Creating an online store is the first step to building a successful eCommerce business.
The challenge lies in driving traffic, increasing sales, and standing out in the competitive niche.
Improving sales on a Shopify store can be challenging, but it is achievable with the right strategies and tactics.
For many small businesses, the biggest reason to fail is not refining the marketing strategy to boost sales and reach more target customers.
This guide will explore proven methods for increasing your Shopify store’s visibility, attracting new customers, turning existing customers into loyal customers, and boosting Shopify sales.
From optimizing your website’s design to leveraging social media and email marketing, we’ll cover everything you need to know to take your Shopify store to the next level.
Before diving into strategies, let’s understand the target market.
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Understanding Your Target Market
A target market is a specific group of people who mostly like to buy your products or services.
These people face a specific problem that your product/service can solve.
Attracting these people using different platforms would be best, as this would help improve sales on the Shopify store.
But how do you understand your target market?
Conducting Market Research
Understanding your target market involves gathering information about the demographics, behaviors, needs, and preferences of the people likely to buy your product or service.
This information can help you tailor your marketing efforts to reach and engage your target audience effectively.
Here are a few ways to conduct market research-
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus groups
Identifying Your Ideal Customer
Identifying your ideal customers is critical to a successful marketing strategy, as they are more likely to purchase your product or service.
Your target audience might have a specific age, income, gender, location, interest, etc.
For example, if you sell luxury cosmetics, your target audience might be females with a specific age group of 20-40 who express an interest in makeup or love to look unique every day.
Instead of targeting the audience, you focus on specific ones.
Here are a few ways to identify your ideal customers-
- Analyze your customer base
- Conduct market research and interviews
- Analyze your competitors
- Create Buyer Personas
- Use Analytics and reports
Segmenting Your Audience
Audience segmentation is all about dividing your entire audience into different segments based on their age, gender, interest, behavior, and other factors to conduct better marketing strategies, offers, ads, experiences, and products.
Here are three ways of segmenting your audience-
- Demographic segmentation includes age, gender, location, income, occupation, ethnicity, and family structure.
- Behavioral segmentation includes purchasing behavior, benefits, engagement level, and special occasions.
- Based on the buyer’s journey: awareness, considerations, and decision stage.
In every segment, customers need a different kind of treatment and strategy to influence them.
There are different marketing channels to influence them, like email marketing, SMS marketing, Facebook advertising, Chatbots, and Google ads.
So, you have some ideas about your ideal customer; now, let’s dive into top strategies for boosting sales on the Shopify store.
Top Strategies for Boosting Sales on Shopify
Whether you have an existing store or are building a new one, having a powerful strategy to increase sales on the Shopify store is essential.
Every online store owner wants to earn money, but building a strategy that separates you from the competitors can help you improve your business.
Let’s get started.
1. Improving Your Store’s Design and User Experience
88% of visitors don’t return after having a bad experience, which is why website design is crucial in an eCommerce store, as it can significantly impact the user experience and search results and directly affect sales.
Today’s customers expect a faster and more consistent experience; improving user experience and website design can convince visitors to stay and purchase.
A well-designed website can help customers navigate your store, find their desired products, and make purchases.
A visually appealing and user-friendly website can also help build customer trust and credibility, bring organic traffic, and increase brand loyalty and repeat purchases that increase sales on Shopify.
In addition, customers expect an excellent experience on your website across all devices.
Platforms like Shopify have various responsive templates built to work perfectly on any device, enhance customer experience, and reduce cart abandonment.
Here are a few ways to improve store design and user experience-
- Decrease loading time
- Make it responsive
- Remove navigation bottlenecks
- Make site search helpful
- Use chatbots
- Have a clear CTA
Further, a responsive and good website design can improve brand loyalty and increase engagement and customer retention.
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2. Crafting Compelling Product Descriptions and Images
Product descriptions can influence or break your customer’s purchase decision. As you run an eCommerce store, customers won’t feel or hold your product if they want to buy it.
Once you know your target audience, create detailed product descriptions that explain and influence customers to purchase.
Don’t fall into the trap of using fancy and cliche language; instead, focus on providing the solution, product quality, and value.
In addition, visual content is a crucial element affecting customers’ buying decisions.
If the elements like images and videos fail to deliver the right message, the customer might leave before purchasing.
Here are some tips for choosing product images-
- Use relevant and high-quality images
- Images with different product angles
- Displaying products in use and content
- Choose the right dimensions
- Keep file size in mind
- Use the best image formats
- Use nice color and size variables
Images on your Shopify store can help you improve search engine results and make the page more interesting.
3. Optimizing Your Store for Search Engines
Search engine optimization is key in driving organic traffic when discussing online stores.
Shopify has built-in settings to create SEO-friendly website pages, giving you updated meta-fields and optimization tactics.
Using the tactics, ensure that your homepage, collection, and product pages are indexed and findable on search pages.
Here are a few tips to improve the search engine optimization of your store page-
- Optimize product titles, descriptions, and meta tags with relevant keywords.
- Ensure a clear site structure and easy navigation.
- Create quality content with keywords, like blog posts and product descriptions.
- Utilize internal linking across relevant pages.
- Gain backlinks from reputable sites to boost authority and rankings.
- Submit a site map to Google Search Console.
- Implement 301 redirects for outdated pages.
- Activate AMP for faster mobile page loading.
- Use Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor performance and identify improvement areas.
Optimizing SEO can help improve search engine ranking, reduce page loading time, and generate organic traffic.
4. Utilizing Social Media and Email Marketing
With the increase in competition, you want to grab all the ways to reach your target audience.
The two popular ways are Social media marketing and Email marketing, which can help you reach potential customers.
Social media marketing is designed to increase awareness by sending the right message to the right audience.
Here are some social media marketing strategies to improve sales-
- Use interactive posts
- Share user-generated content
- Use shoppable posts
- Promote flash sales
- Create brand-specific hashtags
- Stay consistent with your posting schedule
On the other hand, email marketing targets existing customers to influence them to make a purchase.
Here are some email marketing campaign strategies to improve sales-
- Share discount codes, offer free shipping, or announce sales by email
- Remind customers about cart abandonment
- Share tips and tricks with your customers
- Upsell by suggesting other products
- Make it mobile-friendly
Social media and Email marketing strategies can help you gain results and drive more sales.
Implementing the right strategy for your segmented customers can attract customers and improve sales.
5. Offering Discounts and Promotions
Offering discounts and promotional codes is a go-to strategy to attract customers and increase the average order value of your Shopify store.
But discounts are not for everyone; you can share these with your loyal customers, email subscribers, and new customers to gain more customers for your online business.
Here are different types of promotions and discounts, including Coupon codes, Buy one get one free, Free shipping offers, Customer loyalty programs, Gift with purchase promotions, Discount codes for first-time customers, and Newsletter signup discounts.
Here are some additional points to consider when creating discounts and promotions on Shopify:
- Use compelling headlines for promotions to attract clicks.
- Define clear start and end dates to spur quick action.
- Target discounts to specific customer segments for higher effectiveness.
- Ensure promotions are profitable and don’t harm your bottom line.
- Monitor promotion success with analytics to refine future strategies.
Offering discounts and promotions can be an effective strategy to boost sales on Shopify.
It can encourage customers to purchase by providing an incentive and can also help to build customer loyalty.
6. Upselling and Cross-Selling
Upselling and cross-selling are two sides of a coin, but both help to improve sales on Shopify.
Upselling is a strategy to sell more expensive or superior products customers already own.
For example, if the customer has bought a laptop, you can show more superior or better models.
On the other hand, cross-selling is a strategy to sell products related to what the customer already owns.
For example, if the customer buys a laptop, you can show the mouse pad, hard disk, laptop cover, and other related options.
Upselling and cross-selling are great ways to improve sales of your Shopify store; it is all about “helping customers win” by showing them superior and relevant products.
It helps to increase customer retention, average order value, and lifetime value.
Here are a few ways to upsell and cross-sell-
- Recommend affordable alternatives
- Offer incentives
- Offer discounted prices on upsell and cross-sell recommendations
- Create a sense of urgency using FOMO
- Minimize the number of recommendations and sort related products
- Use popups and web push notifications
Upselling and cross-selling can improve your sales and re-engage your visitors to keep them.
Also read: 10 Impactful Push Notification CTA Examples to Use
7. Providing Exceptional Customer Service
Customers who have a unique and enjoyable experience throughout their buying journey are more willing to make a repeat purchase.
As customer service is directly connected between the customer and your business, providing top-notch customer service can also reduce customer acquisition costs.
Investing in providing exceptional customer service can help your store with-
- Decrease in churn rate – improves customer retention
- Positive customer experience makes customers pay more
- Improve customer lifetime value
- Bring better sales and revenue
- Encourage and improve customer loyalty
- Improves conversion rate
In addition, customer reviews and feedback are goldmines that help you improve aspects of your business.
The customer shares their personal views about the product or customer service they had with your store.
The feedback tells you how they feel about your business and which area needs to improve.
When a visitor sees positive reviews, social proof, and feedback about a product or your store, it helps you to acquire new customers and influence their purchasing decisions.
Remember, 9 out of 10 people read reviews before making any purchase.
Here are a few ways to improve your customer experience strategy-
- Create a customer journey map
- Start collecting data from every touchpoint
- Create a customer experience roadmap
- Deliver and improvise every time with feedback
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8. Leveraging Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a great way to promote your products via recommendations from famous social media bloggers.
These influencers have loyal customers who can help you build credibility and increase sales.
Influencer marketing involves partnering with individuals who have a large following on social platforms and can influence the buying decisions of their followers.
Most businesses collaborate with an influencer that helps them promote their products and businesses.
Customers trust these influencers, and it helps drive traffic to your Shopify store.
Here is how influencers can help to improve future sales for your store-
- The influencers share product reviews
- They perform a giveaway campaign that boosts engagement
- They talk about the shopping experience with your store
- Live interviews to improve sales
- Offer discount codes to influencers that can be shared with the followers
Finding and collaborating with influencers might seem hectic, but you can find the best if done correctly.
There are several ways to find influencers in your niche; some ways include-
- Using relevant hashtags
- Using Google search
- Use social media tracker tools or listening tools
- Influencer marketing platforms
Influencer marketing can help you build a foundation for long-lasting relationships with your customers.
You can reach a wider audience and influence them to make a purchase.
9. Implementing Retargeting and Remarketing
Implementing retargeting and remarketing strategies can improve Shopify sales by targeting customers who have already shown interest in your products or website.
This can increase brand awareness, encourage repeat purchases, and ultimately lead to an increase in sales.
Retargeting allows you to bring back the customers who recently visited your stores, and you can add exciting offers, showcase images of the recent product they viewed, and add text to tailor the situation.
On the other hand, Remarketing is when you re-engage with your existing customers who have already purchased from you.
You can send them newsletters, emails, and SMS to tell them about recent sales or product deals related to their previous purchases.
Here are some additional points to consider when implementing retargeting and remarketing strategies on your Shopify store:
- Retarget abandoned carts with Facebook and Google Ads to nudge sales.
- Use email marketing for exclusive offers to encourage repeat purchases.
- Create dynamic retargeting ads for a personalized shopping experience.
- Target ads based on viewed product categories, like showing shoe sales to shoe browsers.
- Analyze retargeting campaign performance for ongoing optimization.
10. Creating Trust and Building Authority
Building trust and authority can have a positive impact on sales.
Customers are more likely to purchase a business they trust and view as an expert in their field.
Building trust can be achieved through transparent communication, delivering on promises, and providing exceptional customer service.
Establishing authority can be accomplished by sharing industry knowledge, showcasing expertise in content creation through Brafton, and having a solid online presence.
A robust online presence is one way to establish authority and build trust. Here are some tips on how to do so:
- Build a professional website to display products/services and inform customers.
- Engage audiences on social media with valuable industry content.
- Become a thought leader through contributions to publications, speaking events, and interviews.
- Apply SEO strategies to boost search engine visibility and credibility.
- Promote customer reviews and testimonials for reputation proof.
11. Analyzing Your Store’s Performance
Analyzing your Shopify store’s performance can provide insights that can help increase sales.
You can compare the yearly sales performance with your company’s sales data and look for downward or upward trends.
In addition, when you access your Shopify sales report, you can examine which products are selling well and which are not.
It also shows how customers interact with, buy from, and spend money on your store.
Shopify provides access to essential data that can help you determine the critical metrics and track much more than average order value.
But which metrics are more important to analyze your store’s performance?
Here is the list of some important metrics to improve the store’s performance-
- Total sales
- Refund rates
- Average order value
- Average Customer Lifetime Value
- Bounce rate
- Cart Abandonment Rate
- Number of orders
- Net promoter score
- Cost of Selling
- Store traffic
By identifying areas of improvement, such as optimizing product pages, improving site speed, and enhancing the checkout process, you can make data-driven decisions to boost your store’s performance and attract more customers.
12. Managing Inventory and Shipping
When we talk about stores, inventory management, and shipping play critical roles in improving customer experience and sales for your Shopify store.
Inventory management aims to minimize the cost of holding inventory while maintaining a consistent stock level and shipping products faster to customers.
When we talk about Shopify Inventory management, we mean tracking products in your store to make future projections.
Inventory management gives you a clear picture of which and how much product to buy to fulfill customers’ needs and avoid shortages.
Inventory management helps to track each product in your store, handling product variations, cash flow optimization, access to inventory history, and improve customer experience.
On the other hand, shipping can help provide a positive customer experience and reduce the barriers to purchasing.
It helps to convince customers that they can receive the product quickly and reliably.
In addition to improving sales, offering fast and reliable shipping options can also help to build customer loyalty.
Customers with a positive experience with shipping are more likely to return to your business for future purchases.
This can lead to repeat business and potentially even word-of-mouth referrals to friends and family.
Further, offering free shipping can help is one of the best ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Customers abandon their carts during checkout due to unexpected shipping costs or long delivery times.
By offering transparent and affordable shipping options, you can reduce the likelihood of cart abandonment and increase the chances of completing a sale.
13. Building a Brand and Creating Loyalty
Developing a solid brand and fostering customer loyalty can positively impact sales on Shopify.
One way to develop a strong brand on Shopify is by creating a unique voice that resonates with your target audience.
This can be achieved through consistent messaging and visuals across your website, social media channels, and marketing materials.
It’s also important to clearly understand your brand values and purpose, as this can help differentiate you from competitors and create a sense of trust and Loyalty with customers.
In addition to branding, fostering customer loyalty is essential for driving sales on Shopify.
One effective way to do this is by providing exceptional customer service.
Responding promptly to inquiries, offering personalized support, and going above and beyond to solve customer issues can help build strong relationships with your customers.
Loyalty programs, discounts, and exclusive deals can incentivize customers to continue shopping with your brand.
Branding and customer loyalty can create a strong foundation for success on Shopify.
Things need to be avoided to improve sales on the Shopify store
To improve sales on your Shopify store, you should avoid the following:
- Poor website design and slow loading time
- Lack of product descriptions and high-quality
images - Inconsistent branding and messaging
- Complicated checkout process and hidden fees
- Lack of customer reviews and social proof
- Ignoring customer feedback and inquiries
- Neglecting to offer promotions and discounts
- Not optimizing for mobile devices
- Ignoring your target audience and not addressing their pain points
- Failing to analyze and adjust your marketing strategies
Conclusion
Increasing sales on your Shopify store requires a combination of tactics and strategies.
You can attract more customers and boost your revenue by implementing the tips discussed in this article, such as optimizing your product pages, offering discounts, and leveraging social media.
Remember to analyze and adapt your approach to ensure continuous long-term success.
With dedication and persistence, your Shopify store can become a thriving business.
It’s important to remember that your Shopify store’s success doesn’t just depend on the strategies you implement and how you present your brand to potential customers.