How to outsource Shopify data entry

Good news. Shopify has enabled a lot of people around the world to become entrepreneurs, regardless of business, background, age, education and facility with technology, by providing them with a platform on which a virtual store can be set-up. Not just entrepreneurs and small business owners, many established businesses have leveraged the capability of the Shopify platform to set-up virtual stores for their businesses.
Bad news. It is a machine and needs to be run. The GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) principle applies. The language this machine understands, many of us are unfamiliar with. The quality of results you get from the platform are likely to be directly proportional to the quality of inputs you provide to it, in the language it understands.
What do you, the business, do?
Outsource Shopify data entry. Thankfully, there is a solution.
The popularity of Shopify has spawned an entire ecosystem of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) service providers who will take over and handle your business processes for you and do it better than you would. Maintaining and updating your Shopify presence is one major service provided by many BPOs specialising in data entry services. This ensures that your business keeps running smoothly and you are able to focus on what your core strength is, your business, rather than worrying about updating codes and pictures in Shopify.

Choosing a BPO to outsource Shopify Data Entry

In a competitive world, there will always be a surfeit of service providers claiming to be the best. Moreover, thanks to the advances technology has made, these providers could be anywhere in the world. How does one separate the grain from the chaff and identify the right vendor?
It goes without saying that each business and each virtual store owner will have different requirements. They should know what they are looking for and what creates more value for their business, and need to evaluate vendors from their unique perspective.
This guide is designed to provide direction on how to outsource Shopify data entry and ensure that important attributes do not get missed out.

Shopify data entry services –  knowledge and capability

It is imperative that the vendors being considered demonstrate their understanding of Shopify data entry solutions and the quality, or accuracy, with which they deliver these services.
Shopify data entry solutions are not just plain vanilla data entry of old. It is a basket of services that are collectively referred to as Shopify data entry services. Evaluation of the vendor’s capability on the services your business needs out of these, is an important step in the process.
Product addition and updation – This is where it starts, the core task, that enables the business to ‘go live’ and operate smoothly as a virtual store. An empty store, even if it gets footfalls, will do no business. The shelves of the store need to be filled up.
Categorisation and tagging – Classifying the product into the right category and sub-category enhances the searchability of the product and leads to higher sales. You don’t want men’s shoes to show up under books or kitchen knives, do you?
Image processing – Buyers are increasingly consuming more information through visual and audio-visual media, which provide subliminal information about the product to a buyer and go a long way in the creation of the ‘brand.’ Images need to be enhanced, projected and displayed to catch the attention of potential customers while complying with Shopify guidelines.
Product description – The product description needs to be written in a compelling and informative manner that explains the attributes of the product, provides the information most prospective buyers are likely to look for and presents it in a good light without being untruthful. It is also an important component of good SEO karma.
Bulk upload – Large businesses may have large volumes of data to be frequently uploaded and refreshed. And it needs to be done quickly. After all, if you have a new offering in response to developments in the outside world, you would not like to be late in bringing it to market. You don’t want your Covid-19 masks to be listed on the platform after the vaccine has been administered to everyone. It is important for the vendor to have the capability to do bulk uploads and take feeds from a variety of client systems.
Create campaigns and promotions – Businesses don’t exist in isolation. They exist as a part of an ecosystem and need to keep contributing and responding to it. The vendor exists in the same ecosystem. They should have the capability of running promotions and campaigns for the client. And what would be even better? If they can even demonstrate their market awareness by recommending opportunities for promotions and campaigns.
SEO optimisation and SEO friendly URLs – We are twenty years past the start of the twenty first century. Most people get from one virtual place to another with the help of search engines. It is important that the vendor possesses the ability to place the store and its products such that visitors can find both the store and its products easily.

Support for Shopify data entry solutions related back-end work

For a store owner, the work does not end with data entry. A sign of your store’s success is that customers will place orders. It is the reason your virtual store exists. It is something you want to encourage.
However, each time an order is placed, work starts. Goods may need to be shipped. Payment will need to be collected. Product inventories will need to be maintained and kept updated. Downloadable artefacts like catalogs and product lists will need to be kept ready and available.
Do you need the vendor to provide all these services, which, strictly speaking, are not Shopify data entry services, but equally critical ancillary services without which the store will be dysfunctional? What is the vendor’s capability on these services?
There are pros and cons of contracting the same vendor for back-end support in addition to data entry. Some businesses may be uncomfortable putting all their ‘eggs in one basket’ while others may not be. Hence, evaluate based on your views and business needs.

Customer support

Many small businesses prefer to retain all customer contact with themselves, and perhaps rightly so. Customers are the lifeline of any business. But when a business grows, and the number of customers with it, small business owners struggle to keep up. There are always choices, like hiring people to work for them who can take on some of the customer interaction.
Can your BPO vendor take this on? They know almost everything about your business, since they are, or could soon be, doing data entry work for your Shopify store. Is customer support an area to which their service extends? That could save you the fixed cost of hiring and training people you hire, and doing it all over again if they leave.
There are other elements of customer support that should not be forgotten. Do my customers need support 24×7? Is the vendor in a position to provide that? How capable is the vendor at cross selling and upselling to customers or potential customers?

Experience with Other clients

To outsource Shopify data entry work, past experience of delivering the service, while it should not be the sole criteria for vendor selection, nothing would have started if that were the case, is an important element in the selection process. Not having provided similar services to another client may not be a reason for rejection, but having done so effectively and successfully would certainly count in favour of the vendor.
If the other client/ clients are willing to voice their support for the vendor’s capability, it would certainly be helpful.
Not having prior experience in a service may sometimes work in the client’s interest. This is so because the vendor, in the interest of setting up a new line of service, will work hard at making it successful and may even be willing to provide price breaks to the client for the supposed inconvenience they are going through as a result of his (vendor’s) inexperience.

Technology adoption

‘Throwing people at it’ may have been a strategy many years back, of solving a problem, but today it would be considered foolishness.
Today technology is often the provider of a solution for many business issues. So, if anything, we should ‘throw technology at it.’
Technology advancement has made this business possible. Not only has it enabled the Shopify based virtual store to come into existence but even facilitated outsourcing the data entry work to any suitable vendor anywhere in the world. And there should be no doubt that technology will keep changing and evolving.
Currency of the technology deployed by the vendor and their position on keeping pace with technological advancements taking place, should be an important element in the evaluation.

Data Security

It generally goes hand in hand with technology, since most data security and confidentiality concerns stem from there. Data is a valuable asset of the business and it needs to be ensured that it is never compromised.
To outsource Shopify data entry work, in addition to technology, physical access control is also important where data is privileged. Only authorised and identified personnel should be able to access the physical spaces where your work is being carried out.
This will become even more relevant when the vendor services two clients for similar Shopify data entry solutions.

Turnaround time

It is a given that a client wants the quickest turnaround, since time is often of the essence.
This can often provide a critical advantage to the business.
Let us take the example of a business in the US that has made the move to outsource to a vendor in the US. On Monday, by the end of the day, the business sends data to its vendor for updation. The Service Level agreement is a 24 hour turnaround.
If the vendor operates in regular working hours, he will pick up the requirement on Tuesday morning and perhaps complete it sometime during the day.
If the vendor operates a 24×7 shift for supporting this client, they will pick up the request soon after it is submitted, and perhaps complete the task during the night. When the client wakes up on Tuesday, the job would have been completed.
Let us take a third scenario. If the vendor is based on the other side of the globe, say Philippines or India, he is just starting work on Tuesday as the client is switching off on Monday. He can pick up the request soon after it is submitted, and perhaps complete the task in the next few hours while the client is asleep. When the clients wakes up on Tuesday, the job would have been completed.
There are many options available, as illustrated by the example. Evaluate them carefully and ensure they are in the best interest of the business.

Free Trial

Outsource Shopify data entry is a decision that can be facilitated if the vendor offers a free trial. A number of seekers of these services could be small businesses who may not have any prior experience with outsourcing of any kind. They need hand holding and some convincing that what they are contemplating has the potential to add value to their business. They are also often hesitant in parting with money for any non-core expenditure; money they believe could be better used for the expansion of the business.
A Free Trial can often play a critical role in converting a non-believer to a believer.

Pricing

Though we suggest it be kept to the last, so as not to cast an unduly prominent influence on the decision, pricing will always be a key consideration in any business transaction.
The main difference we would like to introduce is that an outsourcer should look for value, and not merely the lowest price. Instead of asking, “how can I save that $100,” the question should always be, “by spending that $100, can I create a $500 incremental value for the business.”
Pricing, in any case, is not offered in isolation. It is offered for a combination of products and services. For example, a vendor who does not have prior experience in this area of work and is seeking to build a new service line, is likely to offer a much more competitive price as he knows he falls short in some areas.
Whatever be the reason, pricing will continue to be a very important element of the vendor selection process.

Organisational support and strength

When one outsources, what one sees on a day-to-day basis is what directly impacts one’s business. Is the data entry accurate? Are the images used appropriate? Are they completing the task within 24 hours?
Shopify data entry services need organisational support. No business or service operates in isolation. Performance of the above functions also depends on a deeper infrastructure of the BPO vendor that will take care of a lot of other activities without the client ever knowing or realising. Using the outsourcing analogy, the unit providing these services outsources its support functions to the parent organisation.
Like Hiring. Like Finance. Like Training. Like Workforce Planning. Like Facility Management. Like Legal.
If your business has a spike in volume, is the vendor capable of adding resources at short notice?
Is the vendor compliant with local laws and regulations so that my business does not suffer if they are pulled up or penalised?
If the facility cannot be accessed on account of a natural event, are they equipped to provide a back-up facility elsewhere in the world?
Do they have the financial stability to deliver the services they are signing up for?
It is important to evaluate the organisation on these parameters. This will ensure that the unit that does the work you have outsourced, can focus on the job instead of worrying about changes in the ecosystem which, they know, will be handled by the organisation.

Conclusion

As a pure-play data entry BPO organisation, Oworkers stands unique in the industry and has been ranked in the Top 3 globally for data entry services. It offers scalable solutions, with the ability to make changes at short notice, like ramping up by 100 resources within 48 hours. It works with staff, not a ‘cloud’ team. With support for 22+ languages, ISO 27001:2013 and 9001:2015 certifications, 24×7 operations and centers in Europe and Africa, Oworkers should be your first choice to outsource Shopify data entry to.