Can You Have 2 Stores On Shopify? How To Set It Up?
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It’s not hard to see how having 2 Shopify stores would be beneficial, and you can rest assured most people with experience on the platform have wondered that, so we’re going to answer that today.
In short, yes, you can have two stores (according to the support team), but you need to set up and run them from separate accounts, each one with its own credential and fees. You can operate them from two different domains or under the same.
Having two stores can be a bit tougher, but its benefits may outweigh these obstacles, so let’s learn how you can set up and run two stores on Shopify.
Creating the two stores
You first need to sign up for two accounts, and that means each one will cost you the monthly subscription plan you chose, so you’ll be paying at least $58 monthly for two basic plans. The good side is that the cost always brings a lot of benefits that other platforms sell separately.
You can also use the 2-week free trial to save some money setting up your stores.
Creating your accounts require you to enter your email address, go through some questions, and create the account. It only takes a few minutes to create the two accounts. You can use 1 address for both accounts.
Finally, log into your stores. You can do it one at a time, or you can open two different web browsers to work on both at the same time. You’ll want to customize your homepages, create the necessary pages and set up general and shipping settings as well as your currency.
Domains
Both need domains, but you can choose whether to use the same one for both or have one for each. For instance, you can have “naturalproducts.com” store and “US.naturalproducts.com” by purchasing just one domain.
If you’re afraid it’ll be too confusing for your customers, then you can get two different but tied domains like “naturalproducts.com” and “naturalproductsUS.com”.
It’s up to you whether you consider the extra investment worthwhile.
Running both stores
Having two stores basically means doing everything twice; your changes on one store won’t transfer to the next one unless you want to mess with the backend.
That means you’ll have to manage your inventory twice, fulfill all orders separately, update the look of the pages twice, etc. You also want to ensure you’re driving the right traffic to the right store, so don’t get confused.
A great tip if you have enough capital is to simply hire someone or outsource one or both stores. You’ll have to train them, and that means investing time as well, but it can save you a lot of time and mistakes in the long run.
Advantages of having several stores
It may sound costly and time-consuming to run two stores, but you just have to pick up a rhythm, and there are many benefits tied to having two stores.
For example, you can work better on your brand, for having 2 stores gives you more options regarding your image and methods for promoting your products.
You can also use both stores for handling different currencies and languages. That means you can target a wider audience globally. As for wider audiences, you can also market different products in different niches, adapting your offer to your audience.
Speaking of audience, having two stores also enables you to drive twice the traffic you’d run on a single store. You can optimize both through SEO and targeting and occupy more space within Google searches.
Finally, having two stores lets you test better different products, layouts, widgets, etc.
What to keep in mind?
Having two stores means you have to take a different approach to running your business. While practically the same, the process requires twice as many steps as running a single store.
You’ll have to come up with credentials for each store –at least two different passwords since you can reuse your email.
You’ll have to manage each website separately, which also means all management processes will take twice as long. You’ll have to dedicate double the time to running two stores, two inventories, twice as many orders, etc.
Each account will bring its own fees as well, and that will add up to your investment if you want to hire someone else later on, which may be necessary for running both stores plus marketing each one separately.
Conclusion
To answer the question: yes, it’s completely possible to have two different Shopify stores up and running. However, being able to do it doesn’t mean you should do it immediately.
Having two stores requires significant investment on your part, both in time and money. The benefits do outweigh these cons, but not everyone can do it, so consider it enough before taking action.
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