“Tips from eCommerce Pros: Making the Most Out of Shopify Plus”

By: Ron Dod

The eCommerce industry is booming. In 2017, global sales reached upwards of $2.3 trillion–a near 25 percent increase over 2016. That figure is predicted to skyrocket to $4.88 trillion by 2021.

However, with the incredibly lucrative opportunities presented by the exponential growth of the eCommerce sector comes increasingly fierce competition.

For all entrepreneurs and enterprises in the space, the prospect of potential sustainability through unbridled success is incredibly exciting. To effectively capitalize on the expanding eCommerce ecosystem and grow customer bases to untold levels, it is essential to create the best possible customer experience. And that all begins with leveraging the right platform.

For enterprise organizations and rapidly expanding operations, Shopify Plus is a premier platform that helps to maximize a store’s potential and scalability. But, to effectively maximize the performance of a superior platform such as Shopify Plus, merchants are wise to look to industry experts to help guide their efforts.

With that said, here are seven preeminent pieces of eCommerce advice for making the most out of Shopify Plus.

MINIMIZE SHOPPING CART FRICTION

“Surveys show that shoppers’ most desired features are related to convenience and time saving, and the checkout process is a major cause of friction for ecommerce sites. In fact, 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned… If customers are forced to fill in too many fields, move through too many pages, and perform too many actions, the customer will lose patience, and leave… To get the most out of their online store, ecommerce retailers need to focus on reducing the rate of abandonment and increasing sales by streamlining the checkout process. For example, e-commerce sites can reduce shopping cart abandonment by allowing consumers to buy goods as guest visitors, instead of needing to create an account.” – Bart Mroz, CEO of SUMO Heavy

With cart abandonment rates at near an industry-wide 70 percent, this is a major issue for retailers. Because of that, merchants should simplify the process as much as possible to maximize potential sales.

Shopify Plus assists this goal with enabling users to pay with their Amazon info–nullifying the creation of yet another account–or by utilizing social media login info to speed up the process.

Additionally, shop owners do have the power to make account creation optional, thereby implementing a guest checkout function to help maximize sales potential.

And since Shopify Plus features a highly customizable checkout process, merchants should have no problem removing any potential friction.

OPTIMIZE USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN ELEMENTS

“Designing a new ecommerce brand is a unique challenge, distinct from other types of branding mediums like packaging or print. People’s digital attention spans are growing shorter, so you need to be clear, concise and engaging in your brand’s message. From the moment someone arrives at your ecommerce store, they need to know where they have arrived and want to stay.” – Josh Williams, Co-Founder of W&P Design

User experience (UX) is a critical component to today’s eCommerce operations–and Google’s algorithms, for that matter. When it comes to crushing your search competition on Shopify Plus, UX matters.

Because of the speed with which people make judgments about sites these days, you need to capture them from the moment they land. A great way to do that is by deploying a slideshow near the top of your store’s homepage as this allows a shop proprietor to display a myriad of popular or promoted items in just a moment, without forcing visitors to dig deeper into the site.

By employing high-quality product photos in this manner, you are more likely to convert a consumer into a customer.

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