Category: General

Customers are veery sensitive to negative experiences. In fact, 32% say that even one lousy interaction would make them abandon a brand they love. And that’s natural; people like to be heard and respected.

For example, you call the support service, and you’re put on hold. How long will it take before you start cursing? How about 15 hours? Yep, once upon a time, a persistent customer was put on hold for two hours. Frustrated, he decided to wait and see how long they could keep him on the line. Finally, 15 hours later, they answered and informed him that his request was denied due to an error.

What he felt at that moment is called a bad customer experience. And support is only one touchpoint where your clients might opt out. In this article, we will explore crucial practices for designing winning CX strategies, like support, SMM, an in-depth database of knowledge, and much more. So let’s start!

Why Customer Acquisition and Retention Are Essential for Your Business

Acquiring new customers is vital to maintaining growth, while retaining existing customers ensures a stable revenue stream. Thus, finding a balance is crucial.

This is precisely what a customer experience strategy can help with. In plain language, the CX is how customers feel about a brand based on all their interactions, including product quality, customer service, website/app usability, and more.

A good CX makes people loyal and helps businesses grow, while a bad one can lead to negative reviews and customers leaving for competitors. And companies know it. Most businesses call CX the key differentiator within very tight markets. It keeps people returning and spreading the good word.

The key benefits of a wholesome customer experience strategy include:

• Loyal customers: People who have a positive experience with a brand are more likely to return for more.
• Lifetime value: Loyal customers spend more money and purchase more frequently.
• Word-of-mouth marketing: Satisfied customers are more likely to recommend a business.
• Lower customer churn: Positive experience can keep customers from switching to competitors.
• Online reputation: Positive reviews and feedback can enhance a brand’s reputation and attract new customers.

But how to make all this happen? There are many different approaches, let’s dive into some of the best ones.

1. Know Your Customers

Four out of five consumers are more inclined to purchase from businesses that offer a personalized experience.

Hence, you need to know who you are addressing to connect and emphasize with people. This includes collecting data and studying their habits:

• Demographic: Gender, age, income level, location, etc.
• Psychographic: Interests, values, lifestyle, behavior, etc.
• Purchase history: What products or services have they bought in the past, how often did they buy, etc?
• Communication preferences: Do they prefer email, phone, or socials? What times are they most likely to engage?
• Customer feedback: What are their pain points, what do they like about the brand?

This data can mainly be obtained automatically using analytics tools, CRMs, and social media listening tools. Except for feedback. To get it, you must ask a customer directly.

2. Collect Their Feedback

Even the fact that you ask people about their impressions helps because 77% of customers view brands more favorably if they seek out and apply feedback. And there are different ways to do it. Let’s explore some:

• Surveys are an effective way to gather feedback from customers. They can be emailed, embedded on a website, or included in a post-purchase follow-up. Ensure they are short, straightforward, and relevant to the customer’s experience.
• Social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are great for collecting feedback. Companies can create polls, ask open-ended questions, or respond to customer comments to gather insights.
• Brand mentions monitoring provides a valuable understanding of how people perceive a brand on different platforms. Businesses can do it using specialized software that helps to track several channels simultaneously.
• Feedback forms on the website or mobile app to gather customer insights. These forms can be tailored to specific products or services, and the feedback collected can help businesses make informed decisions.

The feedback gathered should impact a company’s product decisions, communication, and customer experience strategy design. Next, we want to talk about the means of delivering the CX, the most important characteristic of which is the diversity of channels.

3. Provide Multichannel Experience for All Types of Customer Behavior

Multichannel CX is a way to engage clients through multiple touchpoints. They actually expect this from companies. And it gives benefits in customer retention and customer acquisition.

First, improved satisfaction. People appreciate the convenience and flexibility of communication.

Second, it increases customer loyalty. People are less likely to switch to competitors if a company meets their communication preferences.

And, of course, greater reach. Being available everywhere makes it easier for potential customers to find a brand.

What exactly are these channels? Today, the best set is:

• Email: Many customers prefer it for more in-depth support.
• Phone: Some customers still prefer a call, especially when resolving complex issues.
• Live chat: An increasingly popular channel that allows customers to communicate with businesses in real-time, making it convenient and efficient.
• Social media: The multimedia nature of this channel provides creative ways to engage with customers.
• Self-service: FAQs, knowledge bases, and chatbots can quickly and easily solve common problems.

What to do with such a variety? It is most convenient to use them through one platform. Bringing all interactions together in one software solution is precisely what kickstarts the multichannel CX. It also simplifies the process of its personalization, which we want to discuss further.

4. Personalize Customer Experience

During the COVID-19 pandemic, McKinsey & Company found that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and 76% are disappointed when businesses don’t deliver them. People want to feel valued and understood.

Therefore, creating a feeling that you know them personally is necessary. This is achieved through personalized content based on customer data distributed through various communication channels.

• Recommendations: Use data from purchases and browsing history to personalize product recommendations via email or advertising.
• Segmentation: Use the customer’s name in the subject line and body of your emails. Segment the email list based on behavior and preferences, and send tailored emails.
• Loyalty programs: Offer personalized rewards and incentives for repeat customers through loyalty programs based on their behavior and preferences.
• Timing: Use customer data for optimal timing of special offers, emails, etc. One example is choosing holidays, birthdays, or a time of day that is convenient for them.
• Customer service: Service tailored to customers’ needs and preferences, such as chatbots with personalized recommendations or trained representatives.

And, by the way, customer service. This is one of the most problematic parts of the CX, as every aspect of the problem-solving process can lead to dissatisfaction. So let’s pay more attention to it.

5. Resolve Customer Queries Fast

One of the most essential experiences is customer service. But what distinguishes high-quality support? Most clients cite speed of resolution as the most important factor. In particular, solving the problem at the first contact leads to the greatest satisfaction.

And, of course, the majority expects a quick response to the request. That’s it, there is no clear benchmark. The faster, the better.

To speed up, companies can use customer service software to automate and streamline support processes. Such products often integrate live chat, email, and chatbots.

Also, such software helps to track and analyze key metrics that impact customer experience: response time, resolution time, and first contact resolution rate.

6. Educate Website Visitors

The Harvard Business Review found that 81% of customers across industries try to solve problems on their own before contacting a representative. And again, the decisive moment is speed.

One way to help them find answers and educate them about a product is through a knowledge base, FAQ blocks, or chatbot.

• Knowledge base: It’s an organized information collection about products or services, including tutorials, step-by-step guides, etc. It must be well-organized and easy to navigate.
• FAQ block: It helps visitors quickly find answers without navigating multiple pages. It must be easy to read, concise, and cover the most frequently asked questions.
• Chatbot: It’s a conversational interface that can be integrated with a knowledge base and FAQ blocks to provide a seamless experience.

Informative content helps educate visitors about a product or a service and answer their questions quickly, improving the overall experience on a website.

7. Reward Customer Loyalty

Loyalty is something that should be maintained. After all, loyalty brings businesses the lion’s profit share and is critical to improving customer retention. But there are different types of it.

1. Those who are just happy with a product or service but can switch if they find a better deal or experience.
2. People for whom this or that business is simply convenient, even if they have to pay more.
3. Customers who stay with a brand because of a loyalty program.
4. Some customers stay with a brand only because it offers the lowest price.
5. And also, there are the biggest fans who frequently buy, give feedback, and recommend a business to others.

All these types should be taken into account, and there are a lot of examples of how businesses can reward their customers.

For instance, Starbucks offers a classic points-based loyalty program. Points can be redeemed for free drinks, food, etc.

Amazon offers free two-day shipping, access to streaming, and other exclusive benefits for members who pay an annual fee.

Hilton offers exclusive benefits and rewards, such as free room upgrades, free nights, and other perks based on the number of nights stayed in Hilton properties.

8. Utilize the Force of SMM

Social networks help businesses to simultaneously address all customers, and also attract potential ones. Also, such platforms as Snapchat, Discord, or Twitch enable producing a peculiar experience through multimedia instruments.

1. Choose the right platform: Businesses should identify the platforms their customers use most before starting socials. For instance, if your customers are primarily young adults, Instagram and Snapchat may be the best choices.
2. Respond promptly: One of the most significant advantages of social media is its immediacy. Therefore, customers will expect a quick response if you focus on customer service in your socials.
3. Be empathetic: In socials, sharing emotions, including negative ones, is common. But this communication is visible to everyone, so it’s crucial to respond with empathy and understanding rather than defensiveness.
4. Provide value-added content: Socials aren’t just customer service platforms; it’s an opportunity to become valuable to customers. Share helpful tips, industry insights, and other useful information.
5. Be creative: Socials just love funny viral stories. Companies should take advantage of this and offer creative and bold content if it fits their tone of voice.

Also, it’s worth studying the best examples to understand which SMM strategy to choose. Let’s see some.

Wendy’s: The company is known for being witty and engaging, often using humor and pop culture references.

One of the most successful campaigns was the #NuggsForCarter, which started as a response to a Twitter user named Carter Wilkerson asking for free chicken nuggets for a year. The brand challenged him to get 18 million retweets to earn the prize, which went viral and even resulted in a Guinness World Record for the most retweeted tweet.

Nike: This brand uses social media to spread positive sentiments and connect emotionally with customers. They employ user-generated content extensively, encouraging people to share photos and videos of themselves using Nike products with branded hashtags.

Airbnb: The company uses socials to showcase unique travel experiences and promote cultural exchange. They also have a strong customer service presence, responding quickly to customer concerns or issues.

Being responsive, authentic, and personable allows companies to create strong client-brand connections and build impressive experiences.

9. Embrace Transparency

The era of fake news and data breaches makes people constantly doubt, especially regarding their money and privacy. As a result, 86% of Americans believe that transparency from businesses is currently more essential than ever.

Clear information about products, services, and company policies helps customers make informed decisions and feel confident in their choices.

One of the shining examples is the American online retailer Zappos. The company values transparency, making it a core part of its culture and communication.

As a result, they established an entire department called Zappos Insights. It offers tours, live events, and Q&A sessions with departments like customer service, user experience, and marketing. This move increased customer trust and confidence in the brand.

When companies prioritize transparency as a core value, it leads to loyalty and, ultimately, business success.

10. Focus on Employees’ Engagement and Satisfaction

Another key to a thriving business is smiling staff. When employees are happy, output skyrockets, creating a cheerful workspace that boosts excellent customer service, increasing customer satisfaction and increasing customer loyalty.

How to keep employees satisfied?

• Professional Development. People want to grow and advance. Training and development opportunities help employees feel valued and invested in the company’s success.
• Open Communication. It can help employees feel heard and valued. Regular team meetings or feedback forms allow people to express their thoughts and concerns.
• Competitive Salaries and Benefits. It’s just basic. Businesses should ensure their salaries and benefits packages are competitive with industry standards.
• Achievements & Rewards. Recognizing and rewarding employee achievements increases morale and motivation. It can be programs or just incentives for meeting goals.
• Positive Work Environment. Businesses can offer perks like casual dress codes, flexible schedules, or team-building activities to form a positive workplace culture.

Final Thoughts

Designing a winning CX strategy takes time, effort, and dedication. However, it doesn’t end with implementing the best practices we’ve discussed. It’s an ongoing process, and staying proactive and responsive is vital.

Regularly track customer satisfaction, retention rate, lifetime value, and customer acquisition cost to ensure success. You can use tools like Google Analytics, customer feedback surveys, and social media analytics to make data-driven decisions.

Keep improving your customer experience strategies by monitoring progress and making necessary changes to attract and keep customers returning. Hard work will be worth it!

Ecommerce websites are trendy today. If you are trying to build an online business, it is crucial to research how ecommerce works and how to stand out from the competition. That is even more important today, where dropshipping businesses thrive. Because people have so many options, getting repeat sales from ecommerce customers becomes difficult. Luckily, we have a way to make this happen. And not just one but 7 distinctive strategies will substantially improve your business and drive sales!

1. Excellent customer service

If there is one reason why people have doubts when shopping online is that customer support is not always the best. There are situations where you have a problem with a service, the website, your shipment not getting delivered, or you are unsatisfied with the product. Reaching out to customer support is either impossible or very hard. Now you are stuck in a situation where you spent your money but did not get the product.
Here is where you can leverage your ecommerce marketing strategy to let the customers know your customer support service is on the level. The best option is to implement a live chat option where users can ask questions anytime. Also, display the email and phone number for customer support if the live chat option is unavailable. Strive to provide 24/7 customer support, and you will build a trustworthy relationship with your clients, leading to repeat sales.

2. Personalized recommendations strategy

One of the most significant benefits of online business is that it allows you to collect customer data easily. Every action on your website is stored and can be accessed through data analysis software. That way, you can track the following:

• Customer’s purchase history
• The amount of money they spend
• What kind of products they often look at

You should use that data to send customers personalized recommendations. This strategy is quite common today, and it helps with improving conversions. If people are constantly surrounded by things they are interested in, they will sooner or later buy them.

Also, these recommendations help customers find other products they weren’t even aware of. For example, if a customer purchases a tea set on your website, you can send them recommendations for other items related to the tea set.

3. Improve email marketing

While on the topic of personalized recommendations, let’s also talk about email marketing. That is the best channel for informing customers about special deals, offers, or discounts. A good thing about emails is that you can easily tailor them to each customer. That is an essential strategy because it builds loyalty and creates an emotional connection between the customers and your business.

4. Implement a loyalty program

A loyalty program is the best strategy to get repeat sales from ecommerce customers. It is how you reward the most loyal clients who gladly return to your website. Many businesses see major improvements after introducing loyalty programs.

Loyalty programs usually work by offering special deals and promotions to repeat customers. Or, they get rewarded with points for each purchase and can spend them to earn discounts on future purchases.

Furthermore, some loyalty programs have unique products that businesses only offer to the program’s members, so not everyone has access to it. That is a fantastic incentive for customers to join the loyalty program and gain access to premium products. Per the experts from Convert More, this is the best strategy to increase your conversions and generate more sales.

5. Provide free perks

People love free stuff. It is in our nature to look for ways not to spend our money yet get what we want. As a business, you should utilize this to get more repeat customers.

For example, you could offer free shipping to all purchases. That is a fantastic benefit to buyers because they often struggle to pay more due to shipping. Before you make this move, ensure your business will not suffer financially.

One strategy is to increase the price of products to compensate for free shipping. Remember that this might also affect your customers since they must pay more now. It is crucial to find that sweet spot that will allow you to increase the prices without pushing away the customers.

Another option would be to make a deal with the supplier and have them ship the items to the customer free of charge. You would get them customers and charge a percentage for your service, and they would do the rest. That is how dropshipping works.

6. Collect and display product reviews and testimonials

People like to look at product reviews before they make a purchase. That is a necessary social proof that the product is high quality and will satisfy their needs. It also proves trust because other people have already purchased from that website. That means it is safe for shopping.

As a business, ask your customers to review products and submit their testimonials so that you can use them as a marketing strategy. You can even encourage them to leave reviews by offering additional perks for their next purchase. By doing this, you are also giving them another reason to shop again.

7. Do a follow-up after every sale

Just because a purchase was finalized does not mean the customer journey ends there. You must do a follow-up after each purchase to get more repeat sales. That is to ensure that the customer was satisfied, not just with the product, but with the service on your website. It shows them you care even after they have spent money.

Get repeat sales from ecommerce customers with these efficient strategies

As you can see, there is more than one way to get repeat sales from ecommerce customers. Just make sure that you always focus on their benefit, and you have nothing to worry about. Once you show your customers that you care about their needs, they will gladly return for more!

Last year, U.S. holiday sales reached $270 billion compared to $257 billion in 2021. The festive mood turns every fifth visitor to your website into a customer. Everything you have to do is provide a favorable shopping atmosphere: the right timing, content, and offer. 

Usually, marketers start a holiday campaign pre-production three-four months ahead of the launch date. So let’s choose the best holidays and events throughout the year to grow your online sales successfully.

Make sure you take advantage of every opportunity to engage your target audience with a comprehensive list of holidays celebrated throughout 2023. 

Let’s dive in!

January 2023

Although January is almost past, it is a month of new resolutions and a hunt for multiple sale offers. People are looking for places to spend discount cards and gift certificates. So here are a few occasions you had in January:

• January 1. New Year’s Day. 
• January 5. National Keto Day. 
• January 9. Clean Your Desk Day. 
• January 16. Blue Monday. 
• January 17. Martin Luther King Day. 
• January 19. Get to Know Your Customers Day. 
• January 22. Chinese New Year 
•  January 24. National Compliment Day 

Since we have no time machine, there is no need to describe each of them. Instead, let’s focus on the events we can benefit from👇

February  2023

• February 1st – 28. Black History Month 

Show respect for the triumphs and struggles of African-Americans throughout U.S. history by sharing themed content, for example, the Black History Month playlist, or by engaging individuals to join relevant non-profit organizations.

• February 2. Groundhog Day 

It’s a perfect time to play the predictions game with potential customers from Pennsylvania and Punxsutawney. This day they expect the town’s groundhog prediction for a winter duration. 

• February 3. National Wear Red Day

If you use red in designs that day, Americans will consider it a support of heart disease awareness. 

• February 5. Annual Grammy Awards
  It is one of the most exciting events for everyone who loves music. Use this topic in your Ad copy to catch the target audience’s attention and convert them into customers. 
• February 12. Super Bowl Sunday

It is a good chance to get the attention of football fans from the U.S. 

• February 14. Valentine’s Day

Europe, the U.S., the UK, and Japanese people expect eCommerce companies to advertise ideas for romantic gifts. Think well over the Valentine’s Day slogans and products to catch their attention.

• February 17. London Fashion Week

It is a perfect occasion for fashion brands to engage the target audience.

• February 21. Pancake Day 

It is a perfect time to launch a sale for every brand related to food and cooking, or can present its product as a pancake. Christians in the U.K. will love it.

• February 21. Mardi Gras, a.k.a. Carnival 

This is a day of parties and dances in places colonized by the French. 

March 2023

• March 8. International Women’s Day 

At this global holiday, people celebrate gender equality and women’s achievements in cultural, political, and socioeconomic fields. 

• March 12. 95th Academy Awards Ceremony 

Fashion brands and souvenir shops can take this occasion to focus film lovers’ attention on celebrities’ styles or movie attributes and offer relevant items on sale.

• March 17. St. Patrick’s Day 

On this Irish holiday, brands engage customers with green-colored content and items of all kinds. Some marketers believe that this color brings business luck in the face of new clients and sales.

• March 19. Mother’s Day

This day is an excellent occasion for retailers to launch discounts and unique offers to potential customers in the U.K.

• March 22. Beginning of Ramadan 

Food brands and delivery services are extremely popular among Muslim practitioners during this time.

April 2023

• April 1. April Fools’ Day  

It is an excellent opportunity for brands targeting western audiences to show their sense of humor and get some hype. So think well over ideas to engage your customers on April Fools’ Day. 

• April 7-10. Easter 

A week before this holiday, Christians used to shop for Easter eggs, gifts, and decorations to celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

• April 11. National Pet Day

This is a perfect opportunity to grow sales for brands targeting pet owners in the US. 

• April 20. Get to Know Your Customers Day

This event is famous for brand surveys for which customers get rewards.

• April 21-22. Eid al-Fitr

eCommerce companies can take this chance to promote various products that can help celebrate the end of Ramadan, from food to electronics to Muslims.

• April 22. Earth Day

Grow environmental awareness among your customers by posting relevant content, making donations, and launching giveaways.

• April 23. World Book Day

Readers expect this day to get discounts from bookstores and apps.  

May  2023

• May 2. National Fitness Day 

This day sportswear, equipment, wellness, and nutrition brands are very popular among U.S. citizens. 

• May 5. Cinco de Mayo

If your target audience is in Mexico, it is an excellent opportunity to show your honor to their victory over France in 1862 and promote themed products on social media.

• May 6. Coronation of King Charles 

This is a great promotional opportunity to reach audiences in the UK. 

• May 14. Mother’s Day 

The UK celebrated it on March 19. Now, it’s a turn for the rest of the world. 

• May 25. Wine Day 

Wine retailers, take your chance to boat revenue by targeting U.S. wine lovers. For others, it is one more opportunity to engage with followers on social.

June 2023

• 1-30 June. Pride Month 

If you want to establish a good connection with the LGBTQ+ community, support them on your website or socials with relevant posts or promotions. 

• June 5. World Environment Day 

Use this date to grow the environmental awareness of your audience if you missed a similar occasion in the previous months. 

It is a globally known event to launch family- or friends-themed promotions.

• June 17. Flip Flop Day

What can be a better occasion for the footwear and seasonal stores to boost the flip-flops and relevant cloth sales than the beginning of summer? 

• June 18. Father’s Day

Yes, now the father’s turn to celebrate. Greet them with relevant promotions or posts on social media. 

• June 29. Camera Day

With this event, you can target almost everyone because, secretly or in public, everyone thinks they are a great (selfie, cat, food, nature photographer.) So, for example, engage people to share visual masterpieces with your product to get a prize.  

July 2023

• July 4. Independence Day 

This famous holiday fits every brand, so take your chance to reach American audiences.

• July 7. Chocolate Day

After Valentine’s Day, this is a second opportunity for sweets retailers to target chocolate fans globally. 

• July 14. Bastille Day

Reach out to French customers with promotions under the liberty and equality concept devoted to the French Revolution.

• July 20. FIFA Women’s World Cup start

Target sports fans all over the world. 

• July 30. International Day of Friendship

One more opportunity for brands that skipped June Best Friends Day to engage people to present their friends some gifts. 

August 2023

• August 8. International Cat Day

In addition to standard discounts, you can use themed content to promote cat adoption and animal activism.

• August 21. World Senior Citizens’ Day 

Use discounts to raise awareness of the specific issues impacting senior citizens. 

• August 26. International Dog Day

Online pet stores, you know what to do: themed content, competitions, giveaways for the best pet’s photo, and discounts for fluffy paws owners. 

• August 28. National Bow Tie Day

Fashion, apparel, or clothing brands offer discounts to consumers who publish their fav bow tie on socials.

September 

• September 1. Return to School 

At the start of an academic year in the U.S., brands related to education and school launch special offers: tech, office, and cloth discounts.

• September 4. Labor Day

Show your honor of laborers with relevant offers for consumers in the US and Canada. 

• September 17. Oktoberfest start

Germans and everyone who loves this beer festival can’t ignore themed product gifts and discounts.

• September 23. End of Summer

It’s the best day for the cloth retailers to sell rest of the summer collection. 

• September 27. World Tourism Day

Since 1980, brands that offer relevant products launch themed sales globally on this day.

October 

• October 1. Coffee Day

There are so many people who love coffee around the globe. Use this occasion to reach out to them. 

• October 4. Animal Day

Have you missed cat’s and dog’s days? Here is one more chance to celebrate animals’ rights and welfare globally.

• October 31. Halloween

Starting with Americans, Halloween is a holiday celebrated globally today. Spooky designs, marketing copy, and Trick-or-Treating are only some topics to engage shoppers.

November 

• November 6. Melbourne Cup

It is an opportunity for food and beverage delivery apps to reach horse racing fans in Australia.

• November 12. Diwali

This is an Indian religious holiday when people buy accessories, clothing, and decorations.

• November 23. Thanksgiving

Turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie are the most famous attributes of this American holiday. Use these visuals to get people into a holiday spirit. 

• November 24. Black Friday

It is the holiday of the best deals on the web. Naturally, people expect brands to advertise significant discounts and free shipping.

• Cyber Monday — November 27

Those who skipped the Black Friday deals enjoy the opportunity to get great deals from online retailers.

December 

• December 7. Hanukkah

Here is when the 8-day Hanukkah starts. People of the Jewish community would like to buy traditional food like potato pancakes or donuts and small gifts online.

• December 14. Free Shipping Day

It is the last opportunity for customers to shop for Christmas. This holiday fits all customers and brand types.

• December 25. Christmas

People don’t shop on this day. They did this two weeks before. On December 25, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. So you can catch their attention with Christmas-themed activities that generate excitement.

• December 26. Kwanzaa 

It is the start of 7-days honoring the African heritage in the African-American community. People share gifts and spend time together, so you can engage them with Kwanzaa-themed deals.

• December 31. New Year’s Eve

The best time to inspire people to meet their goals with the help of your products.

To sum up 

Now you have a list of dates to choose from. But not all of them are relevant to your target audience. To build an ideal eCommerce content calendar for 2023, consider the days most significant to your customers. 

Who do you hope to draw in and introduce to your brand and products? You must identify your target market to create the finest marketing plan.

Consider the qualities of your typical clients. They, who? 

• What is their occupation, income, gender, and age? 
• What are their interests, pastimes, and purchasing behaviors? 
• What inspires your customer personas to acquire your items, and where do they come from? 

Once you’ve defined those traits, you’ll clearly know who to target when promoting holidays and personalized goods. 

As an experienced ecommerce owner or manager, you know that the world of PPC advertising is constantly evolving. To stay ahead of the curve, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in the field. In this blog post, we will explore some of the key trends and predictions for the future of PPC, and discuss how you can use these insights to optimize your advertising efforts.

Trends in PPC

One major trend in the world of PPC is the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies are being used to automate many aspects of PPC advertising, from keyword research and ad bidding to ad creation and optimization. This can help make the process of running PPC campaigns more efficient and effective, and allow you to focus on other aspects of your business.

Another trend in PPC is the rise of voice search. As more and more people use voice assistants like Siri and Alexa to search the internet, PPC ads need to be optimized for voice search. This means using long-tail keywords and natural language, and providing clear and concise information that is easy for voice assistants to understand.

Another growing trend in PPC is the use of mobile advertising. As more people move to use their smartphones to shop, it’s becoming crucial for PPC ads to be mobile-friendly and optimized for small screens. This means using responsive design and providing a seamless user experience on mobile devices.

The use of social media for PPC advertising will also continue to grow. As more people use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to discover and purchase products and services, it will be essential for businesses to incorporate social media into their PPC campaigns. This can be done by using social media advertising platforms, such as Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Sponsored Content, to reach potential customers on these platforms.

Predictions for the Future of PPC

One prediction for the future of PPC is that the use of AI and machine learning will continue to grow, with more and more PPC platforms offering advanced automation and optimization features. Another prediction is that the use of voice search will become even more prevalent, and that PPC ads will need to be optimized for voice search to be effective.

Steps to Take for the Future of PPC

To take advantage of these trends and predictions, there are a few steps you can take as an ecommerce owner or manager:

1. Invest in AI and machine learning: Consider using PPC platforms that offer advanced automation and optimization features powered by AI and machine learning. This can help make your PPC campaigns more efficient and effective.

2. Optimize for voice search: Make sure your PPC ads are optimized for voice search by using long-tail keywords and natural language. This will help ensure that your ads are shown to users who search using voice assistants.

3. Focus on mobile: Make sure your PPC ads are mobile-friendly and optimized for small screens. This will help ensure that your ads are effective on the growing number of mobile devices used to browse the internet and make purchases.

4. Invest in social media advertising: Consider incorporating social media advertising platforms, such as Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Sponsored Content, into your PPC campaigns. This can help you reach potential customers on the platforms they use every day.

5. Focus on personalization and targeting: Use data and insights from customer behavior and preferences, as well as

Summary

The future of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising will be heavily influenced by the rise of AI and machine learning, the growing popularity of voice search, the importance of mobile advertising, and the increased use of social media for PPC. To capitalize on these trends, ecommerce managers should invest in AI and machine learning technology, optimize their ads for voice search, focus on creating mobile-friendly ads, incorporate social media advertising into their campaigns, and personalize and target their ads using data and insights. By staying up-to-date on these trends and taking the appropriate steps, businesses can effectively navigate the future of PPC advertising.

E-Commerce has grown to become a multi-billion dollar industry. Every day, we witness more and more brick-and-mortar stores shutting down and e-commerce stores taking their place. More people shift towards e-commerce shopping as their preferred way of buying stuff, especially as e-commerce services become increasingly reliable and fast.

Given the rapid rise of online stores, all digital businesses now have unprecedented competition from other e-commerce stores popping up everywhere. This brings forth a challenge online businesses must address as a priority if they are to survive in the crowd of e-com stores.

E-commerce businesses need to leverage marketing strategies for e-commerce stores to beat the competition and make headway. Incorporating e-commerce marketing tactics into your plan is the only way to ensure that your store builds a sustainable base and grows further.

If you have an e-commerce business and want to experience unparalleled growth, keep reading to know how to use e-commerce marketing strategies to push your business to the limelight.

What Are E-Commerce Marketing Strategies?

E-commerce is about any business operated mainly online. Marketing strategies for e-commerce businesses are not only about making more sales. They’re also about increased engagement, more visitors, high visibility, more conversions, a high number of people visiting the website and the landing page, and more such goals as a part of the marketing plan.

When planned and applied with tactics, marketing strategies for e-commerce can increase the number of people visiting the store and purchasing from it. You can bring in more outbound and inbound leads to the business.

How to Leverage Ecommerce Marketing for Business Growth

You can leverage in several ways e-commerce marketing strategies to increase business growth. With more advanced technology, you have more ways to market a business. Here’s how you can do that too.

1. Implement SEO for Business Website

Several search engines have started businesses with fresh perspectives and brand new approaches. Google is still the number one search engine, and only a few can compete with its growth.

Most people today open Google before they buy anything to do preliminary research and get recommendations. If you can rank on Google and become visible to these people searching for products to buy, your e-commerce business will witness immense growth.

Invest in proper SEO of your website, landing page, and store to rank among the first few search results on Google. E-commerce SEO will ensure that people land on your store and website when they type in a search inquiry related to your business. If you can rank on Google using organic means instead of paid advertising, you will see an immense surge in the visitor count and conversions.

To successfully optimize your store or website on search engines, do keyword research and find out about the words and phrases which are most popular among the audiences. Then, adjust these keywords in your landing pages, website, store, and other areas.

Besides on-page SEO, invest in building backlinks and improving the user experience of the visitors landing on your store. The easier it is to navigate, the more people will click on that coveted ‘buy’ button.

2. Invest in the Right Tools

Marketing in the current scenario has taken a different shape. It is no longer only about advertising banners, TV ads, and brochures. Digital marketing is the number one priority for most businesses.

For online marketing strategies, many different tools are available. The advancement of technology has put several new tools in the limelight that not only help you implement marketing strategies but also aid in keeping track of them. With this, you know what works and what needs changes.

To fully leverage the e-commerce marketing strategies, you must incorporate these tools into your marketing plan. For example, a media monitoring tool will help you keep track of all the social media channels where your business had mentions or shares.

You, as a business, will operate on several platforms and deal with different issues daily. It can be hard to keep track of the social media platforms that tagged or mentioned your e-commerce store.

By using a media monitoring tool for your business, you’ll be able to keep track of where your audience is and the market that is more interested in your product offerings. Combine this with other tools to boost your e-commerce marketing strategies.

3. Use Content Marketing to Attract the Audience

Content marketing might not be as popular as other digital marketing strategies, but it’s one of the best tools to attract an organic audience. Content marketing is a gradual process and a long-term strategy, but it is worthwhile.

For content marketing, create and write unique content targeted toward your desired audience. Write the content to help the readers and provide valuable information related to the field in which you are working. By giving out free and value-laden information, people will become loyal followers, and from there, they will convert into cherished customers.

One thing to know is that you don’t need to create content in written form only. You can also create videos and write posts on social media. Whatever medium you use, ensure original, creative, and valuable stuff for the best results.

Remember that SEO is the key here too. Whatever medium you use to create content, do proper SEO research and optimize your content so that people can find it on Google and other search engines.

4. Focus on the Website Layout

The design and layout of your website or e-commerce store are very vital. Websites and stores are mainly visual media. Layout and design done on these pages create your customers’ first impression.

Ensure that the website layout is clean and provides a great user experience. If people have trouble finding the products or other categories on your website, they will leave the page. The layout of your website or store must also be easy to navigate. Visitors would find the products they need without much hassle.

The design of the website and other pages is of the essence too. A poorly coordinated webpage or colors that don’t sit well on the eyes will leave the audience baffled, and they won’t stay. Choosing the right combination of colors is necessary as these theme colors will represent your brand everywhere — online and offline.

Also, make sure to choose colors that you can work with later on. It is not a good impression if the theme colors of the logo or other icons do not match those of the website. Go for clear designs and minimal and unique layouts, and ensure user-friendliness for maximum engagement with your e-commerce store.

5. Pay for a Spot at the Top

The above e-commerce marketing strategies do not mean you can only go for organic tactics. Using paid strategies to promote your e-commerce store is a must. You should use a combination of paid and unpaid strategies for marketing purposes.

Google reserves certain spots at the top of the page for paid results. You can take part in the bidding war to get the top spot there. You can also run paid ads on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. You can take up sponsored posts and do paid collaborations on your page to widen your reach.

Incorporating paid marketing strategies can increase the rate of user engagement as more people will visit and buy from your store.

Conclusion

Implement your e-commerce marketing strategies with a planned approach. You can use the best tactics, including SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and results analysis. You can go for paid strategies to boost sales as well.

Using a balance of paid and unpaid e-commerce marketing strategies is optimal. Do your research, use proper tools, and implement the plan to get the best results.

Written by Marcus Clarke, Digital Content Manager at Messente

Introduction

A study by Boston Consulting Group, one of the largest consulting companies in the world, found that brands that thoroughly implemented First-Party Data in advertising and marketing processes increased revenues up to three times!

So what is first-party advertising, and how does it work?

Data Types

First, let’s understand what data types exist:

• First-Party Data – this is my data; We will expand on it immediately.
• Second Party Data – this is our data; for example, when you and I share data and each one benefits from the other’s first-party data.
• Third-Party Data – this is their data. That is someone else’s data that I use.

The most common use to date is, of course, third-party data. How does Facebook advertising work? For example: when you enter an e-commerce site, the site plants information in your browser, such as which products I viewed, what I added to the cart, etc. The browser sends the data to Facebook, and its advertising system uses the information in two ways:

• She targets me as a remarketing audience for the site I browsed,
• She targets me as a new audience for the competitors of the store I was browsing

In practice, all websites contribute their information to Facebook, competing for the same audiences.

FIRST-PARTY DATA

We define first-party data as data that businesses can collect directly from consumers. This includes information about customers’ intent to purchase to improve the shopping experience. First-party data sources include browsing behavior on a company’s website, order transaction history, customer data, and product information.

First-party data comes from your online store; therefore, it is the most valuable type of information you can collect. It helps you understand customer behavior and identify buying patterns; therefore, first-party data is more accurate than third-party data.

Suppose we put the three types on a graph, one axis of which has the amount of data and the other axis the level of accuracy. In that case, we will find that third-party data is the largest in terms of quantity but the least accurate, while first-party data is smaller but much more qualitative and accurate.

Approaching a world without cookies soon, advertising on Facebook and Google is becoming a black box increasingly. The only way to accurately advertise and beat the competition is to use data that is only yours. 

The data of your customers, your products, your orders, basically all the data you have on your ecommerce site, data that Google and Facebook do not have because they can’t access your ecommerce site. It is also data that does not leak to any competitor.

Using first-party data correctly, you can build targeted advertising and marketing processes with personalized value propositions based on an in-depth analysis of consumer behavior and buying patterns.

Using first-party data in advertising

Four key elements should be part of any first-party data-led advertising campaign:

1. Segmentation of audiences – this is the basis for creating homogeneous groups with common denominators that can be leveraged through personalization in marketing.

2. Relevant value propositions – enabling high customer engagement. The trick is not only to whom to offer but what to offer and when to offer.

3. Using analytics and machine learning technologies to produce personalized customer experiences. Businesses don’t realize how much gold lies in their data.

4. Cross-channel marketing – the ability to manage the process and share the data between all the main marketing channels in an easy way.

Summary

Should you use first-party data in your advertising? Absolutely! It’s the best way to build personalized ads that target the right audience with the right message at the right time.

Introduction

It’s no secret that ecommerce marketing is complex. In order to properly scale your business while maintaining a good return, it’s essential to get the most out of your advertising budget. While many factors are involved in this process, AI can significantly improve an advertising campaign. This article will overview how AI works in advertising and how it can help/what it can contribute to ecommerce advertisers.

What is AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer system that can act independently without being explicitly programmed. AI uses data to understand the correlations between different parameters for taking actions and solving problems.

AI is often used for tasks that humans find difficult or impossible—like maximizing the performance of paid ads.

Why AI-Advertising is Vital in Ecommerce 

The key to successful advertising in a post-cookie world is using your first-party data in advertising campaigns. Because Google and Facebook don’t have that data, this can distinguish your ads from all other competitors, making them more accurate and effective.

There are many reasons why AI is so important for ecommerce advertising. Here are a few of the most significant benefits:

Audience targeting

AI is an incredibly powerful tool for audience targeting. It can help you target your audience with incredible precision, knowing exactly who to target, when the best time to reach them is, and what they’re likely to respond to.

It’s simple: the more specific you can be about the type of person you want to reach, the more effective your campaign will be. And AI allows you to do just that! 

AI analyzes the shopping behavior of your customers. This allows you to target people who are most likely to repurchase from your website, as well as to find new customers with similar interests and behaviors. 

Product Selection

Using AI, you can predict which products are likely to perform well in advertising

AI is more accurate than humans at predicting which products are likely to succeed, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. 

Furthermore, AI can predict which product can be more profitable in advertising and what the most beneficial advertising channel is for each product. This helps advertisers spend their advertising budget wisely and boost the campaign’s performance.

Budget & Bid Optimization

Advertising is a challenging game. You’ve got to simultaneously manage multiple platforms, keep track of ad campaigns, and ensure you’re getting the best return for your advertising spend. 

That’s where AI comes in: It can help advertisers get more from advertising by optimizing budgets and bids 24/7 across all advertising channels. It’s like having an entire department of experts working for you around the clock.

Summary

It’s becoming clear that AI is the future of technology. It’s everywhere, and it’s only getting more sophisticated and pervasive. And when it comes to today’s hyper-competitive ecommerce markets, the online businesses adopting AI Advertising will gain an unfair advantage over their competitors.

In today’s marketing and advertising world, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to target the right people with the right content. Using pixels and cookies, especially after the recent IOS changes, to generate sales with good returns just doesn’t get the job done anymore. Conversion rates are dropping across the board and costs per customer acquisition are increasing rapidly. 

However, there might be a solution to all this mess – Creating customer segments using first party data.

First-party data is the strongest tool to target your customers.
Unlike third-party data collected by pixels and cookies, it’s pulled directly from your ecommerce store and is far superior to alternative data sources. It’s accurate, detailed, and isn’t affected by changes like the IOS updates.

Using this data to create accurate, relevant audiences across all marketing and advertising channels, is currently the best way to beat the IOS changes and come out on top, and a must-have for every ecommerce business.

There is still a problem – how do we decide which of our customers we want to target in order to get the best results?

We did the labor for you, and brought you the top three most recommended segments to use for your advertising and marketing needs.

Customers who are likely to purchase soon

When we talk about which customers to target, one of the hardest questions that comes up is when our customers are most likely to repurchase. Target your customers too soon, and you may waste funds on impressions and clicks. Target them too late, and they may find another place to do their business. This means that for customer retention, timing is key.

Here is the solution – Create a segment of customers who purchased several times from your website, and target them based on their Average repurchase frequency. 

Average repurchase frequency is a fancy term for the average number of days it takes for a customer to make an additional purchase.

For example, if a customer was to purchase his second order after 40 days, and his third order after 30 days, his average repurchase frequency would be 35 days.

With this information, we can make sure that we target the right people, at the right time, every time.

We can target each individual customer at the time that he is most likely to purchase again, based on their average repurchase frequency.

The ads targeting these customers can feature new collections or products, a coupon code, or a simple nudge to simply get them re-engaged with your website.

Note that the repurchase frequency varies from customer to customer. This means the advertising timing must match each customer’s shopping behavior.

Products that are likely to be purchased soon

Here is another solution for the same problem of understanding when to retarget your customers. However, this segment takes it to the next level – Instead of only focusing on when the customer is likely to purchase again, let’s understand what product he is likely to purchase.

Many online businesses feature products that are purchased multiple times. These are usually, but not exclusively, perishable products, that are repurchased periodically by the same customers, over and over again. These products can include skincare, food and beverage, clothes, cleaning supplies, and more.

Understanding when to retarget your customers with these products is the same as before – by understanding the Average repurchase frequency. If Daniel purchases diapers from your website, then purchases diapers again after 3 months, and then a third time after an additional 2 months, we can understand that Daniel purchases diapers every two and a half months, on average.

Using this information, we can create customer segments that target customers who purchased certain products again and again, when they are most likely to purchase them again.

Note that every product has it’s own repurchase frequency.

Top Customers

Another question that comes up when we discuss targeting, is which of my clients should I invest my advertising funds in. Can we gain more from targeting a specific type of customer behavior? In our opinion, the answer is yes. 

“Top customers” segment consists of customers with one or more of three shopping behaviors –

1. Customers who purchase with a high average order.
2. Customers who spent a lot of money on your website in their lifetime.
3. Customers who purchased multiple times.

This creates a segment of your best customers.

Because customers purchased several times in the past, or spent a lot of money on your products, retargeting them will usually result in a higher conversion rate, and bigger orders.

We can also create a Lookalike or Similar audience based on this segment, to prospect for new customers who have a similar shopping behavior to your best customers. 

In conclusion, using this segment in both new traffic and remarketing ads will assist us in not only bringing in high-potential customers, but also in getting them to purchase again and again.

How to create customer segments

Creating these segments can be done by exporting your customer data to excel sheets, and filtering them based on different attributes, like when they purchased or how much they spent each order.

These lists can then be imported into Facebook and Google, to be used as audiences for your campaigns.

Remember that it’s required to manually update these lists once in a while, as they aren’t updated automatically. It’s recommended to do this around every two-three weeks.

It may be time consuming, but it’s definitely worth it.

However, if you have an opportunity to use an automation tool to create smart customer segments for you, it can make a big difference.

Adscale offers an easy and automatic solution for creating segments.

Instead of exporting lists and managing them manually, the Adscale platform pulls all your data automatically, and creates ready-made top performing audience segments to choose from, including the “Top customer combo” segment, and the “Customers who are likely to purchase” segment.

These segments are updated on a daily basis, making sure every new customer is automatically added.

If you want to create your own segment – you can do that using the audience builder. It’s extremely easy to use and lets you create very specific and personalized segments.

Lastly, it’s automatically uploaded to your Facebook business manager and your Adwords account, and is available for use in Email and SMS marketing.

Conclusion

We discussed the advantages of using customer segments, and how they offer an alternative targeting option with the recent IOS changes.

When it becomes more and more difficult to properly target your customers and to prospect for new ones, first-party data customer segments become a must-have solution for any ecommerce store.

Shopify SMS marketing is one of the most direct and effective ways for brands to reach their target audiences. This is partially thanks to how closely consumers have started to carry, use, and guard their phones. People keep their phones with them every waking moment, even when they’re asleep.

The message for businesses is clear: reach your customers where they are.

But how do you get into this intimate space between the consumer and their mobile phone?

With the help of Shopify SMS marketing, of course!

You can leverage Shopify’s marketing features and tools to drive sales, recover abandoned carts, and more.

Does Shopify Have SMS Marketing?

Yes. The Shopify app store allows you to integrate one of their many SMS marketing Shopify tools.

Why Use Shopify SMS Apps?

Shopify SMS apps allow you to run manual and automated campaigns to reach customers on their phones. You can send different types of messages, such as:

• Abandoned cart reminders
• Delivery updates
• Items that are back in stock 
• Store maintenance
• Win-back campaigns
• And more.

Most of these apps have an integrated interface, work with multiple channels, and provide AI features to streamline your marketing processes.

You can efficiently run robust Shopify SMS marketing campaigns, quizzes, and other interactions without any knowledge of coding. You will also have access to tons of templates for the different messages you want to send.

And the most significant reason you should use Shopify SMS apps is the high conversion rates that have increased 100% year-over-year. This is largely because the number of mobile phone users continues to grow, and consumers are much more likely to read their texts, as opposed to emails or physical mail.

SMS marketing is a low-maintenance and high-yield channel through which you can effectively market your brand.  

How Do I Set up SMS Marketing on Shopify?

Before you set up Shopify SMS marketing, you must first choose an app from Shopify’s app store. Take a close look at each app’s features to narrow down your choices.

Next, follow these steps to set up SMS marketing on Shopify:

• Visit the Shopify App Store page and search for the app you want to use
• Click your preferred app
• Log in to your Shopify store using your store’s URL
• Once you are logged in, select the Add App button to set up app integration
• Review the details of the chosen app and click the Install App button at the bottom of the page

Once you’ve completed the installation process, you just need to enter your information as requested by the app to sync your store information. Enter the details, read the Privacy Policy, and tick the check box if you agree with the terms and conditions. Finally, click on the Connect button.

What Is the Best SMS App for Shopify?

No one SMS app is best for all Shopify stores. Your choice depends on your specific business and what features you need to send messages to your consumers. 

We have put together a list of 21 Shopify SMS Apps that are sure to help you create and launch a successful Shopify SMS marketing campaign:

1. AdScale – All-in-one Ads & SMS marketing

AdScale is the only app that connects directly to your store data, using business intelligence and making it more accessible and manageable. The platform can be used for many things such as email marketing and advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Google. 

SMS marketing through AdScale allows you to send personalized messages to your customers using BI-powered segments and get the best engagement of all marketing channels. You can also send personalized SMS messages based on triggers or events focusing on increasing the repeat customer rate and conversions, as well as, tailor your campaigns with endless automation options.

AdScale’s SMS coverage is worldwide giving the app a huge advantage over others.

2. SMS Marketing – Winback

Winback is an app offered exclusively on Shopify and Shopify Plus. It centers on helping businesses recover abandoned carts.

This app is easy to set up with a single click. It automatically syncs with your contact list and removes invalid numbers in real-time. Their cart recovery feature gives customers a small incentive to return to the store and complete their purchase.

Winback also offers customer segmentation, the option to build your own TCPA-compliant subscriber list, and personalized SMS and MMS marketing campaigns.

It works best for target audiences in the USA and Canada, but is also available for international brands. Choose Winback if abandoned carts are your most significant cause of concern.

3. Privy

Privy is an e-commerce marketing service for online brands that want to boost sales through email and Shopify SMS marketing. With this app, you can send text personalized text messages for:

• Welcoming first-time visitors
• Recovering abandoned carts
• And more.

It also provides users with revenue reports of their onsite campaigns and emails. It is easy to set up with a single click. 

You can also use Privy for the following:

• Control the list of customers that receive your coupon codes and how they can share them
• Easily insert products from your Shopify store into marketing emails 
• Automate cart abandonment emails even to customers who didn’t start checkout

Privy is the best choice for brands looking to increase sales immediately upon integrating.

4. Marsello: Email, SMS & Loyalty

Marsello is a complete marketing solution for email and SMS. It uses customer data and smart segmentation to create detailed profiles of clients. 

This data also helps:

• Push clients to make repeat purchases
• Conduct referral programs
• Motivate product reviews and social activity

And more, via automated custom loyalty programs to drive sales via marketing campaigns and create lifelong customers.

Marsello makes it possible for brands to see the impact of their marketing activities and get insights into their returns. It also integrates with many different e-commerce and POS software.

If you want a marketing solution that leverages consumer data, behavioral information, and insights to grow your business and marketing ROI, this app is the best choice.

5. SMS, Web Push, Email – Firepush

Firepush is an omnichannel marketing app that allows brands to segment customers and run automated SMS campaigns to drive sales on Shopify.

This app includes SMS templates and 11 types of SMS marketing campaigns for different strategies. You can easily manage up to three different marketing channels on a single dashboard.

Firepush also provides detailed reports on marketing activity and impact, including detailed notes on each of the campaigns you’re running. 

It is an excellent choice if you run a medium or large-sized enterprise and you need to keep track of multiple marketing campaigns.

6. LiveRecover SMS Marketing & Cart Recovery

LiveRecover by Voyage is best known for its humanized cart recovery solutions. They aim to improve customer experience, satisfaction, engagement, and conversions.

The benefit of using LiveRecover is its marketing is powered by live agents in real-time. The live agents respond to customer queries quickly with the help of a Knowledge Base. 

This leads to insights that your team can use to make data-driven decisions, and it gives your brand’s messaging a human touch that’s rare in e-commerce brands.

The system integrates with your Shopify store to build custom workflows based on order and contact information. If you’re tired of coming up short with SMS marketing Shopify campaigns heavily based on AI technology, then LiveRecover is for you!

7. Omnisend Marketing Automation

Omnisend facilitates automated email and SMS marketing solutions for e-commerce brands. While useful separately, the app also provides integrated marketing solutions for both channels.

The app employs automated workflows to carry out campaigns for:

• Welcoming first-time visitors
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Post-purchase notifications
• And more.

Omnisend provides fully customizable built-in templates and customer segments that update in real-time. The audiences are segmented based on campaign activity, shopping behavior, and other customer interactions. These features create a much more personalized marketing experience for your customers. 

This app is a popular choice for brands because of its ease of use, quick setup, and high-end support. The app is best for marketers who want to take advantage of high-performing features without much work or complication.

8. Cartloop SMS Marketing

Cartloop is a fully-managed text marketing service provider for Shopify and Shopify Plus businesses. It focuses on conversational SMS marketing and employs it through two-way campaigns. Subscribers can reply to campaign texts and engage with Cartloop Live Experts in real-time conversations.

Their Live SMS Concierge guides clients through their shopping to personalize the experience. Its features are improved by segmentation that customizes links for brand promotion and provides discount codes.

One of Cartloop’s best features is its insights on cart abandonment activity, allowing brands to recalibrate their marketing and sales strategies. 

The app is best suited for brands that want to engage with their shoppers in real-time.

9. Yotpo SMSBump – SMS Marketing

SMSBump is an SMS marketing e-commerce app that integrates with popular platforms like Shopify and Shopify Plus. 

It is an all-in-one SMS marketing platform that:

• Segments customers based on available data
• Sends high-converting text messages
• Runs targeted text marketing campaigns
• Conducts A/B testing
• And more.

Users get a built-in calendar and access to their top-performing templates. It is a fantastic choice for brands that want fully-customizable automations to collect SMS subscribers. You can track each interaction and work on optimizing it to make sure that your strategies are winning your customers.

Beyond cart recovery, SMSBump creates data-rich customer segments and turns them into powerful marketing messages. 

If you want to convert abandoned carts using high-converting messaging, then SMSBump is perfect for you! 

10. Postscript SMS & MMS Marketing

Postscript is the SMS marketing app for when you want higher ROI and simultaneously lower your unsubscribe rates. 

Its impressive list of offerings includes:

• Multiple opt-in, easy-to-use tools that grow subscriber lists quickly
• Deep filter-based segmentation for exclusive and customized offers
• Tailored timely offers and incentives
• Cart abandonment and browse abandonment automations
• Higher customer retention rates
• High-quality support on customer’s preferred channel

With Postscript, you can win customers and build relationships throughout the entire buying process. The app primarily focuses on creating better customer experiences each step of the way. You can provide excellent customer service with quick responses to support questions, transactional updates, and more.

Postscript is a great choice if easy customer segmentation, higher ROI, and more first-time conversions are your priorities.

11. SMS & Messenger Marketing – Tobi

Tobi is an app that combines SMS & Facebook Messenger marketing. You can easily send order updates, promotional messages, cart recovery notifications, cross-sell, upsell, and more.

The app also features messaging services such as discount code generators for SMS, review requests, and win-back campaigns.

Brands can automate all marketing messages and save precious time for other tasks. It is a great app for managing SMS campaigns for small online stores and restaurants.

12. Messent – Text SMS Marketing

Messent by FireBox is an essential toolkit for Shopify merchants who want to use Shopify SMS marketing to drive their sales. It provides an automated service for both SMS and MMS marketing campaigns.

With this app, you can:

• Fully segment SMS audiences and accurately filter them 
• Track their attributes
• Improve your campaigns
• Automate SMS functions
• Utilize a smart schedule system
• Review SMS strength and effectiveness
• And more.

These services are powered by rich campaign insights that track performance by time of the day. And with Messent,  you can easily segment audiences with advanced filters.

The features are best suited for brands that want to work on Shopify SMS marketing to test and develop a high-converting campaign.

13. Shipway Convert

Shipway is an automated Shopify SMS & WhatsApp marketing solution.

You can run SMS campaigns and messages to inform your customers of the following:

• Account creation notifications
• Order updates
• Order creation notifications
• Cart recovery notifications
• Promotions
• Shipment updates
• Post-purchase messages
• And more.

A unique feature of the app is it allows brands to use custom SMS sender IDs or use their own numbers for WhatsApp messages. The notifying service is customizable—you can also opt for predefined templates with emojis. 

All revenue generated from abandoned cart follow-up and marketing is easy to track for much-needed insight.

The app works in 220 countries and is the best choice if you want to use Shopify SMS marketing to improve your cart recovery rate.

14. Tone SMS Marketing

Tone is another conversational SMS marketing solution that focuses on delivering highly personalized customer experiences throughout the buying process.

The app allows you to run two-way campaigns with customizable messaging using images, GIFs, and emojis. It combines AI with live professional officers to deliver a consistently high cart recovery rate. This is done with a strong focus on understanding the reasons for cart abandonment and then working on resolving them.

The recovery strategies are informed by personalized and human agents to ensure customers do not experience a cold marketing approach.

Tone and all its features are what any brand needs to consistently recover their abandoned carts. With this app, you can easily build on your SMS knowledge from day one!

15. Octane AI Quiz, Messenger, SMS

Octane AI is the go-to app for running email, Facebook, and SMS marketing campaigns on one platform. You can easily capture leads through Facebook ads, pop-up windows, and Messenger opt-ins, including subscriber-only selections of TCPA-compliant lead capture options.

The app has exciting features like product quizzes and customer insights for businesses to base their marketing campaigns on.

If you want to increase your ROI, engage consumers, and collect valuable data at the same time, go for Octane AI.

16. Automizely SMS Marketing

Automizely is another Shopify app with a strict focus on recovering abandoned carts. It is also one of the only apps to only offer SMS marketing solutions.

One of its best features is that it allows brands to decide how quickly they want to target customers about cart recovery with an automated SMS. This is not a type of customization that many businesses pay attention to, but it provides deep insight into SMS campaigns and how to optimize them in practical ways.

Its bestselling feature is that the app ensures clients’ privacy is never compromised.

Unfortunately, Automizely is only available for US-based clients. If you want to target your US consumer base and urge them to recover their abandoned carts, go for Automizely!

17. TxtCart SMS Marketing

TxtCart is the best solution for engaging customers long after clicking away from your store. It uses the power of conversational SMS to re-engage customers’ interests and ultimately drive sales. 

All cart abandoners receive a one-time discount code while they interact in real-time. This leads to in-depth insight into the reasons for abandonment that can help your team create better-converting campaigns and adjust sales strategies in the future. 

TxtCart also supports integrations such as Carthook, Zipify, Klaviyo, PushOwl, reconvert, etc.

The app is excellent for small and medium-sized business owners looking to jumpstart their cart recovery fast.

18. Wigzo

Wigzo is a one-stop solution for marketing automations for e-commerce stores. It provides omnichannel marketing for email, SMS, WhatsApp, Onsite, and Messenger on a single interface.

It integrates with more than 1000 e-commerce stores. You can use it to boost your ROI, customer retention, revenue, conversions, and subscribers.

Some of the best Wigzo features include:

• Customer segmentation
• User-level insights
• Data sync
• Built-in flows
• SMS list building tools

Wigzo is the best single integrated solution if you want to streamline all of your marketing processes and put them all together on one platform.

19. SMS Alerts US & CA

SMS Alerts by Mobikasa is a bulk SMS marketing service for Shopify merchants.

The app provides multiple readymade templates that are also just as easy to customize. You can set message statuses for the following:

• Order confirmation
• Shipment creation
• Shipment updates
• Order cancellation
• And more.

It also immediately notifies store owners about changes in their orders and fulfillment processes on their private phones.

One of the best features of this app is its Intelligent SMS reporting that provides users with all information necessary to create graphical reports of their campaigns. 

SMS Alerts by Mobikasa is best suited for small and mid-sized stores looking to grow their sales consistently over time.

20. ProWebSms SMS Notifications

Formerly known as smshare, ProWebSms is an SMS solution that works with Android, WhatsApp, and any other SMS gateway in the world. It allows businesses to manually and automatically import customers into their dashboards.

ProWebSms goes one step further and segments customers into groups based on checkout date, number of orders, and more. This allows for a more targeted marketing approach.

It provides customized SMS messaging services for:

• Checkout
• Order updates
• Registration
• Payment confirmation
• Shipping updates
• Abandoned carts
• Product review requests

You can use a list of variables from the data available to customize and personalize the messages you send. You can also use it to send alerts to other store owners and their shop admin members.

ProWebSms is the best choice for small and medium-sized businesses all over the globe looking for an affordable SMS solution. They provide a list of gateways they work with and integrate with those not listed. 

You can contact their team for everything you need to know if you want to partner with them.

21. Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS

Klaviyo provides automated email and SMS marketing via its platform that leverages consumer data and interactions to create positive long-term customer relationships.

Klaviyo focuses on creating effective marketing campaigns that help brands drive sales. 

The best part about using Klaviyo is that you can alert customers in real-time on activities such as:

• Price drops
• Shipping updates
• Cart reminders

Klaviyo also allows two-way interactions via fully-customized and automated campaigns. It is best suited for brands that want to understand their customers and keep improving their marketing efforts in the long run.

How Do I Collect SMS on Shopify?

After setting up the app you’ve chosen, you will need to enable SMS collection on your Shopify store checkout. 

Follow these steps to set this up:

• Find the settings button at the bottom left of your sidebar from your Shopify store and click on it
• In your settings tab, find the checkout option and click on it
• Navigate to the SMS marketing box in the Marketing Consent section
• Then, select “Show an option to subscribe at checkout”
• Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page

You can now review your new changes by visiting your checkout page.

Bottom Line

SMS marketing is a powerful tool that brands can leverage to reach customers directly. It boasts a higher conversion rate than many other e-commerce marketing channels.

Integrated with the right tools and strategically planned with the help of AI and live agents, Shopify SMS marketing can churn conversions like never before!

Creating an attractive and functional eCommerce site is just the tip of the iceberg. After filling the database with products and services, you have invested a lot of effort in SEO and various other marketing strategies to attract customers to your site.

They signed up for your newsletter and followed you on social media but never came to your web location to make a purchase. Or they started the purchase process, filled in contact information, and left an abandoned cart. So, you face the problem of many inactive users who need to be “pushed” a little to make a concrete move – a purchase.

eCommerce sales made 13.2% of total sales in 2021, and they’re growing business. The progress in the eCommerce industry implies increasing competition as well. Therefore, keeping your customers engaged is one of the crucial factors determining your business’s success. 

Push notifications are one of the most effective ways to keep your customers close.

Push notifications can help you re-engage inactive customers and transform leads into dedicated clients. 

Regardless of your brand’s niche, push notifications can be the successful call to action you’re looking for. They will motivate users to return to your website and continue where they left off. 

If you’re unsure which type of push notifications are the most suitable for your industry, check with some of the top advertising agencies. They can help you create a personalized digital strategy.

Below we talk about valuable and effective push notifications that will raise traffic and sales on your e-commerce site.

Sales notifications

What is the deciding factor for you when you need to purchase? Of course, finding the right product, but if you are like most customers, at least 80% of them, the price will be the factor that influences your purchasing decision.

Even the brand’s most loyal customers are waiting for discounts and sales to buy an item they like, of course, if they don’t need it instantly.

So, when you decide to make a sale, you want to spread the word about it so that your customers can get what they want at better prices. You can inform customers about the sale by email or through creative posts on social networks. 

However, keep in mind that mail can end up in spam, unopened, and posting on social media can go unnoticed, cluttered with much other content.

The sale is the right time to take advantage of the power of web push notifications. Push notifications will be significant if the deal is limited in time. Customers will surely see push notifications, which will be delivered in real-time, not weeks later. As a result, you’ll increase engagement and overall sales.

Abandoned cart notifications

One of the biggest problems eCommerce sites have to deal with is the abandoned cart. You were probably aware that this phenomenon would happen at the beginning of the business: people fill the cart with the desired goods, fill up contact information, and leave and never return. However, you were not aware that it would happen so often.

Average cart abandonment in all business niches is nearly 70%, and it is highest with mobile users (more than 85%). 

Statistics also say that the revenue eCommerce sites worldwide lose on the abandoned cart is $18 billion a year. The amount of money you lose is also part of this grim statistic, so you need to address the problem as soon as possible!

Fortunately, there is a way to solve the abandoned cart problem.

Several eCommerce platforms allow you to send an automatic email reminder to a customer who has left the cart, but only if he has filled contact form. However, what will you do if the client goes before entering his date or if the email ends up in the spam box?

That is one of the cases when we use push notifications.

When the abandoned cart scenario described above occurs, a web push notification will be sent to the subscribed customer after a predetermined period. You can include a discount in the notification to encourage the customer to complete the purchase process. The process is automatic and will occur every time the subscribed customer acts in this way.

Push notifications will not recover every abandoned chart, but it is estimated that 26% of customers will return to your site and finish what they started.

Wishlist notifications

Wishlists are helpful for customers in many ways, which is why most eCommerce shops include them in the site’s structure. 40% of customers think wish list would improve their shopping experience if retailers had them integrated into their websites.

Customers add products they are interested in but do not intend to buy immediately on the wish list. The wish list serves as a reminder of what the customer liked from your collection or a personalized collection of favorite items they plan to buy.

The wishlist creates a better user experience, can reduce the problem of the abandoned cart, and increase sales by encouraging consumers to complete the buying process.

Use push notifications to remind your customers that they have left things on their wish list. Since they have already shown interest in these products, an additional boost, such as a slight discount, will cause re-engagement and increase the chances of conversion.

Personalized recommendation notifications

Many tools can help you get to know your customers’ online behavior. Some are Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Matomo (formerly Piwik), Clicky, Fathom, and others. These tools will provide you with valuable insights. You will find out more about your customer’s deciding factors while purchasing.

It is up to you to use that knowledge in the right way. How? Based on consumer behavior on your site, create push notifications with personalized product recommendations that they have shown interest in.

Web push notifications collect essential data for you – the client’s geolocation, time of visit, purchased items, and items on the watch list. Based on these important metrics, you will easily create a personalized campaign that will end with a purchase.

91% of customers are more likely to buy from a brand that sends personalized recommendations. They also increase the initially planned purchase by up to 5%.

Personalized recommendations create the impression that you understand your customer’s needs, provide them with genuine value, and save their time and trouble to find the right products on their own. At the same time, you should not neglect the psychological factor. 

When the customer receives a suitable personalized recommendation, he will feel that you respect his individuality and know him.

Refer and reward notifications

The refer and reward program is a powerful way to increase the overall engagement of your customers and increase sales. It is no secret that people trust the recommendations from close people – friends and family. 

To encourage your loyal customers to recommend your business, reward them for their loyalty.

Let’s see some stats. Mouth-to-mouth marketing drives $6 trillion in annual sales, representing 13% of all sales. It is five times more effective than paid ads. 

Studies show that as many as 70% of customers will recommend a brand that has a good loyalty program. 90% of people who receive brand recommendations from a friend will make a purchase.

Depending on the niche of your brand and the products you offer, create an attractive loyalty program and then promote it through persistent web push notifications.

Go the extra mile and provide your current clients with the best user experience and benefits that will delight them. Existing customers’ benefits can be previews of new collections they will be privileged to buy first, discount codes, or free shipping.

Customers who are happy with how you treat them will be your brand’s best advocates. This way, you will save on other types of advertising, gain more new customers, and increase sales.

Notifications for inactive users

Suppose your customers have not visited your website in the last ten days; that doesn’t necessarily mean they are unsatisfied with your service. They might forget or have been distracted. All you have to do is to remind them gently but be moderate – if your campaign is aggressive or boring, you’ll cause a contra-effect.

Emails are sometimes overwhelming since the average person gets at least 50 emails daily. Push notifications can be a discreet but effective way to “remind” users who haven’t visited your site for more than ten days or two weeks. 

After a predefined period, a web notification can remind the user of your eCommerce website once a week. You will achieve additional efficiency if you add a discount code or other benefit to the notification.

Suppose the user clicks on the notification and goes to your site. In that case, they will automatically be removed from the notification list until 10 or 14 days, during which they will be inactive again.

Location-based notifications

Location-based notifications are a type of push notification sent to users when they are in close physical proximity to the location where they can purchase your product or service.

Many eCommerce sites are reluctant to send mobile push notifications because they are afraid they will be intrusive and achieve a counter-effect. However, research has shown that as many as 70% of mobile device users find such notifications useful. Successful location-based notifications are a personalized approach, relevance, and good timing.

Final words

We have reviewed the most valuable types of push notifications to increase engagement and sales on your eCommerce website. 

The key lies in providing a personalized approach and helpful information, which, accompanied by discounts, will positively impact your business and bring satisfaction to your customers.

Author bio

Melissa Gray is a freelance writer and an organizational psychologist. Her focus is primarily on marketing and new digital trends across the world. She is also a passionate gamer, with special interest in narrative design. She writes for Digital Strategy One.