eCommerce has grown by massive leaps and bounds over the last decade and it is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. One of the world’s richest companies, Amazon started out primarily as an eCommerce business and is now worth $1 trillion.
If you’re an eCommerce company, you probably know about Shopify. It’s the platform that allows you to build and maintain your eCommerce store on your website. With plenty of dynamic options – both for marketing and sales, it’s easily the most preferred online platform for stores and retail sales systems.
We’ve broken down the list of user-friendly ways with which you can drive your Shopify sales effectively.
Upsell and cross-sell to buyers
This is your most powerful weapon, so make use of it. Upselling, that is. It’s well worth the effort and gives you a chance to gain a higher purchase from one single customer at a go.
An average of 4% more sales can be achieved with upselling and it can add a lot to your overall revenue stream. Make it simple, though. The product you upsell should be the same compared to the one the customer’s already buying.
Amazon saw an increase in sales by 35% the first year they tested upselling on their platform.
Getting a new customer is harder, so make sure you have an upselling tactic at all times to drive sales further from one single customer.
Monitor and improve your site speed
For all the beautifying you do, your site will be deemed useless if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Why? Because if it does take more than 3 seconds, you could end up losing 50% of your customers.
Site speed is one of the holy grails of eCommerce. Always prioritize functionality over aesthetics because if you end up losing a customer due to speed, you’re 80% more likely to never hear from them again.
You wouldn’t want that at all.
From time to time, keep checking your site speed and ensure it works at an optimal level. You could opt for tools online with which you can see how your site is performing.
Use Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is a tactic worth trying out for your eCommerce store. The numbers back it up – 81% of consumers would consider something a friend or family member recommends it to them.
It needs to be simple enough so any customer can view reviews and recommendations on the store itself, and recommend it to someone else.
Also, a referred customer has a higher value than any other type. Referred customers have a lifetime value that’s 25% higher than other customers.
Make sure the process is simple, reward the ones who refer and watch your store grow.
Use social proof
Up to 92% of consumers would trust a recommendation if it came from a family or friend, as mentioned above. You need to showcase your recommendations and google customer reviews on your site. Even if it’s from complete strangers, 70% of consumers would trust a recommendation.
Social proof is the best way with which you can get customers to trust your brand and budget them towards a purchase. The leaders in eCommerce, Amazon have social proof present in each product page in the form of reviews.
Express watches were able to increase their conversions by 58% by just adding a small widget of their reviews.
Send abandoned cart emails
It can get frustrating as an eCommerce seller when your customer is on the verge of purchase but then vanishes. Many customers add items to their carts and then abandon them for some reason without completing the purchase.
However, that doesn’t mean all is lost.
Up to 30% of carts can be recovered, with the help of abandoned cart emails. They’re emails sent to the customer’s inbox a few hours or days after they’ve abandoned it, urging them to complete the sale.
You can trigger an email with your email service provider by just creating an actionable email. It might convince a buyer to head back and complete their purchase as well.
Send promotional emails
Nurturing an email list is one of the most important steps in eCommerce and you need to do it diligently. Once you’ve built a good email list, it’s time to start selling.
The best way to go about it is promotional emails. It helps you test the waters and also ensure you have repeat customers.
Repeat customers tend to spend 67% more on average than new customers and with promotional emails, you can keep customers coming back for more and also build loyalty. By letting your customers feel special, you can increase your chances of sales and also give them a feeling of “exclusivity”.
Simplify the checkout process
One of the most frustrating things for a customer is when they find the checkout process long and tedious. It needs to be simplified and you have to ensure the process is simple for them.
The best way to go about it is to create a checklist for the checkout process so that the customer can do it with ease. The below guide will help you fasten your customer’s checkout process –
- Enabling guest checkout that’s fast.
- Eliminating any unnecessary buttons, text, and navigation.
- Making the process entirely mobile-friendly.
- Offering multiple options for payment.
By just tweaking this process a bit, you’ll be able to see a positive change in the number of people checking out faster and more efficiently.
Introduce a rewards program
The best way to thank your most loyal customers is with a well-planned out rewards program. You need to show them you really value their business and you can build a program to reward them for the same.
Rewards are one of the best ways to keep your most transacting customers happy. Up to 80% of the profits you make in the future will come from 20% of the current customer base you own. You need to keep engaging and rewarding them and this can be done with effective programs for their loyalty.
In other words, 20% of the current customers you own will make 8 out of 10 purchases in the future. That’s some power.
You need to not just keep a current customer base but also grow it effectively and it makes perfect sense to do that with the help of a well-planned out rewards program.
Use retargeting ads
Retargeting is another great way to pique the interest of a customer who left your store. It’s worth a try and can get them to return and purchase. All you need to do is place a retargeting action loop for any customer who visits and doesn’t purchase from your store.
It works in a simple fashion – A customer arrives at your store but doesn’t complete their purchase. They are then retargeted with ads about your store or products on another website within a few minutes of hours. This piques their interest again and they return to your store to complete their purchase or continue browsing as well.
Mazda used intelligent ads that helped retarget shoppers who were most likely to go to a specific dealer in their area. Then, they matched the inventory information to those buyers and this resulted in an almost 53% increase in sales.
Retargeting is an effective way to get more customers because it matches a customer or shopper’s behavior to specific marketing messages. It can increase rates by up to 400% if done right.
Use Google Shopping Ads
One of the best ways to get shoppers interested and cognizant about your store is by using Google Shopping Ads. It is an incredibly effective way to increase sales and get more people to buy from your store. In the USA, “Surfaces across Google” makes it easier for an eCommerce seller to set up their store online.
You can do it by signing up for the same and signing up for the Merchant Center, or by clicking on the Growth option present in the left navigation menu. The Manage Programs options allow you to select “Surfaces across Google” from the list of programs that are already available.
The setup can be done at any point and once you’ve started it, the surfaces across Google option will be added to your list of pending tasks automatically in the Overview screen as well.
As you set up surfaces across Google, you will have to –
- Add your product feeds to the Merchant Center.
- Add the necessary tax information.
- Set up shipping.
- Verify the website.
- Confirm the website and the URL belong to you.
After this, you’ll have to set up your ads on the Google platform so that you can sell to your customers online. Sign up for the Shopping Ads and select it from the list of programs available.
Once you have created a Google Ads account or linked a Google Ads account to which the Administrative or Standard access is provided, you can go forth and pick up the ideal settings for the campaign.
Setup the campaign name and choose the country of sales. This defines the products from the Merchant Center and which ones are advertised in the campaign. It also filters the products based on the target country and the ones associated with the products as well.
You will also need a maximum cost-per-click bid. The bid is the limit for how much you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can always edit this amount on the Google Ads account anytime after creating.
Finally, you can set up a daily budget which is a limit on how much you wish to pay for a specific ad campaign, a day. You can edit the details in the Google Ads account after creating the campaign.
Use Live chat
This is another high-impact manner in which you can engage site visitors as well as customers outside of email marketing. With live chat, you can engage customers on the site and there are live chat tools to target browsers on certain pages.
These tools also target browsers after they’ve been on the site for a certain length of time and also enables you to have direct conversations with customers so you can address and answer their concerns correctly.
Use free shipping
Free shipping is another way to get customers interested in your products. Up to 52% of customers have added more to their cart to qualify for the same, and 47% have admitted they would abandon their carts if the free shipping option isn’t provided.
To conclude
These are some of the best ways in which you can grow your business online on Shopify effectively. Once you implement them, you need to keep testing and experimenting till you find a formula that works effectively for you. Good luck!
