Navigating the world of e-commerce can be a thrilling journey, especially with a platform like Shopify. Known for its user-friendliness and flexibility, Shopify empowers you to run your online store with ease.

But what happens when your business starts booming and one store just isn’t enough?

In this blog, we will mention all possible ways to help you understand and create multiple Shopify stores and manage them accordingly to stay on top of the game.

Why should one consider building multiple Shopify stores?

When sales increase, owners tend to build new stores to grow their business and stay updated.

Just like that, when an online business starts expanding and increasing sales, there will be a need for more online stores to fulfill the needs of the consumers.

Sellers will set up more stores on Shopify for this purpose. Building new stores is the only way out when your business starts expanding.

There can be several reasons why you may need multiple stores on Shopify.

Here we have listed all the possible reasons;

1. Expanding internationally
2. Targeting multiple audience segments
3. Sub branding
4. Broaden reach

1. Expanding Internationally

If you want to expand your business to sell internationally, you should be aware of different shopping habits, consumer needs, and lifestyle issues; these are all differences among people in different regions. 

Having a different store for each region is beneficial because each region has different currencies, languages, sensibilities & domains.

Quick Tip: For international stores, use the local language, currency, and region-specific images on landing pages to better connect with local audiences.

For example, if you are selling in the UK region, the currency will be the pound (the local currency of the UK), and the language will be EN-UK.

2. Targeting multiple audience segments

When you are selling several assorted products in your Shopify store,  you may want to create multiple stores to cater to each of your audience segments. 

For example, you may consider segmenting the goods by their types if you are selling Stationery goods.

You will build a different store for those who want to buy kids’ stationery and another for those who want to buy business stationery. 

You can use a subdomain that makes them different while keeping them all under your primary domain’s umbrella.

3. Sub Branding

If you have a lot of inventory in your store and you somehow want to get rid of that, you may offer a discount to sell the stock.

Launching that discount on your official website may devalue your store, and no one wants that.

You can build a sub-brand on a different Shopify store as an outlet for lower quality or more affordable products to reach new customers without devaluing your original brand.

This can work as running a clearance discount without bringing down the quality of your other products.

4. Broaden Reach

If you are running an online wholesale business and want to expand your business and reach directly to consumer E-commerce, doing it from the same store is difficult.

You may be selling some products to consumers individually and in bulk to others.

Rather than doing this from the same store, you can build a new store focusing on B2C (Business to Consumer) sales for direct selling while maintaining your original store’s B2B (Business to Consumer) style.

Challenges while managing Multiple Shopify Stores

Although running multiple online stores has many benefits, it can also be challenging to manage them properly. 

If you are running a small business, it is easy to manage sources and data on your website, but it will be hectic for the ones running multiple stores and having a large business. 

Here are some of the challenges you may face in this situation;

1. Separate sales orders
2. Inventory
3. Product Catalog
4. System Integration
5. Sophisticated customer support

1. Separate sales orders

With multiple Shopify stores, you will receive multiple orders from other sales channels, where you have to monitor inventory and ensure you are on top of the current stock.

These orders come from different websites and need to be processed separately. This gets complicated while dealing with fulfillment and return processing.

2. Inventory

If you sell products on both sites, you must update inventory as customers buy and return products to both stores.

This is frustrating for customers when they try to buy something from one store but find out that you have sold out of it at the other store.

When you have multiple Shopify stores in the same warehouse, accurately managing inventory and multiple orders can become the worst nightmare. 

3. Product Catalog

If you are selling fewer products, it will be easier to manage the product catalog.

However, it can be challenging for you if you sell many products and add new product listings in multiple stores.

You will have to update and manage your product data in each place.

For example, if you forget to change the price on one store, you may face selling at a low price with no profit or at a high price with no conversions.

4. System Integration

Having multiple Shopify stores means more moving pieces to incorporate.

Integrating with the other systems you use, such as; ERP software or POSWhat is a Point of sale? As the name states, POS is the point at which sales can be made physically. Example of Point of SaleAn... More, can become more complicated with each new store you add.

5. More sophisticated customer support

Policies may vary for different markets and audiences.

For example, if your maximum purchase limit is 10 items for your main store and 100 for the wholesale store, then you will need a support team who can figure out what kind of query will be coming and should know the difference for customers.

Moreover, if you are working on opening a site in a different language, you will need a team who can easily speak that language, and sometimes you have to train them.

Steps to create multiple stores on Shopify

So, you have set your mind to making multiple Shopify stores.

Here are some simple steps that can help you in building stores;

1. Create another store
2. Add products and store optimization
3. Customize the theme
4. Integrate Third Party Services
5. Language Setup
6. Domain Setup

Step 01: Create another store

Shopify does not provide the feature to create multiple stores with a single click. You have to create multiple stores one by one manually from the login screen.

Also, multiple stores can only be created by the users of the Shopify Plus plan; regular plans do not provide this feature. You have to purchase the Plus plan to create individual stores manually.

Go to the Shopify login page, enter your credentials, and click the Create Another Account button.

Step 02: Add products and Store optimization

After setting up another account in your Shopify store, the next step is adding your products. You may be required to add the same or different products in your secondary store according to your needs.

You will have to create different Shopify collections to categorize the products better if you sell different products.

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a critical part of any e-commerce business. If you have multiple Shopify stores, it is important to ensure that your stores are SEO-optimized.

This is done by adding content that is SEO friendly, adding some sitemaps, configuring robots.txt, and much more.

Step 03: Customize the theme

The look and feel of the store make the brand attractive. Your look and theme must match your brand.

Shopify offers a lot of themes, paid or free, that you can choose to make your brand look embellished.

Also, you can use the Shopify theme editor to edit the theme and choose colors according to your brand requirements.

Remember that your store’s overall look is essential and can affect your overall performance. So, choose a theme that is SEO-friendly.

Step 04: Integrate Third-Party Services

After creating multiple stores on Shopify for different regions, you may need to update all the information across these stores manually.

It can affect your business efficiency, and you may need third-party services, such as PIM software, to organize the product information across all channels.

Look for reliable PIM software to grow your business respectively.

Also, it is important to integrate your store with different shipping partners and payment service providers, depending on your store’s needs.

Step 05: Language Setup

If you are considering going international, you may require different languages for each store.

You can change the language from Shopify language settings.

You can choose the language according to your region and set a default language.

Step 06: Domain Setup

Each of the multiple stores will have its unique domain. You can use your existing domain if you have one.

Or else Shopify allows the users to purchase domains from its platform. You can use international domains to build multiple stores for different regions.

And here you are, ready to have multiple stores on Shopify.

How to manage multiple stores on Shopify?

It is important to adopt specific strategies for running your business smoothly.

Otherwise, you will likely get overwhelmed, and all your stores will suffer the consequences of poor business management.

Here are some strategies you can follow to manage your multiple Shopify stores;

1. Real-time inventory management
2. Choose the right PIM software
3. Centralized Order Management
4. Centralized Customer Support

1. Real-time inventory management

Inventory management software lets you stay updated about your stock levels. It allows you to keep an eye on the demands and ensures you always have enough stock to meet your audience’s needs.

Look for a successful inventory management system with essential features of your needs.

It provides smooth fulfillment and logistics, prevents overselling, and gives you a protected buyer experience.

2. Choose the right PIM software

When you are running a multi-channel business, it will be very hectic to arrange the data manually, and it may result in inaccurate problems.

A PIM (Product Information Management) is software that gives you an overview of your stores from one dashboard. 

PIM is essential software for your stores that will arrange the data in one centralized place, and then distribute, update, and present that data across your stores, resulting in unified information in real-time.

3. Centralized Order Management

When you are running multiple Shopify stores, it can be difficult to manage the data across the stores.

A centralized order management system can help you manage multi-store purchasing and returns.

A centralized order management system with essential features can help fulfill and keep track of all the orders.

 Look for the order management system to have these key features;

• Syncing inventory in regular intervals
• Order distribution to fulfillment nodes
• Order fulfillment from one or multiple nodes and syncing it to the main source
• Automation rules to distribute inventory across different channels. 

4. Centralized Customer Support

Several queries from multiple Shopify stores can lead to multiple problems if they come from multiple channels.

A customer support system allows you to keep all your customer queries and order information in one convenient place.

It allows you to track customer feedback data and implement it in the product development process. 

With a cohesive customer support system, you can prevent confusion within your customer support team, and it improves shoppers’ experience and, in return, can increase the customer’s attention.

Apps to manage multiple Shopify stores efficiently

We always need a helping hand, especially when taking on multiple tasks while running multiple stores online.

Here we have listed some useful apps that you can use for your benefit;

1. Apimio
2. Veeqo
3. Syncio
4. Rewind
5. Putler
6. Gorgias

1. Apimio

Apimio is a Canadian Product Information Management company based in Toronto and helps companies with PIM and PXM solutions.

A tool like Apimio lets you invite all your retailers to your dashboard so you can share your product data in one click. 

Features

• Centralize all product information
• Product information validation
• CSV import
• Manipulate product information with Templates
• Bulk editor
• Share product information
• Multi-channel listing

2. Veeqo 

Managing inventory in multiple stores can become messy and is very time-consuming; you can use multiple apps to help you with this matter.

Veeqo provides the best solutions to handle inventory management correctly across multiple Shopify stores.

Features

• Easily manage the purchase orders
• Warehouse management control
• Automated purchasing management
• Connect physical stores
• Inventory syncing across multiple channels
• Create product bundles
• Running Cloud-based operation

3. Syncio

Syncio is one of the best apps to centralize inventory operations.

It can sync inventory, product attributes, and order information across multiple stores in real-time.

It saves a lot of your time, and you can consume that time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Features

• Sync the products across all stores
• Easily update the same products across multiple stores
• Map existing products by inventory
• Centrally manage the orders
• Prevent overselling
• Time-saving manually updating product attributes

4. Rewind

Rewind is a cloud-based data protection solution that automatically backups vital data on multiple platforms, including Shopify.

It also backs up product images, orders, customers, themes, product details, and much more.

Features

• Get rid of manual CSV export
• Supporting customers via chats, emails, and phone
• Provides error checking and reports
• Backup millions of items
• Mobile forms automation
• Prevent data loss

5. Putler

Putler is a multichannel analytics and insight app that provides you with in-depth reports of your products, customers, orders, website traffic, and sales under one roof.

You can connect all of your multiple Shopify stores to Putler and monitor all of your stores from one place. 

Features

• Forecasting
• Goal tracking
• Custom segments
• Toggle between multiple Shopify stores
• Manage subscriptions
• Growth insights based on personalized data

6. Gorgias

Gorgias is an all-in-one customer service, support, and live chat helpdesk for platforms like Shopify. Messages come with full message history, shipping information, and addresses.

You can connect all of your customer service channels, emails, chats, Facebook, Instagram, and SMS and manage them from inside one Gorgias dashboard.

Features

• Ticketing system to keep orders
• Customer history tracking
• Email integration
• Refund, cancel, or duplicate orders from inside the store
• Autoresponders
• Manage customers and orders all from one dashboard

What to do next?

• Are you facing Shopify Multi-store issues? Well, head on to our blog to know more.
• Read more about our Product Information-related Guides here.
• Create an account to manage your products easily using Shopify’s best app Apimio. Sign-up here.
• Contact our support if you have any queries or issues.

Frequently Asked Questions