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When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, he didn’t rest on his laurels. He went on to start and nourish multiple businesses, including the iconic production company Pixar, which he heavily funded and guided as its chairman. Jobs is an example of a serial entrepreneur, someone who starts one new business after another.

Do successful serial entrepreneurs always launch successful ventures? No. Jobs himself struck out with his post-Apple company, NeXT Computers, which folded in 1997. However, by relentlessly seeking out new ventures, he demonstrated the traits of serial entrepreneurship, which stuck with him even when he returned to Apple.

You don’t need to be the co-founder of Apple to be a successful serial entrepreneur. All you need is relentless drive, new ideas, and the ability to sell yourself to venture investors whose money can help get your startup off the ground. Here are some insights into how many serial entrepreneurs create a string of successful enterprises.

What is a serial entrepreneur?

A serial entrepreneur is an individual who starts, manages, and (ideally) sells multiple businesses or ventures throughout their career. Unlike traditional entrepreneurs who focus on growing a single company, serial entrepreneurs thrive on the process of creation and innovation. Their entrepreneurial ventures often span diverse industries.

Some famous examples include: Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who started his career with Virgin Records before expanding into radio channels, airlines (Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America), space travel (Virgin Galactic), a rail franchise (Virgin Trains), and telecommunications (Virgin Mobile); Oprah Winfrey, host of the iconic daytime talk show that bears her name, who built an empire by launching Harpo Productions, founding O, The Oprah Magazine, co-producing the Broadway musical The Color Purple, and creating the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN); and Wayne Huizenga, who co-founded Waste Management Inc., as well as other successful businesses such as Blockbuster Video and AutoNation. Huizenga also thrived as a sports owner of the Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers, and Florida Marlins.

Serial entrepreneurs often possess a knack for identifying new opportunities, an appetite for calculated risks, and the ability to scale businesses before selling them or passing the leadership torch.

4 examples of serial entrepreneurs in ecommerce

1. Wil Yeung
2. Mimi Ikon
3. Zachary Quinn
4. Alex Matthews

For most serial entrepreneurs, success comes from clearly identifying a target market and building a business that meets that market’s needs or fills a gap in the market. But they don’t stop there. Serial entrepreneurs learn valuable lessons from their first business and apply those lessons to future endeavors. Here are four serial entrepreneurs with ecommerce expertise who may inspire your own forays into business:

1. Wil Yeung

Perhaps you know Wil Yeung from the Yeung Man Cooking YouTube show. If so, you probably wouldn’t guess that his first business venture involved flipping violins on eBay, where he realized he could stand out by offering better photos and descriptions than his competitors. From there, he expanded into dropshipping, started a brick-and-mortar music school, ran a wedding and commercial photography business, worked as a salt wholesaler, and made real estate investments. When the pandemic hit, Wil pivoted to YouTube, growing his channel by doubling his production schedule and creating additional income streams through a cookbook and online course.

“Money is a byproduct of the value that you create,” Wil says in an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. In the early stages of your new startup, focus on how your product or service will improve the lives of your clients. If your idea resonates and you manage your business well, the money will flow. The most successful ventures are those that truly serve the needs of a market and aren’t just designed to make a quick buck.

2. Mimi Ikonn

Mimi Ikonn is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Luxy Hair in 2010, building it into a multimillion-dollar hair extensions brand with a YouTube channel that amassed more than three million subscribers. After selling the company, she launched Intelligent Change, achieving further success by selling more than two million copies of its flagship product, the Five Minute Journal.

Mimi’s entrepreneurial strategy centers around her mastery of YouTube as a platform for community building and business growth. This comes naturally to Mimi because she loves her industry. “It’s about enjoying what you’re doing because that will resonate with the audience,” Mimi says on Shopify Masters. As an entrepreneur, you’ll be investing countless hours in your startup. Make sure that you’ll be happy making such an investment.

3. Zachary Quinn

Zachary Quinn co-founded the hat company Love Your Melon in 2012 as a college student. He built it into a multimillion-dollar company that donated nearly $10 million to pediatric cancer research and gifted more than 250,000 beanies to children battling cancer. Zachary eventually sold Love Your Melon and launched Oceanfoam in December 2023, creating eco-friendly foam rollers made from sea algae and recycled materials.

From one business to the next, Zachary’s entrepreneurial process has involved keeping a running list of ideas, embracing mission-driven business models, and collaborating with innovative partners who are willing to work with his vision. Oceanfoam combines sustainability, function, and aesthetic design, helping it stand out in its industry for its environmental impact.

“It’s important to notice the ideas that rise to the top of your list that you keep coming back to the most,” Zachary says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “That’s what I decide to work on and go after.”

4. Alex Matthews

Alex Matthews is the co-founder of De La Calle, a Mexican soda brand. Working in the highly competitive shelf-stable drinks category, Alex’s experience as a serial entrepreneur was invaluable. He’d previously started a juice company, is a cofounder of a series of LA eateries, and has his own branding agency LOAF Brands. This latter came in particularly handy when De La Calle had to pivot its sales and marketing strategy to explain their niche product to a broader audience. It was about making a little change that isn’t a complete revolution but crisps up the description,” Alex says on the Shopify Masters podcast.

His team at De La Calle have the same entrepreneurial spirit. “We’ve all made mistakes, you know. Been through the ringer, I guess you could call it. And so we were bringing some collective experience to the table,” he says.

4 tips for becoming a successful serial entrepreneur

1. Practice resilience and patience
2. Meet the needs of the market
3. Improve your team-building and networking skills
4. Develop your financial acumen

Becoming a serial entrepreneur doesn’t require boundless wealth or connections, but you do need to cultivate a unique blend of resilience, adaptability, and strategic thinking. Here are four key guidelines for success in your entrepreneurial ventures:

1. Practice resilience and patience

Many successful serial entrepreneurs have faced setbacks. View each failure as a valuable learning experience. If a business fails, analyze what went wrong, extract key takeaways, and apply those lessons to your next venture.

Before diving into multiple ventures at once, focus on building a successful track record with at least a couple of your early projects. This demonstrates your ability to execute and manage businesses, making it easier to attract investors and build credibility. For example, if your first business was a successful local bakery, use the knowledge gained to open a second location or a related food service.

2. Meet the needs of the market

Look for gaps in the market or emerging trends. For example, the rise of mobile network technology created opportunities for app development and mobile-first businesses.

Before investing significant resources, thoroughly validate your product or service concept. This includes conducting market research, gathering customer feedback, and creating prototypes. Apply the key takeaways from your research to your emerging business. Clear product conceptualization and a thorough understanding of the market may inspire outsiders to invest in your business.

Design your businesses with scalability in mind. Consider how your business model can be replicated and expanded to reach a wider audience.

3. Improve your team-building and networking skills

Surround yourself with skilled and passionate individuals who complement your strengths. Attend industry events, connect with other entrepreneurs and self-employed people, and build relationships with potential investors. These connections can provide valuable insights and opportunities.

As you manage multiple ventures, learn to delegate tasks and empower your team. This frees up your time to focus on strategic planning and new opportunities.

4. Develop your financial acumen

Research various funding options, such as:

• Angel investors. An angel investor is a person who provides your fledgling company with funding in exchange for an ownership stake. They typically look for passionate founders who could benefit from their advice as much as their financial support.

• Venture capital. Venture capital is money that privately owned companies provide in exchange for partial ownership. Instead of working with one individual, you might work with multiple investors from a firm.

• Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a fundraising tool in which you gather small donations from a lot of people—like social media followers, friends, and early adopters of your business.

Be prepared to present a compelling business plan and financial projections. If you plan to solicit large investments, or eventually become a publicly traded company, you will need to understand and comply with regulations set by entities such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

When you achieve success with one venture, consider reinvesting profits into other startups. This can create a portfolio of businesses and diversify your financial risk.

A lot of the news out of the tech industry involves tales of upstart businesses disrupting stagnant industries, growing rapidly, and ultimately going public via an initial public offering (IPO). If you’re looking to scale quickly, this startup model may be one you’re considering.

Or, you may have something different in mind. Perhaps your business idea is something that intentionally doesn’t scale, like creating luxury products by hand for a niche market. World domination may not be on your mind, but having a profitable full-time career is. This is a more traditional approach to small business and differs from the startup model.

Here’s a comparison of startups and small businesses, emphasizing the ways that these entrepreneurial models differ from one another.

What is a startup?

A startup is a company designed to develop and scale an innovative product, service, or business model. Startups initially operate with outside funding rather than revenue generated by the company. This funding could come from venture capitalists or angel investors, who finance the company in exchange for an equity stake, or from bootstrap funding from the founders. A successful startup may require significant capital investment to create a proof of concept, so startup founders may find themselves spending a significant amount of time courting investors.

Startups typically shoot for exponential growth and market disruption. Rather than striving for steady, incremental expansion, a typical startup aims to capture large market shares quickly. Because of these expectations, startups are frequently associated with technology—and Silicon Valley—because of its possibility of nearly limitless scale and ability to fundamentally change the way we live and work. But startups can emerge in any sector.

Because they need substantial outside investment to get off the ground, startup founders often aim to generate an outsized return on investment (ROI) for their early investors—and themselves. As they work toward their IPO, startups must prove that they can resonate with their target market and reach profitability for the long haul.

What is a small business?

A small business is a privately owned and operated company with a limited number of employees and relatively low revenue when compared to large corporations. The US Small Business Association (SBA) defines a small business as “an independent business having fewer than 500 employees.” Small businesses tend to focus on establishing a stable, sustainable presence within a specific market niche. Some small business owners, particularly those who start service businesses and work with their clients face to face, may focus exclusively on their local market (e.g., a cleaning service paying house calls within specific ZIP codes).

Many ecommerce stores qualify as small businesses. They might ship goods all over the world, but they nonetheless focus on their specific retail niche. Eventually, these businesses may expand to serve broader market segments. Yet if they remain independent, with fewer than 500 employees, they still meet the SBA’s definition of a small business.

Most small business owners prioritize consistent revenue and long-term stability over rapid growth. Small businesses often rely on personal savings, reinvestment from the founder(s), small business loans, or grants. Those with physical storefronts may play a prominent role in their local communities, and they may want to impact their supply chain in a positive way.

Startup vs. small business: What are the differences?

Startups and small businesses share common aspects, but these two entities notably differ in their goals, growth strategies, and risk tolerance. Here are some of the significant differences between a startup and a small business:

Goals and vision

Startup

From the very early stages, startups aim for rapid, exponential growth and industry disruption. Their goal is often to scale up from a small enterprise, capture a large market share, and potentially achieve an exit through acquisition or an IPO.

Small business

The archetypal small business prioritizes stability, profitability, and long-term sustainability. Its goal is often to serve a specific niche or local market and maintain a consistent customer base with stable income, rather than pursue large-scale expansion.

Speed of growth

Startup

One key difference between a startup and a small business is how they define success and growth. Startups prioritize aggressive growth by rapidly acquiring users, expanding into new markets, and iterating their products.

Small business

Most small business owners typically adopt a more traditional business model, where they try to keep debt to a minimum and reach profitability quickly. While they seek to grow, they pursue that growth at a more measured pace, focusing on customer retention and serving their existing market.

Innovation

Startup

Innovation is a frequent component of the startup business model. Startup businesses aim to disrupt the current market with new products or services. If a startup’s innovations are truly novel, the company may create a brand new market within the business landscape. Think of how Uber and Lyft disrupted the taxi market and created an impactful business model for passengers and drivers alike.

Small business

Small businesses traditionally focus on consistency and reliability, offering familiar products or services. If existing business models work, they stick with them. These businesses may prioritize customer satisfaction over industry disruption.

Funding sources

Startup

Startups often require significant amounts of money to get off the ground. Founders typically raise money from venture capitalists (VCs) or angel investors, who invest in exchange for equity. Startups may also leverage crowdfunding platforms. Startups may go through multiple funding rounds to finance their rapid expansion.

Small business

A small business typically requires significant investment from its founder, who may tap into personal savings to fund their own business. But the goal is to fund the business with sales and revenue, rather than with debt or sizable outside investment. When they do need funding, small business owners often borrow money from banks, either via business loans or business lines of credit.

*Shopify Capital loans must be paid in full within a maximum of 18 months, and two minimum payments apply within the first two six-month periods. The actual duration may be less than 18 months based on sales.

Risk level

Startup

Given their association with new technologies and market disruption, startups are inherently high-risk ventures. Their business models are often unproven, and no entrepreneur can fully guarantee a product-market fit from the outset. Many startups fail within their first year, but the potential for massive returns attracts investors in search of the next brilliant business idea.

Small business

Small businesses come with less risk than startups, since they often operate in an established market using a proven business model. Banks may be more willing to loan money to a conservatively managed small business. Small business owners should generally have an appetite to run their businesses for a long time. 

Customer base

Startup

Startups are often underpinned by a vision of dominating the market, aiming for nationwide or even global adoption of their product or service. Serving a big market can help them attract deep-pocketed investors. A number of startups start as the brainchild of social entrepreneurs who wish to change the world through their businesses, and those entrepreneurs intrinsically aim big in service of their goals.

Small business

Small businesses aim to reach a comparatively small number of customers. They focus on specific, local, or niche markets, aiming to build long-term brand loyalty and repeat business.

Operational structure

Startup

Startups often have a flexible, fast-paced, and experimental structure, with small, agile teams. Roles are fluid, and employees may wear multiple hats. It’s common for early startup employees to get equity stakes in their company, which can help inspire an “all hands on deck” mentality. As the startup scales to a larger company, it may take on a more traditional management and operational structures.

Small business

Small businesses tend to have a more traditional and stable organizational structure, with defined roles and responsibilities. Employees typically receive all their compensation in the form of wages and benefits. Small business management teams prioritize efficiency and consistency over experimentation. Of course, a really small business may consist of a single owner handling all aspects of business operations.

Running a successful business requires more than hard work and long hours. You might be working 12-hour days, fulfilling orders at midnight, and responding to customers, yet still feel like you’re making little progress. Achieving your goals depends not only on the time you invest but also on how you and your team spend that time. You need both efficiency and effectiveness to make the most of your resources.

Efficiency is about precision—getting things done with minimal waste. Effectiveness is about purpose—choosing the right things to do in the first place. Without both, you risk employee burnout, missed opportunities, or executing the wrong strategies. Here’s how to balance efficiency and effectiveness for leaner operations and better results.

Efficiency vs. effectiveness: What’s the difference?

Efficiency and effectiveness are often confused, and while these terms may sound similar, they focus on different aspects of performance. As Peter Drucker, the “father of modern management,” put it, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Here’s more on how they differ:

What is efficiency?

Efficiency is how well you use your resources—time, money, and effort—to achieve your desired results. In other words, you’re efficient when you’re being precise and fast, and use fewer resources to complete your task. Efficient teams understand how to streamline the operational process to save time and cut out redundancy while still achieving a quality output.

For example, if you finish a project management task in half the time it usually takes by streamlining a lengthy review process, you’re being efficient. It could also mean automating a manual manufacturing process, like bottling hot sauce with machinery instead of by hand, or using bulk purchasing to reduce material costs without sacrificing quality.

Common KPIs to measure efficiency and help you identify ecommerce bottlenecks include:

• Inventory turnover. Your inventory turnover rate measures how quickly your inventory moves through your warehouses or storage. A high inventory turnover rate indicates efficiency.

• Fill rate. This supply chain KPI measures the percentage of orders correctly filled on the first shipment, with no back orders or missing items. It indicates how efficiently you’re able to meet customer demand.

• Time per task. This operational efficiency KPI measures how long it takes to complete tasks like filling orders or writing email campaigns. The goal is to minimize time while maintaining quality.

What is effectiveness?

If efficiency is about the operational process, effectiveness is about strategizing to ensure your efforts matter. When you’re effective, you achieve your desired outcome—irrespective of the time and resources it took to get there. Effective teams are goal-oriented and don’t just do more, faster—they focus on work that moves the needle. For example, if your data shows customers are abandoning their carts, it makes sense to focus on resolving that issue—ideally quickly, but the primary goal is to increase conversions.

Choosing the right KPIs for effectiveness depends on your business and your goals, but many ecommerce companies focus on metrics that gauge profitability, growth potential, and financial health. Common KPIs to measure effectiveness include:

• Customer lifetime value (CLV). CLV represents the net profit generated from a customer over the entire relationship. A high CLV indicates strong customer retention.

• Return on ad spend (ROAS). ROAS is a KPI that gives you insight into the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns by tracking the revenue you earn for each dollar spent on advertising. The more effective an ad campaign is at increasing revenue, the higher your ROAS.

• Repeat purchase rate. If you consistently have a lot of repeat purchases, it means you’re effectively engaging with customers throughout the purchase journey and fostering brand loyalty.

How do efficiency and effectiveness work together?

Efficiency improves effectiveness and vice versa. When you streamline operations and remove friction (efficiency), you free up time and resources to focus on what really matters (effectiveness). Being effective without being efficient can waste time and resources. On the flip side, being efficient without being effective can lead to poor results. Without a clear strategic direction, it’s easy to become efficient at doing the wrong things. Increasing effectiveness sharpens efficiency by ensuring you’re not just optimizing for speed—you’re optimizing to hit goals that matter for your business.

For example, say your social media team develops an efficient way to create content and post multiple times a day, but they see poor results in engagement, traffic, and sales. The process may be fast, but it’s not effective. They’d need to revisit the strategy. What’s the goal: Promoting a sale? Building hype for a product launch? Once the desired outcome is clear, they can shape a process to create more effective content. On the other hand, if the content performs well but takes five rounds of approvals to publish, the process is inefficient. The potential is there, but it needs speed and scalability to reach its full value.

How to improve efficiency and effectiveness

1. Align teams around clear goals
2. Audit and optimize your process
3. Use data to steer strategic decisions
4. Empower your team to take ownership

1. Align teams around clear goals

Aligning both company and personal employee goals is key to improving effectiveness. Employees tend to be more motivated when they see a clear link between their professional objectives and company goals. When team members understand what success looks like, they’re more likely to stay on target and channel their efforts into meaningful results. This shared vision promotes better prioritization and process improvements that naturally increase efficiency.

2. Audit and optimize your process

Regularly assess workflows to identify and remove bottlenecks (like meetings about meetings or spending too much time organizing files that are rarely used). Using project management and work management tools like Asana, Trello, or Notion, teams can map out workflows, assign ownership, and automate time-consuming tasks like billing and data entry for greater efficiency.

3. Use data to steer strategic decisions

Data can reveal whether your strategies produce the desired outcome. Metrics both on the operations side and on the business side give teams clarity about what’s working, what’s dragging, and where to pivot. For example, tracking your fill rate (an operational metric) along with your customer lifetime value (a business metric) might show that while orders are being accurately and efficiently fulfilled, customers aren’t sticking around. That insight could lead to a strategic shift toward improving the post-purchase experience to more effectively increase customer retention and deliver more revenue growth. With the right data, teams can make decisions that improve both efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Empower your team to take ownership

Teams are efficient and effective when they feel trusted to make strategic decisions and solve problems. In fact, Gallup found that engaged employees drive positive outcomes like lower employee turnover and higher profitability within organizations. Giving team members ownership over their roles can unlock big ideas that drive your business forward.

For example, instead of dictating exactly what needs to be sent, you might empower your marketing team to test different email campaigns with customers. This directive gives them the freedom to experiment with subject lines, content, and timing, and then analyze the results to see what resonates. Create a culture of open communication where ideas like process changes, testing improvements, and measuring outcomes are encouraged and supported.

In the 15th century, painters like Albrecht Dürer studied anatomy and geometry to create life-like artwork, the foundation for generations of artists. By the 19th century, realism emerged, requiring years of dedication and practice to produce something that looked like “real life.”

The 20th century saw the rise of hyperrealistic images with the advent of photography. Today, anyone with access to a computer can use advanced printing technologies like DTG printing to create custom-printed garments with vivid, detailed designs.

Centuries of diligent innovation have made it possible for you to do in an afternoon what took someone like Dürer months on end—and you can profit from it. Learn how the DTG printing process works to put a picture on a shirt, so you can use it to create your own custom apparel.

What is DTG printing?

Direct-to-garment (DTG) printing is a digital printing process commonly used to create custom apparel. DTG is a direct printing method. Whereas techniques like sublimation and screen printing require creating a design and transferring it to fabric with heat or pressure, DTG uses digital inkjet printers to print directly onto fabric.

DTG technology is relatively new—the first DTG patent was approved in 2000. This method has become popular with print-on-demand apparel businesses because of its flexibility and image quality. DTG printers can create highly detailed designs in bright, vivid colors.

How does DTG printing work?

1. Prepare the digital files
2. Source your fabric
3. Pretreat your fabric
4. Print your design
5. Cure the ink

Discover the steps involved in printing quality custom apparel with DTG technology:

1. Prepare the digital files

DTG printers print images from digital files, much like standard household printers. If you’re working with a print-on-demand (POD) partner, these are the files you’ll provide when you place your order.

Consult the printing company’s file requirements and format your designs correctly. Printers may require a minimum resolution, measured in dots per inch (dpi), and have preferred file types. Printify, for example, recommends providing PNG files with a transparent background and a resolution of at least 150 dpi.

2. Source your fabric

Select a fabric or blank garment for printing. DTG printing is most effective on natural fibers such as cotton. You can print designs on both light and dark garments. If you’re working with an on-demand printing company like Printify or Printful, select a garment from their catalog of printing blanks. 

3. Pretreat your fabric

Pretreat your fabrics by spraying a polymer-based solution over the area you’ll print over. Pretreating evens out the surface and ensures a uniform ink transfer.

Woven fabrics like cotton are made by joining fine threads together to form a fabric. If you look closely at a cotton t-shirt, you’ll notice individual loops of thread with small spaces between them. Imagine painting an uneven surface with a roller—the first pass would probably leave a few blank spots behind. Pretreatment prevents a similar phenomenon from occurring on your printed garments. 

4. Print your design

During the printing process, industrial DTG printers spray water-based inks out of print heads and directly onto the surface of the fabric. DTG printers use CMYK color processing, which means they can create any color by combining cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. 

DTG printers also use white ink to create full-color images. The inclusion of white ink makes it possible to print designs on dark-colored fabrics. When a DTG printer interprets your design file, it’ll leave transparent areas blank. In other words, they’ll be the same color as the background fabric.

5. Cure the ink

After printing is complete, printmakers cure the design by applying a dye fixative and heat. The curing process helps the ink set and harden slightly so that it resists wear. Popular methods for DTG curing involve using a heat press or a conveyor dryer. A conveyor dryer slowly passes garments through a conveyor belt-like structure. It is slower and more expensive than heat pressing but requires less hands-on work.

With a heat press, you need to press each garment by hand. This method may be better suited for small print runs, if you don’t want to invest in expensive equipment yet. 

Is DTG printing right for my business? 

The best printing method for you will depend on several key financial and aesthetic factors. 

Here are some of the elements to consider if you’re considering DTG printing:

Design style 

Direct-to-garment printing is a good choice for printing photographic images or complex designs. In terms of intricacy, DTG is on par with direct-to-film (DTF) printing. Both of these techniques are capable of printing more detail than heat-transfer vinyl (HTV) or screen printing.

Budget and order quantity

When it comes to custom apparel printing, budget and order quantity are inextricably tied. This is true because many printing methods involve a set-up fee—a charge covering the time it takes a printing company to set up your design for printing.

The setup for screen printing presses is much more complicated than for DTG printing. With screen printing, printmakers have to create at least one custom screen for each design. This makes the initial fee higher. DTG setup, on the other hand, is about as simple as sending an image to a printer. 

The easy setup makes DTG printing a cost-effective choice for small orders. If you were only printing one t-shirt, DTG would be significantly cheaper than screen printing. If, on the other hand, you’re placing a bulk order, screen printing might be a better choice. Once the initial setup is complete, the screen-printing process is much faster than DTG printing, and the per-item cost is lower. If you spread the initial setup fee across a bulk order, screen printing may be cheaper per item.

Personal preferences

Every printing process has strengths and limitations. Personal preferences related to fabric composition, environmental impact, and design feel may help you select your ideal technique. Sublimation printing, for example, is only compatible with polyester or polyester-cotton blends and works best on light-colored garments. If you prefer to work with natural fibers or want to print on a dark background, direct-to-garment printing is a better choice. DTG printing generates less water waste than screen printing and, compared to DTF printing, creates more durable designs. DTG printing also uses eco-friendly inks.

DTG printing tips for small businesses

Direct-to-garment printing with a print-on-demand partner is relatively simple, but it takes some skill to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Try these tips to get the best results and boost sales of your DTG-printed garments:

Research competitors

Creating beautiful, original designs is one of the ways print-on-demand business owners add value for consumers. To ensure you design something truly unique for your audience, do a competitive analysis to understand what types of designs are already out there and doing well.

Search for items similar to yours on Google, Amazon, and marketplaces relevant to your business to spot common themes in your competitors’ offerings. See where you can offer something new while staying true to your brand identity.

Once you’re ready to create something unique, DTG printing has several advantages for custom apparel designers. Compared to traditional printing methods, DTG printing is capable of rendering more intricate designs with fine details. Unlike screen printing, DTG printing can easily print images with multiple colors. DTG can also print with white ink, unlike sublimation printing. Keep these advantages in mind as you explore apparel designs.

Choose the right fabric

Natural fibers like cotton tend to yield the best results. Select a fabric with a tight weave—less space between the threads will make it easier to achieve a smooth design. Consider the fabric’s weight and treatment. Heavier, pre-treated fabrics often provide a more stable printing surface, minimizing issues like ink bleeding or distortion. Some synthetic blends may work, but thoroughly test them, as they can react unpredictably with DTG inks.

Test your prints

Test your prints by ordering a sample garment. Reviewing a physical sample is the best way to ensure all of the elements of your design render correctly. Check to make sure that the colors are accurate and the design isn’t cut off at the edges. Evaluate the feel of your selected fabric, and shop for new partners if the sample garment doesn’t meet your standards.

What good is a brilliant online ad if no one interacts with it? What value does witty social media content have for your business if it doesn’t boost your number of followers? While creating good content is a key aspect of marketing, that content must also exist to boost engagement with your brand. You want people to go from your content to visiting your profile page, shopping in your ecommerce store, and, ultimately, becoming loyal customers.

This is why many business owners and marketers turn to a metric known as engagement rate. It compares engagement (e.g., total comments, likes, and clicks) to either the total number of campaign impressions or a brand’s total followers. Your engagement rate essentially shows how effectively a post or a campaign is impacting people when adjusted for total audience size. Here are some ways to calculate your own engagement rate and identify opportunities to reach more customers.

What is engagement rate?

Engagement rate (ER) is a metric used to measure the level of interaction your content receives from your audience. It’s typically expressed in the form of a percentage. This percentage might measure customer engagement metrics such as likes, comments, video views, shares, clicks, and saves, depending on the platform or medium. It’s a common way to assess the performance of your social media profiles, website, and email marketing campaigns.

As a business owner, you may find calculating engagement rate to be essential for evaluating content performance and making data-driven decisions. A high engagement rate indicates that your content resonates with your target audience and they’re choosing to interact with that content online. All these interactions can indicate greater brand loyalty, higher conversion rates, and better visibility. Conversely, a low engagement rate may signal the need for content adjustments or a shift in your marketing strategy. By monitoring your average engagement on social media platforms and in ad campaigns, you can optimize your content strategy, improve customer retention, and allocate resources more effectively.

How to calculate engagement rate

You can calculate your engagement rate by follower count or by impressions. Both methods provide valuable insights into audience preferences, so it’s worth knowing both formulas:

By follower count

Engagement rate = (Number of engagements / Number of followers) x 100

This engagement rate formula helps measure how actively your existing audience interacts with your content. It provides a good metric for understanding overall community engagement and loyalty. It’s also useful for benchmarking performance against competitors with a similar follower size.

Here’s an example of how you can apply this engagement rate calculation: Let’s say you have 10,000 followers on Instagram. You post a photo of a new product on your page. The specific post receives 350 likes, 75 comments, and 25 shares. That adds up to 450 total engagements. Plugging this into the follower-based ER formula looks like this:

(450 / 10,000) x 100 = 4.5%

The calculation reveals that 4.5% of your followers engaged with your post on the Instagram platform. For clarity, this does not reveal your overall Instagram engagement rate; it’s the engagement for one specific post.

By impressions

Engagement rate = (Number of engagements / Number of impressions) x 100

Businesses and social media managers use this formula to calculate engagement beyond their audience of existing followers. This method is valuable for measuring the performance of paid ads, boosted posts, or email campaigns, where reach can extend beyond your existing customers.

Here’s how to apply this formula—total engagement divided by total impressions—to a real-world scenario. Let’s say you run a LinkedIn ad that generates 25,000 impressions. It elicits 600 likes, 120 comments, and 80 shares, which comes to 800 total engagements. Plugging those numbers into the formula looks like this:

(800 / 25,000) x 100 = 3.2%

The calculation reveals that 3.2% of people who saw the ad engaged with it. For clarity, it does not reveal whether those engagements were particularly meaningful connections. That would require post-engagement data such as whether the audience interaction led people to visit your website or make a purchase. Nonetheless, it’s a valuable digital marketing metric that lets you gain insights into your online ad’s resonance.

Average engagement rates

You can opt to focus on follower count or impressions when you track engagement rate percentages. Either way, a single calculation represents just a snapshot in time. If you want a better understanding of your overall engagement in a specific period of time, look at the average engagement rates of multiple campaigns or the same campaign over multiple days. Here’s what the average engagement rate formula looks like:

Average engagement rate = Total engagement rate / Total number of posts published

Businesses, marketers, and social media influencers use this metric to obtain a more accurate view of audience interaction. For example, let’s say you post on your social media page on a Friday and then track its performance over the weekend. The daily engagement rate is 4.5% for Friday, 3.2% for Saturday, and 5.8% for Sunday. We add these together and divide by three.

(4.5 + 3.2 + 5.8) / 3 = 4.5

The average daily engagement rate for this post is 4.5%. Remember, you can also use this same formula to find the average engagement rate of multiple posts, which differs from finding a different engagement rate for each day of a single post.

What is a good engagement rate?

What constitutes a good engagement rate will vary by industry, content type, and audience demographics. With that caveat, here’s a general overview based on recent trends and data as of early 2025:

Instagram

Instagram is a hub for influencer marketing, and an influencer’s engagement rate is one of the biggest factors in their ability to make money on the platform. A good engagement rate on Instagram is generally considered to be between 1% and 5%. Micro-influencers often see higher engagement rates than accounts with massive followings.

TikTok

TikTok tends to have some of the highest engagement rates on the internet. A good rate on the platform might range from 6% to 10%. 

X

X is known for comparatively low engagement rates and a dwindling user base. A good rate on this platform may range around 1%. Due to the fast-paced nature of the platform and the prevalence of bots, it can be hard to maintain and verify high engagement on X.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s algorithm evaluates the usual signals (like comments and shares) but also the professional relevance of each piece of content because most LinkedIn users are on the platform to connect with a relatively small cohort of people in their industry. With that said, any engagement above 3% is considered good for LinkedIn.

Facebook

Facebook’s engagement rates have declined in recent years, with rates between 0.09% and 1% considered average. Due to algorithm changes, Facebook posts rarely see vast organic reach. Instead, Facebook emphasizes paid advertising to boost engagement. High-quality visuals help, too.

YouTube

Anything exceeding YouTube’s average engagement rate of 3.87% is considered good. YouTube and its advertisers also focus on key metrics related to how long users watch a video, whether they watch recommended videos from the same creator, and whether they subscribe to that creator’s channel.

If you’re a content creator, you can leverage social media analytics tools to learn more about your engagement on each platform. If math isn’t your thing, you can use an online engagement rate calculator to run numbers for you. Here’s one such free calculator, but there are many to choose from.

When people visit your website, you want it to work as intended. If users have a bad experience on your site, they’ll likely move on—and they may not come back. That’s not a good way to turn your site visitors into customers.

You can ensure your ecommerce site is crossing all the right t’s and dotting all the right i’s through website testing. Let’s take a look at how you can test your site across a variety of domains, including its functionality and performance.

What is website testing?

Website testing is a process by which you analyze and assess how different site visitors can use your website’s various functions—everything from login fields and navigation to buttons, forms, and links. Any small glitch or friction on your site could end up alienating a potential customer, which is why testing is important.

You can conduct manual website testing, but larger sites benefit from performing regular tests with automated tools. You can integrate tools from the Shopify App Store yourself or task web developers to set up automated testing functionality for you.

9 types of website testing

1. Functionality testing
2. Usability testing
3. Compatibility testing
4. Performance testing
5. Accessibility testing
6. Security testing
7. Regression testing
8. Localization testing
9. Database testing

Employing these web tests regularly will help ensure your site is available and usable by as many people as possible:

1. Functionality testing

If several parts of the user interface are broken or glitchy, people won’t use your site. That’s where functional testing comes in to help. Website unit testing (testing the smallest, independent parts of your code in isolation) and website quality assurance testing (making sure everything works together before going live) are both ways to test for functionality.

Every month or whenever you get a customer service complaint, ensure that core functions like login fields, search bars, and navigation menus work as intended. Check that visual elements and videos load properly, your text is readable, and there aren’t any broken links.

If your site is relatively small and uncomplicated, you can test the functionality of everything manually. Alternatively, your development team can write scripts that test each element and validate the results, or you can use pre-existing tools like BrowserStack Automate, Selenium, or Cypress.

2. Usability testing

Usability testing minimizes any areas of friction between your site and your users, ensuring that navigation is intuitive. This phase of testing is all about making the user experience (UX) flawless.

Whenever you introduce a new interactive element to your website, take the following steps to perform usability testing:

• Plan the goals of your test. Are you specifically looking to see if visitors can find the contact info or complete a purchase? Limit each test to one task.

• Define and recruit your target audience. Who does your site cater to? Recruit target users that match those demographics and ask them if they’d be interested in completing a task on your site in exchange for a small fee, product discount, or store credit.

• Conduct the test. Hop on a video call and ask the participant to complete the test (such as filling out a form) without guiding them or dictating how they should complete the task. See where they run into roadblocks, confusion, or elements not working as they should.

• Take action. Collect feedback from your user tests to make improvements.

You can also use tools like BrowserStack App Live and Dynatrace for this.

3. Compatibility testing

Compatibility testing guarantees your site works across mobile devices, browsers, and operating systems. It enhances user satisfaction across dynamic websites on all platforms.

Whenever you implement big design changes to your website, follow these steps for the compatibility testing process:

• Design your test cases. If you changed your checkout flow, make sure that it works just as well on desktop as it does on your mobile website.

• Execute your test. Perform the test yourself or give a user instructions on how to complete the test across devices.

• Analyze the results. Which browsers or OS platforms work best? Where did the functionality not work as expected? Make changes to resolve the issues, then retest the fix.

Tools like Screenfly or Blazemeter can help you test for software and hardware compatibility and make sure your site works with older platforms and is ready for newer ones.

4. Performance testing

Performance testing measures how well your website performs across metrics like responsiveness, stability, speed, and reliability. It helps make sure your site works under different load conditions, volumes of data, and network environments. As part of performance testing, integration testing ensures that the different parts of your site or systems work together, including web applications and plug-ins.

Keep these steps in mind for performance testing:

• Choose your testing environment and tools. If you want to test for site speed, choose a test focusing on that.

• Specify acceptable performance levels. Is page load time under three seconds? How many pages can your site handle in a given time?

• Create your testing scenarios. Will you test site speed? How many crashes under high-traffic load?

• Run the performance tests. Use the testing tools you chose to measure your site against the acceptable performance levels.

• Analyze the results. When does your site tend to crash? How fast does it load across pages and operating systems? Does it work consistently and reliably? If not, make any fixes and retest if needed.

Tools like Uptrends and Datadog can help with this.

5. Accessibility testing

Accessibility testing sets up people with visual, auditory, mobile, and cognitive disabilities for success when it comes to exploring your website—and it’s required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Here are the steps to perform website accessibility testing:

• Test across domains. You’ll want to assess accessibility for people with visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive impairments

• Analyze the results. Are all users able to access your site and receive the information you want to share with them?

• Make improvements. Do you need to add alt tags or descriptive tags for visual assets? What about closed captions for video?

• Re-test. Once you’ve made changes, make sure they work with a post-fix test.

Tools like Siteimprove and Applause can help with accessibility web testing.

6. Security testing

Ensuring the safety and security of your users’ data, especially financial or health data, is paramount. These are the steps for the security testing process:

• Plan and define the scope of your testing. Focus on one area at a time, like whether authentication systems allow users access to the appropriate parts of your site.

• Scan and test for potential issues. Are the places people can input their data secure? Are they protected against things like malicious code input?

• Perform a code review. Make sure your code is updated and doesn’t contain any flaws that could lead to lower security.

• Continually monitor and test for security. Attacks and other insecure events happen regularly, so your site needs to stay vigilant.

Tools like OWASP and VulScan can help with this.

7. Regression testing

As you improve and change your website, you’ll typically add functionalities and fix bugs. Sometimes, these changes can introduce unintended conflict with existing systems or website functionality. Regression testing lets you identify these problems and trace them back to their source.

Generally, you’ll test for older, known bugs after you make changes to make sure the old issue doesn’t come back. You’ll want to do this after every change you make to your website functionality.

The steps for regression testing include:

• Identify changes you’ve made. Compare the most recent code to the previous (working) code.

• Choose and prepare the environment and tools. Make sure you know how to best use your chosen testing tools.

• Execute tests. You’ll want to ferret out bugs introduced by new code.

• Analyze results. Does your new code cause problems? Make changes as needed, then re-test.

Both Selenium and Cypress are tools that can help you perform this type of testing.

8. Localization testing

Website localization testing makes sure your website works well in all the regions and languages you want to serve. Well-designed localization helps when you want to scale your site, too, making it easier to add new languages and regional content. Steps include:

• Identify your target markets and languages. You only need to focus on the specific places and languages you want to have on your site.

• Create translations and adapt layout. Make sure each language and culture is represented on your site and easily accessible.

• Conduct comparison testing. Is everything translated well? Are fluent speakers able to access the content?

• Analyze and make improvements. Re-test if necessary.

Tools like Browserstack and Smartcat can help with localization testing.

9. Database testing

A high volume of website data allows you to make better decisions as you grow your business, but data is only useful if it’s accurate and consistent.

Follow these steps for your database server testing, as well as penetration testing (making sure your database is secure against malicious attacks):

• Define clear testing goals. Are you looking to increase the speed of data retrieval, the security of your data, or its consistency? Choose your goal and focus there.

• Prepare your test environment and tools. Make sure you have the right tools for the job.

• Test your database. Does your database perform as fast as you want? Are users able to input and retrieve what they need consistently and accurately?

• Analyze results. If needed, you can make changes and re-test.

Tools like HammerDB and SQL Developer can help test for data integrity.

Chances are, you don’t have a crystal ball that lets you peek into the secret desires of your customers. Customer behavior analysis may just be the next best thing. Swapping mysticism for data, this strategy can help you understand what drives your customers to make purchases, so you can better meet their needs and preferences.

In this article, we’ll define consumer behavior, explain why it’s valuable to study, and guide you through performing your own customer behavior analysis.

What is customer behavior?

Customer behavior is the set of actions consumers take as they shop for, purchase, and use products or services. It is shaped by the individual’s personal characteristics, social influences, and environment.

Here are some various internal and external factors influencing consumer behavior:

• Psychological traits. Risk tolerance and decision-making style shape how customers evaluate and select products.

• Personal values. Core beliefs, ethical standards, and individual priorities can guide purchasing decisions and brand loyalty.

• Social and cultural context. Social trends, peer influence, and cultural norms impact shopping choices.

• Economic circumstances. Income level, financial stability, and perceived value affect spending patterns and price sensitivity.

• Lifestyle factors. Daily routines, hobbies, and life stages influence product preferences and shopping habits.

• Technology adoption. Digital literacy can affect how customers interact with online platforms and digital products.

What is customer behavior analysis?

Customer behavior analysis, or consumer behavior analysis, is the examination of how customers interact with your brand throughout the entire customer journey, from initial discovery to post-purchase.

Analyzing customer behavior involves studying both quantitative and qualitative data. The former includes customer data such as purchase history and average order value. The latter focuses on the motivations behind the behavior using customer feedback, reviews, and social media sentiment.

This behavioral data enables you to identify customer behavior patterns, predict future behavior, and adjust your offerings and marketing strategies accordingly. Understanding customer behavior can help you enhance customer experiences and improve customer retention, which will ultimately increase customer lifetime value (CLV) and provide sustainable growth.

How to conduct a customer behavior analysis

1. Gather data
2. Segment your audience
3. Identify selling points for each segment
4. Find and implement actionable insights

To better understand your customers’ behavior and use that knowledge to improve your marketing strategies, use this guide to customer behavior analysis as a starting point:

1. Gather data

The foundation of customer behavior analytics is collecting data about how customers interact with your brand. This should involve tracking quantitative metrics (such as purchase history, cart abandonment rates, average order value, and click-through rates on emails and ads) and qualitative insights (such as customer feedback, support ticket themes, and social media comments).

To conduct a customer behavior analysis effectively, draw from multiple data sources, such as:

• Website analytics. Website analytics tools like Google Analytics can track browsing patterns and help you map the customer journey toward a purchase.

• Customer relationship management (CRM). CRM systems document customer interactions and purchase and support history so you can build customer profiles.

• Post-purchase surveys. With a simple link to a survey in a post-purchase email, you can start gathering direct feedback from customers when your brand is top of mind.

• Ads. Digital and social media advertising metrics can offer valuable insights into what types of messaging are most effective.

• Social media. Social listening tools can give you a better idea of customer sentiment and how your brand is coming across on social media platforms.

• Customer service. Customer service data can help you identify pain points with your products, accepted payment methods, shipping options, and more.

By analyzing customer interactions across these touchpoints, you’ll be able to gain a holistic view of your audience’s behavior and preferences.

2. Segment your audience

Next, break your customer base into distinct, manageable customer segments based on shared characteristics. Customer segmentation can be demographic (age, location, income) or behavioral (purchase frequency, customer loyalty, average order value).

Demographic segmentation can give you a better understanding of your target audience. For instance, you may find that younger shoppers respond better to social media campaigns or customers in different regions prefer different products.

Behavioral segmentation helps you identify high-value customers. It can also offer customer lifetime value predictions and customer churn risk assessments. You can even create buyer personas to represent each segment’s key traits and behaviors.

Here’s an example of how a business might segment its customers based on behavioral data:

• Loyalists. They’re your customer base and more engaged than any other group. Maybe they’ve purchased within the past 30 days, placed six or more orders per year, or spent more than $500 this year alone. This customer is likely to try new products and is responsive to early access promotions.

• Active enthusiasts. Slightly less engaged than your loyalists, perhaps they’ve purchased within the past 90 days, tend to order three to five times per year, and spend $200 to $499 annually. This customer is a consistent buyer who is price-conscious and quality-focused.

• Occasional buyer. A seasonal or sale shopper, this type of customer has purchased within the past 180 days, orders once or twice a year, and spends $50 to $199 annually.

• At-risk customer. This customer is not particularly engaged and at risk of churning. Their last purchase was more than 180 days ago, they order infrequently, and their annual spending is highly variable.

Shopify’s segmentation tools can help you collect this data from your online store and provide default customer segments.

3. Identify selling points for each segment

Once segments have been established, identify unique selling points for each customer segment so you can address varying customer preferences, needs, and concerns. Look at purchase patterns and advertisement engagement for each group. Customer feedback and focus groups can also give you a clearer picture of what drives buying decisions for each segment. This can help you tailor your messaging and offering to meet each group’s desires.

Here’s an example of factors that may resonate with the previously identified segments:

• Loyalists. These customers value exclusivity and early access.

• Active enthusiasts. These customers appreciate value and product quality.

• Occasional buyer. Price and timing drive these customers’ purchases.

• At-risk customers. These customers need to be convinced of your brand’s value.

4. Find and implement actionable insights

The final step is to use your analysis for action. Now that you have an idea of what motivates each of your customer segments to make a purchase, develop strategies to prove those hypotheses. The goal is to refine messaging and tactics that will resonate with each group, encouraging them to engage with your brand and make more frequent purchases.

Segment-specific action items could look like this:

• Loyalists. Focus on premium features, VIP experiences, and first looks at new products. For example, you could offer these customers early access to limited-edition product launches to make them feel special and offer a sense of exclusivity.

• Active enthusiasts. When targeting these customers, emphasize quality, product specifications, and competitive pricing. Share detailed product comparisons and positive reviews to support their research-driven buying habits.

• Occasional buyer. Focus on seasonal promotions and limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and make them feel like they’re getting a good deal.

• At-risk customers. To prevent these customers from churning, address pain points from past experiences and showcase product improvements or new features.

Remember that customer behavior analysis is an ongoing process. Pay attention to how your customer segments respond to marketing campaigns and adjust and optimize your strategies accordingly.

An example of customer behavior analysis

Island Creek Oysters sells fresh oysters online and ships them overnight to just about every state in the US. Early on in the brand’s ecommerce journey, CEO Chris Sherman noticed some attention-worthy customer behavior.

“When we first switched to Shopify, we all of a sudden had access to some analytics which we hadn’t had previously,” he says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “One of the things we saw right out of the gate is that we had a high cart abandonment rate.”

Chris noticed that, although customers didn’t have a problem with a relatively high sticker price for fresh oysters, they balked at the cost of shipping. Based on that analysis of customer behavior, Island Creek adjusted its pricing model.

“We made the simple decision to embed shipping into the cost. And that overnight drove sales,” Chris says. “We eliminated all but a small percentage of those cart abandonments, and our revenue that year, like, tripled.”

Offering free shipping reduced cart abandonment, and it improved another customer behavior metric: loyalty.

“We have an astoundingly high return customer rate, and that obviously blends into looking at the lifetime value of those customers.”

A high customer lifetime value (CLV) then justifies higher marketing costs to acquire a customer. The cycle repeats itself: customer behavioral analysis, adjustments to sales and marketing strategy, and so on.

Imagine you’re shopping for a new set of headphones. You know you’d like to upgrade to a wireless set, but you aren’t sure where to start. So you search for “wireless headphones” in Google and click on a promising result.

However, once you land on the webpage, you’re met with slow-loading images, intrusive pop-ups, and an array of options with no way to compare them easily. Frustrated, you exit the page and try a different result. This time, the page has high-quality product images, clear descriptions, and a comparison chart. Within minutes, you end up buying a pair you’re excited about.

This is an example of search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX) working together to deliver results. UX focuses on a website’s usability and design, while SEO is the process of improving your site to make it easier to find on search engine results pages. UX SEO ensures a site attracts visitors from search engines, keeps them engaged, and guides them toward conversion.

Learn how UX and SEO work together, including six often-overlooked UX factors that affect SEO.

How do UX and SEO work together?

Good UX affects search rankings. A well-optimized website isn’t just about relevant keywords and search engine rankings—it’s also about usability. Search engine algorithms prioritize websites that are relevant to user queries and of high quality. A user clicking through from the search engine results page (SERP) but immediately leaving sends a bad signal. A user clicking through, visiting multiple pages, and eventually converting sends a good signal, which can result in better search engine visibility.

“All the SEO traffic in the world doesn’t matter if your site isn’t easy and intuitive to shop,” says Kellie Kowalski, head of design at Fuel Made, an agency specializing in ecommerce development, design, growth, and marketing. “You must make a site that both answers the visitor’s question and allows them to convert.”

Search experience optimization (SXO) is about finding the right balance between SEO and UX design to ensure customers from search engines can access the information they’re looking for in an intuitive, effortless way.

6 UX factors affecting SEO

1. Responsive design
2. Core web vitals
3. Accessibility
4. Clear navigation
5. Readability
6. Intrusive ads

UX factors determine how users interact with your website and how search engines rank it.

Here’s a detailed look at six UX factors influencing SEO:

1. Responsive design

Mark Lewis, founder and CEO of ecommerce development and design firm Netalico, cites mobile-friendliness as an important but often ignored part of user experience that affects SEO performance.

Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in search results. Responsive web design automatically adjusts its size for mobile devices, using HTML and CSS to interpret screen sizes and customize the layout, content, and functionality to match. These adjustments include easy-to-read text, tap-friendly buttons, and image stacking.

To ensure your site is optimized for mobile, start the design process with a mobile layout, then iterate for desktop.

“A streamlined design and fast page loads make the mobile experience just as effective on desktop,” Mark says.

2. Core web vitals

Core web vitals are a set of technical factors and UX metrics Google uses to evaluate a website’s usability and performance. Google prioritizes fast and smooth experiences, so achieving high scores for these metrics directly impacts SEO rankings.

There are three core web vital metrics. Here is a closer look at each one, how it affects SEO and UX, and how to improve it:

Largest contentful paint (LCP)

LCP measures the time it takes for the largest visible content, like a headline or image, to load.

“A fast-loading site reduces bounce rates and signals quality to search engines,” says Mark. 

Ideally, your page speed should be less than 2.5 seconds.

If it’s not, here are some ways to improve your LCP score:

• Implement lazy loading, which delays loading images and videos until they come into view on the user’s screen.

• Use a content delivery network (CDN), which stores files (like images) in multiple servers to deliver content quickly to users from a location closest to them.

• Optimize images using a tool like Tinypng to compress files and make them load faster.

Interaction to next paint

This metric is the lag between a user interaction (like clicking a button) and the user completing the action. An ideal score is a response time of less than 100 milliseconds. Otherwise, the experience will feel clunky.

To improve your INP score:

• Reduce the amount of JavaScript on the page.

• Condense third-party scripts using a tool like Google Tag Manager.

Cumulative layout shift

This measures how much a page shifts unexpectedly when loading. For example, an ad may load late and suddenly shift the whole page down, resulting in misclicks. An ideal CLS score is less than 0.1.

To improve your score:

• Set explicit image dimensions so the browser knows how much space to reserve when loading.

• Avoid animations that could affect the layout when loaded, like chat widgets or expanding banners.

You can check your website’s Core Web Vitals score in Google Search Console (GSC) or using Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool.

3. Accessibility

Web accessibility ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can interact easily with a site.

“Making your site accessible improves user engagement and demonstrates quality standards,” Mark says.

While Google prioritizes accessibility in search results, it’s also a legal requirement.

Some best practices to enhance accessibility include:

• Using contrasting colors

• Including alt text for images

• Adding captions and transcripts to video content

• Ensuring form fields have visible labels

Kellie cautions against using copy like “Click here” for links. Instead, she recommends using descriptive text like “View our summer collection.”

4. Clear navigation

Intuitive navigation means customers can easily find what they’re looking for. This also helps search engines clearly understand how website pages relate to each other, improving indexing and visibility.

With a logical website structure, internal links guide the customer to the page they’re seeking intuitively and effortlessly. For example, footwear and apparel brand Vessi organizes some of its products as follows:

Women > Waterproof shoes > Sneakers

Men > Waterproof apparel & accessories > Jackets

5. Readability

Engaging content usually includes headings, bullets, images, and other interactive elements, while walls of text can quickly overwhelm users.

“Ensure that your content is easy to read on small screens,” Kellie says. “A banner with three lines of text on desktop may take up 10 lines of text on mobile and quickly create issues with cognitive load.”

For example, you can use a visual comparison chart instead of multiple paragraphs explaining why your coffee grinder is better than your competitors.

6. Intrusive ads

Aggressive pop-ups aren’t just annoying; they can result in ranking penalties since they disrupt the user experience. Although pop-ups aren’t all bad, it’s best to use them discerningly. Ensure they don’t block critical content, and make the exit button easy to find. 

Use trigger time delays so your customer has time to get situated before seeing a pop-up, and be sure it’s relevant to your user journey—like a shipping discount at the cart stage. Pop-ups can also pose a problem for mobile users. Test your mobile pop-up to ensure it doesn’t cover important content and is easy to close.

Every now and then, you have no choice but to reschedule an appointment. Unforeseen circumstances put you in a position where you can’t be in two places at once.

Whether you’re a service provider who needs to cancel with a client, a customer who needs to reschedule a booked appointment, or an entrepreneur who needs to postpone a meeting with a business contact, a polite and timely message to reschedule can prevent frustration at the other end and keep the relationship positive.

Best practices for rescheduling appointments

You don’t want to burn bridges over what’s hopefully a minor inconvenience. Here are some best practices to follow when you need to reschedule appointments.

Notify promptly

The first and best thing you can do when rescheduling an appointment is let whoever you’re booked with know as soon as possible that you won’t be able to make the agreed-upon time. This gives them a chance to fill the spot in a productive way, whether that’s by giving your slot to another client or doing something else.

Write a clear subject line

Cut to the chase and write a clear subject line for your email so your recipient sees it in their inbox and knows it’s important. “Rescheduling appointment on [day, date]” is usually a good start.

Apologize upfront

A simple “sorry” goes a long way when you’re causing someone an inconvenience. After the subject line, you can start the body of the email by introducing yourself (if necessary) and letting them know that you’re sorry you have to reschedule.

Great customer service is the new standard. Is your business keeping up? Learn the skills, tips, and tools you need to deliver an outstanding support experience.

Provide a brief explanation

Follow your apology with a brief explanation so they have context. Avoid over-explaining—a short note will do even if you’re rescheduling at short notice. Whether you have health issues or a family emergency, name the problem without going into detail so you can quickly move on to a proposed solution.

Make rescheduling easy

For both parties, rescheduling an appointment is almost always going to be preferable to canceling. Provide alternative dates and times, and make it easy for the other person to pick a new appointment that works for them.

If you’re a service provider, you can send your clients a link to the booking portal of your website. You can use scheduling software like Bookeasy, Meety, Cowlendar, and Apntly that sync seamlessly with your Shopify store.

Express appreciation

Let the recipient know that you appreciate their time and understanding. And thank them again in person once the rescheduled appointment takes place.

Starting your service business? Learn how to find potential customers and make sales, with simple tips that can set your business up for success.

Email templates for rescheduling appointments

Below, you’ll find templates for rescheduling appointments to fit a variety of situations. Use these as a starting point to help you politely reach out and move your appointments while maintaining professionalism:

Rescheduling a service appointment—provider

If you’re a service provider like a hairdresser, dog groomer, or health coach, a timely and professional rescheduling email can make the difference between retaining a customer and losing one to the competition.

Dear [Client name],

Unfortunately, I have to reschedule your appointment for [name of service] on [date] at [time] due to [short explanation].

I’m extremely sorry for the inconvenience this causes, and hope you can reschedule for another day soon. Here’s a link to our booking page; please do check it out and see if there’s an available slot that works for you. I’ve canceled your existing appointment, and the payment will be refunded to you in [time for refund].

Do let me know if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you again at another time.

Many thanks,

[Your name and business]

Rescheduling a service appointment—customer 

If you’re a customer who can’t make their booked appointment, sending a quick email message can help you get a new appointment at your desired time and save you what you paid upfront.

Hi [Name of provider or business],

Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to make it to my appointment on [date] at [time] due to [reason for rescheduling]. Apologies for this; however, I’d love to reschedule for another day. I see on your website appointment schedule that there are openings on [date] at [time]. Is it possible for you to move my appointment to then?

Many thanks,

[Your name]

Rescheduling a meeting—formal

Depending on your industry and your relationship with the person you’re meeting, you may want to send a formal email to reschedule your appointment.

Consider something like this:

Dear [Name],

My apologies, but I have to reschedule our appointment for [date] at [time] due to [reason for cancellation].

If I may, I’d like to propose the following three times to reschedule. Please let me know if any of these works for you.

[Time, day, date 1]

[Time, day, date 2]

[Time, day, date 3]

If none of these are suitable, please let me know what days and times work best for you, and I’ll be happy to accommodate your schedule.

Again, my apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.

Kind Regards,

[Your name]

Rescheduling a meeting—casual

Perhaps the tone of communications in your industry is more casual than the style above. In that case, it’s best to keep things friendly and light while still being professional.

Here’s a template:

Hi [Name],

I’m very sorry, but I have to reschedule our meeting for [date]. Unfortunately, [reason for rescheduling], and I won’t be able to meet at that time.

I’m available on [date 1] at [time 1] or [date 2] at [time 2] or [days] next [week/month]; please let me know if any of these times work for you. If not, let me know your schedule, and we can find something that works.

I’m really looking forward to our meeting, and I hope we can make it happen soon.

Best,

[Your name]

Taking control of where your life and career go can be a nebulous and unwieldy endeavor, especially when it’s not done strategically and with considered intent. That’s where the practice of setting long-term goals can play an important role in furthering your career and personal development.

If you’re looking to take your next big step—or have a lofty dream goal that feels out of reach—here’s a closer look at what long-term goals are and how to approach goal setting.

What is a long-term goal?

A long-term goal is an objective you set to achieve in the future for the betterment of your professional or personal life, whether it be working toward getting a particular promotion, opening a brick-and-mortar storefront, going back to school to switch careers, writing a book, or becoming proficient at playing guitar. A long-term goal usually takes at least a year to accomplish and requires smaller incremental goals in order to achieve it. 

Long-term goals can benefit your personal and professional life and contribute to your overall happiness, confidence, and well-being. They can help you avoid burnout by keeping you engaged and focused on something new. Setting long-term goals forces you to step back and identify what you want from your work and personal life, which can help give you clarity and purpose and lead to better work satisfaction and a more fulfilling life.

How to set and meet long-term goals

1. Identify your objective
2. Make sure your goal is SMART
3. Incorporate some short-term goals
4. Create a plan to track progress
5. Be flexible

Setting long-term personal and professional goals can be a daunting task, but there are concrete steps that you can take to strategize a plan and turn your dreams into attainable objectives. Here are five tips for setting and meeting your long-term goal:

1. Identify your objective

The first step in setting a long-term goal is identifying the objective you want to achieve, skill or talent you want to develop, or place you want to go. Take some time to assess your values—what do you really care about?—and visualize what your ideal life could look like. For example, you might think of yourself as a citizen of the world who values intercultural exchange, so you might set a goal to live abroad for two years.

2. Make sure your goal is SMART

SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Specificity is particularly important: What needs to be accomplished? Be clear and make it actionable. Setting amorphous goals is a good way to set yourself up for failure.

As you set your goal, think about how you’re going to quantify it. What’s your measure of success? Now be honest with yourself: Are you setting realistic goals? Make sure the goal you’re setting is relevant to your values in life. Finally, give yourself a clear and reasonable deadline. Don’t rush your goal, but having a clear deadline is a good way to stay motivated, and you can use a quarterly calendar to stay on track.

3. Incorporate some short-term goals

Set short-term goals as a means to an end—to be able to track your progress, divide it into more attainable chunks, and know when you’ve hit your main goal.

It’s all well and good to say, for example, that you want to get better at playing the guitar, but how will you know when you’ve done what you set out to do? Instead, you might set a goal to master the C major, G major, and pentatonic and harmonic scales so that you’re good enough to riff with a coworker’s band.

4. Create a plan to track progress

You also want to make sure you create a plan to track your progress toward your long-term goal. You can use a spreadsheet, a to-do list, or a dedicated app, as long as you have a system. You could also enlist an accountability partner—a friend, partner, family member, or colleague—as a support system to help you stay on course and offer encouragement.

Having a strategy will help you maintain motivation as you hit smaller milestones. Check in on your progress, and take time to celebrate your small successes.

5. Be flexible

More likely than not, you are going to have a setback or two along the way. It’s key to set and hold yourself to hard deadlines, but if a short-term goal ends up being a bit more complicated than you initially planned, it’s OK to adjust your long-term timeline.

Examples of personal long-term goals

A personal long-term goal is one that enriches your personal life, whether that be social (like joining a new club or organization) or individually enriching (like learning a new skill or traveling abroad). Here are some examples of personal growth goals:

• Write a book. Start by mapping out the story you’re going to tell, what needs to happen along the way, and how you’re going to accomplish it with daily, weekly, or monthly page goals.

• Get married and start a family. Strategize by thinking about what it is you’re looking for and what’s important to you in a life partner. Are there non-negotiables? Where will you compromise?

• Learn to cook. If you’ve ever read the book or seen the movie Julie & Julia—in which author Julie Powell cooks every recipe in Julia Child’s French cookbook—you have a decent blueprint for how this might look.

• Learn a new language. Start with small goals like using a language-learning app daily or enrolling in a class, then move up to more ambitious interim goals like an immersion program or homestay abroad.

• Travel to every continent. Plan which countries you want to visit, set a timeline, determine your budget, and start saving.

• Turn your hobby into a side hustle. To launch your own business on the side, first assess the market for your hobby, then consider testing the waters with a pop-up shop.

• Run a marathon. Set up a fitness plan and check 5ks and half-marathons off your list on your way to 26.2 miles.

Examples of professional long-term goals

A professional long-term goal is one that focuses on your overall long-term career path. This goal could be something centered on the day-to-day operations of your current job (like improving team productivity), or it could be a big-picture career goal (like changing industries).

• Change careers to something you love. Start by figuring out how difficult this new industry is to break into and whether you’ll need to go back to school. Set up informational interviews with people in your desired career, and start building your network.

• Get a senior-level promotion. Meet with your boss to talk about your ambitions, what benchmarks you’d need to meet to achieve your goal, and a reasonable timeline.

• Launch an online store.Starting an online store can be a rewarding endeavor. To begin, consider product opportunities and build your website.

• Improve team productivity. Identify how you’re going to measure your team’s productivity and clearly state the goal. Set up progress reports for accountability, and build in rhythms of rest and celebration for a healthy work-life balance.

Examples of financial long-term goals

Whether it be seeking to achieve financial independence, plotting to pay off credit card debt, building up an emergency fund, or saving for a future big purchase, financial long-term goals hinge on your ability to build wealth.

• Buy a house. Research potential neighborhoods, decide on a budget, and put together a plan and save for a down payment.

• Create a fund for your child. If you want to create a fund for your child to access when they turn 18, you’ll need to choose an investment strategy and set a plan for frequent contributions.

• Save for retirement. On average, American adults retire somewhere between the ages of 62 and 65, which gives you a time-bound reference for your long-term goal. The average amount needed to live in retirement varies between $60,000 and $130,000 a year, depending on where you live and your desired lifestyle.

Pay off student loans. Plan out a budget to ensure you can make monthly payments for your student loans, and strategize how you can minimize interest.

Bad customer experience can be a death knell for a business. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, 17% of customers will abandon your store after just one bad experience, and 59% after a few bad interactions. Exceptional customer service isn’t a luxury—it’s a requirement for survival and growth.

How quickly your company responds to a customer’s first question matters a lot, a value measured in first response time (FRT). A fast initial reply helps make customers happy and alleviates their concerns. Learn how to improve your FRT and optimize your customer service offerings.

What is first response time (FRT)?

First response time (FRT), sometimes referred to as first reply time, measures how long it takes for a human customer support agent to reply after a customer initiates contact by email, social media, live chat, or phone. FRT is measured in minutes, hours, or days. It works like this:

• The clock starts when a customer makes an inquiry or request.

• It stops when a real human leaves a personalized reply, acknowledging that their inquiry has been received and is being looked into.

• Automated responses and canned messages from AI agents typically do not count as a first response.

Why FRT matters for ecommerce customer service

FRT is one of the keys to customer success. Getting back to customers quickly shows you care. Here’s why you should keep track of how quickly you deliver customer responses:

• Resolves issues more quickly. Responding quickly means you can get the details to move toward a resolution sooner, and stop things from getting worse.

• Builds customer satisfaction. Nobody likes wait times—especially when they have an urgent question about a recent order or a product. A fast first response demonstrates a high level of attentiveness and respect that customers will notice and appreciate, even when things haven’t gone as planned.

• Reduces the risk of customers switching to a competitor. When you respond quickly, your actions show a commitment to customers’ needs, which gives them less reason to go elsewhere.

FRT and customer expectations

Online shoppers have varying expectations regarding the speed of replies, depending on how they contact you:

• Email. Nearly a third of customers expect businesses to respond to emails in one hour or less, though the average response time is 12 hours. 

• Social media. Customers reaching out via social media platforms expect responses within 24 hours, though under two hours is best. Failing to meet these expectations can do damage: 73% of consumers report they’d switch to a competitor if a brand doesn’t respond on social media.

• Live chat. Live chat and phone support are designed for immediate interaction. Customers expect support teams to respond in less than one minute.

How to calculate your first response time

1. Set rules
2. Determine the time of initial inquiry
3. Determine the time of first response
4. Calculate the difference

Understanding your current first response time is an important step toward improving customer satisfaction. Here’s how you calculate it:

1. Set rules

Before you can calculate first response time accurately and consistently, start with some simple rules:

• Have a system. Figure out how you’ll track reply times for all the ways customers contact you (like email, chat, social). Define a clear process for recording response times across all support channels (more on this below).

• Account for business hours. Clearly state your business’s support hours and factor them into your calculations. For example, say you reply on Monday morning to a query that arrived late on the previous Friday. It would be misleading to measure FRT in days instead of business hours.

• Count real replies only. Clearly define what constitutes a “substantive” first response. Make sure everyone knows what a helpful, human reply looks like. Generally, this means you should exclude automated responses.

• Synchronize the clock. Double-check that all your computers and phones are synced to the right time and time zone.

• Write it down. Document all procedures for determining the first response time to keep everyone on the same page.

• Keep checking. Regularly look at your reply times to see if you’re improving.

2. Determine the time of initial inquiry

Once you have a system on board, you’re ready to calculate first response time.

Record the exact time when a customer submits their support request. This could be the time an email is received, a chat message is sent, a social media direct message arrives, or a support ticket is created. There are tools you can use to capture this information:

• Free or low-cost ticketing systems. Options like Zendesk’s free tier or Help Scout’s basic options use automation tools to record the time a ticket is created from an email.

• Live chat platforms. Tawk.to and Facebook Messenger’s business features will automatically time stamp messages.

• Social media management tools. For social media messaging channels, hubs like Hootsuite or Buffer provide timestamped records.

3. Determine the time of first response

Write down the exact time a real person on your team sends the first helpful reply to a customer’s question. There are a few ways you can note the time:

• An automatic ticketing system will note the time a ticket is created (inquiry time) and the time of each agent’s response.

• If your system doesn’t automatically know the difference between a quick “got it” and a real answer, your support staff can manually record the time they sent a helpful reply.

• For email customer queries, you can use a spreadsheet to record the inquiry time and response time.

• Live chat platforms and social media management tools will automatically timestamp messages.

4. Calculate the difference

Subtract the time of the initial customer inquiry from the time of the first response. The difference will be the first response time for customer interactions.

First response time = Time of first response – Time of initial inquiry

Here’s a hypothetical example:

1. A customer sends an email to your Shopify store’s customer support team at 2:30 p.m. PT on Monday regarding a question about product sizing.

2. A customer service agent replies at 3:15 p.m. PT on the same day.

3. Using the formula: 3:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. = 45 minutes, we calculate the first response time for the inquiry to be 45 minutes.

Average first response time (AFRT)

Looking at the average time it takes to reply to customers gives you a better overall picture of how quickly your customer service team responds, instead of just looking at individual interactions.

Average first response time (AFRT) is the sum of all first response times divided by the total number of resolved tickets or inquiries made within a time frame.

Here’s why AFRT is beneficial:

• More holistic metric. Isolated response times don’t tell the whole story. AFRT offers a big-picture understanding of how quickly your customer service team responds to initial inquiries. It’s a solid indicator of your team’s performance.

• Identify trends and bottlenecks. By tracking the average reply time over weeks or months, you can identify wider problems and troubleshoot solutions.

• Track the impact of new customer service strategies. You can see if new ways of handling customer questions are working by comparing the average reply time before and after you made strategic changes.

• Monitor service-level agreements (SLAs). SLAs are formal agreements between a service provider and a customer that define expectations for the level of excellent service. For example, IT service desks will use key performance indicators to track if they meet a promised service level, like uptime and resolution times. 

How to calculate AFRT

To calculate your average response time, divide the total of first response times by the number of inquiries or tickets.

AFRT = Sum of first response times / Number of inquiries

There are different ways to calculate the average. Some experts recommend using the median (the middle value of a data set) rather than the average to avoid outliers skewing the data. Here’s why:

• For the average, a very high or very low value could warp the number, making it an inaccurate representation of the typical value.

• The median average is unaffected by extremes, since it only considers the position of the middle value.

For example, imagine most response times to customer requests are within a few minutes, but a few inquiries take hours to respond due to complex customer issues. The average response time would be inflated, making it seem like your team is slower than it really is. The median response time would be a more accurate measure of typical response time.

It’s always wise to pay attention to the outliers in any case, and you might report both types of AFRTs for the sake of a more well-rounded view. Ask why the anomalies are happening and how to respond to them faster.

Tips to improve your first response time

Here are a few ways to improve your first response time and customer satisfaction:

Choose a customer service platform

To support customers faster, you can use software that automatically routes different question types (like shipping, product inquiries, and returns) to the right person. The software you choose should also allow you to see the entire customer interaction history, even if it happens with different agents on different channels.

Choose a customer support platform that integrates with your ecommerce platform or content management system and includes intelligent routing rules for different support channels. Here are some options:

• Dedicated customer support software. Help desk tools like Zendesk, Help Scout, and Freshdesk have multiple customer support capabilities. For example, you can use Zendesk to process customer support tickets from anywhere with its mobile app.

• Ecommerce-specific platforms. Tools such as Zendesk and Gorgias are designed for online stores. Gorgias is a help desk and live chat customer service platform that merges all customer conversations into one unified platform.

• Social media hubs. Tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer have message routing for customer questions on Facebook, X, and other social sites so you can reply to customer questions, consolidate conversations in one place, and send replies to users on the channel they used to reach out.

Build a knowledge base

Create a comprehensive, searchable, accessible resource hub on your website that answers frequently asked questions about your products, shipping policies, return procedures, and other common concerns.

If you give customers ways to find answers on their own, like a help or FAQ page, you’ll get fewer support questions. This lets your team spend more time solving the more complex issues.

Use customer service response templates

Create informative, ready-made customer service response templates for common questions, like “Where is my order?” or “How do I return this?” Your team can then tweak these predefined responses and send them out quickly.

Train your customer support agents

Give support agents the right tools and teach them everything they need to know about your products, rules, and how to help customers across different communication channels. A well-trained customer support team can solve problems faster and won’t need to ask as many questions.

Are you more likely to purchase skin care products from an ad on social media or after a Google search? From a friend’s recommendation or an influencer’s video? That’s exactly what businesses need to know.

Reports show businesses spend anywhere from 40% to 60% of their digital ad budgets ineffectively. It is possible to avoid this by knowing how customers learned about your brand. A relatively simple “how did you hear about us” survey can provide these insights.

Learn how these brief surveys help you understand which marketing platforms best reach potential customers.

What is a “how did you hear about us” survey?

A “how did you hear about us” survey is a simple tool to learn how customers discovered your brand. Generally, the one-question survey features multiple-choice answers about referral sources, like targeted advertisements, word-of-mouth recommendations, or search engines. These surveys can appear during checkout, the account signup process, or in a post-purchase email. 

Unlike a customer satisfaction survey, a “how did you hear about us” survey does not measure how happy a customer is with your service or products. Instead, these surveys collect valuable information companies can use to gauge which marketing strategies engage users and drive customer acquisition. Understanding how customers who are genuinely interested in your brand found you can inform marketing efforts and budget.

Businesses also use these surveys when they have job openings. During the application process, they may ask whether an applicant heard about the position through a job board, social media, or a Google search. This article will focus on the survey in an ecommerce context.

Discover top-rated survey tools to transform customer feedback into actionable strategies for your ecommerce business.

Sample answers for a “how did you hear about us” survey

The answer options you include in your “how did you hear about us” survey vary based on the marketing channels you use, the goals of your survey, and where you distribute your survey. Here are a few sample answers:

Internet

Many customers discover brands through online marketing channels. The internet lets you reach a broad audience, so narrowing down how your target audience found you helps focus your marketing campaigns.

Potential customers commonly discover your business from these internet sources:

• Company website

• Company newsletter

• Company blog

• Search engines

• Social media

• Influencer marketing

• Customer review sites

Word-of-mouth referral

Word of mouth is the top source of brand discovery in the US. Since recommendations carry more weight than advertising, a customer hearing positive things about your company from a trusted friend can positively influence brand perception and purchase decisions.

Word-of-mouth marketing referral sources include:

Event

If your company hosts or attends virtual or in-person events, you can engage with potential customers directly to create lasting first impressions. 

Events include:

Advertisement

Strategic advertising campaigns are essential in appealing to new customers. Knowing where customers first saw your advertisements helps you understand which channels are worth your investment.

Here are a few common advertising channels:

Other

Many “how did you hear about us” surveys include an “other” option, usually with a comment box for customers to type in their answers with more detailed information. This survey data can provide valuable information about avenues not currently on your radar.

The survey may also look less daunting to users as they can use the “other” option rather than scroll through a mile-long list of every possible referral source. While this provides more context, it’s important to note that adding an “other” option makes it difficult to collate results. You may require the use of artificial intelligence if you’re gathering large amounts of information.

Alternative ways to ask “how did you hear about us”

Consider wording the survey differently based on your goals.

Here are some options to consider:

Was it easy to find us?

If you are growing your online presence, you might want to learn if it was easy for customers to find you. Make this yes-or-no question most effective by adding a comment box to gather more detail about the challenges customers faced getting to your website.

What prompted your visit to our website?

Asking “what prompted your visit to our website?” with an open-ended response field can reveal customer intent, giving you a better idea of customers’ needs, pain points, and preferences. They may have come to your website after one of your promotional offers or may be comparing your prices to competitors.

Who referred you to us?

A “who referred you to us?” question can help you understand the effectiveness of marketing tactics like influencer campaigns, or reveal how referrals or brand loyalty from existing customers are working in your favor.

Understanding your target market allows you to tailor your products to your audience’s exact needs—and you can do so usingmarket research tools.

How to create a “how did you hear about us” survey

1. Define goals
2. Determine placement
3. Be concise
4. Include an “other” option
5. Analyze results

While a “how did you hear about us” survey is brief, proper planning will help you get the most out of it. Here’s how:

1. Define goals

First, define your goals. You may want to learn whether you should increase ad spend or invest more effort on organic marketing to drive acquisition. Considering your company’s overall objectives and how you will measure the results can steer you in the right direction. SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based) can help you come up with clear, actionable, and realistic targets.

Defining your goal will help you word your survey question appropriately and provide the correct multiple-choice answers for your respondents.

2. Determine placement

The timing and location of your survey will impact the response rate, relevance, and quality of the feedback you receive. For example, a survey pop-up during the checkout process might garner more responses as the user is already engaging with your brand, but an email can target customers by demographic segments.

3. Be concise

A “how did you hear about us” survey is generally one question, making your wording crucial to encourage participation. Complicated questions or an excessive list of response options can overwhelm respondents.

Ask one straightforward question to address your goal. Provide a limited number of response options to capture the key information you need. Avoid unnecessary jargon or extraneous details.

4. Include an “other” option

While specificity is important, include an “other” option for customers who do not fit into your predefined categories. Customers may find your brand through a unique referral source or unconventional marketing channel you hadn’t anticipated. By offering the flexibility of an “other” option with a comment field, respondents can provide their own answers, ensuring your survey captures all customer experiences.

5. Analyze results

After collecting responses, analyze results to identify any trends or patterns in how customers discovered your brand. Determine which channels commonly bring customers to your company to assess which strategies (or organic channels) are most effective and ineffective in engaging your target audience.

Your marketing team can use the survey results to guide campaigns, refine goals, and reallocate resources to the highest-performing channels. Regularly analyze the survey data to track change in responses as you adjust your strategies.

The .com extension is the most popular top-level domain. Users have registered over 233 million domain names with the .com extension—potentially including the one you wanted for your website.

If your desired domain isn’t available with a .com TLD, it’s worth considering alternatives, including the .biz domain extension. The .biz TLD is becoming increasingly common and naturally evokes ecommerce business websites, but there are a few reasons why it might not be your best option.

What is a .biz domain?

A .biz domain is a generic top-level domain (gTLD)—the last part of a URL that helps organize websites— intended for business use. ICANN, the nonprofit that manages domains, created .biz domains in 2001 to offer businesses an alternative if their preferred .com domain name was unavailable.

Any person or organization can register a site with generic top-level domains, like .net domains, .org domains, .com domains, and the .biz extension. By contrast, domain extensions like country code TLDs (e.g., .jp for Japan) and sponsored TLDs (e.g., .edu for educational institutions), restrict usage to specific geographic areas or organizations.

While gTLDs have unrestricted usage, a .org domain carries associations with nonprofits, technical internet services often claim .net domains, and online store owners sometimes veer toward .biz domain alternatives.

Pros and cons of .biz domains

Though ICANN intended .biz domains for online commercial enterprises who may not be able to use other domains, it hasn’t become as trustworthy or recognizable as the immensely popular .com TLD. Here are some pros and cons to keep in mind as you consider a .biz extension:

Pros of a .biz extension

• Availability. Your perfect domain name may not be available with popular TLDs like .com or .net but is likely available with the less popular .biz extension.

• Pricing. The annual pricing for .biz domains is competitive with rates for other TLDs, so you shouldn’t see a significant difference between domain registration expenses.

• Logical ties to business. Compared to other extensions like the .info domain or the .xyz domain, .biz offers a clear tie to business for potential customers and web visitors encountering your brand for the first time.

• No bias from search engines. Google and other leading search engines rank .biz websites with the same metrics as other gTLDs. They can appear on search results pages alongside many other TLDs.

Cons of a .biz extension

• Lower name recognition. Most people use .com domains daily and are familiar with popular options like .org, .net, and .edu. The .biz domain may not inspire the same familiarity and trust with users.

• Association with scammers and spam. While .biz was created for legitimate businesses, its use by scammers may make users hesitant to trust it. This may even extend to email providers; Microsoft, for instance, associates .biz sites with spam in its email filtering software. As a business owner, you need to represent your brand in the best possible light, and other TLDs may inspire more trust.

• Less inbound linking. If you’re seeking a new domain name to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), a .biz TLD may not be the right choice. Other websites may link to .com websites over .biz websites for perceived legitimacy, affecting your inbound linking—a key part of SEO strategy.

• Narrow use cases. Websites worldwide use .com and .net for any website, but .biz is more tied to business use. If your website isn’t an ecommerce company, .biz likely isn’t the perfect choice for you.

When to use a .biz domain

While .biz was designed for businesses, millions of business owners favor the .com extension. So, does .biz domain registration ever make sense? In some limited scenarios, yes.

Brand protection is the most common use of .biz domains. Many businesses register multiple TLDs—even if they hold a .com with the same name—to avoid losing traffic to copycats and capture mistaken traffic. You may already own a .com and .net domain, along with specific country code TLDs like .ca for Canada if you’re doing business abroad. Alternative gTLDs like .biz and .io can further safeguard your brand.

Outside of brand protection, .biz may make sense for availability and budget reasons. Say your ecommerce business’s chosen .com domain name is unavailable. You then have three primary options: try to buy the domain name from its current owner (often at a premium), change your second-level domain, or consider an alternative gTLD. As most startups have heavy budget constraints and limited access to capital, they can’t afford pre-registered premium domains. If you cannot find an acceptable name alternative with a .com TLD, you can turn to more niche options like .biz, .info, .io, .co, and .xyz.

To decide between .biz and alternatives, put yourself in the shoes of a prospective customer and ask which domain you’d likely click on. Survey your target audience to understand how potential customers might react and research formal surveys and studies to gather quantifiable statistics. For example, a 2022 GrowthBadger survey found that .biz elicited less customer trust than any other tested TLD, including .co, .io, and .us.

Overall, .biz may not be the best option for ecommerce. Still, it’s worth considering a .biz domain if you can’t find another extension for your preferred second-level domain or want to strengthen your domain portfolio.

Considerations when using a .biz domain

If you’ve decided to register a .biz domain, these steps will help your website put its best foot forward:

Ensure credibility

Some people associate .biz with low-quality sites, so it’s essential to establish trust. Obtain a secure SSL certificate to show visitors your site is safe, and rework your website design and content to create a better user experience. Use trust badges and indicators like third-party reviews, free returns, and high-quality copy and imagery to convey legitimacy.

Consider public reaction

Will a .biz domain impact your brand image? It depends on your audience. If you’re trying to reach a less tech-savvy customer base accustomed to .com domains, a .biz domain might be confusing or suspicious. For other audiences, a .biz domain with a playful brand name and design may build brand affinity.

For example, a honey company may use bees.biz to convey its playful brand personality, or an influencer may use me.biz for a tongue-in-cheek personal website. However, a niche domain name may also limit your potential customer base.

Register additional TLDs

If purchasing a less conventional TLD like .biz, consider registering additional ones like .info, .io, .co, and .xyz. You can redirect them to your .biz site, and if you later decide another TLD conveys more authority, you can make it your main web address by redirecting your .biz traffic. For example, you could redirect example.biz traffic to example.io if .io becomes more popular.

Let’s say you’re effectively generating traffic to your ecommerce store and seeing a positive trend of visitors looking at your products or services. Great news! Yet, you notice something troubling: many visitors add products to their cart but leave your site before checking out. It’s not just you—worldwide, across all industries, the average cart abandonment rate in 2025 hovers at 70%, meaning seven out of 10 customers will browse an ecommerce store without purchasing the items in their cart.

When customers abandon carts, you miss out on sales, negatively affecting your total revenue. Here’s what cart abandonment is, why it happens, and a roundup of the best tools to recapture lost sales.

What is cart abandonment?

Cart abandonment is when shoppers add products to their online shopping carts but exit the site without completing the checkout process. Common factors that lead to cart abandonment include complicated checkout journeys, unexpected shipping costs, slow loading times, and security concerns.

Cart abandonment hurts profitability, leading to a decreased conversion rate, average order value, and total revenue.

Meanwhile, abandoned cart recovery helps you retain those potential sales, using tools like abandoned cart software to automate marketing efforts like follow-up emails and SMS reminders.

What to look for in cart abandonment software

With many options available, choosing the right cart abandonment software for your business can be daunting. Here are a few factors to consider before you implement new software to recover abandoned carts:

• Key features. Each software will target different points of the customer journey, from on-site checkout improvements to post-abandonment emails. Ensure your tool matches your needs.

• Integration. The best software will easily integrate with your current ecommerce platform or CRM, avoiding substantial changes to workflows and high training costs.

• Pricing and free trials. Your business’s budget for cart abandonment recovery may vary based on the scale of your issue and its estimated return on investment (ROI), but prioritize starting with a free plan to ensure software meets your needs before you subscribe.

• Ease of use. User-friendly software helps you quickly and effectively implement recovery tools.

• Customization. Customizable software can tailor recovery campaigns and follow-up communications to your specific needs, using factors such as consumer behavior metrics, geographic location, and previously viewed products.

• Scalability. A scalable cart abandonment solution can support a larger employee base and higher volume of customers as your ecommerce business grows.

• Reporting. Accurate and thorough reporting provides insight into the leading factors that influence your cart abandonment rate, allowing you to make informed decisions to solve those problems.

Best cart abandonment software in 2025

A cart is considered abandoned when the shopper leaves your site without purchasing, but there are various ways to mitigate abandonment before and after that point. The tools below offer a mix of features to prevent abandonment before it happens and recapture shoppers after they’ve left your site.

Here’s the best cart abandonment software to help you recover lost sales:

Cartly

Cartly is a shopping cart abandonment solution that integrates with Shopify—you can download it directly from the Shopify App Store. It features cart tracking, custom targeting capabilities, order follow-up communications, automated email marketing campaigns, and a pop-up editor for visitors to subscribe to email notifications. You can also send promo codes or a prize wheel to incentivize purchases.

Pricing: Cartly offers a free version with unlimited subscriber pop-ups and cart reminders, as well as a Pro version ($15 per month or $79 per year) for promo code creation, win-back emails, and revenue recovery.

Omnisend

Omnisend lets you easily send abandoned cart emails and exit-intent pop-ups when visitors show signs of leaving your site. You can use pre-made templates to launch multi-channel campaigns via SMS and email or create time-specific discounts to boost your conversion funnel and revenue streams. Omnisend offers 24/7 email and live chat support for all users on all plans, including the free version.

Pricing: Omnisend offers a free tier for 250 contacts, 500 emails, and 60 SMS notifications; a Standard tier ($16 per month) for 500 contacts, 6,000 emails, and published reviews; and a Pro tier ($59 per month) for 2,500 contacts, unlimited emails, and unlimited global SMS communications.

Shop Pay Installments

Shop Pay Installments can reduce cart abandonment rates by up to 28% by allowing customers to pay over time, with no additional fees. Cost is the main reason visitors abandon carts, and installment payments can alleviate sticker shock—especially for high-ticket items that may convert less often. Buyers can choose between interest-free weekly payments or monthly installments for up to 24 months. The tool can also suggest relevant products during checkout, creating up to 50% higher average order amounts.

Pricing: Log in to your Shopify account to check if your shop is eligible.

ActiveCampaign

Known for seamless integration with leading ecommerce platforms, ActiveCampaign is an omnichannel marketing and CRM software that lets ecommerce brands connect with their audience via email, SMS, and ads. You can use customizable templates to recapture lost revenue with automated emails highlighting lost carts and offering promo codes to close the deal. You can also collect feedback on why customers abandoned carts in exchange for credits on their next purchase.

Pricing: For 1,000 contacts, ActiveCampaign offers a Starter plan ($15 per month) for one user and limited automation, a Plus plan ($49 per month) for one user and unlimited automation, a Pro plan ($79 per month) for three users, more emails, and advanced segmentation, and an Enterprise plan ($145 per month) for five users, all features, and a dedicated account team. Pricing adjusts based on contact amount.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo uses consumer data to generate detailed insight into customer relationships and purchase behavior. You can set up a branded email sequence timed to when shoppers browse or tailor SMS communications to the price of items in a shopping cart. The user-friendly dashboard helps you understand which efforts most impact sales revenue.

Pricing: Klaviyo has a free version of its software for up to 250 profiles and 500 emails. For up to 1,500 profiles, there’s an Email plan ($45 per month) and an Email + SMS plan ($60 per month). Pricing scales based on profile amount and needs.

Justuno

Justuno uses customer segmentation and exit behavior to show why shoppers abandoned carts on your site. It offers pop-up exit offers as guests leave your site, SMS marketing campaigns, and abandoned cart emails to capture sales through each step of the customer journey. You can also run tests within each campaign to pinpoint what is working best for your brand.

Pricing: Justuno offers a free plan for businesses with less than 2,000 monthly visitors. For 5,000 monthly visitors, it offers a Lite plan ($35 per month) for three users, a Flex plan ($89 per month) for advanced segmentation and automation, and a custom-priced Enterprise plan for larger organizations. Pricing scales based on traffic volume.

Over the past few years, efficiency has become a bit of a buzzword for business leaders

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 the “year of efficiency,” leading a trend that saw many big corporations, including tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon rein in their operations and cull unnecessary spending. That trend has continued in the years since, leading businesses across industries to take the same approach.

So what does “efficiency” mean—and how does it relate to productivity? Just as importantly, how does efficiency fit into the equation of seeking exponential growth and profits? In other words, when it comes to productivity vs. efficiency, what should a business’s primary focus be? Let’s nail down what productivity and efficiency are and how they compare.

What is efficiency?

Efficiency refers to the ability to achieve a desired outcome with minimal inputs. Simply put, it’s doing more with less. You can think of efficiency in a couple of ways. It can mean reducing overhead costs in hopes of increasing profitability. It can also mean using fewer resources to make a product while still maintaining the same quality.

For example, let’s say you’re operating a small retail shop where you resell vintage clothing. You start using a new inventory management software that reduces data entry and conserves time, allowing you to catalog new items over the course of a few hours rather than a full day. In this example, the input is your labor time, and the output is the number of error-free listings.

What is productivity?

Productivity refers to the ability to increase your output in the same amount of time—even if doing so requires more inputs. A company prioritizing productivity cares first and foremost about the end product and how much it can produce. 

If you go back to the example of the vintage clothing shop, the new inventory management software means you’re able to catalogue and then sell more vintage items; this efficiency gain leads to increased productivity. If you decided to work through your lunch break to catalogue even more items, you’d become even more productive on a daily basis (though potentially at the cost of burnout).

Efficiency vs. productivity: What’s the difference?

The concepts of efficiency and productivity are intimately interrelated. While productivity focuses solely on increasing the amount of goods produced (or tasks completed) in an allotted time, efficiency focuses on minimizing the inputs required to achieve that productivity. Productivity is more focused on output; efficiency is more focused on process.

Why does this difference matter? Well, there’s a common misconception that being more efficient automatically means you’re more productive and vice versa—that if you’re more productive, then you’re likely operating efficiently. But this isn’t necessarily the case: An employee who shows a sudden surge of high productivity may be wearing themselves down by working harder, not smarter. On the flip side, efficiency gains may allow you to sustain your current productivity unchanged—but at a lower cost.

Examples of efficiency and productivity

To better understand how efficiency and productivity are related, consider the following scenarios:

An example of improved efficiency

Let’s say, for example, that you’re in charge of running the customer service team for an ecommerce store, and you’re tasked with figuring out a way to improve margins. You decide you have too many customer service representatives getting through too few calls.

Let’s say you have five teams of five customer service agents, with each team handling 150 calls per day (an average of 30 calls per agent per day). To improve your margins, you cut the teams down to three customer service agents each, and you shorten the call script and streamline the process so that now each agent handles 50 calls per day. This allows you to achieve the same 150-call volume with fewer resources.

This is more efficient. You’ve now decreased the number of agents, but your output is the same.

An example of improved productivity

Now, let’s say instead you’ve been charged with improving productivity across the call center. You have five teams of five customer service agents. Four of the teams average 150 calls per day, but the other team is far more productive, consistently getting through 250 calls per day—an average of 50 per agent. You decide to break that team up, redistribute its agents, and make each one a leader across the five teams.

The new team leaders help improve the other employees’ productivity so that each of the five teams handles 200 calls a day. Your operation is now more productive: You’ve increased the amount of output—the number of calls—without any real consideration for the call script or process itself.

An example of both improved efficiency and productivity

If you wanted to improve both efficiency and productivity based on this example, you could cut down each team to four agents and promote the top-performing agents to be team leaders. You streamline the script, allowing each agent to get through more calls, and the leadership input of your top-performing agents also allows you to grow your output beyond its prior level. In the end, you’ve reduced input (fewer labor hours) and increased output, which means you’ve allocated resources efficiently, achieving both efficiency and productivity.

How to improve productivity and efficiency

If you want to improve your company’s productivity and efficiency, it’s important to approach it strategically. Here are some places to start to improve your operations:

Identify your most important tasks

Follow the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. This rule asserts that 80% of your production, or output, comes from 20% of your energy, or input. Once you identify that 20%, you can direct your focus and energy to those tasks. Now that you know the most urgent and essential tasks, you can create tiers of “non-urgent but essential,” “non-urgent and not essential,” etc. and delegate as needed.

Embrace technology

Automation can be a huge boon to you and your business’s productivity and efficiency. You can root out mundane and tedious tasks that take up time while also eliminating human error.

Avoid automating just for automation’s sake, however. Be strategic, identify areas in your business processes where automation can help. You can use automation to assist in customer support, inventory, and order fulfillment if you’re running an ecommerce business.

Eliminate distractions

Once you’ve identified your essential tasks, block out designated time to do them. Avoid social media and silence notifications to allow yourself heads-down time to work. Make time for breaks to recharge. Consider utilizing the Pomodoro technique, where you work in 25-minute chunks and take a five-minute break at the end of each set of time. Psychologists emphasize relying on these and other tricks to help you enter your flow state, a unique state of focused concentration.

Focus on one thing at a time

You might think that if you work on a few different tasks at the same time, you’re using your time efficiently. However, multitasking is often not a successful time-management strategy. In reality, it can clog up your workflow, increase stress levels, and impact your long- and short-term memory. Instead, set clear goals and use your time well by dedicating your focus to achieving one thing at a time.