7 Must-Have Functionalities To Drive Sales In Your Shopify Store

Shopify is a powerful e-commerce platform with a lot of valuable features and capabilities that makes selling online easier than you think. But you still have to know what you’re doing to utilize the technology in order to grow. Take your business to a new level by increasing your sales with these 7 must-have e-commerce functionalities to plug into your Shopify store.

Upsell

Provide upgrades and offer higher-end product options to increase your sales and profit margins with upselling.

Some people will be happy to pay more to get a larger quantity of the item or a higher quality product while some will be tempted by the exclusivity factor of a more expensive item. People are willing to pay more for various reasons, including the feeling that they invest in themselves rather than simply spend money on a product. So use this to your advantage.

Add premium options with the help of listing additional variants and explain how the upgraded item will solve their problems. You can use storytelling techniques or share your personal story or other customers’ success stories to push visitors into purchasing the more expensive option.

You can also use apps to promote other upgraded items. Some apps create a pop up on the product page that shows an upgraded offer upon adding a product to cart, others do that right before a customer proceeds to the checkout.

Cross-sell

Sell multiple products to your customers by cross-selling relevant products.

But why is it necessary to cross-sell? First, it is far more difficult and expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain one, so you have a better shot at selling more items to an existing customer. Second, your business will be viewed as helpful if your cross-selling suggestions do indeed add value to the customer. You can achieve that by educating them through cross-selling on what they might be missing in order complete their purchase. It’s a win-win for both you and them.

Shopify makes it easy to sell complementary products in one session. You can utilize the Related Products section of a product listing by offering similar products to the one that’s being displayed. Additionally, there are apps that utilize AI to offer items that are often sold together based on past purchases. Alternatively, you can also manually pick items to promote that are frequently bought together.

Reviews & social proof

Stop telling your visitors how great your products are and let your customers do that for you! Add reviews for your product page to persuade people to buy your products.

Testimonials and reviews are helpful for both service and product-based businesses. They create a sense of community on your website as well as increase the popularity of the product. In addition to the basic Reviews app that Shopify provides, there are plenty of other 3rd party apps that will help you add Review functionality and even provide more value by incorporating Rewards & Loyalty programs.

Additionally, don’t forget to share your social media accounts in the header and/or footer of the website. Social media pages serve as business cards, shopping inspiration and they help customers develop loyalty towards your brand.

Wishlists

Let your visitors save products that they love and want to purchase later. It encourages them to create an account on your e-commerce site, gives you an opportunity to e-mail them about the products that they already like, and offer them personalized suggestions that lead to successful upselling and cross-selling.

Newsletter signup

It usually appears in a pop-up, but also in the footer of your site and gives you an opportunity to collect customer e-mails in exchange for a small discount. You can then market to these existing customers by promoting your sales and events. Additionally, you can establish yourself and your business as an expert in your field with the help of content marketing and a monthly newsletter.

E-mail marketing might be one of the oldest forms of marketing yet still the bread and butter of e-commerce. It helps keep your brand top-of-mind and sustain brand awareness with your target audience. There are plenty of services (i.e. Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp, though an integration app is needed for that) that integrate with Shopify and allow you to customize e-mails, as well as create custom e-mail sequences that are sent with certain actions the customer takes or on a time-based schedule.

Abandoned cart solutions

Following up on “almost happened” transactions is an essential e-commerce functionality. If a customer submitted their e-mail but left without checking out – for whatever reason – you can e-mail them later with a friendly reminder.

Best practices include offering a small discount or a free limited-time gift with a timer to complete the purchase. You can also create a sense of urgency by stating that the product the customer was interested in is almost sold out and provide them with a direct link to their cart to check out at their earliest convenience.

People are busy and sometimes they simply forget that they didn’t check out because they got distracted. Reminding them to complete their purchase is a win-win for everyone!

Introduce Rewards and Loyalty programs to encourage return customers

It’s great to feel appreciated as a customer and get rewarded for purchases. Loyalty and reward programs do just that. They reward your customers with points for each purchase (usually 1 point per $1 spent) and encourage customer loyalty by continuing to spend money (and points) on your great products. This is also a good way to get your visitors to follow you on social media and receive promotional e-mails by awarding them points for these simple actions.

Shopify integrates with a great variety of apps and functionalities that will make your e-commerce store thrive. Most apps are not free, but if used wisely, they will pay for themselves. They will boost your sales, increase your margins and raise your average ticket. Utilize these functionalities to grow your e-mail list and social following, retain your loyal customers and grow repeat business with ease. And don't hesitate to reach out if you need help with setting these up or are looking to create or redesign a Shopify website.