Email your existing customers:
If you have customer email addresses from your offline business, send an announcement that you're now accepting online orders.
Update your social media:
Post on all social media channels that your online store is live. Include your store URL and highlight what customers can purchase.
Add signage to your physical location:
If you still operate a physical location, display your website URL prominently on windows, receipts, business cards, and shopping bags.
Explore marketing apps:
Visit the Shopify App Store to find marketing apps that help you set goals and automate customer outreach.
Consider local advertising:
Advertise in your local area through radio, local blogs, or social media ads targeted to your city or town. This works especially well for restaurants and service businesses with delivery or pickup options.
💡Tip from Reddit Conversations:
“Many offline store owners on Reddit warn about underestimating shipping costs when pricing products online. One merchant shared that they calculated shipping based on their largest box size, then found most orders used smaller packages, allowing them to pocket the difference as extra margin. Another merchant did the opposite-used average package size for calculations-and lost money on every third order when shipping heavier items. The workaround that worked: create shipping profiles in Shopify for light, medium, and heavy items, then assign products to the correct profile so customers pay accurate shipping costs, and you don't lose margin on fulfilment.”