It doesn’t matter how good a business plan and branding are if a website doesn’t function properly. And the latter implies occasionally fixing bugs, errors, and defects.
Website issues occur not only after code changes. Any updates on Shopify’s side can potentially affect your store. With a monthly retainer program, you can be sure to plan for additional QA and testing for each update. Also, the specialists get enough time to address minor bugs, which don’t interfere with usability but can spoil an overall impression.
Assistance with platform configuration
Platform configuration isn’t always a one-time setup. You may need to replace some tools. If a company’s strategy or brand image changes, it’s also necessary to reconfigure some settings. The same goes for technical or regulatory updates Shopify rolls out. Long story short, your online store is dynamic and requires constant monitoring and updates.
Day-to-day technical support
It’s crucial to work with user feedback. This can include reports on defects and suggestions for potential im