Tips for Managing Multiple Online Stores
Running one e-commerce business is hard enough, but what if you have two? Or four? How do you manage your time between the stores? The trick is to run each business the same way, even if they’re selling drastically different products. We’ve compiled some tips for managing multiple online stores, so you don’t burn yourself out.
Create a Standard Procedure
One mistake that businesses make when starting out online is not documenting everything. Go through all the tasks you do for your business — including fulfilling orders, putting products online, etc. — and document it. This will become the basis for managing multiple online stores. This way, if you hire people to help you, the documents will tell them exactly what to do. This will also help you stay consistent in business.
Manage Everything in One Place
If you’re using a platform such as Magento or Shopify for managing multiple online stores, keep all the stores in one place. Keeping sales and inventory in one place will help you keep track of your life much easier. A management system is integral for the success of all e-commerce stores.
This can be applied to social media as well. If you have social networking accounts for all your e-commerce businesses, you can manage each and every account on something like Hootsuite or Sprout Social. These apps will allow you to publish posts across platforms — saving you a ton of time.
Encourage Users to Create Content
Depending on your businesses, and your following, you can encourage users to create content for you. If users are passionate about your products, they’ll promote them on Instagram, Twitter, and other social network sites. And you can encourage this by asking them to send you photos of them using your product, with permission to put it on your website. It’s a win-win.
With these tips in mind, managing multiple online stores will be less of a hassle. While it can be a lot to tackle, these simple tricks can help you save time and money.