The Shopify revolution is real. eCommerce businesses aren’t just mere websites, they’re now shopping destinations.

And they have a ton to offer.

However, if you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd.

Bringing high volumes of traffic isn’t exactly intuitive.

AND that’s okay. As long as you know where to look, the internet has a ton of resources to offer.

But they may not all offer high-level information or even prioritize revenue as the primary benchmark.

Luckily for you, we’ve put together this guide to take you through eCommerce marketing tactics that actually drive sales.

The best part? They’re super simple to follow through.

25 Shopify marketing strategies to drive shoppers to your store

‍

SITE OPTIMIZATION: 

1. Focus on Shopify-centered site optimization techniques

While running a Shopify store, the most important priority for a business owner is to have their website optimized. 

This naturally ensures customers can explore products and categories without glitch and take action without confusion. 

If you run a Shopify storefront, here’s what you can do to ensure your site offers valuable CX:

• Choose an up-to-date theme that’s fast to load and is responsive across devices
• Opt for a system font so that customers don’t have to separately download it to be able to access your website
• Get rid of unnecessary redirects and especially pay attention to redirect loops that break the flow of a customer’s experience
• Limit your collections to smaller batches of products
• Integrate AMP web pages with your Shopify store to make your site optimized for mobile devices
• Get rid of features that trigger distracting elements (for example, how the ‘quick view’ feature is often responsible for triggering pop-ups)
• Remove all redundant Shopify apps as they continue to run in the background and can slow down site performance

2. Create large (yet subtle) CTAs for mobile UX

The idea is not only to influence shoppers to act in the best way you can, but also to make it easy to act. 

In this regard, making your CTAs distinct and tappable is absolutely essential. Also, leave space for thumb activity. 

Featuring one main CTA is to ensure emails stay mobile-friendly. 

Here’s a look at how Chewy optimizes their product page CTAs for mobile. 

As you can see, it strikes an ideal balance between size and color. 

Here’s another example from the Ikea homepage - where the CTAs are amply sized yet don’t meddle with the look and feel of the background. 

3. Keep the content easily skimmable (for mobile readers)

While reading on mobile, shoppers are essentially making use of a smaller screen.

So the first thing to get right is the length of the email body. 

The idea is NOT to have shoppers scroll multiple times to get through the entire email.

Once a shopper associates this kind of email with your brand, it’s possible they’ll be less compelled to open emails from you in the future. 

Featuring just a couple of paragraphs and blocking them within a single fold is the best way to go. 

Ensure the main idea in the email is captured within the first few sentences.

Here’s an example from Beardbrand.

Notice how economically (yet deftly) the brand calls to attention products added to cart but not yet purchased.

4. Make SEO a top priority 

It’s as simple as this. 48% of online shopping journeys start from search engines.

This means you need to be present for the right kind of searches at the right moment. 

For instance, if you’re running a sale for Black Friday Cyber Monday, your sale page needs to be optimized for keywords like ‘BFCM deals’ etc. 

When creating an SEO strategy for your Shopify store, be sure to: 

• Target more top of the funnel keywords as they have higher search volumes than highly specific ones
• Focus on long-tail keywords too as they are most likely to be used by shoppers with high purchase intent 
• Focus on site speed so that high load times don’t become a reason for drop-offs and lower search rankings 
• Optimize all your site images for search so they show up in case someone is looking just at the images section
• Make use of the built-in SEO features of Shopify like setting up URL structure, adding meta title and description of each page, including ALT text for all images 
• Be as descriptive as you can while writing product descriptions as they are likely to cover a huge number of relevant keywords
• Interlink all possible product and category pages of your site with one another

AUTOMATION

5. Send automated reminders to those who abandoned their cart

Bring back shoppers who added products to the cart but never completed the purchase with automated reminders over email, web push, SMS or even Facebook Messenger.

Tools to Use:

• TxtCart for SMS recovery
• Firepush for automated web push notifications
• CareCart for email reminders
• Recart for sending reminders on Messenger

Pro Tip: Use Engage for an end-to-end service that helps you build on shopper behaviour, personalize copy, and tailor workflows.

6. Use customer engagement tools to enhance communication

Keep your Shopify store visitors and subscribers involved by automating communication for retargeting, remarketing, and customer engagements.

Right from welcome emails to product updates, there are several Shopify apps to do it all!

Tools to Use:

• Engagely for Thank You emails
• HelpCenter for FAQ & Help Desk
• Zendesk for omnichannel connectivity

Hey, you’ll love this: 24 effortless Shopify checkout page customizations that increase sales

7. Integrate your social media channels with Shopify

There are two ways you can do this: 

a. You can integrate your Shopify store with social media pages to share your

products online with a single click.

b. You can set up Facebook and Instagram shops using Shopify apps to

automatically update your inventory on the social platforms and make it available

for selling.

Tools to Use:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest

8. Integrate program management tools for cross-functional tracking

By integrating your Shopify store project management tools, you can keep track of your cross-functional projects, sales and marketing activities, customer management, etc.

Tools to Use:

• Slack
• Trello
• GSuite
• Airtable

9. Opt for the ‘right’ email marketing apps 

Now because there’s no absolute right app to serve every eCommerce business, you’ll have to narrow down on what your email marketing needs are. 

For sending out basic brand-based emails on schedule while enjoying a performance analytics tool - Shopify Email

For advanced features like A/B testing, exit intent popups and automated abandoned cart

recovery emails - AVA Email Marketing

For advanced features around sign-up forms and audience targeting - Klaviyo

You basically get the drift - there’s no one size fits all, and you’ll have to choose the right app for the email marketing context you’re operating along. 

10. Use SMS in a strategic way

• Ensure your messages are short and to the point
• Use SMSBump to tailor your message to audience segments and automate them
• Look into data protection and consumer safety laws such as CAN-SPAM and TCPA
• Automate your cart recovery campaigns on SMS
• Ensure your one-time promotional campaigns are timed to match the intent of the user 

Here’s what a good example looks like:

Hey, check this out: Shopify Homepage CRO: 12 proven ideas to boost conversions

11. Integrate the live chat option for customer insight & experience

Whereas customer satisfaction levels stay at about 61% over calls and about 44% over email, live chat takes this number up to 73%. 

This makes it very important for you to lean on the live chat function to make your Shopify marketing strategy robust. 

Here are a few highly rated live chat tool options that you can consider based on your business needs: 

• Tidio: This app enables a super short setup time of 30 seconds and includes a number of great features such as unifying the handling of messages across all channels and in-built capabilities for over 20 integrations. 

‍

• Live Chat: This much loved app includes distinctive features such as lists on real-time visitors, glimpses of what customers type before they use the ‘send’ button and a permanent cart. 

‍

• Maven: Maven is a free app that comes with several no-configuration capabilities such as omnichannel support to integrate all active channels, cart awareness & abandonment chatbots that send out necessary notifications and an in-depth analytics dashboard. 

‍

• Brevi: Yet another free app that’s rated a 5, Brevi distinctively features a number of amazing aspects including enabling the business to initiate a relevant chat and helping in closing sales, offering flexible chat hours and precise automatic answers on order status, returns and shipping. 

‍

• Reamaze: While being more expensive than many of its counterparts, Reamaze ensures a number of distinctive characteristics. These include giving the merchant the ability to handle multiple storefronts, being able to access other Shopify apps while using the Reamaze dashboard and measuring the customer support team’s impact on sales and revenue. 

12. Make the returns experience smoother with smart tools 

As against products bought at brick-and-mortar outfits, those that are bought at online stores clock a much higher rate of return. While the former stands at 8.89%, the latter is about 30%. 

Here are some tools that can help you make your Shopify returns experience super smooth:

• Rich Returns: With this app, you can create a full-branded returns portal that’s high on ease and speed. The big highlight on Rich Returns, however, is their 1-click returns option that allows exchanges against other products. 

‍

• Loop: Apart from creating a smooth returns process for customers, Loop features a number of other important functionalities including style customizations, gift cards and store credit and a ‘final sale, exchange only’ feature. 

‍

• Return Prime: This is an app that has multiple handy features including featuring your customer journey in any language of your choice on the app, processing of refunds on gift cards, customer card or discount coupon and a 14 day refund window. 

‍

• Return & Exchange Portal: Apart from offering a customized returns portal, this app is known for some superlative features like the Return Score AI that offers customers alternatives to choosing a refund. 

‍

• FlexReturn: Apart from being a great tool for customizable returns, FlexReturn features a repair option as well as multiple rules that can be set for flexible returns. 

PERSONALIZATION

13. Use precise event-driven data to personalize

Precise data on specific events where the customer engaged with your brand is essential for:

‍

1. Creating personalizations that feel relevant at every stage (to the customer)
2. Enhancing CX beyond personalization

‍

One way to do this is to use an eCommerce customer engagement platform that can help you view data around several events like products that are browsed, viewed or added to cart, products that are added and then removed from the cart etc. 

Other related events like logging in, logging out, starting the checkout process and paying up for an order also become events that can be tapped into for insights. 

14. Use Shopify apps to focus on specific aspects of personalization

Shopify, thankfully, has a range of customization apps that can help business owners focus on very segmented parts of the customization or personalization process. 

Some very highly rated Shopify personalization apps include:

• Infinite Options (for infinite number of product fields including numbers, text, dropdown menus, checkboxes etc.)
• Customify (for uploading infinite number of images and their live preview feature that is known to reduce returns and exchanges)
• Custom Product Builder (for live previews in every angle as well as their gallery with video & 3D feature)

15. Know how not to over-personalize

In some (not so) surprising research results put together, it was found that customers do experience over-personalization and that it has detrimental effects on how they experience a brand. 

The most common problem, the research identified, happens to be that of the customer being cast into a “niche” based on their behavior. 

This is known to cause “content fatigue”.

So how do you not over-personalize? Here are a few quick tips:

• Widen your hyper-targeted segments to allow for overlaps. This will ensure customers of multiple segments get to experience recommendations of products they usually don’t see or get prompted to buy. 

‍

• Use a feedback loop around personalization. This means if you’ve been recommending certain kinds of products for a while, use a survey or quiz to find out if the customer is in line with the recommendations. Getting periodic feedback will ensure you’re aligned with the changing preferences of the customer. 

‍

• Introduce non-targeted content in a strategic way. Be honest about throwing in some change to the regular recommendations.

For example, send fresh email recommendations saying “For a change, we thought you’d like these products”.

Or let’s say you know your focused customer segment cares more about their skin than their gut.

To recommend products that are centered on the gut, then, you could talk about how a good gut means not just good skin but a bunch of other healthy things. 

ENGAGEMENT

16. Offer engaging content to high-intent subscribers

One way to get your audience to organically open up and capture them as subscribers is to run quizzes and polls. 

This is a tactic Content that generates self-awareness for the customer and also shows you care as brand to give them the best experience, is a win-win.

For example, Care/of knows how sensitive the visitors to their store are towards making health-related purchases. 

So they start off by getting to know them better, asking them to make a small commitment by taking the quiz. 

The quiz then walks them through a series of questions that helps the brand understand what they need and where they are in the purchase cycle.

Once a visitor completes the quiz, they recommend products accordingly, making the customer feel cared for. 

Similarly, if you’re launching a new collection, you can run a poll on your Instagram account to get people talking, discussing, and sharing their opinion on your products. 

Read for instant inspiration: 30 Shopify product page templates (+ stunning real-world examples)

17. Increase the relevance of content across channels

76% of B2C marketers are leveraging content marketing today to reach their target customers. 

This is a tactic where you go beyond your product descriptions to highlight the benefits of your products, what’s different about your collections, your brand

story, and how you will be adding value to the consumer.

‍

To make content work for your Shopify venture:

• Upload content that engages

HubSpot has found that companies that upload more than 16 blogs per month receive 3.5X the amount of traffic as compared to companies that publish less frequently

• Create content with a consumer-first approach

When it comes to producing B2C content, engagement is what 73% of creators prioritize.

Such information is more likely to be shared and hence redirect traffic back to the website.

• Focus on optimizing your content with the right keywords

When developing content, it’s important to include phrases that people use to look for products they want to buy.

It’s also an opportunity for you to throw in relevant links to your store through this content. 

‍

Here’s an example of a food subscription brand leveraging blogs to entice customers:  

You can even experiment with podcasts to engage customers who prefer aural communication: 

18. Drive your content through Pinterest (a less crowded platform)

Pinterest is rightfully termed a “goldmine of ideas”, and offers a great platform for product discovery. 

Here’s how you can use Pinterest to market your Shopify store:

• Integrate your Shopify store and use website images (especially those that have lifestyle shots) on Pinterest boards

• Bring a ‘Pin’ to each of the content pieces you have in your store. When customers can easily save these, they’re more likely to come back and use them.

‍

• Show your products in use. For example, if you have a tattoo gun, look into a walkthrough of a tattoo session with product placement.

‍

• Remember: pinners are 70% more likely to engage with products in scenes. So, set a natural scene where you are bringing value to your customers.

To ensure that you’re able to reach your audience, also include the following in your pins: 

• A catchy title that describes your product/ collection 

‍

• An enticing description of the product (include BTS, making, or details) 

‍

• Hashtags that best describe your image 

‍

• Link to the web page where the user can find more details of the product discovered

‍

• Product tags to encourage website visits and shorten the purchase cycle 

‍

• Rich Pins for your web pages & blogs

Pro Tip: 

• Leverage Pinterest stories to expand the reach of your pins

‍

• Optimize your Pinterest profile with your store URL as well as a description of your brand

19. Make your Instagram feed shoppable 

Just like Facebook, you can set up an Instagram store as well.

This means that Instagram users can shop from your catalog while simply using the platform. 

All you need to do is set up your business account on Instagram, add relevant details, and link to your Shopify store. 

Post that, you must connect your Instagram handle to your Facebook page, upload your product catalog, turn on the shopping feature, and voila! 

‍

You are all set to start using product tags in your posts and videos to open them up for sale on your Instagram store.

Here’s what it’ll look like: 

‍

You can even include products from your catalog in your Instagram stories by selecting the relevant stickers from the sticker tray. 

This allows your followers to click on your story and shop for their favorite products. 

20. Create content with popular tools to reach more people

One way to take your Shopify marketing efforts to the next level is to start using tools that the larger public does to create and distribute content. 

Here are some ideas:

• Instagram reels

‍

• Tiktok videos

‍

• Youtube Shorts 

And what can you do with these tools?

• BTS content

‍

• Unboxing videos

‍

• Product how-to guides

‍

• Organic walkthroughs with the team

‍

• Fun content with product/brand plugins

‍

For example, if you want to grow your reach on Instagram, think of creating a filter under your brand and promote it to be used by loyalists and potentials alike. 

BONUS: 

You can also create micro-videos using the native features of the two apps easily. 

Using Instagram’s built-in features, you can record, edit, apply filters, and upload a Reel instantaneously.

Pro Tip:

If you’re on TikTok, stay updated with what’s trending.

For instance, the “into the 00’s pop stars” trend, has gotten users to share their style statements from back in the days.

If you’re a fashion and apparel brand, this is your chance to shine.

21. Turn on the brand collabs

If you're a fashion and apparel brand, you’re likely posting a number of lookbooks to inspire trends.

To complete the look, you’re also wearing footwear that goes with the outfit. 

Now if your brand doesn’t sell footwear, you can actually collaborate with a brand that does.

Solestruck, for instance, is a company known for its collaborations with other brands such as BlackMilk Clothing.

While they’re both from the same industry, they come in with complementary ideals and actually collaborate together on design aesthetics as well as a unified creative vision to shape an exclusive range of products.

RETENTION

22. Create a flexible and inclusive loyalty program

Invite your most loyal customers to be a part of an exclusive community that gets to try out new products and share their feedback even before the official launch.

‍

• Reward every relevant action taken by a customer. 

Whether it is signing up for a newsletter, making the first purchase, sharing their reviews, tagging your brand on social media, etc.

‍

• Opt for a point system where customers have the flexibility to choose from a range of options. 

This way, they can try the products they actually want and may even continue to buy the products themselves.

‍

Sephora is known for its Beauty Insiders program and they’re a stellar example for inspiration.

23. Make your community grow in targeted ways

Here are some tips you can implement to ensure a well-run community marketing campaign:

• Create a newsletter that keeps your community engaged with all the latest updates from your brand. Integrate it with your Shopify store so they can automatically know when there’s a new release or when you’re sharing content that is relevant to what they have purchased in the past.

‍

• Develop personas with an app like Endear and use that to target different groups on social media and create awareness around your community.

‍

• Use an app like Experiences to build a truly authentic experience for each one of your customers.

‍

• Use an app like Shopcodes to send out alerts every time your brand has an event. 

24. Work on a relevant UGC strategy

Here are three key elements you need to consider through your UGC strategy:

• A clear call to action that convinces your most active customers to get involved

‍

• Channels that you can use to distribute this content

‍

• The context for which you’re creating a UGC campaign

‍

Here’s an example from Travelex:

They’ve clearly laid out their program on their Facebook page, called users to create content, and found a way to implement a content strategy with UGC.

PLUS: You can also drive purchases through UGC by making these posts shoppable.

Here’s an example:

For this, you’ll need an app like Cevoid.

The app lets you easily invite your customers to share pictures and videos through after-purchase emails, direct links, and even QR codes.

25. Build a tiered referral program to leverage more networks

Apps like ReferralCandy are known to tap into the biggest possibilities that lie in referral marketing. 

Right from tracking the number of referrals to the conversions on the referrals, rewards given out and redeemed, the app enables you to do it all. 

Here are some suggestions: 

• Make it easy for customers to get involved. Have a link to your referral marketing program right in the main navigation bar.
• Build a full-scale program with different tiers and different rewards. Clearly explain how the program works and how customers can get the most out of it.
• Look into Google Analytics to understand where you get the most traffic from. If it is a site like Facebook or Instagram, you may want to engage customers on those platforms and have them represent your brand.
• Use influencers to create awareness about the referral program. Get them to share links to the main page & explain how it works.
• Place your reviews at relevant touchpoints. For example, on the homepage or product page, they work as a valuable tool. You can further use them to redirect customers onto the referral program.

PS: Here’s 15 EASY ways to get customer reviews and boost sales

FAQs on Shopify Marketing

1. What makes for a powerful Shopify marketing strategy

You can do (almost) everything right and yet not get the amount of traction on your Shopify storefront as you’d like. 

To make your marketing strategy work harder, you’ll need to ensure:

‍

• You know your target audience both in terms of demographics and psychographics

‍

• The content you feature has BOTH transactional and non-transactional elements. Your non-transactional content needs to leave customers feeling more aware, educated and connected 

‍

• You segment your email lists better so that you can lean on tactics like hyper-personalization and sending out targeted educational content

‍

• You create a relevant mix of paid and organic content to attract new customers 

2. What can you do to promote your Shopify store?

• Use Shopify Push Notifications to advertise your products

‍

• Create quality organic content through your blog

‍

• Get included in a relevant gift guide

‍

• Use relevant product reviews in your email campaigns

‍

• Integrate your social media into your homepage and product pages

‍

• Use remarketing and retargeting to draw attention from people interested in your category