12 Easy Ways to Drive More Shopify Sales

Shopify is an online platform that helps you build an online business, set up an eCommerce website supported by powerful tools that help you acquire customers, boost sales and manage your business on a day to day basis! When it comes to the type of business you’re engaged in, Shopify offers you a business solution no matter what business you’re engaged in!

Posted 4 years ago by Aleksandra Cugalj

The user-friendly Shopify platform ensures that your online transition becomes smooth and hassle-free. Whether you have a fresh business idea, an existing one, or just want to expand your presence online, Shopify gets you covered in all aspects of your business growth and expansion.

The innovative features of Shopify enable you to express your presence worldwide and sell everywhere without any restriction of time or location. The customized built-in tools of Shopify ensure that all your business requirements get covered starting from finding customers, digital marketing, and management of orders, shipments, and payments. 

With the current COVID-19 pandemic situation the importance of online business platforms is on a rise. The eCommerce growth worldwide is expected to rise by two-three folds which will make it necessary for small businesses and retailers to go online in order to sustain the highly competitive marketplace.

Shopify has been continuously striving to update and introduce fresh features to its online platform that will offer full support to small and medium-sized businesses that have been most threatened to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this post, we have gathered 12 easy ways to drive Shopify sales for entrepreneurs who are already associated with Shopify or are thinking of growing their business with Shopify.

1. Use Referral Marketing

In spite of being one of the most commonly used marketing techniques, the benefits of a referral marketing program cannot be ignored. So, if you do not have a referral program then it’s never too late to get one and definitely worth the efforts! 

Consumers are all a part of a bigger social circle than we can imagine and this can be used as a driving force to generate new leads and customers towards your business. More than 80% of the consumers are highly influenced by the recommendations given by family, friends, and relatives! 

The referral program is quite simple and easy to understand. It doesn’t need to be complicated You can simply urge your existing customers to recommend and review your brand to others. You can do this by introducing lucrative offers like discounts or a gift coupon to the ones who refer your brands to others. It might take a little effort on your part to introduce the tools in the front end but ultimately the efforts will be paid back for sure!

2. Upsell and Cross-sell to your buyers

Upselling can prove to be an effective marketing tool to enhance sales if used correctly! If you’re wondering as to what exactly is upselling then just consider this scenario: Most of us order popcorn while we are at the movies.

Do you recall the salesperson asking you whether you would like to go for small, large, or tub and if you order large immediately he will say that there is a very minute difference between the cost of tub and large and you’ll be tempted to go for the tub! This is known as an upselling technique wherein the customers are enticed to go for a slightly costlier version of whatever product they are normally purchasing.

Similarly, cross-selling is to sell ancillary products and services related to the main products purchased. For instance, while purchasing a mobile phone you would also purchase the screen guard, mobile covers, and a memory card that becomes cross-selling.

Upselling and cross-selling are tools that give you a chance to boost your sales without having anything to lose on the other hand. So, what’s the harm in giving it a try?

3. Use Branded Packaging

We all love brands! Anything that looks clean, clear, and goodwill easily gain the attention of the customers. The packaging and branding of the products are the first touchpoints that the customer recognizes if you want to give an impressive first impression then work on premium packaging and branding! The premium packaging and branding will help enhance the experience and also make the brand memorable for future purchases!

Shopify has the Arka app for packaging and supplies that offer customized packaging services for branded and unbranded products anywhere in the world! You can easily design and order your packaging in three simple steps:

1. Choose the type of box and the material that you prefer from the online app.
2. Next, send in the size and quantity.
3. Now, you can brand it with your logo, name, and colors for free!

4. Use Social Proof

Social proofing is something that you cannot afford to forgo! While we shop from amazon, you would have noticed the tiny stars just below the name of the product and besides those stars, it will be written user reviews. 

This is known as social proofing, in which people drop in a review and rating for your products. Social proof helps gain trust amongst the customers and has proven to be an effective tool for sales conversion! 

More than 90% of customers read product reviews before placing an order! That says it all, so, just go for it!

5. Send abandoned cart emails

An abandoned cart is the most frustrating and distracting site, especially when a customer shows much of interest and fills his cart only to disappear without a trace! When you start your online business, this is bound to happen but the good news is many times the abandoned carts can be recovered with the help of abandonment emails. 

Most of the time abandonment of the cart is unintentional and in such a case an attractive and persuasive mail sent from your end will help retrieve the customers back on site!

6. Send promotional emails

It’s always good to hear from a renowned brand or seller with whom you have made the purchases! Make sure that you send promotional emails to your valuable subscribers with all the information regarding new arrivals, any special discounts, offers, or promo codes. 

Promotional emails help build loyalty amongst the customers making them come back for more! Promotional mail also known as email marketing is the perfect getaway for a repeat sale with a generous discount to your loyal subscribers, that wins the customers’ hearts and enhances your sales!

7. Simplify your checkout process

While you are focusing on the other grave areas of enhancing your overall sales and profit do not forget to simplify your checkout process. Often overlooked by many websites, the checkout process is something that should be simple, quick, and safe. 

Research shows that more than 30% of the customers leave the website or abandon their cart due to complicated checkout procedures. Here is how you can simplify your checkout process in a matter of minutes:

1. Introducing faster guest checkout options.
2. Safe and secure payment gateway with multiple payment options.
3. Elimination of unnecessary dialogue boxes, texts, and navigation.
4. Mobile-friendly checkout process.

8. Introduce a rewards program

The first rule of any business is to ‘treat customers like a king!’ What is better than keeping your customers happy by introducing lucrative reward programs? This will help not only to keep your existing customers happy but also to grow the family by attracting more customers!

The reward program can focus on discounts, offers, freebies, or gift coupons. The rewards program will ensure that you are able to retain your loyal customers for an indefinite time!

9. Use retargeting ads

Retargeting ads are a smart and effective tool in using the information you collect from the visitor’s search activity on your website. Retargeting ads helps boost your sale conversion rates if used efficiently. The below image shows how retargeting ads work. 

Retargeting can help you in the following ways:

1. Reducing the cart abandonment
2. Remind the customers about the product they were interested in but left without making a purchase.
3. Flash notification of price drop for the same or a similar product the customer was interested in.

10. Use google shopping ads

Google shopping ads are an excellent way to generate traffic to your eCommerce website. Google shopping ads or product ads are those ads that appear when you search for a particular product on the google search engine. These ads are considered to be highly effective in driving the customers to your website particularly because of the high-quality image of the product and also the prices. 

As a retailer, this means that your products will be listed where the searchers are going to be looking the most on the internet! Recently, Google has introduced ‘surfaces across google’ program that enables free product listing ads to the eCommerce retailers in the US. You can start with the surface across the google program with the following steps:

1. If you are an existing user of the Merchant Center and shopping ads and also opted for the surface over google program then you can directly start listing your products without any further steps. 
2. For new users, you can sign up for a merchant center right away and opt for ‘surfaces across google’ program or go to the left navigation menu and click on the ‘growth’ tab – ‘manage programs’ – ‘surfaces across google’ program card.
3. Now, you can stop or start the setup at any point in time. Once the setup is complete you’ll have to do the following:
4. Add your product feeds.
5. Update your tax information (optional)
6. Set up your shipping address (optional)
7. Verify your website.
8. Confirm the authenticity of your website and URL.

11. Use Live Chat

While making an online purchase order and payment every customer has a query at some point in time. And if he gets stuck in between somewhere then there are high chances that he’ll leave the page without proceeding further. 

That’s when a live chat comes to your rescue! A live chat option will encourage customer conversation on the spot and make the processing of the orders hassle-free.

Many websites offer 24/7 customer support that itself shows the potential of a live chat option! You need not be available all the time but you can always mention your working hours and drop in emails where necessary.

12. Offer free shipping whenever possible

More than 45% of consumers have reported that they would abandon their cart if there was no free shipping being offered! Many websites show free shipping if the purchase order qualifies to a certain amount. 

And, more than 50% of customers have added more products to their carts just to qualify for free shipping! Isn’t this proof enough, customers hate to pay shipping charges so it’s wise to offer free shipping whenever possible.

Conclusion

Every business is different and the key strategy that works as the driving force for business also varies accordingly! With online competition on a boom, you always need to be creative and innovative in order to boost sales. With the help of advanced digital marketing tools and techniques managing and growing your online eCommerce website will be much easier than expected!