How to Run Multiple Shopify Stores? Running a store on Shopify is great for many reasons. One of the best parts about it is running multiple stores from one account. Running Multiple shopify stores can be a huge time saver.
When your e-commerce firm begins to develop, it’s sensible to have numerous Shopify stores for your changing product line and geographical areas.
You may have as many shops under the same domain name as you can handle as long as you’re up to the task of managing them.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the many Shopify stores you may be managing, so I’ve compiled a list of recommended practices to ensure that your multi-store company runs smoothly.
If you’re ready to get started immediately, go down the steps.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Consider Running Multiple Shopify Stores
There are several situations where e-commerce firms should maintain many Shopify shops.
#1: International Expansion
The most common blunder made by ecommerce firms when they begin selling abroad is to assume that people from other nations will buy the same items as those in their own nation.
This is not the case, and you must consider how consumer demands, lifestyle preferences, and shopping patterns vary across nations.
Having a separate Shopify store for each country is an excellent method to ensure that your website and product are suited to the needs of each potential audience.
One of the benefits of using Shopify stores is that you may customize them for any market.
For example, if you’re selling items in the United Kingdom, your store may offer regionally specific goods, and all prices will be displayed in pounds sterling.
#2: Targeting Different Portions Of Your Audience
When you operate a Shopify shop that sells a range of items, you may want to have separate stores for each of your customer groups.
For example, sell health supplements. You could have one store for consumers who are interested in bodybuilding and fitness supplements and another store for individuals interested in alternative treatments or Eastern medicine.
You may use a subdomain to distinguish each store while keeping them all under your primary domain’s umbrella.
#3: Out letting And Sub-Branding
If you have a lot of inventory in multiple locations, you might want to offer a significant discount to get it off your hands.
When you promote a sale in your primary store, you are devaluing your brand.
You may also use a sub-brand on a separate Shopify store to market low-quality or less expensive items, allowing you to attract new consumers without jeopardizing your reputation.
This can assist you in reaching your retail objectives while also advancing your brand without sacrificing quality.
Some challenges of Running multiple Shopify stores
- Order processing and management. Customers who purchase from your site will be ordering items from different stores, all of which are part of the same product pool. If you don’t use Shopify data export or something similar, dealing with it might become rather difficult, increasing the chance of mistakes.
- Keeping track of inventory. Because of this, you must continually buy and sell items to maintain your inventory up-to-date. It may also be tough to keep track of your stocks correctly, resulting in the risk of disappointing your visitors. There might be no assurance that the product is in stock, and continued angry consumer inquiries can only make matters worse.
- Managing product data. Your stores may have a different architecture, which might make it difficult to manage product data across multiple locations. This implies product names, photographs, descriptions, prices, and so on that can go wrong when they’re absent or incorrect.
- SEO challenges. You’ll have to devote twice as much time and effort into building two strong domains, dealing with on-site SEO and other associated elements if you run two Shopify stores.
- Customer support. Many queries come from a variety of shops, making it difficult to prioritize and respond to all of them.
In order to overcome the problems outlined above, we suggest checking out these Shopify applications that might help you manage many Shopify stores.
How To Run Multiple Shopify Stores
- Create And Configure Each Store
- Optimize Each Store For Search
- Install A Real-Time Inventory Management System
- Get A Product Information Management System (PIMS)
- Create A Central Order Management System
- Consolidate Your Customer Service
- Explore Other App Solutions
1. Create And Configure Each Store
If you don’t yet have any Shopify stores, check out this tutorial on how to get started with shopify.
You can create as many stores as you like, and there are no limits on the number of products or SKUs that may be sold. Setting up each subsequent shop follows a similar procedure: I propose using the same email address for all of them to keep things organized.
To keep them tidy, you may filter your email inbox by each store.
2. Optimize Each Store For Search
If you want to expand your business into a global market, you’ll need to customize each store to appeal to the audience it’s aimed at.
For example, if your target market is North America, you’ll need to optimize one store for the American market and another for our Canadian customers.
Because of this, you’ll want to come up with several different sales and blog subjects for each of your key markets so that your stores aren’t employing all the same sell words and blog themes.
Local keywords can help you improve the success of your business in a specific region.
Installing Google Analytics separately in each store will help you better understand the trends of consumers in that region.
You may also use local discounts, offers, and service sites to boost the chance of visitors finding the right shop for them.
3. Install A Real-Time Inventory Management System
It’s critical to have inventory management software in place that will allow you to keep track of your inventory levels.
Conserve your money. This allows you to keep an eye on demand and guarantee that you have enough goods on hand to serve your clients’ demands.
You may get stock-trending alerts and automatic updates at least once an hour using Shopify apps like Stock Sync.
You may provide your customers insight into your inventory by feeding this data to your site.
Customers will appreciate knowing that you always have enough to sell them and the ability to quickly determine which items are available.
Customers experience the pressure to spend money on items that sell out quickly due to increased visibility.
4. Get A Product Information Management System (PIMS)
When you have numerous Shopify stores and are attempting to keep track of different SKUs, it’s easy to become confused as to which items belong to which store.
It might be difficult to get your product information in order. To begin with, you must know which items need to relocate where.
How can your order fulfillment staff know where to search for everything from numerous brick-and-mortar stores if they’re all located in one warehouse?
You’ll need tools to handle all of this data.
A PIMS aims to consolidate product information in one location for your e-commerce company.
When you use the same product page across a number of your stores, your PIM system captures and analyzes all of that information to give you a more detailed view.
It then distributes, updates, and presents that data across all your shops, resulting in consistent product information that is updated in real-time regardless of how you display product details on each.
5. Create A Central Order Management System
Keeping track of all the data when you’re handling numerous orders may be difficult.
When you put it all together, buying from multiple stores and returning any items that don’t work out for you saves time and money. Centralizing your order management makes multi-store purchases and returns simple.
With ShipHero, you may simply integrate all of your client data, including shipping information, refunds, and more, with a Shopify app.
6. Consolidate Your Customer Service
You may save time by having a single customer support system that combines all of your consumer inquiries and order information.
This functionality enables you to keep track of client comments and incorporate them into your product development process.
To keep track of queries from several locations, you may use email or a ticketing system like Zendesk to manage them all.
Zendesk is a simple ticketing system that many people are familiar with.
You’ll be able to enhance your staff communications and provide a better customer experience as a result of using such a system, resulting in greater client retention.
7. Explore the Best Apps to run Multiple Shopify stores
There are a lot of Shopify-certified applications that can assist you in running your many stores.
While you might be running a store, working from home isn’t as easy as it sounds. Tasks such as product research and development, creating new stores, marketing for your existing stores, and maintaining the status of all your locations take up a significant amount of time.
We’ve compiled a list of the top 6 apps for 3 aspects of your expanding company – store copy, administration, and customer support.
Store Copy Apps
Copy apps can help you transfer data from your old store to your new one. If you’re expanding an outlet or creating a similar store for a different region, these applications save buckets of time by manually transferring data.
01. Excelify
Excelcify You may import entire catalogs between your Shopify stores using a single Excel or CSV template. Make a backup copy of the data you want to import, and then choose exactly what you want to transfer. It’s one of the most efficient ways to guarantee that setting up numerous Shopify shops is as quick and simple as possible.
02. Store Copy – Rewind
Store Copy – Rewind is a bit different from Excelcify, notably in its payment method. It is an easy-to-use tool that can copy everything from a single product to an entire store. On the other hand, its payment-per-item plan is one of a kind and could be useful for small businesses.
03. Syncio
Syncio is one of the most favorably regarded inventory management solutions available. It allows you to connect all of your stores and choose which characteristics you wish to display at each location. After that, all goods are linked across stores, and any modifications will be applied to all of them.
04. Multi-Admin Multiple Stores by Multify
Multify is a little different from Syncio in that it lets you manage inventory AND customers. It’s a more comprehensive service with a beautiful dashboard to allow you to easily monitor the activities of your many Shopify stores. That being said, its broader services have a higher price tag.
05. Gorgias
Gorgias can import all of your customer communications (or even calls!) from wherever you’re receiving them, even if they come from anywhere else on the internet. Messages include a comprehensive message history as well as delivery date and address. It can work with numerous shops and their associated customer contact points.
06. Reamaze
Gorgias and Reamaze are similar in terms of their features, but Gorgias offers a bit more functionality. They’re both top-notch when it comes to managing multiple Shopify shops. The key distinctions between Reamaze and other chatbot solutions are the easy-to-use conversation engine and the assistance in building up a comprehensive FAQ area.
07. Langify
The most popular Shopify extension for empowering your business is certainly LANGIFY. It translates your store into any language when a person comes to your website. Users can also request that the shop be manually translated into any language they choose.
08. Translate Your Store Weglot
Weglot is one of the most popular translation solutions for Shopify. Weglot works with every Shopify theme and other apps like PageFly, and it automatically directs customers to their chosen language.
Best Practices To Run Multiple Shopify Stores
Tip #1 – Focus on a Central Theme
If you’re running a number of Shopify shops that all sell the same thing, you don’t want to stray too far from the concept.
Yes, you should modify your store’s appearance and inventory to match the demands of various locations, but there should also be a unifying principle that ties everything together.
Check out these two KFC locations in Brazil and Australia. The layouts and goods may differ, but the color schemes, broad image blocks, and site navigation buttons are quite comparable.
This also contributes to brand consistency, which is beneficial not only for your company but also for you as a busy entrepreneur.
Tip #2 – Manage Inventory and Orders through PIM
Shopify may restrict you to one Shopify store per account, but there is a solution that won’t cost you Shopify Plus’ $2,000 monthly fee.
You can link your stores together using a product inventory management (PIM) solution, which is an app, to get a bird’s eye view of your locations. Before it is shared across all of your shops, you only have to make one change to your inventory, product descriptions, orders, and so on.
If you run a dropshipping store, you may also connect it with your supplier so that your consumers will be aware of what’s available and what’s not.
Tip #3 – Get a Help Desk App
What about the consumers who are buying your products? What if a customer tells you that they’re unhappy with their purchase, and you could’ve avoided it? Maybe PIM can assist you in dealing with items, but what about the individuals who buy them?
It’s enough to make you dizzy trying to keep track of client demands, complaints, and questions in three locations.
Customer support is a crucial component of each ecommerce store. Shopify has a built-in feature that allows you to manage customer interactions across all your sites using one Help Desk. Customer care desks are centralized systems for handling customers in numerous Shopify stores. They combine all channels where you provide client communication and put it all in one easy-
How To Run Multiple Shopify Stores From One Account
Multiple Shopify stores may benefit business owners by diversifying their offerings and boosting sales. To connect your store to a single account, Shopify is useful. If you have to log in and out of various accounts to manage numerous stores, it might become really chaotic.
Another downside of Shopify that many new merchants overlook is the inability to manage numerous shops under a single account. As a result, let’s look at some possibilities for you as a merchant and how you can simplify things.
It’s generally simpler to sell your items under one Shopify account and one store for most single brands and businesses that just want to run a single shop. This is typical for most single-brand businesses and sellers who only desire to operate a single storefront.
However, if you’re selling distinct items from many different brands and require several locations, you’ll need to create these under separate Shopify accounts.
This is a more difficult problem. While Shopify has made account authentication simpler in 2019 and 2020, it was not of great help here.
You will be able to log in using the same login details, but you will have many shops and potentially multiple plans. These are generally evident to you at sign-up, when you may pick a store.
Tip: If you’re using Shopify to run several stores, it’s usually simpler to log in directly to Shopify than through a specific store.
It is possible to create an account for each user, similar to Google.
How to Run Multiple Shopify Stores: FAQ
Check out a few FAQs about how to run multiple Shopify stores.
#1: Can I Have Multiple Shopify Stores?
Yes, you can. You may have several Shopify Stores using distinct Shopify accounts.
For example, you might have one Shopify Account for store A and a different Shopify Account for store B.
#2: Can I have Multiple Shopify Stores on One Account?
NO. You won’t be able to do this unless you have a Shopify Plus subscription.
Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify are the most common accounts on the platform. The majority of Shopify store owners choose one of three: Basic Shopify, Shopify, or Advanced Shopify. Unfortunately, none of these plans allow you to manage numerous shops on a single account.
The only way to have more than one store on a single account is to invest in Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus is for large corporations with substantial traffic, which the vast majority of small business owners do not have.
Shopify Plus may be the ideal solution if you are a large firm with $2,000 per month to spend on your eCommerce platform. You get ten included in your package for free, but each additional store costs $250 per month.
#3: Can I have Multiple Domains on Shopify?
Only one primary domain is supported by Shopify. You may connect as many domains to your account as you like.
As you can see in the GIF below, I can type the name of one domain into the address bar and be instantly sent it to a different site. Because the two sites are linked, this occurs.
Note that many Shopify stores are not the same as many domains. Having multiple domains is simply a larger net to draw more consumers to one shop.
#4: How can I Open Multiple Shopify Stores?
The only method to manage numerous Shopify shops is to establish an account for each one.
Although you may link all of these businesses to the same email address, they will be run on separate Shopify accounts.
However, Shopify apps are available in the Shopify App Store, which aids with managing several Shopify stores.
If you’re running three separate stores, for example, using an app to migrate data from your current store, organize your operations, and set up customer care might make your life a lot simpler.
We’ve got a whole section on the best apps for multiple Shopify stores above.
#5: How much does it Cost to Open Multiple Shopify Stores?
To put it bluntly, a hefty sum.
While it is straightforward for even the inexperienced Shopify user to manage numerous Shopify stores, they would have to be ready to invest a significant amount of money.
Here are some of the costs you’ll incur for each of your stores:
- Shopify plan – Monthly payment between $29 and $299, plus credit card fees between 2.4% and 2.9% + 30 per transaction, depending on your plan.
- Theme template – One-off payment between $0 and $180.
- Shopify apps – Monthly payment is around $120.
Multiply those expenses by the total number of shops you have; you could be looking at a significant investment. Owning numerous Shopify outlets isn’t for wimps, but it can be an enormous moneymaker if done correctly!
Should you consider running multiple Shopify stores?
For most sellers on Shopify, one shop-to-sell item is sufficient. However, it may be advantageous to open another store for the sake of increased potential sales, better positioning, more concentrated marketing efforts, and so forth in order to obtain greater overall results.
However, there are several drawbacks associated with this method that might result in failure if not addressed. So consider your business goals, strategy, resources you have, and the value it will provide before starting a new store. Acknowledge all possible dangers and be sure of your choice.
If you’ve decided this is something that you know for sure, keep in mind that Shopify has a number of useful resources to assist you on your way.
