Potential customers consider a lot of factors before making a purchase, from the visual appeal of a product to its cost to your store’s shipping speed and fees. And if they’ve never purchased from you before, they probably also read reviews — both about you and the item they’re considering.

According to a customer service survey sponsored by Zendesk, 88% of shoppers in the United States make their purchasing decision based, in part, on reviews:

Both positive and negative reviews can help someone make a decision, with positive feedback making a slightly bigger dent (90% vs 86%).

What does this mean for you? Something big: reviews can make a serious impact on your sales. The more you have, the better a shopper can evaluate a product. And better evaluations mean more purchases and less returns.

Collecting feedback is crucial for your WooCommerce store, and there are some optimal ways to do it. And once you have reviews aplenty, there are some amazing ways to use them, some of which go well beyond the product page.

Let’s take a look at some best practices for collecting and using your reviews with WooCommerce, whether you’re new to selling online or an eCommerce expert.

Continue Reading

Your store would be nowhere without your customers. They determine which products sell, how much money you make, and how successful you’ll ultimately become.

If you want your store to be more successful — and to make more money — you should start thinking about building relationships. Creating and nurturing long-lasting relationships can lead to higher sales, better shopper satisfaction, and the acquisition of even more loyal customers.

Let’s take a look at a few ways you can start building solid customer relationships. We’ll also explain the ways these connections will benefit you in the long term, even if you sell products shoppers will only buy once and hopefully never purchase again.

Continue Reading

After you build your store and open it up to customers, your focus will shift to from generating sales to generating loyalty — and with good reason. As we explained previously, if you can get a customer to come back for a second purchase, the chances of them sticking with your store will dramatically increase.

There are a ton of ways you can make shoppers loyal to one brand over another. Pricing is one angle you can take. An amazing customer support policy is another. But loyalty doesn’t have to rely on cheap prices or friendly emails.

Occasional treats, payment flexibility, and friendly, open communication can turn your newest customers into lifetime ones. And with a few specific WooCommerce extensions, you can add these loyalty-boosters to your store in a flash — no custom code or development needed.

Let’s take a look at seven extensions that you can start using today to boost the loyalty of your shoppers.

Continue Reading

So you’ve put in time, effort, and hard work to bring new customers to your store. The next checkbox on your to-do list? Bringing those customers back again.

A study on eCommerce buying behavior by RJMetrics found that about 32% of first-time customers came back for a second purchase. That might not seem like much, but listen to this: the customers who did make those second purchases became more likely to return for a third, then a fourth, and so on, on an incremental scale:

Bring a customer back just once and you’re more likely to count them among your most loyal shoppers. But how do you even begin to establish that kind of “I’ll only shop with you” loyalty, anyway?

One of the best ways you can create longtime loyalty is with smart pricing strategies. We aren’t talking about offering coupons nonstop — we’re talking about rewarding shoppers for consistently choosing your store, or offering discounts they can’t find anywhere else.

Let’s explore a few strategies you can try to bring those first-time shoppers back again and again.

Continue Reading

Amazon, Wal-mart, and Target aren’t just popular retailers — their websites also serve as resources. Thousands of people flock to these sites daily to research products by way of customer reviews. Many big stores like these are used as search sources when others don’t include enough information for shoppers to make an educated decision.

Product reviews are an essential part of an online store’s branding and marketing. They help build trust and loyalty, and typically describe what sets your products apart from others.

Today we’re going to learn how reviews help your store increase sales, and how you can convince customers to leave more of them. Read on to get started.

Continue Reading

Quite a few factors go into a shopper’s decision to buy one of your products. They’ll want to know if it meets their needs, they’ll check to see if it’s reasonably priced, they’ll take a look at reviews… you get the idea.

For some products, potential customers consider much more than needs, price, and social proof. They also look for things like ease of assembly, long-term usability, and creative potential.

How can you convey these factors to shoppers? Sure, you could add more details to your copywriting or bullet points. But sometimes the best way to show what your products are capable of is by adding helpful, explanatory resources that can be viewed or downloaded.

Today, we’re going to show you how to create product resources that will make your visitors more motivated to buy from you. Interested? Let’s get started.

Continue Reading

Social proof is an undeniably powerful thing. Tell a customer your product is great and they might shrug their shoulders. But show them feedback from fifty existing customers who say it’s great in their own words and, well, you’re golden.

Yet for many stores, the well of proof runs dry after just a few short dips of the proverbial bucket. What can you tap into if you only have a few reviews or testimonials? What if you don’t have a social media following to fall back on?

Here’s a little secret we’ll share with you: social proof is everywhere on your store, and in more places than you might think. It’s easy to go beyond the basics of reviews and Facebook likes to prove that your store is well worth a new shopper’s time… if you just know where to look.

Today, we’ll show you how to tap into some hidden social proof to convince more potential customers to buy your products. But first, let’s review why this is all worth doing in the first place.

Continue Reading

Since the beginning of time, rituals have been a part of how we live and make sense of the world. They help us remember important happenings, we know where we are in the calendar by them, and like little compasses they guide us. There is comfort to be found in the familiar.

In older days, rituals were prompted by things like the seasons, local happenings, the rhythms of your neighborhood and your family. But the rituals that make up our modern lives are different: they’re quicker, global, automated and often influenced by the products, services or apps we choose.

Brands have been part of our lives for decades, but never to the extent that the internet and smartphones have allowed. It is now near impossible to escape brand messaging. Some moments with brands we begrudge, some we love, some we barely notice.

What does all this mean for your online store? There are a string of moments that make up a customer’s journey, and paying closer attention to these can do great things for your brand. And if you can create a ritual out of one or two? Bingo.

In this post we’ll look at four ways you can both identify existing rituals in your customer journey and create new ones, and why it’s all worth it. But first, a bit of background on how social media has changed brand-building, and a case study of a brand knocking the customization and ritualizing of their customer’s journey out of the park.

Continue Reading

Customers form an impression of your brand almost immediately. From the first few seconds they spend on your storefront, they can discern what kind of tone your copywriting has, the kinds of products you carry, and whether or not they are part of your target audience.

You’ve likely spent a very long time creating and refining your store’s branding and messaging until it’s pitch-perfect. So it almost seems a waste to throw it all away when you get to the email receipt:

If your order confirmation and shipment messages look like this, some customers might think you don’t care about their experience once you have their money.

Email receipts have enormous earning potential for your eCommerce website. With just a little customization, you can use these emails to increase your sales, create deeper connections with your customers, and offer helpful links along the course of their journey.

Read on to learn about a few ways you should customize your WooCommerce email receipts, and to see a few tools that will help you get the job done right.

Continue Reading