Do the Common Things Uncommonly Well

By: Gregory Ciotti

For most entrepreneurs, and indeed most people, the start of the new year is a time to recommit to achieving their biggest goals.

You have to be careful, however, to not let this rekindled ambition turn into distraction. Humans have always struggled with the fact that our time, energy, and attention are not as readily available as our aspirations.

Prioritization is hard. When your enthusiasm runneth over, you can start to (mistakenly) believe every new idea for your store can be implemented, and worse, that every idea should be implemented because it might, maybe, possibly grow your business.

But there’s no need to worry. The siren call of “shiny new things” to potentially try in the new year doesn’t have to stop you from hitting your targets or making substantial progress on your business. The key is to direct your energy toward work that will produce lasting results—the hands-dirty, sleeves-rolled work everyone knows they should be doing.

Our time, energy, and attention are not as readily available as our aspirations.

It’s outside the scope of any humble blog post to provide a game plan for the entire year. However, working at Shopify has provided us with a useful vantage point: we continually get feedback from our readers and merchants, store owners just like you, on their most persistent challenges and exciting opportunities.

You start to notice the patterns, or “common things,” that seem to really make a difference in ecommerce. In the spirit of bolstering our community’s collective commitment to doing high-impact work, we’ll briefly cover the three pillars of growing an online store that aren’t likely to change.

1. Master the unglamorous
In nearly every industry, you’re certain to hear about how the competitive advantages of the past have become “table stakes.” The status quo is forever a moving target. As companies adopt (and copy) what works, novelties and differentiators turn into basic customer expectations.

But that doesn’t make these functions any less important. For example, analysts shout from the rooftops that great customer service is the new standard, but that doesn’t make it any easier to provide.

These critical path activities may not be quite enough to differentiate your business, but they require excellent execution all the same, because they’re the foundation for everything else. Performing these functions well is one part managing problems and one part figuring out how to avoid problems in the first place. A few examples:

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