Reasons to Write a Blog (Owned Media) on Shopify

Shopify comes standard with "discounts" and "blogs."

These aren't just arbitrary features. Shopify, which has powered millions of stores worldwide, has proven these methods to be essential for e-commerce operations.

• Discounts → Increase CVR (Conversion Rate)
• Blogs → Increase UU (Unique Users)

The sales formula is "UU × CVR × Average Order Value." These two features directly impact critical components of sales.

Most Stores Start with Zero Unique Users

If you're a store on a marketplace, a physical store, or one that deals with already well-known products, you can expect traffic just by launching.

However, such stores are a rarity.

The reality is that most Shopify stores have zero traffic when they launch.

There are fundamentally only three access channels for e-commerce sites:

• Advertising
• SEO
• Social Media

Many stores lamenting "Shopify isn't selling" stumble here. They know what they need to do but don't know how to do it. They want to escape, but they can't.

Short-Term Strategy: Advertising

For short-term results, advertising is the only way.

However, CVR (Conversion Rate) is crucial here.

If a store with a low CVR runs ads, it will only incur more losses. They won't recover their ad spend and will be stuck.

Conversely, if your CVR is high, the more you run ads, the more your sales will increase, and your balance will be positive.

That's why Shopify includes a discount feature as standard, as a means to increase CVR.

Specific checkpoints for CVR improvement are explained in detail in "Why many Shopify stores fail to increase sales."

Mid- to Long-Term Strategy: Blog (Owned Media)

Even if sales pick up with advertising, relying solely on it is risky.

There are always competitors in advertising. If you succeed, competitors will copy your strategy to undermine you. E-commerce is a highly competitive world. Ad-dependent traffic can collapse at any time.

This is where blogging comes in.

A blog for an e-commerce site is called "owned media." It means media owned by the company. While "blog" often conjures images of personal diaries, in e-commerce, it's a business asset. From now on, I will refer to it as "owned media" in this article.

Owned media and e-commerce are highly compatible. By continuously writing articles, search traffic will gradually increase. Furthermore, displaying related articles on product pages can potentially improve CVR. However, newly launched stores have weak search visibility, and almost no traffic will come from search.

But if you don't start, you'll stay at zero forever.

Even after one year, or two years, you won't be able to escape the advertising strategy.

How to Start Owned Media

Once you've passed your break-even point, you should immediately start your owned media.

Pace

One article per week. Don't aim for perfection; prioritize publishing first.

Even if it's only 500 characters, it's far more valuable than not publishing at all.

What to Write

I don't recommend a strategy that reverse-engineers "target keywords" with SEO in mind.

There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, competitors are also targeting the same keywords you want to target. Most of the time, you won't achieve the desired search ranking by fighting on the same playing field.

Secondly, it stifles your writing. When you start thinking, "How do I rank high for this keyword?", the barrier to writing increases. As a result, you don't produce more articles. Owned media is an asset. An asset is useless without quantity.

So, what should you write?

The answer is: "Write honestly about things related to your store and products."

• How to use and choose products
• Frequently asked questions from customers
• Commitment to sourcing and manufacturing
• Industry trivia
• Things you've noticed while operating the store
• Mistakes made and improvements implemented

Articles based on real experiences resonate more with readers than articles written to target search rankings. And ultimately, such articles are more likely to appear in search results. Google also values originality.

SEO is not something you "aim for"; it's something that "comes as a result."

Tips for Continuation

Owned media takes time to show results. Six months to a year is common. It can even take two years.

That's why it's important not to aim for perfection from the start.

• Don't spend days on a single article.
• Don't worry if your writing isn't perfect.
• Don't get discouraged if traffic is low.

What's important is to "keep going." If you write one article a week for a year, that's 52 articles. In two years, it's over 100.

It's clear which store—one with 100 articles or one with none—will be more trusted.

Integration with Social Media

When you publish an article, almost no one will see it at first. It won't rank in search, and honestly, it will probably feel like the effort isn't worth it.

That's why you should post it on X. It takes 5 minutes.

Even if you have few followers, a few people will definitely see it. It might be small initially, but make it a habit so your writing effort isn't wasted.

Social media is also about accumulation. If you continue for one or two years, you'll start seeing results from both your owned media and social media.

The key is not to just paste the article link. Adding a brief summary of the article's main points or the background behind writing it will change the response.

Summary

The reason why Shopify comes standard with "discounts" and "blogs."

It's because they are proven success formulas in e-commerce worldwide.

• Short-term: Advertising × CVR (Discounts)
• Mid- to long-term: Blog × Social Media (Owned Media)

Even when publishing on TikTok or Instagram, owned media is crucial. Embedding videos into blog posts creates a synergistic effect.

Instead of aiming for top search rankings with SEO, continuously write honestly about things related to your store. Don't rely solely on advertising; build assets with owned media.

This is the essence of succeeding with Shopify.