Coping with unintended consequences

This weekend our neighbors cut down some large trees and bushes by our fence.

That'll have a bunch of good consequences but one surprising negative one is the sun. Now the sun reflects off their house and blinds me in my office for a couple of hours each day. It's bad enough that I'll have to close the curtains on bright days.

Often things will change that are completely outside your control but end up having a significant consequence for your Shopify store.

Increased supplier prices.

Shipping boats getting stuck in canals.

Governments changing the rules.

Shopify itself getting rid of a feature or changing it to be unusable any longer.

Sometimes you can see the problems coming and have enough notice to adapt. Other times you're at the mercy of the thing and can only deal with the fallout as best you can.

Whatever the cause though, there are two things you can almost always focus on to survive:

1. working on your previous customer relationships to get another order, even 1-on-1
2. cutting things to reduce expenses

The first will take longer but have a much larger impact, while the second can have almost immediate results but with only a limited impact.

These two options are what I built the Downturn Focus report around. It uses the customer and order analysis in Repeat Customer Insights to give you specific recommendations to survive in downturns and other negative environments.

Getting through tough times is never fun but with effort applied to the right places, it's possible.

Eric Davis