Shopify guides

  • There’s no time like the present

    I’ve noticed in talks with several of my clients that they love my “Let’s try it right now” concept. Usually over Zoom and screen-share we make quick attempts to achieve something together in realtime, or backlog it if we run into delays. I use Trello to manage projects, so we toss the details into a…

  • Presenting at West Orlando WordPress Meetup

    I’m presenting at the West Orlando WordPress Meetup in a couple of weeks on Thursday, March 21st at 6:00pm Eastern (3pm Pacific). Learn about the differences and similarities between Shopify and WooCommerce to help you decide which eCommerce platform is best for your business.

  • Subscriptions using Stripe Checkout

    Selling subscriptions is not for the faint of heart. Yes, even with Shopify. Third party Apps, e.g. Recharge and Appstle, are functional silos. To complicate matters further, there is an entirely new Shopify Customer Portal design that Apps cannot currently run in, only the legacy portal that the theme controls. I gather that Shopify is…

  • WooCommerce to Shopify migration

    Sometimes I get quote requests for migrating a WooCommerce store over to Shopify. I can provide a ballpark figure after getting clarity in some areas, namely: Ballpark cost estimates Item Hours Cost Setting-up the Shopify store settings (locations, shipping, policies, payment methods, consulting with client) 2 $250 Applying style guide (color sets, fonts, menus, header,…

  • Why you need to keep your Shopify theme up to date

    Update: I’ve discovered the achilles heel of Shopify. Having worked with Shopify over the past six months, I’ve observed how important the theme is to the storefront. It’s a highly opinionated design and feature layer that contains design settings and custom code. Update from October 16th, 2023 I took a peek at five stores that…

  • After careful consideration, I’ve decided to join the Shopify Partner Program and start working on proprietary Shopify powered sites as well as continuing to work on open-source WordPress + WooCommerce powered sites. Recent statistics from BuiltWith indicate that Shopify leads greatly over WooCommerce Checkout, particularly in the United States market. Information I hear from colleagues…

  • Discontinuing products in your store

    Products come and go while search engine caches remain. It’s a popular practice to switch a product’s status to draft (un-publish it) or delete a product when it has an undetermined status or has become permanently discontinued. Search engine caches, bookmarks, and overall “juice” for the product page can be be damaged when URLs get…

  • Older Safari web browsers

    I’ve noticed a trend where several clients have forwarded to me trouble their users have faced using outdated versions of the Safari web browser. While it’s more typical to only support the latest version of popular web browsers that can normally be upgraded; there is meaningful traffic on the previous version of this browser –…

  • eCommerce emergency preparedness

    I was chatting with a lawyer friend of mine recently and he suggested the topic of emergency preparedness and management as we approach one of the year’s busiest shopping seasons, BFCM. No doubt, lawyers typically deal with things after they have become serious. I concur this is a great topic and is timely especially for…

  • Product short versus long descriptions

    I see clients get this wrong all the time. It sounds so simple, but apparently it isn’t! As I work to figure this out, I’ll post my observations. Here’s examples I’ve come across in client product catalogs: When I bring this up, here’s excuses I get in response: Here’s an official blog post with practical…

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