If you’re just getting started with your Shopify store, this post will provide some helpful hacks to help you get a leg up on the competition. From using free tools and plugins to optimizing your site for search engines, these Shopify hacks are all quick tips that anyone can use to make their store grow faster.
1. Recover Lost Sales with the Back in Stock App
Losing a sale because one of your store’s products is out of stock is a common problem store owners have, but there’s a super simple Shopify trick to help you recover those sales. The Back in Stock app allows you to notify your customers when an item they were interested in is back in stock. Not only have you recovered a sale but you have also conditioned the customer to look out for a notification regarding your products in the future.
2. Optimize & Compress your Images
High resolution images look great, but they take a bit more time to load – especially when customers don’t have a great connection while they’re browsing your site. Another pro Shopify tip is to ensure your images are optimized and compressed properly. However, you don’t have to do this manually. You can use a tool like Plug in Speed to automatically optimize and compress your images, optimize your code, and monitor your page speed.
3. Use Clear & Engaging Product Descriptions
Product descriptions are extremely important for providing consumers information about what you are selling. You don’t have to be a copywriting expert to produce great quality descriptions, but you’ll want to make sure you include:
- A powerful adjective that describes the product
- Consumer-friendly language
- Use cases for how consumers might get the most out of your product
- Easily scannable bullets and short sentences
- Several high-quality images of the product
- SEO-friendly copy
- Clearly illustrated benefits and features
If you want to save time and improve the quality of the copy on your pages, you can also download our free Shopify product description template.
4. Optimize Your Store for SEO
SEO is one of the more complex and time-consuming tasks for Shopify store owners, but we have a couple hacks you can use to make optimizing your store a fairly simple process. First, run your site through our Shopify SEO checklist. This includes easy-to-follow steps on keyword research, setting up Google Analytics and Google Search Console, optimizing your pages based on your keyword research, optimizing your photos, earning backlinks, content strategy, and social media.
For more in-depth optimization, you can also use a Shopify SEO tool, like Plug in SEO. Plug in SEO reviews your store and fixes simple, yet tedious SEO issues. It also fixes broken links, adds JSON-LD structured data, and provides templates for meta descriptions and titles.
5. Test Different Pricing Strategies
One extremely impactful way you can boost your Shopify sales is by taking a look at your pricing. Your customers are inevitably going to be browsing around other stores, so you’ll want to make sure you have competitive pricing that is appropriate for your industry. If you can afford it, you may want to test out different pricing strategies to see what converts best and improves your bottom line, such as:
- Free shipping
- Price matching
- Discounting products that are sold in a subscription
- Bundling similar or complementary products
6. Implement Countdown Sales
Having a countdown sale periodically for exclusive products is a great way to build up hype for your brand and boost your sales for a specific item. It works really well when the product is seasonal or in limited supply because it creates a sense of urgency to buy the product while it’s on sale. A great plugin to help with this is The Ultimate Countdown Timer – it is very easy to install and offers a free plan.
7. Add More Images to Show off the Product
This is one of the easiest Shopify tricks on our list. Many stores simply do not include enough images of their products, which leaves customers uncertain about making a purchase. You should include images showing the product from all angles, as well as the product in use. So for a clothing brand, you might want to showcase models of varying builds and locations to entice the customer to make a purchase. In short – you’re leaving less up to the imagination and giving customers an accurate representation of your product right off the bat.
8. Simplify the Checkout Process
One of the most common mistakes online retailers make is overcomplicating the checkout process. Even though a customer may have added something to their cart and decided to buy from you, they can just as easily change their mind if it isn’t a quick and easy process to finalize their payment. There are a few key ways to streamline your cart and checkout page:
- Collect their email address first. If they end up abandoning their cart, you still have a way to reach out in the future.
- Add a tick box so customers can use the same billing and shipping information. No one wants to type in the same information twice.
- Auto-fill name, email, and address for returning customers.
- Don’t forget to add a ‘Continue Shopping’ button on your checkout page. There’s nothing worse than having to leave your cart, find what you were missing, and retype in all the same information again.
9. Cross Sell & Upsell Related Products
One of the quickest hacks to increase your average order value on Shopify is with a solid cross sell and upsell strategy. With an app like Cross Sell, you can show your customers products that are related to or frequently bought together with the ones they showed interest in or added to their cart. Some of the most effective ways to do this include:
- Add ons
- Also bought items
- Complete the look recommendations
You can completely customize the products that are shown to your customers and keep track of conversions with a comprehensive analytics dashboard.
10. Add Customer Reviews
There’s no arguing that one of the most impactful ways to influence customers is with reviews and ratings. In fact, nearly 95% of consumers will look at reviews before they decide to buy something (Spiegel). That’s because it’s easier for consumers to trust other consumers than it is for them to trust a business – understandably so.
Online shoppers love to leave reviews, but if you need help building up your ratings section, you can encourage customers to leave you a review when you send them a confirmation email, a delivery email, and even if they reach out to your support team with questions about their products (if they have a positive experience with you, of course).
Yotpo is a free Shopify app that allows you to showcase customer reviews, ratings, and photos.
11. Implement Guest Checkout
According to a report by Visual Website Optimizer, 23% of users will abandon their shopping cart if they have to create a new user account. It’s not a surprising statistic, either – if someone is in a hurry or was on the fence about purchasing your product, having to sign up for an account to complete the purchase will inevitably turn users away. This is why guest checkout is critical for your store’s success. Fortunately, Shopify makes it optional for customers to sign up for an account before making a purchase. All you have to do is configure your account to enable guest checkout.
12. Optimize Your Store for Mobile.
Most shoppers are going to visit your store on their mobile devices, so it’s critical to optimize your site for mobile and make sure navigation is simple. A few tips to optimize for mobile include:
- Use less text and bullet points so users can skim as they scroll through your site.
- Make sure your top level navigation bar is fixed at the top of the screen.
- Make the purchase button sticky so users can click on it from anywhere.
- Keep pop-ups and distractions to a minimum.
- Ensure descriptions are clear and high quality.
- Use smaller image sizes.
- Always keep the scroll motion in mind and make sure your products are on display in a fashion that is easy to look at while scrolling.
13. Market through Influencers.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, companies that use influencer marketing earn approximately $18 for every $1 they spend on their marketing efforts. And thankfully for online brands with great connections, influencer marketing isn’t slowing down anytime soon. So, how do you strike up a fruitful partnership with an influencer? There are a couple of ways you can go about doing this.
- If you have a mutual connection, ask that person to introduce you to the influencer. Influencers receive hundreds, if not thousands of pitches from brands trying to work with them, so a connection can be a helpful way to start building a relationship.
- Do research on Influencer.co to find influencers that fit your niche, their pricing, their audience size, what platforms they use, etc. Once you find someone that’s the right fit, you can reach out to them with a proposal.
- Blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels are also great ways to get the word out about your products, so doing research on places like Google, iTunes, and YouTube can help you find influencers in your space.
If you have the time, resources, and connections, this method of marketing can be extremely effective.
14. Implement a Referral Program.
Having a referral system will help your customers to market your brand for you and provide them with rewards for doing so. In some cases, another company will see your referral page and hop on the opportunity to work with you and grow your brand’s reach even further. There are some great options for referral tools, but we recommend Referral Candy for its high ratings and ease of use.
You’ve done the hard work of getting your store up and running. Now it’s time to take advantage of all that effort by learning how to optimize your store for customers and search engines alike. By implementing these Shopify hacks, you will be able to make more sales with less effort. We’re also here to help you increase sales and conversions and improve inventory management. If you’d like to capture lost Shopify sales, try Back in Stock for free.
I'm Haiden, the author. I am a business and technology writer with a passion for helping businesses run better.