How Many Shopify Stores Can I Have? Guide to Managing Multiple Stores

Have you ever wondered, "How many Shopify stores can I have?" After finding success with one store, you might be thinking about expanding or launching a new business venture.

Expanding to multiple Shopify stores is a strategic move to enhance your brand, penetrate different markets, and ultimately increase your revenue and profits.

But is it possible to have more than one Shopify store? And if so, how do you add another store to Shopify? We’ll explore these questions and share tips on managing multiple Shopify stores to ensure you maximize your success.

How many Shopify stores can I have?

Shopify allows you to set up an unlimited number of stores. You can create as many Shopify stores as you want as long as you have enough resources. 

However, each store will need to be on a separate Shopify account, and you will need to log in and manage each store individually. Also, each store will require a separate Shopify subscription plan, except for Shopify Plus subscribers.

If you have multiple Shopify stores linked to the same email, you can navigate between them after logging in.

Reasons To Have Multiple Shopify Stores

International Expansion

When expanding internationally, it’s crucial to cater to the unique shopping habits, consumer needs, and lifestyle differences of each country. Having separate Shopify stores for each country allows you to localize your website and product offerings. 

If we look at the UAE and US stores of a Gymshark brand, we will see that these two websites have different visual layouts.

Source: Gymshark 

Targeting Different Audience Segments

If your Shopify store sells a variety of products, creating different stores for each customer segment can be beneficial. 

For example, Nike's main audiences include athletes - fitness enthusiasts, and children, which is a completely different customer segment. If we create the same store using the same marketing and promotion strategy, it is completely inappropriate. Therefore, creating multiple websites and Shopify stores makes perfect sense.

Source: Nike

Outletting and Sub-Branding

To offload excess inventory without devaluing your brand, you can create a separate Shopify store as an outlet for discounted or lower-quality products. This strategy allows you to reach new customers and achieve retail goals while maintaining your main brand’s quality and reputation.

How to add another store to Shopify

Step 1: Open a new Shopify Store

• Go to the Shopify website and sign up using your existing store's email address.
• Follow the prompts to complete the registration process. Using the same email ensures Shopify will link accounts, allowing for easy switching between stores.

If you have never created a Shopify store, you can refer to Shopify Tutorial for detailed instructions

Step 2: Customize your new Shopify store

• Choose a name that reflects how this store will be different from your original store. Consider your brand's visibility and target audience.
• Change the default Shopify domain to a custom domain for better brand reputation.
• Fully set up your business, configure tax and shipping settings, and add products that are relevant to your new target audience.
• Customize your store with a Shopify theme that suits your audience and add relevant pages.

Step 3: Optimize for your target audience

• Product Localization: Tailor your inventory to local tastes and customer preferences.
• SEO and marketing: Tailor your SEO strategy to the specific search habits and keywords in your area. Use tools like Google Analytics to track and refine your approach.

Step 4: Repeat

• Create additional stores: Repeat these steps for each additional store you want to create, making sure each store is customized for your specific target audience.

By following these steps, you can effectively manage multiple Shopify stores tailored to different markets or customer segments, all from one email account.

How to manage multiple Shopify stores

There are two ways to manage multiple stores:

• Different Email for Each Store: Use a different email for each store, making each account and store completely independent of its pricing plan and login credentials.
• Same Email for All Stores: Use the same email for all stores, allowing you to switch between them after logging in. Each store will still have separate names, domains, and admin panels, and you must verify your email for each store. 

Running multiple stores introduces new challenges, often doubling or tripling the workload and consuming more time. Here are some tips to manage multiple Shopify stores effectively and maximize your Shopify experience:

Focus on a Central Theme

To maintain brand identity across multiple Shopify stores, it's essential to focus on a central theme. While each store may cater to different markets and adapt its appearance and inventory accordingly, there should be a cohesive theme that reflects your brand identity.

Manage inventory with PIMS

It's easy to mix up which products are sold where. To streamline this process, you need tools to manage product information efficiently.

A Product Information Management System (PIMS) centralizes product information for your e-commerce business. It organizes, updates, and distributes this information across all your stores, ensuring real-time, unified data regardless of how you present product details in each shop. 

This helps your order fulfillment team know exactly where to find products in the warehouse, reducing confusion and improving efficiency.

Managing inventory across multiple stores poses a significant challenge in ensuring inventory levels meet demand without leading to out-of-stock or overstock situations. Running out of stock in a store can frustrate customers, while overstocking increases capital.

That's why inventory management is indispensable for store development

Manage customer support

Managing customer support can be challenging, especially with an increase in customer inquiries and issues. To effectively handle this, consider implementing a customer management system or help desk app.

These tools centralize customer communications, from live chat to emails, into one platform, allowing for better organization and tracking of customer complaints, refunds, returns, and frequently asked questions. While these systems may not respond to customers on your behalf, they provide essential organization and oversight.

How much does it cost to run multiple stores on Shopify?

To run a Shopify store, you can choose from three payment plans ranging from $25 to $399 per month, plus transaction fees. Each additional store requires its own payment plan. Additional costs such as inventory, maintenance, themes, content, and marketing should also be considered.

Shopify Plus offers an alternative with extended features, starting at $2,300 per month, which includes multiple stores (10 to be specific) with additional costs for additional features.

Challenges of running multiple Shopify stores

• Managing multiple Shopify stores can be rewarding but also comes with its own set of hurdles. Here are some key challenges you might face:
• Marketing and content creation become more time-consuming with each additional store, requiring extra effort.
• Streamlining order fulfillment is crucial to avoid delays and errors when processing orders from multiple stores.
• Providing excellent customer service across multiple stores can be challenging, especially with a limited team.
• Analyzing data from multiple stores for insights into customer behavior and sales performance requires additional effort.
• Maintaining branding consistency across multiple stores, and catering to different audiences, can be challenging but essential for brand recognition and trust.

Solution to improve the difficulty of operating multiple Shopify stores

Despite the challenges of managing multiple Shopify stores, there are effective strategies to improve efficiency and success:

• Implement a centralized Inventory Management System (IMS) to track inventory levels across all stores in real time, preventing stockouts and overstocking.
• Utilize Inventory Syncing Apps to automatically update inventory levels across stores, eliminating the need for manual updates and ensuring accuracy.
• Consider a Content Management System (CMS) to efficiently create and manage content across stores, streamlining content creation and updates.
• Leverage Marketing Automation Tools to schedule targeted email campaigns, manage social media posts, and automate repetitive marketing tasks.
• Outsource order fulfillment to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider to handle order processing and shipping for all stores, freeing up time for other tasks.
• Utilize Customer Service Software to centralize customer inquiries from multiple stores, ensuring efficient responses and consistent service.
• Use Data Aggregation and Reporting Tools to consolidate data from various stores, providing insights into sales performance and customer behavior.
• Develop detailed Branding Guidelines to maintain consistency in brand voice, visual identity, and messaging across all stores.
• Consider upgrading to a Multi-Store Shopify Plus Plan to access features like user permissions for managing multiple stores within a single account, and streamlining operations for larger businesses.

=>> View details: Top 50+ Best Shopify Store Examples To Inspire Your Own

Best Shopify apps to help you manage multiple Shopify stores

Syncio Multi Store Sync

Syncio Multi Store Sync is a highly-rated app for centralizing inventory operations across multiple Shopify stores. It enables you to synchronize selected products and choose specific parameters for each store. Updates made to products are automatically reflected across all stores, simplifying inventory management.

Shogun

This app provides a user-friendly content management system (CMS) for creating and managing product descriptions, blog posts, and landing pages across all your stores.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo automated email marketing campaigns, SMS marketing, and abandoned cart recovery. It allows you to create targeted campaigns for each source's audience.

ShipStation

This app integrates with major shipping carriers and automates order fulfillment tasks like printing shipping labels and tracking packages. ShipStation can be a lifesaver for managing multiple stores' orders.

Rewind Staging

Rewind Staging is a valuable tool for managing multiple Shopify stores, offering peace of mind when making changes. It enables you to sync aspects or the entirety of your store to a "staging site," allowing you to test changes without affecting your live store.

This helps prevent disruptions to your customer's shopping experience and safeguards your profits. Additionally, Rewind Staging facilitates the setup of new stores by ensuring that changes made are final and executable.

Gorgias ‑ Support & Live Chat

Gorgias ‑ Support & Live Chat is a versatile tool that centralizes customer messages and inquiries from various channels, including live chat and calls, into a single admin on your Shopify store. It imports messages with full message history, along with shipping information and addresses, making it easy to manage customer communication across multiple stores and contact points.

Armed with the useful information provided above, you can approach owning multiple Shopify stores smartly and efficiently to plan how to manage this endeavor, ultimately improving your chances of success. your. By expanding your store's reach, creating personalized stores for local and targeted audiences, and increasing sales, you can ultimately increase profits and grow your business. mine.