Blog post written by: Stewart Dunlop
If you ask an experienced e-commerce user, with several successful businesses in their toolkit, they’ll tell you that it’s rather easy to increase Shopify sales.
The platform is extremely diverse and it has many cool tools you can be used even by less tech-savvy entrepreneurs. It’s also compatible with other modern platforms and tools, which makes it easy to integrate in the business flow.
Still, some users struggle with getting more users and then turning them into viable leads. Other users seem to have an issue with customer retention, while others don’t grasp how to encourage engagement on their site.
In this article, we’re going to discuss several tips and methods that help increase customer retention and loyalty.
Reduce the Cart Abandonment Rate
Did you know that the general cart abandonment rate is over 69% (data supported by a recent Baymard survey)?
This means that more than half of your users place products in their online cart but never go through the checkout process! This also means that reducing this rate by only a few percent, you would register a boost in Shopify sales and therefore, profit.
Why do users abandon their carts?
According to the aforementioned Baymard survey, an e-commerce store will always face this issue. However, part of this is normal shopping behavior as users like to window shop, compare prices, or just save things for later.
Still, there are other elements that influence shoppers’ behavior. For instance, some people abandon their cart because the shipping tax or added fees (which usually show up during the checkout process) are too high. Other people are not happy when the site asks them to create an account (or the account creation process is too lengthy).
Other reasons can include a confusing/lengthy checkout process, hidden costs, slow delivery, and more.
What can you do?
Shopify allows you to keep track of users who abandon their cart, which is a start (it allows you to calculate your own cart abandonment rate). If the rate is high, start by identifying the problem. For this, analyze the checkout process on the site using the information we provided above.
Here are a few things you can do to drive more Shopify sales your way:
- Don’t force them to create an account – 29% of people leave because they felt coerced into creating an account. So, make sure people can buy without having an account on your platform. Still, make sure to remind them about the benefits of having an account at the end of each successful sale.
- Make it easy – both the account creation and the checkout process must be easy to follow. No one wants to spend minutes filling in intrusive forms!
- Send reminders – use an automated emailing system to send reminders with the content of their cart (be sensible about timing). This strategy keeps the cart in the user’s attention and field of view, so when they are ready, they will press that Checkout button!
Become a Shopify Expert
To increase Shopify sales, you first need to learn the ins and outs of the platform.
Shopify training is important for both beginners and seasoned e-commerce business owners who are just starting with the platform. Even if you’re not the one doing the tech work, it’s important to know how to set up the payment process, how to create pages, how to work with the taxes and billings sections, and most importantly, how to launch a new store.
This allows you yo stay on top of your business and it gives you the language and tools to communicate with your team. Furthermore, it helps you understand how you can manipulate the platform in order to increase sales and drive more profit.
Improve Customer Service
Commerce is, at the base, a conversation. While we no longer haggle over prices in the market, we still feel the need to converse while doing trade.
In today’s highly technologized world, the conversation happens in the live chat app (if the e-commerce site provides one). People are more incentivized to buy when they can ask questions and receive quick answers about products or services.
Furthermore, good customer service is the badge of honor many brands like to flaunt in front of customers in order to earn their trust. People like to feel appreciated and recognized by the business that’s making the offer. This is a good way to establish a strong relationship and create loyal customers. All of these practices fall under the definition of “customer-centric model”, which should be your priority if you are aiming at better customer service.
As a side note, if your budget doesn’t allow for live chat, there are some great intelligent chatbots based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning you can use. Some of them can hold a human-friendly conversation, while others can even perform tasks such as taking orders and providing useful recommendations.
Boost Sales with Shopify & Email
Email marketing is still one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s bag of tricks and skills.
Shopify is a flexible platform that allows users to organize their data according to their own needs. As such, you can use custom tags to categorize and manage customers to make it easier to send emails. In addition to this, Shopify has several extremely useful filtering options that can come in handy for customer segmentation.
Now, by combining Shopify with a smart automated email system you get an effective email marketing campaign that keeps running even when you’re not active (at night, during holidays and vacations, and so on).
For instance, many brands will send a welcome email to new users, after they made a successful purchase. It also helps to have a list of customers based on interests and previous behavior in order to send out relevant newsletters with offers, discounts, and recommendations.
Another method brands use is to send out vouchers or shareable discount codes with limited-time offers to high-value customers (Shopify can order the list of customers according to their spending habits).
Wrap Up
Shopify is an incredibly smart e-commerce platform, with lots of features that can help boost sales and increase profit. Still, it will take some learning and a few trial and error tests to understand which ones work best for your case.
The secret is to keep learning and trying new methods to improve the digital customer experience. In addition to this, make sure to constantly improve the methods that are successful. E-commerce and the online environment in general, are incredibly dynamic and things can change from one day to another.
Blog post written by: Stewart Dunlop