You started an online store on Shopify. You marketed your brand right, created an audience for it and scaled your business. So now you’ve taken the plunge and joined Shopify Plus. Well, congratulations!
You’re ready for the next stage of your business with the world’s most robust, scalable and agile eCommerce platform.
But just as on Shopify, being on Shopify Plus doesn’t give you an edge. You need to go above and beyond to turn your online store’s shopping experience into something so impeccable that every visitor feels your ‘growth’, wants to be a part of your brand’s journey and feels like making a purchase.
So how do you ensure you’re delivering a brand customer experience that no one forgets on your Shopify Plus store?
Shopify Plus store must-haves for a great shopping experience
1. A dedicated customized Shopify customer account page
As your brand advances and the pricing of your products changes, the buyers landing on your store will have bigger expectations out of the experience you offer. One of the primary ones being a comparison to what the industry giant, Amazon, has to offer – a customer account page.
A customer account page essentially gives the buyer an option to build out their profile with details such as their age, location and more. But alongside it, it also lets them save products they like into wishlists, easily view their recently viewed products, keep track of their orders, make reorders and the best of it all? Save multiple delivery addresses that makes it easier for them to proceed to checkout and complete a purchase.
To see what a Shopify Plus customer account page with Flits looks like, you can book a demo here.
With an app like Flits, you can set up a customized customer account page on your Shopify Plus store in minutes. With readymade templates – UNO and DUO, that can be further customized on request, we enable you to create an experience that is equivalent to that of Amazon’s on your Shopify Plus store, with powerful features like:
- Social login
- Customer profile page
- Order history
- Reorders
- Recently viewed products
- Multi-language Shopify customer accounts
- Store credits
- Wish lists
Note: Some of these are paid add-ons. Further customization of the templates may require help from our customer support team. You can get more details here.
2. A seamless way to search and navigate through products
When you start small, a shopper visiting your store may feel comfortable sifting through the handful of pages you have to look for the product they want to purchase.
But as your catalog increases and the number of pages on your Shopify store increase, you need to offer them a simpler way to search for things. Not just that, you need to also ensure it is easy for them to filter the search results and reach the product they want to purchase.
So instead of the default search functionality your Shopify store had, your Shopify Plus store needs to include the following:
- Auto-correct search results
- Auto-suggest search terms
- Synonym search
- Typo-tolerance and spellcheck
- ‘Did you mean’ suggestions
- Results in products, collections and categories pages
- Real-time product recommendations based on search
- Product previews and live prices
- In-stock status and product ratings
- No empty search results page (if no product, you should lead them to relevant content)
And to make it easier to sift through the search results you need to offer:
- Unlimited product filters
- Smart navigation through collections
- Product labels
- Quick-view and add to cart buttons
3. A mobile-optimized experience for shopping
Today, more than 60% of internet users make their purchases online using mobile devices. This isn’t necessarily a smartphone. They’re sometimes making use of their tablets and iPads too. As a Shopify Plus store, you’re now projecting a brand that is more prepared to invite shoppers from across the board (in this case, devices).
A mature brand (and hence a store) needs to be prepared to offer a seamless experience to all its shoppers. That’s why Shopify Plus stores need to take a mobile-first approach to optimizing their website.
Based on how you plan to scale your business, there are a few options you can opt for:
- Choose a 100% responsive design – When picking a template or working with a designer, ensure that every element being used is responsive. Ensure that the functionalities being offered on every page are the same across all devices and the viewability is not compromised.
- Set up a PWA (progressive web app) – Give your mobile shoppers the experience of shopping on a mobile app with the help of a PWA that simply creates the native experience on the mobile browser.
- Create a native mobile app – If you see a majority of your shoppers coming from mobile, it’s a good idea to invest in building a native mobile app for Android and iOS devices with the help of a Shopify expert. This might take more time both in terms of resources and time, so ensure your decision is data-backed.
4. A personalized on-site shopping experience with recommendations
With most of our purchases moving online, our expectations as consumers are increasing by the day. We want to be able to explore products just as we would in a brick and mortar store. The equivalent to being able to see all the similar products in one showcase/ store rack – product recommendations.
A Shopify Plus store must display personalized product recommendations that dynamically change as the visitor browses through pages, exploring different products and collections. The widget should be able to learn from the on-site behavior, recommending similar, complementing and even frequently bought items to the shopper.
This helps the visitor explore more products by spending more time, easily navigating across your Shopify Plus store. It also gives you the opportunity to upsell and cross-sell products, increasing your average order value drastically.
5. A live chat to help address consumer concerns
With the lack of human touch and interaction available now, consumers crave a real connection when interacting with brands. A study by Harvard Business Review found that more than 40% of online shoppers want to interact with the human behind the brand as they tend to suffer from pre-purchase anxiety.
The same study also found that a lot of these shoppers experience post-purchase anxiety, which leads to an overall drop in the customer experience your Shopify Plus store wants to be able to offer.
This is where your live chat comes in to address queries and concerns as they come. To be able to address consumer anxiety, you should:
- Be readily available on your live chat with a quick turnaround time
- Make FAQs easily visible and accessible for all products
- Readily have links to return/ exchange/ refund/ shipping policies
- Readily have links available to other information regarding orders
- Have chatbot automation in place to address common questions
- Have the ability to step in and have a real conversation
6. An interactive and intuitive product page
You moved to Shopify Plus to be able to offer your shoppers a better online shopping experience. But as your brand grows, your regular product pages no longer cut it – that’s something everyone is doing; even those who are running the store on Shopify.
How do you make shopping more intuitive for visitors? Well, with technology advancements and the availability of Shopify apps, you can extend the functionalities of your product page to include:
- 3D models of product images that add depth to your pages
- Videos to give shoppers a comprehensive view of the product and how-tos
- Virtual try-ons of the product to let them experience items before purchasing them
- Product customization abilities (based on what you sell)
- Ability to switch between product variants (colors, sizes, etc)
7. A value-add Shopify Plus loyalty program
What’s the one thing that keeps the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci at the top of the fashion and apparel industry, despite the endless competition?
The loyalty their customers have towards the brand.
But to build this loyalty, you need to have the ability to offer value to your shoppers for every time they choose to make an interaction with you – no matter how big or small.
This is why the one more feature that your Shopify Plus store definitely needs to offer to its shoppers and customers, is a value-add loyalty program.
With the Flits app, once you have the customer account page set up, you can actually add-on Store Credits. This lets you create a loyalty program that offers your customers in-store, convertible store credits for actions like making a purchase, reordering a product, signing up for a newsletter, adding product reviews, inviting friends and family to your store, subscribing to your newsletter or even giving them a little something on their birthdays.
Brands like The Man Company have in fact implemented loyalty programs with store credits that gamify the experience to keep customers engaged. And at the same time, make them feel valued and privileged.
They have created levels of loyalty, based on which the store credits that can be earned, vary. This has helped the Shopify Plus brand not just enhance the customer experience but also boost their retention rate.
You can read the complete case study here.
Is your Shopify Plus store really ready to rock and roll?
Moving to Shopify Plus is a big step for every online business. This goes to say that you’re also looking at offering a better experience to your buyers as you scale online.
When we browsed through some of the industry-leading brands on Shopify Plus, we found the above features in common. Of course, tailored to the type of products they were selling and the audience they were catering to.
Based on who your target audience is, their expectations, and their aspirational brands, learn what they want to see on your Shopify Plus store. A good way to go about it is to request customer feedback frequently and implement or customize your on-site experience accordingly.
Ready to take the first step to offer a great shopping experience to your Shopify Plus store visitors?
Get the Flits app to enable Amazon-like customer account pages today!
