Building a Shopify store is step one.
Getting people to visit and buy is step two.
Unlike Amazon, where traffic is already built in, driving traffic to your Shopify store requires a mix of paid ads, SEO, and retention strategies.
Paid traffic: Google & Meta
The fastest way to bring customers in is through paid ads.
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Google Ads put your store in front of people searching for products like yours. These are high-intent buyers ready to purchase.
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Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram) reach people who aren’t searching yet but may be interested. Great for building awareness and retargeting later.
Both platforms can work, but they require ongoing testing and optimisation to keep costs under control.
SEO: Ranking in Google
On Shopify, your product listings are the equivalent of Amazon listings—but now you control the optimisation.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means:
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Structuring your site correctly (collections, product pages, metadata).
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Targeting the right search terms.
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Creating unique, high-quality content.
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Building backlinks from other sites.
With over 90% of search traffic going through Google, ranking even a few key pages can deliver long-term free traffic.
Email & retention: your most powerful channel
On Amazon, you don’t own your customer list. On Shopify, you do. Capturing emails or phone numbers lets you:
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Send abandoned cart reminders.
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Announce new product launches or promotions.
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Build loyalty through helpful tips and brand stories.
Tools like Klaviyo, Drip, and Shopify Flow make it easy to automate messages based on customer behaviour. Investing early in email marketing reduces reliance on expensive paid ads and increases repeat sales.
Balance is key
Just like relying only on Amazon is risky, relying only on one marketing channel for Shopify is risky too.
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Ads bring in traffic fast, but costs can rise.
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SEO and content take time, but they pay off long-term.
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Email keeps customers coming back, lowering acquisition costs.
👉 The best strategy is to balance paid traffic with organic growth and retention, so your Shopify store is never dependent on a single channel.
