When looked at from the outside, Shopify can be an amazing platform to set up your eCommerce store. But, that doesn’t mean it’s easy, especially when there’s a growing cut-throat competition to seek audience attention. While 2020-21 were all about eCommerce shopping given the lockdown, and Shopify merchants making sales records of over $5.1 billion on this Black Friday and Cyber Monday; 2022 is going to be a whole different story to keep your customers engaged.
There’s a series of different factors that come into play when you’re running your eStore. Be it personalized email marketing, seamless and secure checkouts, or even mobile optimization – it can be a handful. As a business owner, you need to provide not just products, but build an interpersonal shopping experience for them to establish a trust-building foundation. Now, if you’re a beginner it may take time to get your first sales, but once the momentum is set, you could make more conversions with more effectiveness and ease.
Understanding How To Start Making Conversions on Shopify (For Beginners)
It’s clear that customers come back to certain online stores and purchase because they connect with their products; not necessarily because there aren’t better products out there. As a new online business owner, you’d need to create, and plant the connection with your audience with the help of your brand’s storytelling.
There must be a reason why you want to start your online store, right? Try to lay it out to your customers as is, for nailing it right from the start. This is the first step where you give your brand a deep-rooted purpose, that should also get reflected in your products and in every piece of marketing. Such personalized storytelling will win new customers, bringing them back over and over.
As discussed above, getting your first sales on Shopify can take time, and can depend on a number of factors, like:
- If you have a pre-existing database with email profiles of individuals who come close to your target group profiles.
- The authority and age of your online domain.
- How deeply you’ve analyzed and researched the market, and how your products/prices stand out
- The way you showcase your products on your online store, via pictures, descriptions, and videos.
- The offers you’re providing to your first-time and returning customers on their purchases.
Now that you know what it takes prior to getting the first purchase; here’s how you can multiply it this year.
Step I: Identify Free Traffic Channels
Unlike popular belief, getting traffic to your online store isn’t a Herculean task, as long as you’re tapping into the right sources. This way you can keep a close watch on the type of people interacting with your product pages, showcase action with any of the website pages, or even choose to buy from you. That’s a great way to learn what worked and what didn’t on your online store and optimize it accordingly.
We know what you must be thinking- how do I get such people to my eStore? Think of your inner circle – friends, family, colleagues. They can act as a good medium to share about your store within their network; even when they’re not obliged to do so. You can even share your online store on social media and get them to engage in the posts, thus gaining a lot of online attention. You can even provide them with exclusive early-bird or first-customer discounts for taking the opportunity to build good bonds.
Online communities on Reddit, Yelp, Quora can also be of huge aid in terms of talking about your products or online shop. You can even search for relevant communities who might be interested in your products and ask meaningful questions about them. Joining a few local subreddits can even give you a good insight into the local preferences of the people about the market in general.
You can also choose to sell on Facebook, Instagram via your Shopify website. The best part about it is you can directly integrate your products with your profile; without having to sell a dime! You can even get influencers or celebrities relevant to your industry to showcase your products for building brand awareness. Pinterest can also be crucial to make your store getting visible, so you can share product pins, and share meaningful blogs, videos, infographics, etc.
Step II: Curating (and monetizing) your email database
As discussed above, it certainly gives your online store the headstart it needs by having a good email list. This way you can interest your visitors into turning subscribers; and eventually a buyer.
You can integrate your online store with the right email marketing software that can help you to collect the emails of your store visitors without any hassle. Later, you can send them personalized emails; all at once with the help of platforms like Klaviyo. For making it convenient for the customer to choose whether they want to keep hearing from you, provide them with an ‘Unsubscribe’ button at the end of each email.
In this way, you can also limit the number of your shopping cart abandonment issues, as you can always send them reminder emails. For your subscribers, you can keep sending them updates about everything happening in your store if they haven’t visited for a long time.
For getting the maximum engagement you can also send your subscribers emails about their wishlist if there’s any product currently running out of stock. This way you can make a strong impression by making the purchase, in case they’ve forgotten about it.
Step III: Adding ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ option To Your Checkout Page
Several surveys show that around 40% of people are more inclined to buy a product if they are provided with quick financing options with small interests. It can mean so much more for the lifetime customer value of your store since with this you can engage more customers into buying from you.
Such offers can make your customers feel valued, and as an alternative to credit, it can also make them loyal to your store.
Conclusion
While the world of eCommerce has been rapidly growing, online selling platforms like Shopify provides business owners the right starting point to get them digital. While your first step would be the most difficult to yield, it only gets better and bigger from here. If you’re a business owner looking for experts to help you scale your business, here are some of our recommendations:
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Ambaum, Washington
They’re an eCommerce design, development, and growth enterprise, specializing in Shopify plus, WordPress, WooCommerce, and other technologies. Their team of experts may help you in developing custom, target-oriented solutions for your businesses.
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CodeClouds, Indiana
They’re Shopify partners with a global team of 400+ eCommerce experts and perfect for those looking to hire dedicated Shopify developers for your business. They deliver innovative, subscription-based, affordable products for your online store and all its requirements.
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Solo Media Group, Miami
Folks here are adept with Shopify and Shopify solutions for your online store, as well as provide services in WordPress and WooCommerce. Their rich portfolio elaborates their dynamic portfolio and works across different industries.
