Using planning to avoid a major disruption in your Shopify store

Recently I planned out the next set of major features for Repeat Customer Insights that I'll be working on next.

Most of them I already have the data for so, but one of them required going back to Shopify for more order data.

Getting the data from Shopify is no big deal most days...

... but Repeat Customer Insights now has over 16,000,000 analyzed orders so pulling that new data is going to take awhile. Last time I did this I rushed the process which ended up crowding new customer imports which made for a poor first experience which lost a few potential customers.

Learning from my mistake this time I staggered the work so it was running at about 25% for a full week.

By planning ahead and thinking about everything this feature would have needed, the app was able to run just fine while all that new data was pulled.

You're liable to run into scenarios where a little bit of planning can save your energy, time, and maybe even sales.

• Inventory plans to prevent stock-outs.
• SEO strategy plans to match growth to your best seasons.
• Equipment upgrades during slow periods so employees have enough training before they need 100% of the new output.
• Growth and customer acquisition plans around projected cashflows to prevent accepting debt.
• and 100s more.

Investing an hour or two upfront to planning will often make any major task or project better. It'll also add to your confidence as a leader which is important when the plans don't turn out exactly as you expected.

One plan that has a fast return is to figure out your New Customer Welcome Campaign.

This campaign is vital to setting up the long-term customer behavior needed for long-term sales.

Using Repeat Customer Insights you can get a better idea about how to time that campaign and the follow-up sales offers.

Eric Davis