Looking to bring more customers to your site? One way that you can incentivize customers to browse your products is with digital coupons! By incorporating promotions and special deals into your email and social media marketing strategies, you can encourage customer loyalty and repeat customers. Lucky for us, making coupons in Magento 2 is quick & easy!

Coupons in Magento 2

In Magento 2, you can create coupons for your customers to use at checkout. Magento 2 supports various types of discounts that can be applied through coupon codes. You can make coupons that give percentage-based discounts, fixed amount discounts, free shipping, buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers, and more! You can also automatically generate coupon codes in bulk. Whatever your promotional goals are, Magento 2 coupons are flexible and easy to create.

How to make a Single Coupon

If you are wanting to make a specific coupon, such as a “Spend $100 and get $20 off” discount of a “buy 4 get 1 free” discount, it may be best to create it by hand. In Magento 2, coupons are created in Cart Price Rules. There are multiple attributes that we can choose to fill in or leave blank depending on the coupon we are creating.

To get started on your coupon, we must do the following:

• First, Log into your Magento 2 Admin.
• In the left-hand menu, go to Marketing -> Promotions -> Cart Price Rules.
• Once in Cart Price Rules, go to the right-hand corner and click Add New Rule.
• When creating a coupon, there are three main sections we need to fill out: Rule information, Conditions, and Actions.

• Under Rule information, fill out the following:
  • Rule Name – Internal name of your coupon.
  • Website – if you have multiple websites, where does this coupon apply? If the coupon is for all of your websites, select all options by holding Ctrl + Shift on your keyboard and clicking all of your sites.
  • Customer Group – If your coupon is limited to certain customer groups, which group is the coupon for? If the coupon is for everyone, select all options by holding Ctrl + Shift on your keyboard and clicking all of the groups.
  • Coupon – Use the dropdown menu to select Specific Coupon.
  • Coupon Code – Enter the code for your coupon. If we are using the $20 off $100 example, we may put “20OFF100.”
  • Uses per Coupon – How many times can the coupon be used? If this coupon is for a specific customer, such as a special email deal, we may want to set the number of uses to “1.” If this coupon is for everyone, we may want to leave it blank.
  • Uses per Customer – How many times can a customer use the coupon? In general, we may want to set this to “1” so that customers can’t repeatedly use the coupon. If it is a coupon that customers can use an unlimited number of times, we will want to leave it blank.

• Under Conditions, we will determine the conditions needed in order for the coupon to be valid:
  • Click on the small green plus symbol.
  • Using the Please choose a condition to add dropdown menu, select what part of the purchase the coupon is based on. For example, if the coupon is based on price, we may choose “subtotal.”
  • By selecting a condition, the condition will appear. Click the … by “is” and fill in the blank for the condition. In the case of our $20 off $100 example, we would type the amount that the subtotal must be in order to qualify for the coupon: “100.”

Note: If your coupon applies to all products, do not set a condition

The conditions section of your coupon only needs to be filled out if there are specific products or spending thresholds that customer must reach to get the discount.

• Under Actions, fill out the following:
  • Apply – using the dropdown menu, select how the discount works. Using our $20 off $100 example, we may select a “Fixed amount discount.”
  • Discount Amount – How much is your discount? In our example of $20 off $100, we would put “20.” If you were doing a BOGO coupon, you would put the number of additional items the customer would get free.
  • Maximum QTY Discount is Applied To – if your coupon is quantity restricted, enter the max number of items that the coupon will discount. If your coupon is not related to quantity, leave as “0.”
  • Discount QTY Step (Buy X) – if your discount applies depending on the number of items purchased, such as a BOGO coupon, you will put the number of items that need to be in the cart before the discount applies. For example, a Buy 4 get 1 Free deal would mean that this quantity would be “4.”
• Once done, click Save in the right-hand corner. Congrats! Your coupon is ready to test and use!

Note: Make sure to test your coupons

As with any new additions or changes to our websites, testing is important. Make sure to that your coupon works correctly. Using our $20 off $100 example, add $100 worth of items to a cart and apply the code to see if the $20 discount is applied. If it is a BOGO coupon, add the appropriate type and number of items to your cart and apply the code to see if the correct number of the items are discounted.

How to make Auto-Generate Multiple Coupons

If you wanted to create multiple coupons of the same type, such as creating 10 coupons that give $20 off a cart above $100, there are a few additional steps we need to take.

To auto-generate coupons in bulk, we must do the following:

• First, Log into your Magento 2 Admin.
• In the left-hand menu, go to Marketing -> Promotions -> Cart Price Rules.
• Once in Cart Price Rules, go to the right-hand corner and click Add New Rule.

• First, we need to create our coupon just as we did when creating our single coupon above. Fill out the Rule information, Conditions, and Actions sections based on the kind of discount you want these coupons to have.
• Once you have completed the basics of your coupon, hit Save in the right-hand corner and re-enter your coupon.
• With the basics of your coupon created and saved, under Rule information, go under your Coupon Code and select Use Auto generation.

• Next, scroll down to the Manage Coupon Codes category. Here, you will need to fill out the following:
  • Coupon Qty – how many codes do you want to generate?
  • Code Length – how long do you want the codes to be?
  • Code Format – what kind of format do you want to use? You can select Alphanumeric, Alphabetic, or Numeric.
  • Code Prefix – if you want all of your codes to begin the same way, you can create a prefix here. For example, you could put “SALE” and all generated codes would begin with “SALE.”
  • Code Suffix – if you want all of your codes to end the same way you can create a suffix here. For example, you could put “SALE” and all generated codes would begin with “SALE.”
  • Dash Ever Character – do you want your code to be divided by dashes? You can divide a specific number of characters with dashes. This can help make the code more readable when the customer is trying to type it out.
• Once done, click the Generate button under the form. It may take a moment to generate your coupon codes. Once the codes are generated, congrats! You have multiple codes to share with your customers now!

Want to Learn More?

Want more Magento 2 content? Contact us and tell us what you would want to learn about! In the meantime, read our blog or listen in to our podcast for more tips and guides to help you through your eCommerce journey!

It’s official. Universal Analytics has been retired, making Google Analytics 4 the go-to for future Google Analytics business insights. By this point, GA users may already have a GA4 property either manually created or auto generated for us. New GA users may just be getting started with a new property entirely. Either way, there are some first steps we can take to start getting our new GA4 property up and running.

You have your GA4 Property. Now what?

Whether it be migrated by hand, auto generated by Google, or a new clean slate entirely, our GA4 properties need some extra tweaks to ensure that they are working properly and can start being used in our business strategies.

Choose your Preferred Report Collection

As you browse your GA4 property and read Google’s documentation on it, you may notice that your property looks different from the documentation. Specifically, when you look at your Reports, you may find that the category of reports you have varies from what you’ve seen in both the documentation and other tutorials.

In GA4, there are two types of report collections you could have: Life cycle reports and Business objectives. Both collections contain the same reports but organize them differently to fit the type of goals they assume you have. While Life cycle reports are the default report collection, you may find that your reports fall into the Business objectives Collection. This is caused by options you checked during the creation of the property.

When answering Google’s prompt concerning your business objectives, if you chose any of the first four options rather than the baseline option, your property would be installed with the Business objective collection. Currently, no collection is better than the other, so having one collection over the other isn’t a detriment to your analytics. However, if you prefer a certain collection, you can change or add that collection into your reporting category.

To change or add a report collection to your GA4 property, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the left-hand column, click Reports.
• At the bottom left-hand side of your reports collection, click Library.
• In the first row called Collections, you will see both the Business objectives collection and Life cycle collection.
• Click the three dots of the collection you want to either use or remove. Click Publish or Unpublish to add or remove the collection from your report tab. Note that you can have both collections if you want to experiment!

Review the Change Log

For GA users who had their Universal Analytics (UA) property auto-migrated by Google to GA4, it may be useful to review the changes and steps that were taken to create your new GA4 property. By reviewing the change log, you can better understand what parts of your UA property Google was able to migrate over, allowing you to identify any sections that you will need to migrate on your own. To do this, you can take a look at your property’s change log.

To access your change log, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Account column, select Account Change History. Here you can see the changes made to the property and filter them via date, location, and more!

Check out your Setup Checklist

All GA4 properties come with a checklist that you can use to set up basic analytics. Some steps in the checklist are a must while others are optional depending on your goals and existing analytics strategy. Overall, the GA4 checklist is a great place to get started, whether you are a veteran of GA or brand new.

To view your checklist, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Property column, select Setup Assistant. Here you will find Google’s setup checklist to help guide you. Note that some of the tasks may not suit your needs. If that’s the case, click the arrow on the right-hand side and click Mark as complete for any tasks that are either finished or unnecessary.

Make sure your Property is Collecting Data

For our GA4 property to be of use to us, setting up a connection between our new property and our website is one of the most important steps. Without data to collect, our reports are currently useless. For GA users who were auto migrated to GA4, your property may already be collecting data via a Google Tag Manager tag. However, it’s important to double check that your data stream is working properly.

To check if your site is connected to your GA4 property, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Property column, select Data Streams. Here you will see your data stream. There is usually only one data stream per property. Right away, in the right-hand side of the data stream, you will see if your property has been receiving data from your websites. If the message No data received in the past 48 hours is there, your property may not be connected, incorrectly connected, or hasn’t processed the connection yet.

If your data stream is not collecting data, you will need to manually set up a connection between your site and your GA4 property. For further instruction on how to do this, read our blog on the three main methods to connect your website to GA4.

Update the Default Data Retention Settings

With a new GA4 property, your property may be set to retain only 2 months of data by default. For many of us, 2 months of data retention can negatively impact our business strategies since we wouldn’t be able to establish trends that take place over the course of months. Lucky for us, this setting can be updated.

To update the default data retention settings, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Property column, select Data settings -> Data Retention. Here you will find your current data retention period and can change is by clicking the small arrow. You can retain data for either 2 months or 14 months.

Add a Filter for Personal Traffic

When analyzing your reports, you want the numbers involved to be accurate. One way to make sure your reports are correctly reflecting your website’s traffic is to filter out yourself from that traffic. We often browse our own sites for the sake of testing and review, however, that traffic can be included in your reports as customer traffic. To keep both you and your team’s traffic from muddling your reports, we can tell our GA4 property to ignore our interactions with our sites.

 To filter out your personal traffic, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Property column, select Data Streams.
• Select your data stream. Then, click Configure tag settings.
• On the right-hand side of settings, click Show all.
• In the list of settings, click Define internal traffic.
• Next, click Create. Follow the prompt to create an internal traffic rule. Make sure to remember your traffic_type value for a future step.

• When done, click Create.
• With our rule setup, we can now create our data filter. First, go back to Admin via the gear in the left-hand corner.
• In the Property column, select Data settings -> Data Filters.
• In the right-hand corner, click Create filter and choose Internal traffic. Complete the prompt to create a data filter. Note that the value you place in Parameter name should be the same as our traffic_value from the previous steps.

• Once done, you can create it in Testing mode to test out the filter. Once you and your developers are sure that it works, return to your data filter and change it to Active to activate the filter.

Add New Users

While setting up your GA4 property, you may want to start giving access to the property to your team. To do this, you will need to add your team members as users to the property.

To give access to your property to other users, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Account column, select Account access management. Here you can see users who have access to the property. To add another user, click the blue + symbol in the right-hand corner and select Add users. Follow the prompt to identify your user and the roles you want them to have.

Connect any Other Google Properties you Use

If your business strategy involves other Google tools, such as Google Search Console or Google Adds, you can add sections for those tools in your GA4 property, allowing you to see everything in one place.

To connect your other Google tools to your GA4 property, you will need to do the following:

• Log into Google Analytics.
• Make sure you in the correct account and GA4 property.
• In the bottom left-hand corner, click the gear icon for Admin.
• In the Property column, scroll down to the Product Links. Under the Product Links section, you will find a collection of Google properties that you can connect to. Choose the products that you want to connect to and follow the Link button to get started.

Just getting Started with GA4?

Want to learn more about GA4? Check out our GA4 blog posts for more insights on using GA4! If you are just getting started with Google Analytics 4, take our free GA4 crash course to get started! If you want to start using GA4 but don’t have the means or time to set it up yourself, we can setup GA4 for you!

On July 1^st, 2023, Google will officially transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Existing UA Properties will stop collecting data, which means that if you want to continue using Google’s Analytics tools in your eCommerce strategies, you will need to migrate to GA4. Where do we get started?

How do I migrate to GA4?

To begin migrating to GA4, you must first create a GA4 property. In March of 2023, Google began auto-migrating users to Google Analytics 4, so you may find that you already have a GA4 property in your properties list. However, if you do not have an auto-created property, the first step to migrating to GA4 is to create a new GA4 property.

To create a new property, you will need to do the following:

• Log into your Google Analytics account.
• Make sure you are on your desire UA property.
• Click the gear icon in the lower left-hand corner to go to Admin.
• In the second column called Property, click the blue “Create Property” Button.
• Follow the prompts to create your new GA4 Property

• Follow the prompts to create your new GA4 Property!

Connecting your website to GA4

Once your GA4 property is created, you want to connect your GA4 to your website so that you can start collecting data. If you just created a new property by hand, you may be automatically sent to Tag Instructions. If you are using an auto-migrated GA4 property, you will want to go to Admin -> Data Streams -> View Tag Instructions.

Before getting started, it is important to know that there are 3 ways to connect your GA4 property to your website that depend on how your Universal Analytics account was connect:

1. Analytics Tag (analytics.js)
2. Google Tag (gtag.js)
3. Google Tag Manager

Note: Which migration method is the easiest?

Depending on how you connect Universal Analytics to your website, there are suggested methods to use to make the migration as easy as possible:

If you used an analytics tag to connect your UA property to your website, the easiest way to connect to your GA4 property would be to use google tag.

If you used a google tag to connect your UA property to your website, the easiest way to connect your GA4 property would be to continue using google tag.

If you used Google Tag Manager to connect your UA property to your website, the easiest way to connect your GA4 property would be to continue using Google Tag Manager.

Migrating from UA Analytics Tag to GA4 Google Tag

For those who used the analytics tag to connect their UA property to their website, the best course of action is to replace that analytics tag with a google tag. The analytics tag, analytics.js, is a snippet of code that you or your developer installed in the header of your webpages in order to start collecting data in Google Analytics. Your new GA4 google tag will work much the same.

To replace the tag, we need to do the following:

• In your GA4 Property, go to Admin -> Data Streams.
• Click on your data stream. There will most likely only be one stream to click.
• Click View Tag Instructions at the bottom of the list.
• Under Install Manually you will find a your google tag code. Copy the code snippet.

• Go to your website and find the analytics.js snippet in the code of your website. It should be in the header. Replace that snippet with your new google tag code!

Note: Installing the google tag snippet can vary per platform

When it comes to installing your google tag snippet successfully, the location can vary. Some platforms may let you insert the code in one location and automatically attach that code to the rest of the headers. Others may have required manually inserting the code on every page. Talk with your developer about what is involved so that your code can be correctly installed.

Migrating from UA Google Tag to GA4 Google Tag

For those who used the google tag to connect to their UA property to their website, the best way to transition your data stream to GA4 is to replace your UA google tag with your new GA4 google tag. The only differences between these tags are the measurement IDs. In universal analytics, this ID starts with “UA” and is followed by a string of letters and numbers. Your GA4 measurement ID is the same, excepted instead of “UA” it starts with “G” followed by a string of letters and numbers.

To replace the tag, we need to do the following:

• In your GA4 Property, go to Admin -> Data Streams.
• Click on your data stream. There will most likely only be one stream to click.
• Click View Tag Instructions at the bottom of the list.
• Under Install Manually you will find a your google tag code. Copy the code snippet.

• Go to your website and find the gtag.js snippet in the code of your website. It should be in the header. Replace that snippet with your new google tag code!

Migrating from UA Google Tag Manager to GA4 Google Tag Manager

If you are already using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to connect your UA property, connecting your new GA4 to tag manager is easy. To start collecting data on your GA4 property, we need to add a new tag to GTM. To do this, we will need our GA4 Measurement ID handy.

To track your new GA4 property in Google Tag Manager, we need to do the following.

• In your GA4 Property, go to Admin -> Data Streams.
• Click on your data stream. There will most likely only be one stream to click.
• In the right-hand area of your data stream, you will see your measurement ID. Copy your ID for future use.

• Next, go to Google Tag Manager.
• Select your Tag Manager Account.
• In the left-hand column, click Tags.
• Click New.
• Click Tag Configuration

• In tag types, select Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration.
• Title the Tag in the left-hand corner.
• Paste in your measurement ID.
• Click Triggering and select All Pages
• Click Save in the right-hand corner to complete your GA4 tag!

Note: Are there any other ways to migrate my data streams to GA4?

Other than these three methods, there are other methods you can consider that depend on your specific platform. Some platforms have built-in mechanisms, plugins, or add-ons that aim to help you connect your Google Analytics properties to your website. Research what your platform has to offer in terms of Google Analytics tools.

Next Steps for GA4 Migration

Whether you are manually migrating your UA account to GA4 or are working with Google’s auto created GA4 property, it’s important to keep in mind that more complex analytics will need further migration. Google’s auto-migration migrates the basics of your previous UA account, but any customized analytics you or your developers have set up will need manually migrated and re-thought to suit the new GA4 environment. To learn more about GA4, check out our GA4 blog posts.

For more help with setting up the basics of GA4 and understanding how to use it, take our free GA4 crash course to help you get started!

When it comes to optimizing our sites, we often think in terms of optimizing our site to acquire new customers. However, customer acquisition isn’t the only thing we should focus on. As business owners, we should also keep in mind the customers we already have.

What is customer retention?

Customer retention refers to the strategies and efforts we make to retain our existing customers and encourage them to continue shopping with us. Customer retention strategies aim to create strong, ongoing relationships with our customers to encourage customer loyalty. By continuing to satisfy and meet the expectations of our existing customer base, we can reduce the number of customers who, over time, stop doing business with us.

Why is customer retention important?

Customer retention efforts can directly determine how long a customer continues to turn to our businesses for the products and services they desire. One factor that makes customer retention important is that existing customers purchase more often. Existing customers who are happy with your customer experience are also more likely to buy new or premium products and services from you because they trust your brand. The most valuable aspect of successful customer retention strategies beyond higher ROI is that loyal customers may also encourage the people they know to consider your business as well. Overall, customer retention has valuable long-term benefits for your business.

Is Customer Retention more important than Customer Acquisition?

When it comes to comparing the value of customer acquisition and customer retention, it’s important to keep in mind that your business strategies should consider both of these objectives. No matter how great your customer retention strategy is, customers do come and go. You will always want to continue bringing new customers onboard. However, just acquiring customers without any follow-up can lead to short customer lifetimes. Through customer retention strategies, we can work to make our relationships with our customers longer, improving both our conversions and our overall reputation. Balancing both of these objectives is key to long-term success and business growth.

How can I retain Customers?

Ensure excellent customer service

Having exceptional customer service is important when it comes to customer retention. When customers feel valued and well taken care of, they are more likely to remain loyal to your business and brand. One way to make sure that you are providing good customer service is to support multiple methods of contact when it comes to helping customers. On your contact page, make sure there are a handful of options to reach out, such as email, phone, physical address, live chat, and so forth. Making sure users can reach out to your business easily and receive prompt support helps create satisfied customers.

Create seamless shopping experiences

From browsing your offerings to purchase, the experience of buying from your business should be smooth and intuitive. After all, we want users to think of our websites and remember good memories rather than frustrations. Optimizing our websites is a large, continuous process, but a few notable areas we should work on are device compatibility, load times, navigation, and streamlined checkout. The less friction users run into when using your site, the better they will remember their experience.

Stay engaged on social media & email

It can be easy for customers to buy your products and services once and be left with little connection to your business and brand. In order to prevent a customer relationship from dying before it can even grow, we need to take the initiative and talk to our customers. We can send emails to them to check in on them, share offers and deals, and create personalized shopping experiences. We can also connect with them on social media and directly talk with them through posts and comments. By having an active presence in their lives, customers will be more likely to remember you when they are looking for your products and services again.

Provide post order follow-ups

Just got a new customer? One way we can encourage a growing relationship with a customer is to simply reach out to them after their order. This could simply be an email that thanks the customer for their order and checks if they are satisfied with their purchase. We can also do things like assistance, ask for reviews, or provide resources related to the item they purchased. Reaching out to customers in this manner demonstrates your commitment to quality customer experiences and builds trust.

Implement proactive re-engagement strategies

Just as it’s important to keep existing customer engaged, we should note customers who, despite our efforts, are absent. While identifying these customers will vary per business, if we notice a customer that hasn’t connected with us in a while, sending a targeted email to them can help re-kindle our relationship. These emails could contain offers, exclusive discounts, and personalized content based on their previous purchases with you. By reminding them of what you have to offer, you can remind them of your value and encourage them to continue a relationship with your business.

Take Action and Transform Your eCommerce Business

To retain customers, we need to create quality user experiences. Read our blog or listen in to our podcast for more tips and guides on making your business the best it can be! If you want more hands-on guidance for improving your website, join the waitlist for Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website.” In this course, she will dive into a variety of important factors that aim to optimize your website.

In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, having our customers’ undivided attention can be difficult. A customer can have products in their shopping cart, ready to complete the checkout process, but somewhere along the line it happens – they hesitate.

The uncertainty could be due to an outside distraction: the ringing of their cellphone or the realization that they are late for an appointment. However, the hesitancy could also be internal: something about your site confuses them. In either scenario, the customer may end up closing the browser tab and abandoning their cart, leaving behind the items they were so eager to purchase.

How can we reduce shopping cart abandonment? Luckily for us, there are actionable strategies you can implement to reduce shopping cart abandonment and recapture lost sales.

What is shopping cart abandonment?

An abandoned shopping cart is essentially an incomplete checkout. The user added items to their cart, but somewhere along the process, whether it be while shopping or during checkout, the customer left the page. For an eCommerce business, an abandoned cart is a lost sale. That’s why it is important to reduce the chances of a customer abandoning their cart.

How can we reduce shopping cart abandonment?

To reduce the number of potential customers abandoning their carts, we need to streamline the checkout process. From seeing the cart to paying for the items, it should be easy for users to buy your products and services. This idea doesn’t only apply to purchasing items online. Streamlining can be applied to services that are done via consultations as well. Overall, there should be a set of simple, easy steps that we can guide the user through to complete their purchase. To make checkout easy, we can incorporate some of the following strategies:

Display progress indicators

When it comes to purchasing products or services, one way to keep users going through the checkout process is to tell them what to expect.  This can be done with a visual progress indicator. For example, after the user goes to check out, you can show the steps that they need to complete as a progress line at the top of the page, or as a folded list that they see open and close as they progress through the process. Overall, the uncertainty of the checkout process is a major reason people abandoned their carts and potential purchases, so it is important to clearly state the process.  

Note: What if I don’t have a digital checkout process?

For businesses that sell services via consultations, it is important to tell your potential customer the steps they need to take to buy your services. These steps need to be short and concise. Having about three steps would be best, since it makes it feel less overwhelming for the customer. By having these steps explained to an interested customer, they are more likely to go through with the purchase since you have made the process easy to understand and imagine.   

Offer guest checkout

In many articles, we have emphasized the importance of having a guest check out option when it comes to digital storefronts. Some users may not want to make an account with our business right away, and if we force them to make an account, they may just exit out of their browser, giving up on their purchase. To capture those users who want our products but aren’t fully committed to the idea of making a full account, guest checkout lets them purchase them anyway. While their information won’t necessarily be saved for future checkouts, it gives our products and services a chance to shine, ideally creating a reoccurring customer who may eventually create a real account with our business.

Note: How do we make account creation enticing?

To encourage users to create an account, the form itself needs to be simple. When offering users the chance to make an account, show the form so that they can visually see how short the form really is. Once they see that it is easy, they will be more likely to create an account. Another strategy we can use is offering account creation at the end of checkout. They have already entered the majority of their information, so all they may need to do to create an account is to create a password. Again, the easier account creation is, the more likely users will create an account.

Simplify your checkout forms

If the forms involved in your checkout process are long, confusing, or hard to use, customers may abandon their carts out of frustration. That’s why it’s important that your checkout form is optimized for quality user experience. This means that they should be short. Only ask for information that you really need. On top of that, the forms should be easy to understand and fill out. Make sure to properly test your website, especially your forms, such as checking for working error validation messages. You can also have someone else go through your forms and note if they have any confusion involving the words you use to describe fields or the organization of the fields themselves. This process can also be applied to contracts as well.

Offer multiple payment options

As businesses, we don’t want to lose customers due to being unable to accept their payment method. That’s why having multiple payment options is a must for eCommerce business. Not every customer will have the same preferences when it comes to how they purchase items online.  Many may even be wary of giving their monetary information directly to your company. Offering payment methods such as PayPal, Square, Stripe, a variety of credit cards, debit cards, and so forth can make your checkout process easier for most customers since they don’t have to compromise on their preferred payment method to buy your products.

Be clear with your return and shipping policies

Customers don’t like surprises. When it comes to any policies you have, such as returning products or the shipping options available, being up front with those details makes it easier for customers to complete the checkout process. By knowing those details beforehand, they won’t be blindsided later on, which could cause them to abandon their cart out of frustration. Put these details where customers will see them, such as on the cart page itself. You can also remind users of your return process on the confirmation email of their purchase.

Utilize exit intent pop-ups

When it comes to digital checkout processes, one feature we can use to make users more aware of the decision they are making when exiting their cart is to give them a pop-up warning. These warnings are a way that we can ask users “are you sure you want to leave?” before exiting their browser. Afterall, some users may forget that they have items in their cart to begin with. These pop-up messages can also inform users of special deals or offers to entice them to stay on your site, increasing the odds that they will go through the checkout process.

What if a customer has already abandoned their cart?

Follow up with abandoned cart emails

When a cart is already abandoned, or a quote is never followed up on by the potential customer, we can take matters into our own hands as well! If we keep track of abandoned carts, we can set up our emails service provider to send automatic follow up emails reminding that customer of their incomplete purchase. This reminds users of the products they were interested in (since they did add them to their cart) and may encourage them to complete the checkout process. A follow email or phone call concerning an abandoned quote is essentially the same process since we are reminding users of their incomplete purchase.

Want to learn more?

To turn visitors into customers, we need to create quality user experiences. Read our blog or listen in to our podcast for more tips and guides on making your business the best it can be! If you want more hands-on guidance for improving your website, join the waitlist for Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website.” In this course, she will dive into a variety of important factors that aim to optimize your website.

When it comes to building relationships with our customers, we may be lost on where to start. In eCommerce, we can’t simply talk to our customers at the cash register as they browse and shop for our products. Instead, we have a variety of communication channels to choose from, and knowing which one is the “right one” can be hard, especially if we don’t fully know our customers’ preferences. However, by determining what kind of relationship we want to have with our customers, we can better identify channels that we can get started with based on their capabilities and general user base.

Where should I connect with my customers?

Online customers can be found in many places. While they can be found on your own site at times, they are often scattered about the internet on different communication channels. They could be browsing their emails or reacting on social media. They could be at home on their laptop or scrolling on their phone. Defining your users’ preferences can be difficult to do without an already active community, analytics, and overall experience in your field.

One way to gain traction despite the uncertainty surrounding our customers is by taking into consideration the channels we as a business prefer. What channels do we like to use? What kind of connections do we want to build? Different channels often come with their own limitations and benefits, and our business needs can help us figure out where to get started as we grow our business and learn more about our customer base.

What communication channels are out there?

Email

Email is a well-known and trusted way of reaching your customers outside of your website. Despite the growing popularity of other channels, such as social media, email remains widely used across the world. However, one thing to keep in mind about email is that it tends to be seen as a formal, professional method of communication. Customers often expect business updates, notifications, promotions, and personalized offers when it comes to email. While email can be a back-and-forth dialogue in the case of support, email is often used to keep people informed about your business in semi-detailed, asynchronous letters. Read our blog on email marketing to learn more about the effectiveness of email as a line of communication with your customers.

Mobile/SMS

Since almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays, accessing many of these communications channels can easily be done through mobile devices. However, some businesses also use customer phone numbers to connect with users via SMS text messages. Much like email, these text messages may contain updates and reminders regarding orders or scheduled appointments, such as consultations. Time sensitive has also been sent via text message to customers who opt-in for promotions. What makes mobile communication stand out is that, unlike email, these messages are short and concise. Text messages are often not used for detailed conversations with customers.

LiveChat

LiveChat is a communication option that is often accessed through your website by customers if available. Via LiveChat, customers can type or text with a business representative directly. LiveChat is often used for business-related questions and problem solving rather than promotions or updates. Customers go to LiveChat to get support right away. Sometimes, AI is incorporated into these channels to provide automated support 24/7.

Phone/ Call Center

While not all businesses have call centers, phones calls are still a common way that’s customers may use to connect with businesses. On the business side, we may use phones calls to remind customers about an upcoming appointment, or to reach out to a customer who has shown interest in their products. On the customer side, phone calls are often utilized to make appointments and request support. Like LiveChat, phone calls may be used to troubleshoot issues with a customer. While phones calls can be employee intensive, phone calls are crucial for more complex customer support requests.

Social Media

From Facebook to LinkedIn, there are a variety of social media outlets to consider when connecting with users. However, social media is a flexible line of communication. From updating customers on business news to asking them for their opinions, social media is an informal way to engage, entertain, and educate customers. It is often a channel to share the “personality” of your company with your user base. For a deeper dive into how social media platforms can vary, read our blog on using social media to bring more customers to your site.

Forums

Forums are community driven channels that are centered around questions and answer dialogues. Like other channels, forums are often used to support and educate customers. However, forums also offer customers an area to talk with other customers, giving them a place to discuss their experiences, complaints, and successes with your products. Overall, forums are a great space to both help your customers and receive insight into their pain points, giving you information to work with when improving your business.

What channel should I choose?

Since every channel has its own unique set of benefits and limitations, it’s common to end up working with multiple channels of communications. Afterall, your own needs as a company may not filled by just one of these channels. However, note that you do not need to have all of them. Trying to do all these channels at once, or even dive too deep into one channel immediately, could result in little gain depending on what your customers end up utilizing. Choose a handful of channels to work with based on what kind of relationship you want to have with your customers. Once you have data and feedback on what your customers want in their relationship with your business, expand to suit those needs.

Want to Learn More?

To effectively communicate with your customer base, it is important to continuously collect and analyze what your customers want so you can optimize your strategy accordingly. Read our blog or listen in to our podcast for more tips and guides on making your business the best it can be! If you want more hands-on guidance for improving your website, join the waitlist for Carrie Saunders’ upcoming course, “The Converting Website.” In this course, she will dive into a variety of important factors that aim to help you turn more visitors into customers.