How to Do Customer Research for a Shopify Store

For a Shopify store, customer research can be 30 minutes a week: two shopper conversations, logged the same day, as long as you know what you're asking and what you'll do with the answers.

Pick one question

Research without a question turns into a pile of interesting quotes that never change anything. Before you talk to anyone, decide on the one thing you most need to know.

Good research questions are tied to a decision you're about to make:

• "Why do shoppers leave without buying?" This shapes what you fix on the product page or at checkout.
• "Where do buyers decide to buy?" This shapes where you spend on ads, creators and content.
• "Why do people buy from us at all?" This shapes the words you use in your copy.
• "Why don't buyers come back?" This shapes post-purchase emails, support and product range.

Pick the question with the most money or effort riding on it. You can run the next one after you've acted on the first.

Write the question down in one sentence and keep it in front of you. Every interview question you ask should help answer it.

Who to ask: buyers, repeat buyers, people who left

Different shoppers know different things. Pick the group that can answer your question.

Recent buyers remember what convinced them, what nearly stopped them, and where they first heard of you. Ask them soon after the order, while it's fresh.

Repeat buyers can tell you what keeps them coming back, and which words they'd use to describe your store to a friend. That language can make strong copy.

People who left are the hardest to reach and can be the most useful. Shoppers who added to cart, started checkout or asked a question and then didn't buy can tell you exactly what got in the way. Shopify lists the ones who started checkout under Orders > Abandoned checkouts.

Only contact people through channels they've agreed to, keep requests short, and thank them for their time. If you offer a thank-you such as a discount, keep it modest so you hear honest answers, not answers shaped to earn the reward.

Interviews vs surveys vs reviews

Each method answers a different kind of question.

Interviews are conversations, by voice, video or chat. They're best for "why" questions, because you can follow up on a vague answer. They take more time per person, but each one can surface reasons a survey would miss.

Surveys are best for "how many" questions, once you already know the likely answers. A survey can tell you how common a reason is. It's weak at finding reasons you didn't think to list.

Reviews and support tickets are research you already have. Read them for repeated words and repeated complaints. They're biased toward people who felt strongly, so treat them as clues, not conclusions.

A practical order is to start with interviews to find the reasons, then use a survey if you need to know how common each one is, and check reviews and tickets along the way.

Recording shoppers' exact words

The most valuable output of customer research is the shopper's own language. When someone says "I wasn't sure it would work with my setup," keep that sentence. Don't shorten it to "compatibility concern."

A few habits help:

• Record or transcribe when the person agrees to it, so you're not paraphrasing from memory.
• Ask open questions: "What almost stopped you?" beats "Was the price OK?"
• Follow up once: "What did you compare us with?"
• Don't defend your store. If someone criticizes something, ask them to say more. Arguing ends the honest answers.
• Keep a simple log with the date, the type of shopper (buyer, repeat buyer or left), the question and their exact words.

These words help twice. They tell you what to fix, and they're often the clearest way to describe your product back to the next shopper.

From themes to actions: fix, rebuild, rewrite

Once you have a set of answers, group them into themes. Give each theme a short name in plain language, such as "heard about it from a creator," "buying it as a gift" or "wanted a bundle."

Then sort each theme into one of three kinds of action:

• Fix: something is broken or missing. Slow replies, a confusing checkout step or a missing size chart are things to fix first.
• Rebuild: a part of the journey needs a different shape. If buyers decide after watching a creator's video, the page they land on might need to be built around that creator's claim.
• Rewrite: the product is fine, but the words aren't. If shoppers describe why they buy differently from how your page describes it, rewrite the page in their words.

Doing it with Scout

Running interviews yourself works, but it takes time every week: talking to shoppers, writing up what they said and spotting the pattern.

That's the job Scout is built for. Scout interviews your store's shoppers by voice and brings you their reasons in their own words. You send it on one question, like "Why do shoppers leave without buying?", and it comes back with what shoppers said and the themes behind it.

Frequently asked questions