When your Shopify store is just starting, it might be easier for you to handle all the administrative tasks. But when your store starts to grow, you find out that you can't multitask anymore, and your productivity—and growth—can suffer. That’s when you need to consider hiring a virtual assistant.
With a virtual assistant, you can free up your valuable time and focus on the important aspects of your Shopify store, such as marketing, customer service, product development, and more.
So, if you're wondering whether it's worth it to hire a virtual assistant for your Shopify store, the answer is yes. A virtual assistant is not just a time-saver but also an investment that can help you increase efficiency and profitability.
Read on to learn more about what a virtual assistant for Shopify can do for you and how they can benefit your Shopify store.
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant (VA) provides administrative and other professional support remotely, usually on an independent basis. They can help you with tasks such as customer service, social media management, data entry, website maintenance, and more.
Having a VA is more like having a helping hand without the hustle of hiring a full-time employee.
A VA for your Shopify store can help relieve some of the stress and pressure that comes with growth. They’ll do this by taking over your routine and repetitive tasks and allowing you to focus on the bigger picture.
What can a virtual assistant do for your Shopify store?
An experienced virtual assistant will have the skills and knowledge necessary to help you run your store successfully. Here are some of the tasks that a virtual assistant can help you with:
Updating product pages
As your business grows, you may find yourself with increasingly less time to keep your Shopify store updated. This is where having a virtual assistant can be extremely helpful. They can take care of adding new products and updating descriptions, images, or other relevant information on your behalf.
In addition, they can also help you create content such as blog posts that will keep your customers informed of changes or new features on your Shopify store.
Organizing orders, inventory, and shipping
While e-commerce platforms have undoubtedly become more sophisticated, and processing orders and generating invoices has become much easier, these tasks can still be difficult to keep on top of when you have a lot going on.
But the good news is that there's no need to feel overwhelmed! Hiring a virtual assistant can take that burden off your shoulders so you can focus on your more impactful tasks.
Managing your customer service tasks
High-quality customer service is essential to any business, big or small. You can't be everywhere at once, but with the help of virtual assistants, you can be.
Whether it's responding to customer emails, questions, or feedback, virtual assistants can help manage inquiries and correspondence quickly and efficiently.
Managing your social media accounts
There's no task as time-consuming and tiring as handling your social media sites, so this is where virtual assistants can be your best friend.
Instead of spending hours on these tasks yourself, an experienced virtual assistant can take care of creating content, scheduling posts, engaging with customers on your platforms, and more.
See: How a Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your Social Media
The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant for your Shopify store
Hiring a virtual assistant may seem like a big decision now, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without one. Here are some benefits that a virtual assistant for a Shopify store brings to the table:
Reclaim your time
Running a Shopify store is not easy. A lot of the daily work is repetitive and time-consuming, leaving little time for anything else.
But as an entrepreneur, time is your most valuable commodity. So why waste it on mundane tasks when they can be handled just as well by a virtual assistant?
With the benefit of more time, you can say goodbye to stress and overwhelm and hello to more quality time with your friends and family—both of which are crucial for your health and happiness.
Access to expertise
Virtual assistants are usually equipped with many years of professional experience. With this, they may well be a potential goldmine of insights and advice on how to maximize efficiency and profits from your store.
As well as support with a wide range of tasks, you can leverage their knowledge to help take your business to the next level.
Save money and resources
When you're in the growth stage of your business, you may think getting a helping hand is a luxury you can’t afford. And when it comes to full-time, in-house employees, you’d probably be right! But that won’t change the fact that all the different reasons you need support still stand.
The good news is that it costs significantly less to hire VAs than in-house employees—up to 90% less, in fact.
Because with a virtual assistant, you only pay for the time they spend actually working on your tasks, and you don't have to worry about things like benefits, vacation days, or sick days. And because they work remotely, you don't have to worry about providing them with office space or equipment, either. You can get started with as little or as much help as you need. So if you're looking to get some help with your business and save some money in the process, hiring a virtual assistant is a great option.
Increase your productivity
Think about it, how many hours do you spend on social media alone? How much time do you spend on updating product descriptions and images?
Chances are, most of your time is spent crossing off the same tasks from your list, only for you to have to do them all again the next day, week, or month. While there’s no denying these tasks need to be done, the truth is, the more time and energy you spend on these low-level recurring tasks, the less you have to meet your long-term goals.
When the burden of managing all your day-to-day, tedious tasks is taken off you, you'll have more time to focus on the things that matter most, and the energy to give them your best. The result? More impactful, high-quality work done in less time, and greater progress towards your goals.
Focus on growth
No one wants to put in the effort of starting and running a Shopify store only for it to fizzle out. You need to be constantly working on how you can take your store further, whether that means coming up with new product ideas, improving your marketing strategy, or providing better customer service. If you let your store stagnate, it will eventually start to decline.
A successful Shopify store requires continuous effort and engagement from its owner, but this is easier said than done when you need to battle a mountain of admin tasks each day. By having someone else handle these repetitive time-sucks, you’re free to strategize and create long-term plans for success.
See: How A Virtual Assistant Can Help With Your E-Commerce Business
What’s the bottom line?
Having someone to take care of the small tasks and help you focus on growth can make a big difference in your productivity and profitability. With the countless benefits of having a virtual assistant, they are one of the most valuable investments any business owner can make.
If you want to take back control of your time and resources to focus on growing and expanding your Shopify store, speak to our expert team to get started, we’ll set you up with a dedicated professional based on the skills and experience you need.
Or try us out for free today!