Devil is in the minor details. Small things make the biggest difference and because they are small/minor things we often miss them the most, causing Shopify stores’ owners to bleed a lot of money.
You would be surprised when you read this blog post that how minor changes can cause huge impact on the sales of your store.
Getting traffic but no sales is because you are not getting the right kind of traffic. Yes, you may have heard of conversion optimization but that also comes later.
Table of Contents
Install a free theme (we recommend Brooklyn, Thalia, and Annabelle)
Shopify offers hundreds of free themes but there are only a few of them which are useful, simple and customer-friendly.
Like we recommend, Brooklyn is one of the best free themes for your Shopify store.
This theme has ‘header slideshow, dynamic product grid, slide-out cart and homepage video (can use YouTube or Vimeo video).
Some prominent features include customizable content sections on homepage, mobile-friendly design, social media icons, search engine optimization, built-in styles and color palettes, free theme updates and free stock photos.
Add all in one app for all major Shopify store functions (we recommend Vitals 40)
The Vitals 40 app has all the major features/functions of the Shopify store and you don’t have install apps for different functions. An all in one sales and marketing app designed for helping Shopify merchants.
Product Reviews, Currency Converter, Wheel of Fortune, Product Bundles, Volume Discount, Visitor Replays, Pre-Orders, Facebook Pixels, Recent Sales Notifications, Content Protection, Shoppable Instagram Feed, Recently Viewed and Related Products, Trust Seals and Badges, Sales pop-ups, Sticky Add to Cart, Description Tabs, Facebook Messenger Chat, Geolocation redirect, EU Cookie Bar, Animated Add to Cart, ALT Tags for Product images, Countdown timers, Hide PayPal, Amazon, Google and Apple Pay from cart and more apps are part of this all-in-one app.
All themes from Shopify are supported with this app including the ones we mentioned in the first pointer.
Add reviews app (we recommend Stamped.io, Loox, Yotpo)
Though, reviews app is there in Vitals app, but we can’t compromise on the best review app as you get customer trust via realc customer reviews. If you have bought products from Amazon, you can notice the true power of product reviews. They offer social proof and aid in customer purchase decisions.
With Loox as we recommend, you can send email review requests on auto and on photo reviews you can offer discounts. The interface is amazing, you can share reviews on social platforms, Google Shopping etc. Also, you can offer discounts on referrals and boost sales.
Conversion hack
When you launch a Shopify store, you think of Facebook ads, Instagram and YouTube channels’ optimization. And when you don’t get traction you start losing hope.
Million dollar tip
“Social media traffic doesn’t convert as much as Google organic traffic, Google ads and Bing ads”
Use SMERush for keyword research. It will show you on which keywords your competitors are driving organic as well as paid traffic. Again, don’t get it wrong here, ‘if someone is getting traffic on a few keywords, that doesn’t mean they are getting sales for the same keywords.
However, the real catch here is that ‘if your competitor is bidding on the same keywords consistently for Google search engine, you can assume that those are sales keywords.
Client Example:
One of our clients reached out and said that they are getting traffic but they are not getting orders. We interrogated like we always do and found some red flags.
First, the website navigation was poor.
Second, the sales pitch was weak and they were more into the coolness of the product rather than the usefulness of it.
Third, and this might be the significant one and often the most ignored i.e. client was getting 100 views a day and they were not getting traffic. To assess the analytics, you must get at least 1000 visitors a day for a meaningful calculation.
Check and test page speed. Use Gtmetrix
For those who don’t know what a GTMetrix is, it is a tool for analyzing and measuring the performance of a website and the best part is, it offers a list of actionable recommendations. Although, you can also use Google PageSpeed but the interface of GTMetrix is more user friendly. Rest, you can pick any of these tools for improving your website performance/speed.
Some of the quick pointers for improving your score in GTMetrix hence improving the website speed are:
- Optimize images (Compress images with WP-Smush or ShortPixel)
- Enable caching (Download and enable WP Fastest Cache)
- Optimize CSS code by combining CSS and Javascript (Download and install Autoptimize)
- Use Content Delivery Network (CDN) (Activate Cloudflare. Signin and add your site to free plan)
Bulk Image Edit
This is one of the Shopify apps which you can integrate with your Shopify store for image SEO, image alt text, renaming, resizing, image compression and more.
You can improve the image SEO a lot via this tool/app. The app has a free plan available too.
Optimize image sizes, their alt texts and file names. You can add watermarks to bulk images and protect your images being used by your competition.
Privy for capturing loyal customers
A Shopify app for converting the loyal customers via exit popups, email marketing, free shipping bar, etc. You can choose from proven popup and display templates.
Automate your email marketing efforts, send newsletters, promotions and sales emails. Reduce abandoned cart rate and follow up on post purchase. You can sync your email list with 50+ email marketing services like Bronto, MailChimp etc.
Here is the link: https://apps.shopify.com/privy?surface_detail=privy&surface_inter_position=1&surface_intra_position=1&surface_type=search
Free post-purchase upsells apps
Before we convince you to upsell apps, we need to make it clear how they improve the average order value.
What are post-purchase upsells? When a customer adds something to his original order, either small or expensive/ premium.
Post-purchase means offering a customer a product that they will most likely love after they have made the purchase and when a customer accepts the post purchase offer/product, they increase the total order value.
Vitals 40 app has it all inside, so we do not recommend having another app when you can improve the store value with the app you already have.
Shipping policy page
Do add a shipping policy page and be clear about the shipping timings.
Have you checked how many people are hitting your shipping policy page? There are chances that they are bouncing after they see 2-3 weeks of shipping.
Don’t make the mistake of doing ‘shipping calculated at checkout. Be clear about pricing and how much does shipping cost.
Final verdict
Here the key is, if you are getting traffic and no sales, your store navigation could be the reason why your visitors are not converting. Find a unique selling proposition (USP). And do you know white space is your friend, be minimalist about your store design.
Phaedra Solutions is a Shopify design and development agency. Need changes with your Shopify store? We can literally code anything of your need into your Shopify theme.
