Each year, you have the opportunity to build new habits, workflows, and systems. Unlike personal goals, business goals don’t have to require more of your time and attention. Instead, you can implement systems that create efficiency and do the heavy lifting for you.
Systematizing your ecommerce business is one of the best ways to make it grow. By embracing automation and setting up systems, tools, workflows that run without your direct input, you can create a business that runs faster and saves time.
Read on for our three favorite ways to systematize your Shopify business and make it more efficient.
1. Enable Shopify automation with Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow is an app that allows you to create custom workflows to automate repetitive tasks, streamline store operations, and improve efficiency. First available only for Plus users, Shopify Flow is now included with all Shopify plans. That means that every store owner can harness the power of automation to reduce errors, save time, and grow.
What you can do with Shopify Flow
All Shopify Flow automations use a formula of trigger + condition + action. For instance, when an order is received (trigger), you can tell Shopify Flow to check if it is over a certain dollar amount (condition) then review it for possible fraud (action). Because you can create custom workflows, the possibilities for Shopify Flow are endless. But here’s the ones we think drive the most value for stores.
1. Automate order fulfillment
With Shopify Flow, you can segment your orders to meet different order criteria. For instance, if an order contains both in-stock and back-ordered items, you can set an automation to fulfill the in-stock item while tagging the remaining items for backorder. You can also set conditions to notify your team about special orders, like expedited shipping.
2. Manage inventory and stock
Inventory management is a great use case for Shopify Flow. You don’t want customers ordering an item that isn’t available, so you can set items to unpublish when items reach zero— and republish when the stock is replenished. Similarly, you could create a workflow to notify your team or even generate a purchase order for a supplier when your inventory runs low.
3. Streamline customer communications and support
Shopify Flow can also help you communicate with customers better. Automatic order notifications are a great way to update customers without manual work. You can add new customers to your marketing list or create customer service tickets when specific events occur, like a return request or poor review. You can also set triggers to reward loyalty when a customer tops a certain dollar amount for their order.
To get started with Shopify Flow, install the app and connect your store. Then, access Flow under “Apps” in Shopify Admin to create your first automation!
2. Bulk edit your products
A Shopify product listing has dozens of potential data points, from title to options to shipping info. Manually updating hundreds or even thousands of products every time you run a sale or make any change is wildly inefficient. While Shopify has some native bulk editing options, they have drawbacks like the inability to preview or undo changes.
Instead, use a third-party app like Ablestar Bulk Product Editor to save yourself time and energy managing your products. The app, accessible from the Shopify Admin, enables you to search and filter for products matching any condition, then make multiple bulk edits with a user-friendly interface or spreadsheet. Here are a few other reasons to use Ablestar Bulk Product Editor:
- Complete visibility over product edits with edit previews and seeing your publishing status on a log.
- Schedule edits to run in advance.
- Undo edits to end a sale or reverse course if your edit had unintended results.
- Apply dynamic edits like setting a formula for a product title, eg. vendor + product type.
Whether you’re overhauling your store’s product data or implementing everyday changes like pricing, a bulk editing tool gives you more control over your product listings and saves a lot of time in the process.
3. Map your products to Shopify’s standard taxonomy
If you opened your Shopify business prior to 2024, chances are you’re using text-based tags to classify your products by size, color, or style.
There are a few problems with this approach. First, any inconsistency like using “XS” on some products and “X Small” on others creates inconsistencies. With text-based tags, Shopify can’t tell that these are one and the same.
Second, this wild west of product tagging means your product data may not be compatible with vendor data or sales channels like Shop or Google Shopping. You may need to manually map and update your product data to connect with suppliers or apps.
Fortunately, in 2024 Shopify launched a standard product taxonomy to solve this, a system of universal product categorization that aligns data across stores and apps. The taxonomy functions as a large library of product categories and product attributes within Shopify that you can map to. Once you align your products with the new taxonomy, you remove barriers to syncing your data across apps and sales channels and save time. The taxonomy also gives more product details that customers want to see!
While this may sound like a big time investment upfront, you can streamline the transition with Ablestar Bulk Product Editor. We wrote an entire guide to switching your store to the new store taxonomy for merchants.
How to save time in your Shopify business
Most Shopify merchants start a business to gain more freedom— time freedom, creative freedom, and financial freedom. But between daily product updates, spreadsheets, order fulfillment, it may not always feel that way. Systems create freedom in your business so you can create time and freedom in your life. With the right tools and approach, systems can save you time, create efficiency, and enable your Shopify business to grow.
Ready to add efficiency to your business? Try Ablestar Bulk Product Editor.
