On Shopify you sell more by bringing the right visitors to your own store and making it easy to trust and easy to finish buying; on Amazon you sell more by winning Amazon's own search results and product page, where the listing, reviews, price and delivery decide who gets the order. The two need different work, and a common mistake is to apply one platform's tactics to the other.
How is selling on Shopify different from selling on Amazon?
| Shopify store | Amazon | |
|---|---|---|
| Who brings the shoppers | You: search, ads, social, email | Mostly Amazon's own search |
| Customer relationship | Yours, including their email | Largely Amazon's |
| How the page looks | Full control | A fixed template; richer content for brand owners |
| Competition on the page | None | Other sellers and sponsored listings beside yours |
| Delivery | You or your logistics partner | You, or Amazon through FBA |
How do you get more sales from a Shopify store?
Answer the buying questions on the product page
Most lost sales are unanswered questions: what it looks like in use, the size or fit, what delivery costs, when it arrives, how returns work. Put all of that on the product page, above the fold where possible, with clear photos from several angles. A buyer who has to hunt for the delivery charge often leaves.
Get found in search
Shopify's help centre names four main places to put keywords: page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text and the page's body content. It recommends a unique, descriptive title of 60 characters or fewer with the most important keywords near the start. Name products the way customers search for them, not by internal codes. Product and collection pages that rank bring buyers you do not pay for per click, which is why SEO is worth doing properly on a store.
Recover abandoned checkouts
Shopify can automatically email customers who abandon checkout, with a link back to their cart. Shopify notes this works for the Online Store and Buy Button sales channels, and that discounts can be applied automatically to these recovery emails. Turn it on, rewrite the default text in your own voice and place a test order to check it arrives.
Use discounts with a purpose
Shopify supports discount codes and automatic discounts, including money off, a percentage, buy X get Y and free shipping. Use them to lift order value (free shipping above a basket size, a bundle) or to clear stock, rather than as a permanent percentage off that teaches customers to wait for the next sale.
Bring buyers in, then measure
Google Shopping ads, which need a Merchant Center account with your product feed, put your products and prices in front of people searching for them. Social video shows products in use; email brings past customers back. Shopify's built-in reports vary by plan, and you can add Google Analytics. If traffic arrives but does not buy, the fix is usually in the store itself, which is the work of conversion rate optimisation.
How do you sell more on Amazon?
Build a listing that answers the search
An Amazon listing has a title, up to five bullet points, a product description and images. Amazon advises using customer-friendly search terms in the title, description and bullet points. Write the bullets as the five reasons to buy, in plain language, and make the main image clear enough to read at thumbnail size.
Register your brand if you own one
Amazon Brand Registry needs a brand name and logo permanently on your products or packaging, and a pending or registered trademark from the trademark office of a country with an Amazon store. Enrolment, with a Professional selling account, opens tools that unregistered sellers do not get: A+ Content (enhanced images, video and comparison charts on the product page), Manage Your Experiments for testing titles, images and bullets, and the Customer Reviews tool for responding to reviews.
Earn reviews the permitted way
Amazon's own suggested routes are excellent service, the Request a Review button on the order details page in Seller Central, and Amazon Vine, which connects your products with reviewers and requires eligible FBA offers. Do not try to buy or bend reviews; Amazon removes reviews that break its policies.
Advertise with Sponsored Products
Sponsored Products are cost-per-click ads that can appear in search results, the cart area, the highly rated products section and on product detail pages. You can target keywords or specific products (ASINs). Start with your best-reviewed products, because ads amplify a listing's strengths and weaknesses alike.
Choose how you deliver
With Fulfillment by Amazon you send stock to Amazon's fulfilment centres and Amazon picks, packs and ships orders and handles customer service and returns; FBA products are also eligible for Prime shipping. Compare its fees with your own fulfilment costs before deciding.
What mistakes cost sales on both platforms?
- Keyword-stuffed titles that read badly to people.
- Running out of stock on a best-seller, which loses sales and momentum.
- Photos that do not match what arrives, leading to returns and poor reviews.
- Slow replies to customer questions.
- Spending on ads without knowing your margin after fees, so every sale loses money.
We build Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento stores and run the marketing that fills them; see our e-commerce services, or run a free site audit on your store first.
Questions people ask about selling on Shopify and Amazon
Should I sell on Shopify or Amazon?
Many brands do both. Amazon gives access to shoppers already searching there but keeps the customer relationship; your own Shopify store keeps the customer and the margin but needs you to bring the traffic. A common path is to use Amazon for reach and the store for repeat customers.
Do I need Brand Registry to sell on Amazon?
No. You can sell without it. Brand Registry is for brand owners, and it opens up tools such as A+ Content, Manage Your Experiments and the Customer Reviews tool, plus protection for your brand. It requires a pending or registered trademark.
How do I get reviews on Amazon?
Deliver what the listing promises, use the Request a Review button in Seller Central, and consider Amazon Vine if your brand is enrolled in Brand Registry and you use FBA. Reviews that break Amazon's policies are removed, so shortcuts do not last.
Does SEO matter for a Shopify store?
Yes. Unique page titles, clear product descriptions, alt text and well-organised collections help your products appear in Google for free. It takes longer than ads, but it lowers what each sale costs you over time.
Further reading
Official guidance on the subject, from the platforms themselves: