Crafting custom shopping experiences on your Shopify site could be one of the best ways to expand your profits and boost customer retention. Research indicates that 70% of customers prefer businesses that provide tailored buying experiences over those that do not.
McKinsey reports that approximately 71% of customers expect each interaction with companies to be tailored specifically to them; unfortunately, many online retailers do not deliver this level of personalized experience.
When communicating with your customers remotely, implementing personalized shopping experiences may seem impossible, but Shopify makes personalization strategies easy! You can take your personalization strategies further by employing various tools.
E-commerce personalization has quickly become one of the most effective retention strategies businesses use today, yet few understand its meaning in marketing or how brands can follow this trend to satisfy customer requirements and boost sales.
This guide outlines the most vital steps for Shopify app development Australia in Australia.
Overview: Creating with a Shopify Store in Australia
The Australian eCommerce sector is full of potential. However, building a successful eCommerce store can be a daunting task. However, making it successful within the Australian eCommerce marketplace is achievable through careful adhering to the strategic steps and swift decision-making.
According to data from 2019, the Australian eCommerce sector already had an incredible income of 32 billion dollars, an increase of 20.8 percent. Australia has risen to the rank of the 10th biggest eCommerce market in the world in terms of revenue.
Then, in 2021, the growth rate increased to a staggering 8.9 percent, taking the total to $33.1 billion. In April 2020, online shopping saw an impressive growth of 6.8 percent compared to the end of the year.
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These numbers might be daunting, but they illustrate an obvious pattern: Australian eCommerce is growing. If you're thinking of establishing a Shopify eCommerce store in Australia, continue reading because we've put together an extensive guide that covers the essentials you'll need to know about starting the process of establishing your Shopify eCommerce venture in the Australian market.
What Is Shopify?
In technical terms, Shopify is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales platform. Shopify provides four store subscription plans, with costs starting at $29 a month. All plans come with an online store with a brand name and an array of online and in-person selling tools.
Shopify also has a "Lite" plan that costs just $9 per month. It doesn't come with an online store, but it does support mobile sales at POS and the Buy Button to sell on other blogs and websites and via email.
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Each plan comes with a complete range of business management tools. The essentials, like selling, sourcing single products, monitoring inventories, payments processing customer accounts, shipping marketing, and reports, are all included in each Shopify plan. Additionally, you can extend your Shopify toolkit with the help of hundreds of Shopify Apps.
Why is the Shopping Experience Important?
A retailer's ability to offer an enjoyable shopping experience for its customers is an important factor in the performance of its business, whether it's an online store or a brick-and-mortar store. A PwC study revealed that 73% of customers consider the customer experience a major aspect of their buying choices. The same study also found that three out of three shoppers would leave a brand following just one negative experience.
Good shopping experiences help keep customers returning and boost their loyalty, which is extremely valuable because getting an additional customer is generally more expensive than retention costs. Counting on loyal customers will help you earn the trust of future customers by generating positive reviews and recommendations from friends and family. When shopping online or in-store, three primary factors affect the shopping experience of a consumer:
Environment
The atmosphere where a consumer shops can significantly influence the shopping experience. Brick-and-mortar stores should pay close attention to their store's design and atmosphere. An organized and well-planned store can ease customer complaints and manage the flow of circulation.
Brick-and-mortar store owners can also enhance shoppers' in-store experiences with music, scents, lighting, and other visual elements that enhance and reinforce the brand's image. Inspire customers to attend your establishment by offering extra services such as tailoring, monogramming, gift wrapping classes in-store and at events, and complimentary drinks. The environment is also an essential factor in the world of digital. Your eCommerce site must look appealing and be easy to navigate.
Customer Service
Customer service is a major factor in the shopping experience and directly impacts customer satisfaction, loyalty, and perception of a brand's business.
In brick-and-mortar stores, welcoming and knowledgeable staff create a warm atmosphere by offering advice in the form of suggestions and prompt assistance. Speedy problem resolution and a personalized approach to interaction with customers in person enhance the experience, creating trust and a strong emotion-based connection between the client and the brand.
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Customer service on the internet is just as crucial. The ability to provide prompt support, whether via live chat email, or even social media, must address the customer's concerns quickly.
Convenience
Accessibility to information is a major factor when making purchases. A PwC survey revealed that 43% of consumers are prepared to spend more for greater convenience.
The convenience of shopping in stores begins with a physical store. Online shopping is more convenient than ever before, which means that consumers are less likely to go out of their way to get to your shop. Pick a location for your store that is easy to access and a popular destination for pedestrian traffic.
When you've got shoppers through the door, ensure that your store is well-stocked and well-organized so that customers can find what they're looking for quickly. Facilities such as sitting areas, clean restrooms, carts, shopping baskets, or fitting rooms (for clothes stores) will also help customers feel more at ease. Additionally, the checkout process should be improved so customers don't have to wait long to buy items.
Although online retailers allow shoppers to buy from anywhere, the disadvantage of online stores is that shoppers can't look and feel or test a single product. Help customers feel more confident in their purchases by providing complete single-product descriptions, high-quality photos, and customer reviews. Also, you can offer quick and affordable delivery (with the ability to track it) and provide a simple, clear return process with clearly defined instructions and a straightforward refund policy.
Also Read: Why Your Ecommerce Needs a Shopify Development Store
Benefits of Personalized Shopping Experiences for Businesses
Personalization makes the difference in customers opting for your brand instead of shopping elsewhere. The main benefit of personalization services offered by Shopify development company Australia is the fact that it decreases friction. Customers are more likely to find the information they're seeking if your personalization algorithm predicts their customers' search intent.
Better Conversions
Personalization can increase the chance of a sale since you're helping your clients cut through the clutter and discover the information they're seeking. A customized homepage will have an incredibly low bounce rate because the content is designed by the customer's IP address, making sure that the currency, language, and shipping prices are in line with the place of purchase.
If a customer is still determining what they're looking to buy or is just window shopping, it can entice the desire to buy by providing suggestions for single products that match their browsing preferences. Individualized recommendations guide customers from being aware to making repeat purchases. It is also possible to set up triggers to stop cart abandonment to gain back customers. Time-bound special offers create urgency.
Increased Customer Loyalty
The most effective loyalty programs provide specific rewards instead of generic point redemption. For example, clients who are interested in a particular single product category should receive rewards related to that product category.
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Customers should also be recognized with higher levels of loyalty (e.g., an amount of purchases repeated within 60 days or an order worth an amount). Referral programs offer rewards to customers proportionate to the number of successful referrals, increasing retention and engagement.
Enhanced Customer Experience
The curated product recommendations, promotions, and discounts assist customers in narrowing their options. More than 40% of users have quit a site because they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices.
If you provide a broad range of services catering to various groups, you need to ensure your website lets visitors browse content and get curated suggestions.
Competitive Advantage
The competition among e-commerce companies is fierce, with a number of them focusing on pricing. With a personalized buying experience for customers, you can offer your customers targeted promotions when they've purchased intentions.
Greater understanding of your customers
First-party data (data collected by the company) can provide information about customers' preferences, buying habits, and reasons for purchasing. These insights can be used to optimize personalization strategies and decide which product lines to improve or eliminate.
Increase in Website Traffic
If you design your site to appeal to your customers' interests, they'll naturally desire to spend more time there and will return to it more frequently.
As per Harry Roth, a former successful manager at Dynamic Yield, if your website is customized so that it displays items that are appealing to the eyes of your visitors without having to search across pages or pages of your site, the traffic on your website will not just increase; however, the conversion rate will also rise 10 times over.
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Furthermore, the increased engagement on your site will help you save money on marketing, which other companies use for advertisements to boost engagement.
Increase in Average Order Size
The ability to provide personal information to your customers will increase the likelihood of them engaging with shopping and making purchases each time they visit your site. You might be wondering what can make this happen!
Increase Repeat Purchases
By implementing a personal approach, you demonstrate to clients that you actively listen to their requirements and aim to improve their lives.
A variety of studies have demonstrated that personalization affects customer loyalty and retention. Loyal customers will be loyal to your brand and make frequent purchases.
Why Choose Shopify for Your eCommerce Business in Australia?
As mentioned earlier, the e-commerce business is growing in Australia. Demand for hire Shopify Developers Australia is an on-rise choice for companies that wish to provide an easy and effective experience with design, development, and management.
Shopify is easier to set up, making service and product sales more effective. Numerous companies have leveraged Shopify's potential to build a premium online presence.
If you're trying to make the most of this opportunity, now is the ideal time to begin your eCommerce business in Australia using Shopify. In addition, Shopify stores can be customized with extensions, plug-ins, and app integrations, giving you the flexibility and ability to scale.
Tips to Design Custom Shopping Experiences with Shopify from Australia
Enhancing your customers' shopping experience will build trust and help your business expand. If you're not dealing with your customers in person, providing customers shopping experiences with a "personal touch" can be complicated. You can employ many tools to work with Shopify to kick your personalization strategies to the next level. Let's take a look at a few of the possibilities.
Right Choice for Product Quizzes
While some customers may go to your Shopify site with a concept of what they want to purchase, some customers require assistance finding the best solution. If your customers visited your shop "in person," they could consult a salesperson for advice on how to find the perfect product.
Although this isn't an option for customers on your Shopify site, it doesn't mean that you cannot offer assistance. With tools such as Lantern's Product Quiz Builder and the Quizell AI form maker, you can address specific questions regarding customers' needs for the product and its goals.
AI solutions provide recommendations in response to your customers' answers to these questions, assisting in steering them towards the best solution. This is the best method of providing your customers with a guided experience without the expense of hiring more personnel.
Intelligent Product Detail Page Recommendations
One of the most effective ways to boost conversions on the pages of your Shopify shop is to recommend relevant products to your customers while they've already visited your pages for products. Solutions such as the "people also viewed" section on a product's page can make a big difference in the average value of your orders.
The most crucial factor to success is ensuring that your product recommendations fit your customer's behavior. Although you can suggest appropriate "associated" products, you can increase the value of your recommendations by constantly altering them based on what your customers have seen on your site.
Customers Can Personalize their Products
Whatever market you are targeting through your Shopify business, it's difficult to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack. Many companies sell similar products on the internet, which means that you must invest heavily in branding and marketing to keep customers engaged and loyal.
But you can gain an advantage over your competitors by offering something consumers can't purchase elsewhere—personalization. Print on Demand applications such as Printify and Printful Companies can offer customers various options to personalize their product offerings.
Customers can select from various designs and colors for their items or even let customers include their names and images in the mix.
UGC That Includes Smart Reviews
Testimonials and reviews are a great source of social evidence. They can help validate the worth of your products by providing insights from actual customers. Incorporating any type of review into your Shopify website can help increase conversions and improve confidence in your business.
But you could also take it to the next level by using a "smart reviews" app that customizes the content the customer is exposed to according to their specific needs. For example, Sephora uses this tactic to let customers filter reviews to display the reviews of customers with similar physical traits or issues with their appearance.
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Tools like Yotpo review sites can boost your reviews by providing more details about each customer and numerous filtering options. In addition, the service integrates with Yotpo's loyalty and SMS marketing applications, offering more options to boost conversions.
Leverage Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) is fast becoming a popular tool for creating individual and real experiences for shopping.
The ideal AR application can let customers experience what a particular makeup and beauty product would look like on their own faces, test hair colors, or even play around with what furniture would look like in their homes. Before, constructing an AR application on your own would have been a long and costly procedure. Nowadays, Shopify makes it easy for anyone to begin.
Retarget Customers in Session using Behavioral Triggers
It isn't easy to inspire customers to purchase something when they first visit your Shopify website. Research has shown that as high as 92% of first-time visitors to a brand's website don't purchase something. This is the reason retargeting is an essential method for business managers. It provides them with another opportunity to sell. However, off-site retargeting could be costly and difficult to understand.
You could sometimes obtain similar results by retargeting visitors who have already visited your site. This is done by timing or activating pop-up ads to coincide with your visitors' behavior. It is possible to trigger pop-ups on your website based on the value of your shopping cart or browsing habits, the number of pages viewed, and much more.
Personalize Automated Marketing Messages
If a customer who visits your site shares their email address or telephone contact number with you, this provides you with another opportunity to connect with and convert customers. Creating various automated marketing campaigns via SMS or email will keep your brand in the minds of your customers and improve conversion rates.
However, even if messages you send are sent automatically (when your customer performs the required step), it is important to include personalization aspects. Utilize email marketing tools such as Klaviyo as well as Omnisend to personalize your product offerings:
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Absent Cart Messages: Make use of abandoned messages from your cart to inform customers of the items they've seen and pondered buying from your store. Be sure they can add the item to their carts if they wish to purchase.
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Re-engagement Messages: If a customer hasn't bought anything from you for some time, send them an "we miss you" message that highlights the products they've purchased before. This will help them remember the benefits they've received from your company already.
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Order Confirmation: Messages confirming orders are among the most crucial transactional messages to send. Don't just thank customers for purchasing something. Make them aware of the items they bought by sending a photo and a personalized note.
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Personalize the Returns Experience
In the ideal world, your customers would never have to return something for a refund to your Shopify store. But there's a fact that returns happen regardless of how good your products or solutions may be. The best way to make sure your return does not cost your customers' loyalty. Clients are by making the return experience as easy and seamless as you can.
Apps such as the Loop Returns & Exchanges plug-in for Shopify integrate logistics and workflow features to automate and improve the return process. Additionally, they reduce the chance of refunds by providing customers with credits for purchases and immediate exchanges.
Additionally, these apps collect data about your clients and their returns, allowing you to better understand the buyer's journey and lower the likelihood of returning customers in the near future.
Instant Search
A lot of people visit websites with a specific item in their minds. If your site does not have a search function, customers are more likely to spend time looking at and leaving your website during the search. It was discovered that conversion rates for sites with search functionality are typically 4 to 5 times higher than the average conversion rates of the website, even with an inadequate search experience.
Create an instant search for your Shopify store using the Search Filter Recommendations. With this Shopify application, your customers can quickly find specific items by using the appropriate keywords.
Furthermore, the application can also auto-suggest. For instance, when you're a fashion company, and your customers are a particular type of keywords, they are presented with suggested keywords such as socks or shirts, smocks, and so on. They can simply click on the word they want to search for and view related products quickly.
By integrating search functions for your collections, products, and pages, customers can enjoy a quicker and more reliable experience at your site without having to search through several pages or products to find what they're looking for.
Wishlist
Most shoppers’ wishlist items they want to look at and buy at an upcoming date. By creating a wishlist, you'll allow customers to organize items they're planning to purchase, making it easier for them to access the items later and purchase them quickly.
Install Flits to let shoppers add items to their wishlists. With this app, customers can add items to their wish lists directly from your catalog of products. Furthermore, they can view their wishlist in their personal customer account and then make purchases directly through their wishlist.
Live Chat
Shoppers have many specific questions that an FAQ section won't manage. They might require assistance in sizing, color, or styling, among other things. These kinds of custom questions require an approach specifically designed for the purpose.
Live chat comes in. Install live chat on your Shopify store using the Tidio Live Chat. With the live chat feature, your customers will be able to answer their questions immediately and complete their purchases without hesitation.
Product Labels
When browsing your online store, shoppers do not have visual clues to guide them through your inventory logically. Adding personalized labels to your products will help you direct customers to items that merit interest.
Labels for your products can be added using ModeMagic. ModeMagic is a Shopify application that lets you create labels for your products to meet different requirements, like limited editions, recently viewed items, or low stock. These labels will ensure that the customer receives a personalized experience in the Shopify store.
The Key Takeaway
Personalizing shopping experiences for your customers is among the most effective methods of giving your company an advantage in the online marketplace. Personalization at a high level allows you to provide distinctive experiences for your customers, which will increase their loyalty to your business. Additionally, creating personal experiences for your store isn't as complicated as it appears. The Shopify app marketplace is packed with options to enhance your customers' buying experience.
If you require assistance making a personalized shopping experience for your clients, setting up the appropriate Shopify applications, or designing an optimized online store for conversions, contact JPLoft, the best Shopify development company in Australia now.
