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Things That Go Wrong When Managing a Shopify Store With A Large Number Of Products – Challenges And Solutions

In this article, we discuss common challenges businesses face when managing a Shopify store with many products and offer solutions to manage your expanding store effectively.

#1 Products get harder to find

Organizing a large number of products within a Shopify store can be challenging. If the store is not well-organized with clear categories, filters, and tags, customers may struggle to find what they want, leading to frustration and decreased sales.

Prioritize: You won’t be able to display all the products in front of users, so you need to figure out which products to display on your most important pages (home, categories, collections, etc.).
Categorize: Categorizing products and variants becomes much more important. Categories are the entry points for users’ browsing experience, and if done right, they will also help you get free search traffic (SEO).
Track: It’s vital to track how users search for the products - that will be the “make it or break it” for both SEO (organic search) and in-store search and filtering

How to improve search in Shopify

2024 Summer Update: Use the Shopify Combined Listings App. After the growth from 100 to 2,000 allowed variants per product, Shopify also allows us to group the product variants into product listings (a combination of all its variants into one centralized listing.)
- Each variant can have its own image carousel, descriptive URL, and publishing controls.
- Each combined listing can be highlighted with its own specific title, product description, and image gallery.
2023 Update: Use Standardized Product Taxonomy. With this new feature, Shopify can assign product attributes automatically to a product listing.
- For example, it can extract the color, size, material, and other details from the product description and apply them automatically to your metafields.
Review in-store analytics and regularly check how people search for products to develop the best strategy for tags, product categories and subcategories, and meta information.
You can add new product tags, categories, and metafields from Shopify admin or with a bulk editor.

#2 Mistakes with Prices and Discounts (Compare-At prices)

As the number of products in a Shopify store grows, several pricing and discount errors can occur, impacting both the accuracy of product listings and potential sales:

Manual data entry can lead to inconsistencies or errors.
Coordinating price changes between various teams can be challenging, especially with many products.
Managing prices and discounts for product variations gets even more complex.

International pricing: If you sell internationally, the likelihood of errors increases further. Assigning correct prices based on taxes and shipping costs in different countries is essential to ensure your store’s profitability.

How to ensure consistency with prices and discounts in Shopify

Manage prices automatically e.g., with formulas
Set Compare-at prices in bulk
Set different prices for different countries

All the above can be done easily with the help of a spreadsheet bulk editor like Mixtable. This editor offers Excel-like formulas, copy-pasting, and all other functionality you are used to.

#3 Inventory errors

Managing inventory is the real nightmare here. Miscommunication between team members, incorrect stock levels, and human error can lead to:

Overselling items that are no longer available can lead to decreasing customer trust and loyalty. And on top can negatively impact the store’s search engine rankings if customers leave the store (time on site is a Google signal), or post negative reviews.
Deadstock: It takes up valuable storage space and ties up financial resources. It also wastes your time for managing it.

How to improve inventory management in Shopify

Add inventory adjustments as a backup measure for overselling
Track refunds against inventory to ensure accurate adjustments to stock levels
Track inventory with apps like
- https://bit.ly/sumtracker
- https://apps.shopify.com/fabrikator
Deadstock can be handled with discounts and product bundles

#4 Inaccuracies with Google Shopping fields

Inaccuracies with Google Shopping fields are very common for growing stores. Some common challenges include:

Manual data entry errors: Product information errors, such as incorrect titles, descriptions, pricing, or images, may lead to inaccuracies within your Google Shopping feed.
Complex product variations: Managing complex product variations, such as different colors, sizes, or options, can also present challenges with your Google Shopping feed.
Maintenance: With a larger number of products, it becomes even more crucial to regularly review and maintain accurate product information within your Google Shopping feed, as failing to do so may result in your Google Ads being suspended.

How to improve Google Shopping feed quality in Shopify

When your store grows, you better switch from manual edits through Shopify admin to a spreadsheet bulk editor where you can copy-paste and edit product data with less proneness to errors.

#5 Miss the big picture

An abundance of products in a Shopify store generates vast amounts of data, making it difficult for merchants to analyze effectively. Neglecting data analysis can lead to missed opportunities.

That is why it is important not to miss the big picture:

Which are the best-selling products?

Who are your most loyal customers? Who are frequent, but perhaps you can urge them to spend more?
Are there more refunds than before? Can you identify reasons for bad-performing products?
What’s the quality of your customer support?

What makes your customers come back and shop from you and not elsewhere? Keep this WHY in mind, and try not to stray from what initially made your store special.

How to track important information in Shopify

Use analytics to make better decisions:
Track regularly which are the best-selling products and the ones that generate the highest profit
Take care of deadstock inventory - e.g. add discounts on products that have not been sold for months, or bundle them up with other products
Know your customers—send them surveys and talk to them. This will help you discover new opportunities and catch issues early on.

In conclusion, expanding your Shopify store’s product offering to accommodate growth is an exciting milestone for any business. However, this process has unique challenges that can impact the customer experience, sales performance, and overall store efficiency.

To overcome these challenges and ensure a successful transition, businesses should invest in efficient data management tools, maintain accurate and up-to-date product information, offer competitive pricing, and consistently review performance metrics to identify areas for improvement. By addressing these issues, merchants can effectively manage their Shopify store’s growing pains, ensuring a positive shopping experience for customers and continued sales growth in the long term.

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