Fourmeta's Guide to Increasing Shopify Store Sales

Do you have an amazing product to sell? Are the items you sell of the highest quality and build? Will buying the product change people’s lives for the better? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be wondering: “Why are my sales not going up?”

It’s a reasonable question and an important one because a business without sales is like a plane without wings- it’s not going far. Sales equal success and this article will guide you to become even more successful in ecommerce on Shopify.

First, we will discuss what can prevent a Shopify store owner from having sales success. Afterwards, we will highlight 10 ways to grow your ecommerce sales.

What is slowing down sales? Usually, a lack of sales boils down to:

• A lack of traffic

• A lack of trust or knowledge

• Low conversion rates

A lack of traffic

Imagine a restaurant that makes the absolute best pizza in the world: fantastic taste, variety and unbeatable prices. You would guess that this would be the most popular restaurant but is that all one needs for success? What if people do not know about this restaurant? What if it is hard to find and not advertised? Word of mouth can help this restaurant from going under, but sales would definitely not be optimised.

The same goes for an online store. You may have the best product, but do users know about it? There are countless websites and ecommerce sites. How will users find the proverbial needle in a haystack? Step one to sales success is gaining exposure and notoriety as an online business.

A lack of trust or knowledge

Let’s go back to our pizza example. There are a lot of pizzerias in the world, and many of them claim they are the best. How can one know for sure?

Products online can be even less distinguishable, adding another sales mountain to climb. Once a user finds out about the product, the next hurdle is to gain their trust. Why should a user choose your product over others?

Low conversion rates

Back to pizza! People found the pizza place. It’s become famous actually with people wanting to take a picture in front of the now-famous pizza place. Slight problem, though… no one is actually buying the pizza!

Unfortunately, the same can happen with an online store. Users can find your store, learn about your product, even gain trust in you but not make a purchase. All that work and all for nought. Some users are just browsing; some have barriers to purchase, like lack of money, while others are not enticed by the shipping or discount options.

Whatever the case may be, conversion rate optimisation is vital to increasing sales. Read this article if you want to learn more about how to improve your conversion rate on Shopify.

This comprehensive guide will tackle all the barriers to sales and will help you drive traffic, gain users’ trust and optimise your conversion rates.

10 Ways to Increase your Sales on Shopify

Determine your target audience

Certain products are just not meant for some. Establishing your target audience can help avoid needless spending and experimentation. Say you’re selling cheese pizzas with extra cheese to vegans or those who are lactose intolerant- can you expect good results?

What can help determine your target audience? Try using free sources of traffic, for example, friends and family. Have them visit your Shopify site and see who makes a purchase or is at least interested. Take note of this audience, as they can be targeted more specifically with paid ads. This is especially helpful if you have a limited advertising budget. Finding the users who want or need your product is the first key to sales success.

Grow your online presence

An online presence includes but is not limited to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, TikTok, Reddit, etc. Maybe it won’t be possible to use all these various platforms at first, so choose a couple and focus on them.

An online presence doesn’t mean you have to use all these platforms to sell constantly. Personal connections can help an online business thrive. If we go into a store and meet a charming and friendly salesperson, we might be more inclined to buy something. The same can be said for online sales. The challenge is letting your personal style and story be visible online.

Use social media as a tool in your arsenal and help potential customers get to know you. What do you stand for, and why did you decide to make this particular product. How did you come up with the idea? For a person who is on the fence, getting to know the story behind the product may just be the nudge they need.

Paid advertising

There comes the point in time where asking family or friends to visit our Shopify store just isn't enough. Paid advertising includes Google ads in an auction format and other platforms where every click is paid for. Paying for ads only makes sense after applying point number one and determining your target audience. Of course, an ad can be clicked on by anyone, but there's a reason why Google is worth a gazillion dollars. They are good at displaying ads to key demographics. How does it work?

Without getting into a discussion regarding big brother, just know that everything is known about a user. Their interests, hobbies, dream vacation, current home improvement project is reflected in their internet search and browsing. When Google or another service offers an ad, it has a high success rate as the ad is usually for something the user needs.

Google is just one option, though. There is also Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many others. Try to see where you have the most engagement and use that platform to drive traffic to your Shopify online store.

Intuitive UX

They say first impressions last. If we did everything right and now have more traffic to our Shopify store, the next step is to get them to stay. If a user clicks on an ad or a social media link and comes to a website and doesn't like what they see, that might be it. That potential customer can be lost due to a UI that is not attractive or a clunky UX.

On the other hand, an intuitive user experience can have the user feeling like they have found their new favourite store. They could linger and check out the different pages, the blog, the product images and so on.

An intuitive UX can also lead to sales by taking a user on a journey and dropping them off at the destination- the buy now button. UX designers are specialists in making a website easy to use. Everything is thought of in advance to give you, the Shopify store owner, the best chance at success.

Testimonials and reviews

Have you ever looked at a price or heard a claim that seems too good to be true? Most people are inherently distrustful due to a bad shopping experience or scam in the past. Trust is built upon confidence, and reviews or testimonials help users feel confident about their purchase.

Some online businesses try to hide any negative reviews or feedback, but this strategy usually backfires. Users know we live in an imperfect world, and it's impossible for everyone to have a perfect shopping experience each time. It is best to be transparent, so users know that even if there was an issue, it was quickly resolved. A user review can be the difference between an unsure user and a confident customer.

A/B testing

Have you ever had a conversation and afterwards thought, "I wish I would have said that differently." Alas, it is too late. When designing a home page or landing pages for conversion (having the user complete the intended action), we have the luxury of going back and changing the strategy.

For example, imagine you have created a landing page for users who have clicked a paid ad on Google. The first thing they see is the headline or the pictures, and this first impression is crucial. You have two headlines in mind and several images to choose from. How can you make the right choice? Well, you really can't be sure. You hope you make the right choice, but A/B testing can give you objective data. You can try both options on your Shopify store and see which captivates or motivates users more effectively. With that factual data, you will improve your conversion rate, which will increase sales.

Email & SMS opt-ins

Some days we aren't in the mood to shop. Some weeks we have to wait an extra day for our paycheck to arrive. If something is offered to us on that inopportune day, we may say no even if we want or need the item. The principle applies to ecommerce as well. Just because the user is on your site, loves the design, and reads the reviews, it doesn't mean they will make a purchase. Email and SMS opt-ins are crucial at this juncture.

If a user opts in, marketing can continue either by email or text. You can send a discount code or offer another product that the curious shopper overlooked at first. Bottom line, you haven't lost the customer yet.

Search engine optimisation

We don’t want to hurt your feelings, but there are many terrific websites out there, and that includes Shopify stores. Say someone is looking for pizza (sorry for the overused metaphor) online and searches for pizza on Google. What will they see in the top results? Initially, they will see companies that pay a pretty penny for advertising and have substantial marketing budgets. Afterwards, though, there will be results that Google considers the most appropriate.

Optimising your Shopify site will help it rise in SEO rankings. Optimised URL’s, product descriptions, and images will aid users in finding your ecommerce site. Shopify is already SEO friendly, but there are a few specific things that can help.

●       Avoid duplicate content and URL’s

●       Use accurate and unique product descriptions

●       Use structured data that Google can easily clip

We will share a comprehensive Shopify SEO guide in a future article, but, without a doubt, this is one of the best ways to drive traffic and potential sales.

Email marketing

As is the case with email opt-ins, email marketing is a way to connect with a warm target audience continuously. For online shoppers, there are times when it is more convenient to make a purchase. It may not be the first time they are on your site. When can you send an email?

It is often best practice to ask users to provide an email address on the homepage of your site. You may choose to incentivise them by offering a discount code, free item or newsletter or other perks. With Shopify, you can create email sequences that will trigger if the user takes a specific action. After receiving their email, you can send a welcome email right away thanking them for their consideration. An email sequence can be set up when a cart is abandoned or users stop opening their emails.

You may wonder if constant emails would annoy users. There is, of course, a reasonable amount that wouldn’t be considered spamming but would gently nudge those who showed some interest. How effective is email marketing? Based on a study done by Litmus, “for every 1$ dollar marketers spend on email marketing, they get approximately 40$ in return.” That is excellent ROI and will boost your sales exponentially.

Improve site speed and performance

People hate to wait for things, especially when it comes to their online shopping experience. Why wait for the page load when other sites offer a similar product. Improving your store’s speed and responsiveness will lead to a higher conversion rate on sales.

Find out more about how to improve your Shopify store speed in this article.

How important is it to boost speed and site responsiveness? Here are some stats:

• 79% of customers “dissatisfied” with a site’s performance are less likely to buy from them again

• 64% of smartphone users expect a website to load in four seconds or less

• 47% of online shoppers expect web pages to load in two seconds or less

Boosting your Shopify store’s speed will prevent users from even thinking about leaving the site. Users will be gleefully visiting one page after another, not thinking about anything but shopping.

Conclusion

Let’s return to our pizza example one last time (promise)). After reading our online guide, the pizza place increased foot traffic, improved trust, and added a fantastic menu. All this led to… drumroll, increased sales! These ten tips can and will improve your Shopify sales as well.

There are of course many more ways to improve sales and if you are serious about increasing sales feel free to contact our marketing team. We can guide you through which specific tips are most important in your situation.

We are happy to have shared this information with you. Feel free to check out our other articles regarding ecommerce.