
Shopify is a brilliant ecommerce platform that makes it easy to get your store online.
But setting up your store is only the first step. You need customers.
So, how do you start generating more sales, or even your first sale?
We asked 22 Shopify store founders and marketing experts to share their best tips for getting more Shopify sales in 2021.
We’ve broken out the top 20 tactics, but you can read the individual responses at the end of the post.
1. Retarget with Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs)
(Source)
Facebook’s Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) are one of the best ways to create ads that are more targeted and more relevant. They automatically show the right products to people who have expressed interest on your website, in your app, or elsewhere on the Internet.
Basically, instead of creating ads for individual items in your catalog you create an ad template that automatically uses images and details from your product data feed for things you’d like to advertise.
In Shopify, you connect your product feed using the Facebook Product Feed app from the Shopify App Store to sync and fuel the DPAs automatically.
They are ideal for a warm audience who have already shown an interest in your products. Rather than just retarget visitors of specific pages with generic ad creatives, you can make the experience super personalized by showing them the exact product they were just looking at again.
As Aaron Orendorff says: “For remarketing, DPA are the money makers!”
2. Integrate Shopify with your Facebook shop
Facebook is an excellent platform for combining your social media and ecommerce marketing.
It’s relatively straightforward to set up your Facebook shop and start making sales. But it’s even better to integrate your Facebook shop directly with your Shopify store so that you don’t have to keep a separate inventory.
3. Use video testimonials on conversion pages
Customer reviews and testimonials are a powerful form of social proof that attracts and converts more customers. To ramp things up, you can use video testimonials to tell other shoppers what a fantastic experience you provide.
You can add video testimonials to any of your main conversion pages, including your product and collection pages, homepage, and checkout. Let your existing satisfied customers spread the word about your product quality and value, plus your first-class customer service.
Using a tool like VideoPeel, you can expect to increase conversions on your Shopify store by 20% or more:
4. Rent remarketing pixels from authority sites
Another way to get more sales for your Shopify store is to rent remarketing pixels from authority sites and highly-relevant niche blogs, and then retarget that audience with Facebook Ads for your store.
Because you’re targeting a highly-relevant and interested audience that is looking to buy the type of products you sell, you can reduce your ad budget considerably and get more sales faster.
It’s probably one of the easiest and most under-rated ways to get more sales. The only thing you have to do is optimize and test your ads for the best results.
5. Offer free shipping on minimum order values
Free shipping is a sure-fire winner when it comes to increasing online sales. If a customer has to choose between free and paid shipping for the same product on two possible stores, they’ll opt for the free shipping.
If you implement free shipping correctly, you can increase your average order value (AOV) significantly. So, rather than include free shipping on all orders, only offer it above a specific threshold.
For example, Vagabond Cookies doubled their AOV when they introduced free shipping on all orders $100 and over:
6. Launch Instagram Live shopping campaigns
Instagram is already proven as a product discovery and shopping channel:
- 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram for product discovery.
- 87% of people say that influencers have inspired them to make a purchase.
So, if you’ve not yet set up your Instagram shop, now would be a good time.
Recently Instagram added a new dimension with Live Shopping. Now you can showcase and sell your products, interact with your fans, and collaborate with influencers in real-time via an Instagram Live broadcast.
7. Add live chat on your Shopify store
According to research by the American Marketing Association, visitors who engage with your business using live chat are 3 times more likely to buy.
You can use live chat to engage visitors proactively and trigger messages based on combinations of browsing behavior, page visited, and more.
Adding a live chat app like JivoChat on your Shopify store allows you to answer shoppers’ questions and overcome their objections. It also provides an omnichannel experience, as you can contact people through live website chat, phone, email, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Apple Business Chat.
8. Add upsells and cross-sells at checkout
When a shopper adds one of your products to their shopping cart, you’ve got an excellent opportunity to increase the total order value by offering related products.
If it works for Amazon, it can work for you, too.
In Shopify, you can show upsells and cross-sells on a popup when a customer adds an item to their cart. Or, you could add a checkbox option at the checkout.
For example, when you add a product to your cart on Beardbrand, you get the chance to add a “Mystery Product” to your order:
9. Offer personalized product recommendations
Personalization is another marketing tactic you can use to get more sales. Personalized product recommendations are based on a visitor’s previous actions and preferences.
You can also tailor recommendations based on a shopper’s location. For example, if you know your visitor is from California, you might want to recommend swimwear, but if they’re from New York, you might want to offer something warmer.
For example, Alloy Apparel shows a personalized “most popular” carousel of products based on trending items local to the visitor:
10. Use exclusive discounts to build an email list
Building an email list is a tried-and-tested marketing strategy. The most significant benefit of email subscribers is that they’re an “owned audience” – in other words, you’re in control of when and how you contact them.
You can combine email marketing software with exclusive discounts in your Shopify store to build an email list. For example, you could use:
- Floating bars to display your current offer and encourage visitors to join the list.
- Exit-intent popups that display a special offer when visitors are about to leave your store.
- Slide-ins that trigger after a visitor spends a predefined period on a product page, like this example on the KEEN homepage:
11. Automate transactional email campaigns
You can also use transactional email marketing to get more sales on Shopify.
According to Experian, transactional email open rates are eight times higher than regular marketing emails because customers are expecting the information contained in them.
For instance, you could create specific email sequences that get triggered based on user behavior, such as:
a) A welcome sequence when people first subscribe:
Data from GetResponse showed that welcome emails have the highest open rates. On average, 82% of welcome emails get opened because customers expect them to land in their inbox.
b) A cart abandonment sequence when subscribers leave items in their cart:
According to the Baymard Institute, 69% of shopping carts get abandoned for various reasons, including:
- Unexpected shipping costs.
- Mandatory account creation.
- Complicated checkout process.
- Unsatisfactory returns policy.
- Website crashed.
c) A re-engagement sequence when subscribers stop opening your emails:
According to Email Monks, 45% of recipients who received a re-engagement email read the subsequent emails in the series:
12. Build “out of stock” waitlists
One way to generate more sales is to pre-sell items and see how many people place orders. You can use this tactic if you’re unsure whether a new product will appeal to your audience. Or, you can use it to generate scarcity, getting visitors to join your waitlist. When you know there’s enough demand for the product, you can contact people and let them know the product is now in stock.
For example, footwear brand KEEN gives shoppers the option to receive an email notification when their chosen product is available again:
13. List products on external marketplaces
Shopify includes an option to list your products on external marketplaces.
But why would you want to do that?
Well, marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, and Amazon already have their own traffic. Plus, shoppers are more familiar with those places and might also have memberships like Amazon Prime, where they get free delivery.
For example, you can purchase Leather Honey products from Amazon as well as their Shopify store:
14. Bid on high-intent keywords
If there’s a lot of search demand for your products, but you are not ranking organically yet, then you can bid on Google ads using high-intent keyword modifiers like “buy”, “discounts”, and “product names” to attract purchase-intent buyers.
Read the official guide from Shopify: The Google Ads Playbook: 13 Campaign Types to get started.
15. Use post-purchase information to drive future campaigns
Collecting some additional information from customers during checkout and post-purchase can help you get more sales on Shopify. For instance, you could request the customer’s birthday, gender, age, or other information to drive future marketing campaigns.
For example, post-purchase, you could encourage customers to sign up for a free account and “complete their profile” to receive incentives, such as a discount code off their next purchase or bonus points in your shopper reward program.
16. Focus on your storefront user experience
When you’re trying different tactics to increase sales, it’s easy to forget your Shopify storefront. Things to optimize include:
- Overall store design with colors, fonts, and mobile optimization.
- Getting the right balance between visuals and text.
- Easy navigation and menus, so visitors can find what they’re looking for.
- Building security and trust with established payment options.
17. Test ad creatives and audience targeting
When you’re running ads, it’s super important to test your ad creatives and audience targeting.
Running A/B split testing is the only way to find out which of your ad creatives works best. Is it the one with image A or image B? Is it the one with short copy or long copy? Does the ad resonate with a young audience? When you discover your best performing ad for the right audience, you can use it to drive more sales.
18. Set up a loyalty program
Word-of-mouth marketing is a guaranteed way to get more sales, and loyalty programs work exceptionally well for this.
Not only do your customers accumulate points for their purchases, but they also get rewarded for referring their friends and family.
You can implement a loyalty program on your Shopify store with dedicated apps, such as Smile, Growave, Rise, and more.
19. Partner with relevant influencers
Another way to grow sales is by partnering with relevant influencers. As long as you choose the right influencer for your audience and product, they can generate a substantial amount of traffic to your Shopify store.
If you’re just starting out, you can use micro-influencers with smaller niche audiences that cost less than mainstream influencers.
20. Optimize your Shopify store for mobile devices
In 2020, online orders via mobile devices had an average value of $90.82. Furthermore, almost 54% of all retail ecommerce is expected to come from mobile devices in 2021:
That’s why it’s so important to design your Shopify store for mobile from the start rather than trying to make it mobile-friendly afterward. Make sure you choose a mobile-optimized template for your store with an easy-to-read font, crystal clear images, and slick shopping cart functionality.

Aaron Orendorff

Jerry Abiog

Patrick Tedjamulia

Zawad Iftikhar

Anna Rillahan

Ademola Adelakun

Saurabh Wani

Michael Hall

Andre Oentoro

Romas Juskevicius

Renaud Teasdale

Mike Walton

Tomas Diaz

Shane Hale

Akhilesh Srivastava

John Frigo

Lee Munroe

Ryan Raffel

Krish Himmatramka

Noah Goldfarb

Eric Schroeder
