E-commerce is a fast-growing industry as shops keep popping up overnight, and with the ability to sell without needing to house the products, it has become even more accessible. However, in starting a store, there’s a couple of things to have in place before just building an overnight success.
Here are five tools that every Shopify store owner should be using in their shop for maximized benefits.
You have to, of course, start with a solid foundation. That’s where Shopify comes in. It is a platform built for e-commerce; they even have it on the home page of their website. They are in business for you to have a business. If you haven’t heard of the e-commerce giant, then here’s a bit about them.
Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that gives anyone the capacity to start, run, and grow a store online with no experience needed from you–it’s the platform to get started with.
Starting with this, you’ll be able to build your business, and scale in the future.
Shopify has multiple plans to help you no matter what stage you’re in, plus there’s a custom option called “Shopify Plus” that caters to the high-traffic shops. A range of tools such as apps/ integrations and even a theme store are provided.
If you are ready to get started with Shopify, you get a 14-day trial to get it running before paying your first month of service.
Next, you will need to get a theme perfect for your new shop. This is where Debutify comes in useful. It’s a free Shopify theme you can use to get a jump on setting up your customer view of your new storefront. It also has premium add-on features you would look for in any successful store and is built for conversions, not for looks. With its ease of use, it makes setting up your Shopify store convenient and quick. The premium plan starts at $15, well worth it in the end–if you try to piece together other apps for what is included in the Debutify suite, then you will be dishing out more than the $45 for the top plan.
Check what I found out in my review on Debutify: you can view here.
#3 RECONVERT
Now that you have your platform and a beautiful theme set up on your storefront, you’d want to make sure that you implement the Reconvert app, a thank-you page customizer built to increase conversions in the form of sales and customer data. It provides a place to inform your new customers, gather birthdays, invites them to connect via email, and the like.
You may think it’s not worth the time, but with only about 10 minutes that you will take to add this to your shop, you have the potential to increase your order amount without any additional work.
Once you’ve set up the Reconvert app, you don’t have to worry about anything. It runs automatically with order confirmations, so you can passively educate and re-convert your customers to another sale.
#4 SMILE.IO
Another essential to an e-commerce shop is customer retention where customers are converted into paying customers. You paid the ads, scheduled the posts, and educated through your welcome series. And they finally converted!
Now, we have to make them keep coming back, and your good products do not do all the work. This is where a loyalty program comes in with your email marketing where they can be rewarded with points that they may spend on your products by doing a number of things such as following your business on Facebook or Instagram, referring your shop to a friend, or commenting on your blog. All of these get them engaged on your website and social media without you pushing for it, and it keeps your brand in front of them.
Your program also encourages them to make a sale, converting to points they can use later on a product they want to try. Think about all the places you have a loyalty card or account with; eventually, those points add up to something nice, and especially when it’s unexpected, we are excited as consumers to use our hard-earned points and add more. That’s the same thinking you want your customers to gain.
Smile.io is a loyalty program that goes beyond just points; they also have a referral program that can be used to gain new clients by the “old” way of marketing–word of mouth. How many times have you been looking for products, and you ask your mother or sister what they use? It’s a great way to bank in from your viewpoint as an owner and as a customer. For every person or friend your customers refer your shop to, they get a coupon or points added, while the friend gets free shipping. You get a new customer along the way, so it’s definitely a win-win-win.
#5 REBUY: EMAIL UPSELL CROSS‑SELL
Finally, the last tool you should utilize in your new Shopify store is Rebuy, an email automation used in the follow-up of your orders. With e-commerce, you have many avenues to go with marketing to your cold and warm markets. For your cold markets, you have to work a little harder with educating them on your product: why they should try your products, and what else you have to offer. You work harder because they don’t know who you are, but with your warm market, they have been nurtured and made the step to becoming a customer of your store, so now, you have to keep that relationship intact so you are the go-to place for the products you provide.
This is easy with an app such as Rebuy where you can build out a set of emails to automatically send as a follow-up to people who have purchased without having to manually build automation sequence.
One great feature of Rebuy is that you are able to go send reorder emails that have one-click-to-checkout, so it takes away multiple steps to get the customer to purchase with your store again.
There you have it–the 5 essential tools for the new shop solopreneurs!
