Shopify is the ecommerce platform of choice for most brands these days. In researching which brands are using the platform, I was surprised to find enterprise level retail organizations alongside smaller shops like my favorite women-owned Posh Candle Company (I recommend the scents “Do Nothing & Chill” and “Black Girl Magic”).
Global retail ecommerce sales are set to hit $4.9T (yes, trillion) in 2021 and with the boom of online shopping as a result of the pandemic, the growth will continue to be explosive and exponential.
What makes for a great Shopify ecommerce experience?
We’ve reviewed some of the ways that brands can deliver a great ecommerce experience, like providing detailed, timely order tracking updates and offering an easy-to-search product catalog, but how can you distinguish yourself on Shopify?
Here are some Shopify ecomm features and solutions that contribute to an improved online shopping experience for your customers. Some are considered baseline best practice and others are more advanced, so brands just starting out— save those for after you have the basics down.
Ecommerce Features on Shopify that Improve Customer Experience
- Well-designed website themes
- Customized online store
- Blog with helpful tips on using your product
- Multiple payment methods - Shopify offers over 100 different methods from PayPal to credit cards and more
- Free shipping
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Customer profiles/user accounts
- Refunds (highly recommend Loop btw)
- Multiple product images
- Product reports/analytics
- Loyalty programs
- Product quizzes
So, which brands are using Shopify’s features to deliver an amazing ecommerce experience for their customers? Here are some examples with a look into what makes them stand out and keeps customers coming back.
Posh offers shoppers a loyalty program, “Posh Candle Coins” and allows users to create an account. They also feature a blog on their website and a COVID-19 page to keep customers in the loop on any shipping updates/delays caused by supply chain problems associated with COVID-19 (or...really big boats…).
Rebecca Minkoff, a luxury clothing brand, seamlessly includes calls-to-action (CTAs) within their product listing pages. Their clean design and “quick shop” tabs make the shopping experience easier for customers.
Outdoor Voices features a video right off the bat, which helps their active customers see how their clothing moves! Also it made me really want to buy this stretchy, comfy activewear dress. (Stay tuned for a future post on my experience shopping with them for the first time, because I’m hooked.)
Hasbro’s new consumer-facing shop, Hasbro Pulse, has two sites, one for the US and one for the UK. They’ve created a blog, “Unboxed” where they do deep dives of unboxing products, include fan features, and incorporate products right into blog posts.
Bombas, who offer a really great pair of socks, is committed to giving back. They feature their donation program “1 purchased, 1 donated” with information about why and how they created this program. By giving customers insights into your brand, you’ll improve their retail experience by making connections and giving them a shop with a purpose to support.
Allbirds uses their Shopify site to show customers how the sausage gets made, or in this case, the super soft, woolly shoes. They include a section for conscious shoppers to review their source materials, how their products are made, and the impact on the environment using videos and text.
Taylor Swift needed her own platform to sell merch, and having had issues in the past with ownership and rights, she created her own store on Shopify. With the ability to purchase her music as a digital single, she can control the purchasing process for her music and give her fans exclusive access to content.
Popular bedding company Brooklinen (a household name if your household listens to certain podcasts who are sponsored by them, like mine!) offers a super user-friendly brand experience on their ecomm website. By including their interactive product quiz, Brooklinen’s website gives users a personalized product recommendation.
Brooklinen also features their 80,000+ 5 star reviews for customers to learn from their peers and help answer really specific questions like (What do these sheets smell like? Do they make you hot at night?) Shoutout to the reviewers around the world — you guys are the real MVPs. Can’t count the number of times I’ve been super excited to find someone with my same profile who has reviewed a product online.
Bulletproof is a coffee company with a cult following, and with a cult following comes serious loyalty that brands are always searching for. They offer a user-friendly subscription service with discounts, so customers will never go a day without their Bulletproof cup o’ joe.
Princess Polly caters to Millennial and Gen Z shoppers by including “Shop TikTok” and an “Instashop.” Shoppers can view products in various content formats, seeing how they look in motion and on different users, a fun way to display products!
To find new ideas to connect with customers and improve your ecommerce shopping experience, ask your audience what they want. You can use these ideas as a jumping off point, then run with what resonates with your shoppers. Maybe your customers love product reviews - show them off proudly on your homepage. Or maybe users like to see a video of each product, or products shown on several different models.
By using Shopify for all the features it has to offer, your customers will become brand loyalists or even brand ambassadors. With preferences for ecommerce shopping processes varying by age, region, and other demographics, use surveys and website data to direct your next ecommerce experiment.