If you’ve been on Shopify for a while, you’ll know its advantages, including:
- Gives you greater control of your business
- It has a host of genuinely brilliant e-commerce tools
- The platform is very scalable – great for businesses of all sizes
But just because Shopify is a great platform to do e-commerce business, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to rack up the sales from day one. Once you have secured your first sale on Shopify, your imagination runs wild – “this time next year I’ll be a millionaire!” – but sadly, that’s (usually) not the case.
If you’re looking for actionable ways to bring in new visitors and convert them to paying customers, we’re here to help. In this article, we hope to share with you some of the tips that have helped us, and our customers, grow their e-commerce businesses on Shopify.
Ask yourself these questions before you do anything else:
Is your Shopify store well-optimised?
Follow our Shopify SEO guide for advice on optimising your store. Next, check your site’s speed and test it on as many different devices as possible. The site must be quick on them all – PC, laptop, tablet and mobile.
If you don’t hang around on slow websites, would you expect your customers to do so? Of course not! So make sure your site is speedy and delivering on what customers want.
Do you know your visitors' intent?
In e-commerce, data is one of your best friends. Through both Google and Shopify Analytics, you can learn a lot about your website visitors – and how to attract those customers who are specifically looking for what you are selling.
Traffic is great, but if you can target those visitors who are more likely to become repeat customers, your business will grow. 📈
Are you offering simple payment options?
You must offer preferred payment methods if you want visitors to become customers. If you don’t, they will abandon their cart and head over to your competitors, credit card in hand. If you haven’t done so already, set up Shopify Payments. This integrated payment service from Shopify will allow you to accept payments almost immediately after signing up for a Shopify store.
How to get more sales on your Shopify store
1. Ask your friends and family
If you’re new to Shopify and are keen to spread the word that your store is open for business, turn to the people most likely to support you – your closest circle of friends and family. Although we wouldn’t suggest this as a sustainable way to run a business, an early flurry of sales will certainly help to keep you motivated and focused on getting more orders.
2. Add actionable CTA buttons
Every single call-to-action (CTA) button on your website should have a role to play. Add them onto pages at key points and use interesting copy to entice readers to click on them. Need some help with copywriting? Consider hiring a freelance e-commerce copywriter.
Some effective CTA copy that has worked for us in the past includes ‘Download Now’, ‘Sign-up for treats’, ‘Book a free trial’ and ‘Sign up and save’. Do not, ever, use ‘Click Here’; it’s no longer the ‘90s!
3. Follow-up on abandoned carts
Abandoned orders in e-commerce are a daily occurrence and generally, they are nothing to get too worried about. But once you begin to see abandoned orders on your Shopify dashboard, you can begin to follow up on them.
To see abandoned carts from your Shopify admin page, simply go to Orders then click Abandoned Checkouts. You might see something like this:
Shopify allows you to review your abandoned checkouts and send emails to those visitors. This is a great opportunity to drive more sales. Will you give it a try?
Let us know if you try this – email josie@sellwithathlete.com and share your experience!
4. Use discount codes wisely
Yes, discount codes can – and very much do – bring in sales. But once the discount is over, how many of those customers are going to return time and time again (and pay full price)? You don’t want your brand to be known as the one ‘always offering a discount’ – it doesn’t create the right message. Instead, carefully choose when you are going to apply discount codes to your Shopify store and create a sense of occasion by putting a strict deadline on when it finishes.
5. Build up your reviews
Customer reviews can make or break your business. Online shoppers rely on ‘social proofing’ when making purchasing decisions. Social proofing is a concept based on the evidence that people will follow the actions of the majority. The more positive reviews you bring in, the more new visitors are going to trust your store and brand. And more trust = more sales.
Shopify’s own free product reviews app automatically adds an aggregate review score of your products in Google’s search results. Just by using this, you could see a positive uptick in organic visits to your store.
By following these practical tips for increasing your sales on Shopify, it shouldn’t be too long before those orders start to come in. Good luck!
Help further help growing your store? Our Shopify resources can help you to maximise your business sales.