by Sean Richards, VP of Strategy & Partnerships for Vincit
The customer experience is always at the forefront of your mind when you’re running an eCommerce business. Making your site intuitive to use, with responsive customer support and a streamlined checkout system keeps customers coming back to shop at your business again and again.
Many eCommerce businesses painstakingly set up their website to maintain consistent branding, proper flow, and ease of use. However, one area in particular seems to routinely get neglected: the checkout experience.
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of creating the most aesthetically pleasing website that showcases the advantages of each product, but none of that matters if customers leave with abandoned carts before completing the checkout process. By optimizing your store’s checkout experience, making it as easy and efficient as possible, you will increase your conversion rate. That’s where Shopify Plus comes in.
Shopify Plus uses innovative features designed for high-volume businesses that help you personalize each customer’s experience, which decreases cart abandonment rates and streamlines the checkout process.
Is Shopify Plus Different from Shopify?
Nearly everyone running a company online has heard of Shopify. With over a million active users, Shopify has become known as an industry leader in eCommerce platforms because of its all-in-one, simple to use software. Shopify makes launching a website, growing your business, and even processing and shipping orders easier than ever.
Since Shopify was originally designed with new and small businesses in mind, larger companies that have increased requirements and customer demands due to high volume sales may find that they need to upgrade their platform in order to meet their needs. This is why Shopify Plus was added as an option for brands that need a high-powered platform able to adapt quickly to today’s ever-changing customer demands.
Shopify Plus was created to fulfill the needs of larger, high volume businesses who need a responsive platform for their company.
What Sets Shopify Plus Apart From Other Platforms
Typically, when a replatform transition takes place it is extremely expensive, and can be painstakingly slow, despite costing six figures or more. Shopify Plus set out to change this standard, and has options starting at $2,000 a month. Shopify Plus is able to get your business completely replatformed in as little as three to four months, much faster than the turnaround for most high-volume eCommerce platforms. Shopify Plus includes services and features such as:
- Automated processes for marketing campaigns, discounts, and more
- No limit on transactions
- Product pages with built in 3D media, video and AR
- Built in customer and product data migration
- Up to 18% improvement on conversion rates
- And more!
Once you make an account with Shopify Plus, you will be assigned a dedicated account manager called a Launch Engineer, as well as the ability to create unlimited accounts for your team. With powerful API integrations and exclusive Shopify Plus apps, you will be able to create changes on the fly to adapt quickly to customer needs.
Shopify Plus is revolutionizing the way large companies do business online.
How Shopify Plus Improves The Checkout Experience
Shopify Plus creates a brand new, streamlined checkout experience for your customers, not only giving them peace of mind, but also eliminating delays that lead to abandoned carts. This hassle-free shopping experience can make a dramatic difference in conversion rates, and increases both brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Since Shopify Plus is created for high-volume retailers, the checkout rates are up to 60% faster than the standard. This is to ensure that your customers’ needs are met, even during increased demand due to substantial order volume. You never have to worry about your site going down due to high traffic volume during a sale, special event, or holiday season.
With Shopify Plus, you are also able to create a completely customized customer experience by offering advanced discounts and shipping rates before, during, and after they checkout. Not only that, the ability to process an unlimited number of transactions gives you unbounded earning potential.
By creating a totally unique checkout experience that fits your brand and meets your customers’ specific needs, you are able to easily optimize your eCommerce platform and avoid hiring expensive agencies and tech companies to do the heavy lifting for you. Shopify Plus gives you complete control over how you want your customers to experience your brand.
How To Implement Shopify Plus Checkout Features
So, now that you know that your customers can have an improved checkout experience with Shopify Plus, how do you implement the features you’re looking for? It’s easy!
As you can see, just by using Shopify Scripts, you can already begin to create a one-of-a-kind checkout experience that leads people to buy more from your store, and limits the number of abandoned carts.
Schedule Big Sales and Events with Scripts Editor
Companies with high volume sales have even larger events and promotions. Take control with the Shopify Scripts Editor.
The Shopify Scripts Editor helps to eliminate the hassle of creating online promotions and discounts. You can automate promotions and discounts without the need for customer codes, which often leads to increased conversion rates and reduces extra steps that can lead to an abandoned cart. Since Shopify Scripts Editor is integrated within Shopify servers, you can be confident that your promotions, sales and events will go off without a hitch, even when there is an influx of traffic.
Shopify Scripts Editor is perfect for events and large sales around the holidays, such as Memorial Day, Labor Day, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday. You are able to create and schedule large events well ahead of time, so promotions, discounts, and aesthetic changes occur automatically. You can easily modify or create:
- Customized sales and promotional offers
- Discounts as percentages off specific items or categories
- Discounts as dollar amounts off specific items or categories
- Discounts that combine both percentages off as well as dollar amounts
- Price breaks for bulk purchases
- Buy one, get one free (BOGO) sales
The options for special events and sales are limitless, giving you the freedom to schedule everything ahead of time and automate important changes.
Shopify Scripts Create Customer Experiences
Shopify Scripts are snippets of code that give you the power to personalize your online store, and are perfect for streamlining your checkout process. Creating a branded checkout page decreases the chances of a customer abandoning their cart, and allows you to enhance each customers’ overall impression of your company.
Although you need some very basic coding knowledge to utilize Shopify Scripts to their full potential, the tutorials and online support make each step of the process easy to understand. Some of the things you can customize using Shopify Scripts include:
- Customer information fields
- Payment options
- Shipping methods
- Order review pages
- Notifications and alerts
- Order processing and status information
Shopify Scripts make the purchasing process faster, easier, and more personalized, which leads to more follow-through. It also takes a step back from generic checkout pages, allowing your brand to shine, from your homepage to the final stages of checking out.
Create a Unique Store for Every Customer
Online businesses have a special advantage over brick and mortar locations; with an eCommerce platform you can create a unique experience for every customer, essentially making a personalized store, just for them. Customizing your store automatically is a great way to optimize your brand’s online presence, and build the perfect checkout experience, every time a customer visits your site.
Customers are easily identifiable if you have an option for them to login, but you can make both users and guests feel special with automatic discounts during checkout, such as special discounts or free shipping based on the dollar amount in the person’s cart. You can make special offers, create unique messages, or even launch clubs or categories for repeat customers, based on the frequency of their visits or how much they spend.
Small touches that add an individualized feel to the buying experience increase customer loyalty, as well as repeat visits.
Complete Control Over Your Checkout Experience
While Shopify stores enjoy an easy-to-use and efficient checkout procedure, when you need to create a highly customized customer experience that goes above and beyond the norm, Shopify Plus gives you the tools you need to build a checkout experience that matches your brand and customer needs.
With opinions about companies being spread faster than ever before, being able to quickly adapt is essential. That’s why making a memorable customer experience is more important than ever, and the checkout experience is an opportunity to include small details that make your brand stand out.
Create a Better Brand Experience for Your Customers With Shopify Plus
If you are looking for a cohesive eCommerce platform that can handle high-volume sales yet still allows you to easily customize your online store, Shopify Plus is the answer. Don’t overlook one of the most important parts of each sale: the customer checkout experience. Shopify Plus increases conversion rates while cutting costs, and allows you to build your brand into what you have always envisioned.
Sean Richards is the VP of Strategy & Partnerships for Vincit. Prior to Vincit, Richards provided business development, digital marketing strategy and partnership development at several reputable companies and marketing agencies in both California and Arizona.
