 "Easy & Effective Shopify Optimisation: Part 1 Pop-Ups")
Today we begin our Easy & Effective Shopify Optimisation Series with Jamie Willmott, blubolt’s resident optimisation guru. Over four instalments, we’ll share advice to help you optimise your eCommerce site. Specifically, we’ll cover optimising pop-ups, product discovery, delivery and returns, and product copy.
Part 1 below discusses easy Shopify optimisation for pop-ups on your site. Let’s get started!
Love or loathe? Pop-ups on Shopify.
Whether you love them or loathe them, pop-ups on eCommerce sites are a vital tool in your Shopify optimisation arsenal. According to our partners at Nosto, pop-ups can drive increases in conversion by up to 44%. While retailers continue to enthusiastically use pop-ups, not all are using them well!
So rather than setting up pop-ups and forgetting about them, you’ll need to regularly review and tweak them. In this post, I’ll provide actionable insights to help you improve the performance of your pop-ups.
How to create a positive first impression when using pop-ups.
Let’s start by imagining an in-store experience. As you walk into a store, would you like some browsing time before being approached? Or, would you rather have someone immediately blocking your path with a massive message board? To create a welcoming online shopping experience, you need to replicate the first experience!
With that in mind, showing users a pop-up as soon as they land on your website will feel intrusive. Instead, let them understand who you are, what the site is about and what they can do here before interrupting their journey.
You can achieve this with clever targeting rules for your pop-ups. For example, consider criteria like:
page visited,
time delay,
exit intent, or even
consider deploying pop-ups on the Cart page.
If you decide to experiment with a pop-up on the Cart page, you could ask for more data points rather than just their email. At this stage, customers may be more willing (and motivated) to provide more information to get a discount.
Mobile-friendly pop-ups on Shopify.
As an eagle-eyed website reviewer and Shopify optimisation manager by trade, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve come across pop-ups that have been designed for desktop use only. To maximise the value of your pop-ups on mobile:
Create two versions. Create separate versions of your pop-up for desktop and mobile, ensuring the creative is perfect for each format.
Easy to close. Every shopper knows it’s highly irritating to be unable to close pop-ups; shoppers are likely to leave your site altogether. So make it easy for them to close by having a clear cross button. Also, add a ‘no thanks’ button within the form.
Optimise fields for mobile. Vertically stack each field in the pop-up (e.g. name, email), so it’s easier for all users to enter their information and press the call-to-action.
Need imagery? Consider if you actually need imagery on mobile. Is it relevant and bringing value or is it just adding unnecessary clutter?
Engaging pop-ups on Shopify.
Brands with high conversion rates know to woo their customers with engaging pop-ups. To achieve the same thing for your brand pop-ups:
Adopt a conversational tone. Be polite and friendly by starting a conversation with your customer. For example, ask a question rather than issue shouty instructions to “buy now”. And, importantly, refrain from immediately asking for their email or telephone number.
Enrich your database. Remember that you can send your customers’ individual answers to an email platform (like Klaviyo) as a custom property. This simple tweak enables you to learn about your customers, create personalised email flows and segment your database based on their preferences.
Jump on those A/B tests now! Create multiple pop-ups and run an A/B test to determine which one performs better.
Making pop-ups easy for users on Shopify.
My last Shopify optimisation tip (but certainly not the least!) is to show empathy for your customers, i.e. put yourself in their shoes. They’ve arrived on your website (well done, marketing team!), primed to buy from you. So at this crucial juncture, do you want them to leave your website and go rummaging through their emails to find the discount code?
If you’re still not convinced, think about how many emails your customers are likely to receive each day, particularly during sale periods and Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Maybe even a pile of emails from your competitors! Also, for customers on mobile, they’d have to close the website and open their email app, copy the code, re-open the website and paste it in when they get to the checkout.
So why risk this distraction? With that in mind, here are my two Shopify optimisation recommendations to keep your customers shopping on your eCommerce website:
Add the discount code to the success page! Showing the code here avoids unnecessary friction and a potential leak. Or better still,
Fix it to your website ticker banner. So when the code’s needed at the cart or checkout, it’s right there at the top of every page. You can also have ‘apply discount code’ on the success page, which will automatically add the code to the user’s cart.
The other benefit of the above two options is that you can use unique codes. This option is an excellent improvement on generic ones, which customers may share across affiliate sites or plugins.
Get to it: perfect pop-ups on Shopify.
So now you have our straightforward Shopify optimisation advice on pop-ups: how to create a great first impression, as well as making pop-ups mobile-friendly, engaging and user-friendly.
Fancy more Shopify optimisation advice? Stay tuned for our next three instalments on product discovery, delivery and returns, and product copy.
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