How to Increase Sales on Shopify: 15 Tips for Success in 2024
Opening an online store is only half the battle when building a successful eCommerce business. The other is learning how to increase sales on Shopify, gain new and retain existing customers.
If an online store drives traffic but the sales aren’t great, finding the cause is vital. Multiple factors can hinder sales, like the store’s homepage design, lack of mobile-friendly navigation, or low-quality images.
Since increasing sales is a top priority for all Shopify store owners, we’ve prepared 15 tips that will help any entrepreneur turn passive visitors into paying customers.
Table of Contents
- 1. Fine-Tune Your Website
- 2. Make Navigation a Breeze
- 3. Offer a Fast Checkout and Multiple Payment Methods
- 4. Tailor Images for Different Functions
- 5. Utilize SEO Tools
- 6. Test Different Marketing Channels
- 7. Have Both Paid and Organic Traffic
- 8. Analyze and Adjust Your Marketing Strategy
- 9. Improve Customer Retention With Abandoned-Cart Emails
- 10. Ask for Reviews
- 11. Leverage Social Media Shopping
- 12. Try SMS Marketing and Web Push Notifications
- 13. Up-Sell and Cross-Sell
- 14. Automate Where You Can
- 15. Engage With Customers
- Start a Print-On-Demand Business on Shopify
- Closing Thoughts
1. Fine-Tune Your Website
Typically, it takes 0.05 seconds for someone to decide whether they like a site, so leaving a positive first impression is crucial.
When building a store, consider the following:
- Website’s purpose. Have a clear intention for each page so potential customers can easily interact with your website.
- Layout. Select a format that’s easy to read. For example, shape your information in a f-shape – left to right and top to bottom, since it’s a common way readers digest on-screen content.
- Design. Build a beautiful and functional online shop that reflects the quality a customer can expect from your products. Learn from the best by exploring the most successful Shopify stores
- Product descriptions and images. Inspire trust by creating great product photos and writing detailed descriptions.
- Content. Attract visitors with well-written content and make them interested in learning more about your offering.
On top of these essential aspects, don’t forget about loading times. Keep these tips in mind:
- Compress images but maintain high quality.
- Reduce redirects and broken links.
- Test the loading time of your online store with a tool like PageSpeed.
2. Make Navigation a Breeze
Visitors should be able to browse your store with as few clicks as possible. Navigation should be seamless and intuitive, working well on both desktop and mobile devices. After all, mobile eCommerce sales reached $2.2t in 2023, so it’s vital to optimize for smartphone shoppers too.
Improve the browsing experience by:
- Grouping products into categories.
- Presenting product categories in the top menu.
- Including filter and sort features.
- Directing visitors toward product pages.
- Choose your icons, colors, typography, and spacing with navigation as a key factor.
If you’ve optimized your website this way, potential customers can quickly find the product they’re after, resulting in increased profits for your store.
3. Offer a Fast Checkout and Multiple Payment Methods
A simple checkout page reduces customer frustration, leading to more conversions.
- Offer various payment options at the checkout. In addition to debit and credit cards, provide buy now, pay later options like Shop Pay Installments and Klarna, and mobile wallets like Apple and Google Pay.
- Minimize the number of form fields. The less, the better. Strive for about eight fields or less.
- Eliminate mandatory sign-ups. Make guest checkouts default or at least a prominent option to avoid cart abandonment.
Quick tip
Increase your online store sales by learning how to optimize checkout.
4. Tailor Images for Different Functions
With the right image in the right size, format, and positioning, a Shopify store can attract customers and effectively showcase its value.
Use Shopify’s image size recommendations for good loading speed and optimal quality:
- Products: 2048px x 2048px.
- Collections: 1024px x 1024px.
- Slideshows: Recommended width of 1600px or 1200px-2000px. Height 400px-600px.
Remember that each image has a different purpose. Explore the Shopify image size guidelines and learn how to choose the right dimensions and format for banners, headers, slideshows, and products.
5. Utilize SEO Tools
Shopify has a variety of search engine optimization (SEO) tools that can help you rank higher in search results, including:
- StoreSEO. An optimizer app that detects SEO problems, suggests relevant keywords, and creates templates for metadata, such as tags, titles, and descriptions.
- SEO Metriks. Helps sellers identify SEO issues, technical problems, and conduct competitor research.
- Smart SEO. Provides tools and automation to optimize meta tags, images, page speed, and other areas required to drive traffic and increase sales.
Quick tip
Take a look at our Shopify SEO guide to optimize your store and increase future sales.
Make It Happen Today!
6. Test Different Marketing Channels
As the eCommerce market becomes more competitive, get your store off the ground quickly by using various marketing channels and strategies. For example, try these:
- Email marketing. With a return on investment of 4400% – around $44 for every $1 spent, email marketing is an affordable way to advertise. Try tools like MailerLite or Mailchimp to easily create, manage, and measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
Learn more about Shopify email marketing from our in-depth guide.
- Social media marketing. A great way to reach, engage, and sell to millions of potential customers worldwide. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are among the best platforms.
- Content marketing. If you’re in a competitive niche, outshine your rivals by constantly publishing relevant content like product reviews and articles to build authority.
- Influencer marketing. Gain trust and reach your audience by collaborating with influencers who cater to your target demographic.
Quick tip
Discover the best Shopify marketing strategies to skyrocket your profits.
7. Have Both Paid and Organic Traffic
Shopify search engine optimization is a great way to drive organic traffic to your store and rank higher on the search engine results page. However, paid ads can give that extra boost to reach an even wider audience.
Social Media Ads
- Facebook. A market leader, allowing businesses to advertise on Facebook and Instagram.
- TikTok. With more than 1 billion active users worldwide, it’s a great way to reach millennial and Gen Z consumers
- Twitter. While they’re best for brand building, they’re still effective in driving traffic.
- Snapchat. This could be the right marketing channel if you’re targeting a younger audience, given that most Snapchat users are under 34.
Search Engine Marketing
In addition, try Google Ads – an advertising platform designed to help businesses reach audiences through its search engine and partner platforms. It can place ads in Google’s search results, mobile apps, videos, and non-search websites.
8. Analyze and Adjust Your Marketing Strategy
When your store is up and running, check how it’s performing and where the traffic comes from.
Use Shopify’s analytics and reports to review your store’s recent activity, find out who the visitors are, and check the loading time of your store page.
Note that the types of analytics you can get depend on your Shopify subscription plan. While everyone can access the analytics page and key financial reports, others relating to sales, profit, and customers are available only on a plan. Explore the different options in their help center.
A few key eCommerce metrics entrepreneurs should track:
- Conversion rate. Every online store’s goal is to convert visitors into customers. The conversion rate helps measure whether you’re driving people to the right pages.
To calculate the conversion rate, simply divide the number of orders by the number of unique store visitors.
- Average order value. A metric of how much your customers typically spend on a single order, helping to evaluate marketing efforts and pricing strategy. It’s usually measured in monthly intervals.
To calculate the average order value, divide the total revenue by the number of orders.
- Shopping cart abandonment rate. If this rate is high, it could mean that the checkout isn’t working. It may be due to shipping costs, or a guest checkout hasn’t been implemented.
To calculate the shopping cart abandonment, divide the number of completed cart check-outs by the total number of initiated sales. Subtract that result from one and multiply by 100 to get the percentage.
With this information, you’ll see what works well and what doesn’t. Use these as guidelines to adjust your store’s design, content, and email marketing efforts.
9. Improve Customer Retention With Abandoned-Cart Emails
When learning how to increase Shopify sales, don’t forget about abandoned-cart emails. They’re a simple and effective strategy to retain customers and increase profits.
Leverage email marketing to remind people who added a product to their cart but didn’t complete a purchase. You can encourage them further by offering a discount code or reduced shipping cost for their next purchase.
Quick tip
Gather inspiration from some of the best abandoned-cart email examples.
10. Ask for Reviews
Create social proof for your Shopify store and gain consumers’ trust by asking satisfied customers to send feedback.
Then, showcase these positive reviews or user-generated content on social media, product pages, and in email marketing campaigns to make people feel comfortable buying from you.
Since new customers often check online reviews before purchasing a product, consider creating a profile on a platform like Trustpilot.
Quick tip
Offer free shipping or a discount code to encourage customers to leave feedback.
Make It Happen Today!
11. Leverage Social Media Shopping
While social media platforms are excellent tools for social proof, they’re also great for selling directly to your target audience. Last year, global sales through social media were estimated at $992b.
These Shopify apps are the most popular platforms for social commerce:
Use these apps to sync your Shopify store’s product catalog to these platforms and easily manage orders from your admin panel.
Quick tip
Learn how to sell on social media with Print on Demand.
12. Try SMS Marketing and Web Push Notifications
Complement your marketing efforts and maximize your reach with these two methods. They’re easy to use and can be highly effective.
- SMS marketing. Reach customers directly on their smartphones and instantly announce sales, new product launches, and special offers. It’s a simple and personal way to boost sales.
Make sure to get the customer’s consent for SMS marketing before sending them any messages.
13. Up-Sell and Cross-Sell
Motivate people to buy more and increase your online sales with up-selling and cross-selling strategies. These are great for maximizing your average order value and overall revenue.
- Cross-selling. A method of encouraging customers to add more products to their cart. For example, if a customer buys a t-shirt, the cross-sell would be a pair of matching pants or a hat to complete the outfit.
- Up-selling. Inspire customers to upgrade their purchase by offering a product of higher price or quality.
Try these strategies by including sections like:
- Complete the look. Suggest products that go well with the product they’re viewing.
- You may also like. Offer similar products to what existing customers have purchased.
- Bestsellers. Showcase trending products currently in high demand. These may be more expensive.
- New arrivals. If you’re just starting out and have no data, suggest new arrivals to generate interest.
14. Automate Where You Can
While learning how to generate sales on Shopify, consider automation a useful tool to streamline business processes and save yourself time and effort.
Use it for repetitive tasks like welcome emails to new customers, order confirmations, or abandoned-cart emails.
In addition, consider adding chatbots to your store, like Tidio or Chatra. They can improve your customers’ online shopping experience by handling basic inquiries, such as providing information on products, shipping timeframes, and other frequently asked questions.
15. Engage With Customers
Build long-lasting relationships by providing a positive customer experience. Engage with new and loyal customers through personalized communication and prompt support. If you’re successful in this, they’re more likely to buy from your Shopify store again.
If you’re wondering how to get more sales on Shopify using this strategy, try creating a customer loyalty program. Reward people with discount codes, giveaways, or a free shipping offer.
With loyalty programs, you can gain more customers, retain existing ones, and increase sales in slow seasons.
Quick tip
Listening to your existing customers is a great way to stay ahead of the competition. Ask what they like, dislike, and tailor your store using their feedback.
Start a Print-On-Demand Business on Shopify
We offer more than 900 products that you can personalize to your heart’s content using our beginner-friendly Mockup Generator.
After a customer buys from you, our trusted Print Providers will take care of the rest – printing, packaging, and shipping.
With 8 million merchants worldwide trusting our platform, you can feel confident that your Shopify store is in good hands.
Quick tip
Explore our article on what to sell on Shopify, providing 12 niche and 45 product ideas to gather inspiration for new bestsellers.
Set Up Your POD Business Today!
Closing Thoughts
While anyone can quickly create an eCommerce store, learning how to increase sales on Shopify takes time, trial, and error.
What may work for your competitors may not work for you. So, experiment with different strategies and analyze the results to build a store that attracts your ideal customers and makes money.
Create and Sell Your Products Today!
Written by
Leon Walker
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