A stock of great products is no longer enough to run a successful online store. With ever-increasing competition, you need a strategy to help you stand out and convert as many website visitors as possible into loyal fans and repeat buyers.
Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce have become the go-to solutions for online merchants, and if you’ve chosen one of the above, you’re in good hands. However, to run a really successful ecommerce business, you need to know how to leverage your platform to effectively market your business, attract customers, and keep them coming back.
There are a variety of Shopify and WooCommerce Loyalty Program Apps and Plugins available to help you ace each stage of your customers’ journey. Shopify and WooCommerce Loyalty programs are especially powerful assets that can boost your efforts at all stages.
Read on to learn how to turn your ecommerce store into a thriving hub of happy customers and repeat sales.
1. Marketing Your Ecommerce Business to Attract Customers
The first step in creating a thriving ecommerce store is getting yourself noticed. For this, you need a robust marketing strategy. Both WooCommerce and Shopify offer tools that help you implement a wide array of marketing activities:
- SEO Optimization—SEO capabilities are crucial for increasing your store’s visibility in search engine results. Use the SEO capabilities offered by your chosen platform to put your store on the map. For example, WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin) takes advantage of WordPress’s in-built SEO features making it easy for WooCommerece users to optimize product pages and other content for SEO. Shopify includes SEO features such as customizable headlines, titles, and meta tags alongside automatic XML sitemap generation. By using these features, you can make your store easy for potential customers to discover.
- Content Marketing—Most marketers will tell you that content is king. With WooCommerce and Shopify, you don’t have to work too hard to leverage your content assets. As WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, it’s very easy to link your ecommerce store to your existing (and new) blogs and draw customers to your products with engaging and educational content. Shopify also offers a built-in blogging platform from which you can easily publish content aimed at driving traffic and leading your customers along the sales funnel.
- Email and Social Media Marketing—Email and social media are vital for building relationships and driving sales. If you’re using WooCommerce, you have the advantage of choosing from a variety of email marketing services and social media plugins designed for use in creating personalized email campaigns or sharing content directly on your social media channels. Shopify users can streamline email and social media marketing with the proprietary “Shopify Email” solution, which makes crafting and tracking promotional email campaigns and integrating content with social media platforms simple
- Shopify or WooCommerce Loyalty Programs—Customers looking to buy products online will be attracted to stores that offer a good loyalty program with its promise of a superior shopping experience (and might be put off if there isn’t one!) Both WooCommerce and Shopify can help you launch and run a loyalty program that will make it easier for you to provide your customers with the level of service they have come to expect. For example, Loyalty Dog (available on WooCommerce as a plugin and on Shopify as an app) gives you the tools to launch a comprehensive loyalty program, offering your customers a variety of rewards such as points for purchases and referrals, tiered rewards, discounts, exclusive access to products or events, and personalized shopping experiences. This gives would-be customers a powerful incentive to choose you over competitors.
2. Convert those Customers – Customer Acquisition Techniques
Once you’ve caught the attention of potential customers through your stellar marketing techniques, the next step is to convert them. These days, customers are spoilt for choice and can afford to be picky. If they don’t feel you’ll offer them a great shopping experience, they’ll happily go elsewhere.
Fortunately, Shopify and WooCommerce can help you provide great service by helping you create personalized content and recommendations, provide amazing shopping experiences, and, of course, offer the ever-important loyalty program.
- Personalization—A personalized experience is the hallmark of great online shopping, and fortunately, both WooCommerce and Shopify can help you offer memorable and personalized shopping experiences. Personal recommendations are one of the best ways to harness personalization in the ecommerce space. When shoppers are shown products that your platform’s data shows they are likely to want, they feel seen and heard (and also irresistibly impelled to buy!) Both WooCommerce and Shopify can help you make these eerily accurate recommendations through the array of tools and integrations they offer.
- Amazing Shopping Experiences—Today’s customers are constantly looking for the best possible shopping experiences from the companies they interact with. To keep them happy, you must offer a convenient, streamlined, and memorable shopping experience – all of which can be facilitated by your Shopify or WooCommerce platform. Shopify, for example, makes online transactions a breeze through its user-friendly interface and fast, secure, and reliable performance. WooCommerce, with its roots in the WordPress platform, makes it easy for you to tailor every aspect of the shopping experience—from the storefront’s look and feel to the checkout process.
- Shopify or WooCommerce Loyalty Programs—With 75% of customers saying that they prefer companies that give them rewards, a loyalty program is one of the best ways to acquire customers and drive sales. A WooCommerce or Shopify loyalty program, like LoyaltyDog, which allows you to offer rewards for first-time purchases and/or for referrals, is a powerful motivator encouraging customers to buy more from your store.
3. Keep Them Keen – Customer Retention Strategies
Acquiring customers is just the beginning; the real challenge is keeping them. With 82% of companies agreeing that retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones, you’d better ensure you get this step right. Luckily, both Shopify and WooCommerce offer features to help keep your customers coming back:
- CRM Integrations—Both platforms support seamless integration with CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce. These integrations allow you to track customer interactions and preferences so you can tailor your marketing efforts and keep your customers delighted.
- Subscription Offerings—Both platforms provide tools and integrations that allow you to sell products on a subscription basis. This makes repeat purchases from your store a no-brainer, preventing churn and helping you easily retain customers over the long term.
- Shopify or WooCommerce loyalty programs—One of the best ways to retain customers is by implementing a loyalty program on your Shopify or WooCommerce store. By continuously rewarding your customers for repeat purchases, referrals, and other engagement actions, you create a compelling reason for them to remain loyal to your brand. With the LoyaltyDog loyalty program, there is no limit to the number of offers and incentives you can create, meaning you will have a continuous stream of options for growing a loyal customer base. Loyalty programs also help you build community around your brand, making you less reliant on ads as you acquire loyal fans who will happily spread the word about your excellent store.
Ready to Unleash the Power of Loyalty Programs?
In the ecommerce world, happy customers are your greatest asset. Use your platform’s added tools and apps to boost your marketing, customer acquisition, and retention strategies. Combine these efforts with a winning Shopify or WooCommerce loyalty program, like Loyalty Dog, and you’ll be well on your way to ecommerce triumph!