You likely won't find the answer to why your Shopify store isn't converting your visitors to buyers in your inventory. More times than not you'll find the problem is in your funnel.
A weak funnel will lose your customers at every point of the shopping process, while a strong funnel will guide them from being interested in your products to becoming a buyer.
Shopify Funnel Services are designed to bridge the gap between random visitors and buyers who return and make purchases time and time again.
In this article, we will analyze 5 key elements of creating a Shopify sales funnel and why those elements are necessary and how a complete service will decrease the amount of time that you spend estimating.
What is a Shopify Sales Funnel?
A Shopify sales funnel is the buying journey that your customer completes prior to a purchase. A sales funnel begins with a lot of people coming into contact with your business for the first time and then that number is progressively reduced until a purchase is made.
Picture a kitchen funnel: a lot of material can fit at the top and a very small amount can fit through the opening at the bottom. A good Shopify sales conversion funnel aims to retain the maximum number of users.
Each specific phase in the funnel has a specific function, specific content and specific reasons users may end their journey in that phase. If you miss a specific phase, you are essentially throwing away sales you already paid to bring customers to your store.
Now let's analyze each phase in detail.
Stage 1: Awareness - Getting Noticed
This stage focuses on the first point of contact a potential consumer has with your store. This might come from them Googling, an ad on Instagram or TikTok, a recommendation from a friend.
At this stage, they have no idea who you are or the ins and outs of your brand and they are definitely not prepared to make a purchase. To capture the attention of a potential consumer at this stage your main goal should be to capture a positive impression of your brand and store.
This can be accomplished with the following:
- Paid ads on Meta, Google, and TikTok
- Publishing blogs to answer clear and direct questions
- Posting to social media consistently
- SEO to ensure customers can locate your store without clicking paid advertisements
A major waste of effort most store owners employ at this stage is near-constant advertisement of hard selling tactics. This effort can oftentimes scare a potential consumer away. Focus on interesting and helpful information to develop this stage of your selling process.
Stage 2: Interest - Arousing Curiosity
At this stage you must capture the consumer's interest and animate them to investigate your brand more fully. This might occur when a consumer clicks your advertisement and lands on your page or when the consumer views your product page.
The consumer is now evaluating other options so you must make a positive first impression on your store to move this process forward. A product description that is clear, simple navigation and helpful product photos can be a positive influence and drive the consumer interest to move forward.
An overly complicated store design, a slow website and a confusing product menu can lose the consumer interest just as easily.
At this step email pop-up forms and lead magnets work well. Now there are potential customers, but possibly not buyers, so giving an early discount for an email address is a good incentive.
Stage 3: Desire - Getting Them to Want
The shopper has a good opinion of the product at this stage, but liking and buying are not the same. Desire pushes a shopper to the opinion of, "I must have this." This stage uses trust signals like reviews, testimonials, and content to assist the sale.
Benefits should be used instead of features to describe the products on your product pages. Urgency is real and should be used in sales such as limited time offers and limited stock, but be honest about the circumstances.
Small changes to layout, copy, and Badges of trust will also improve conversions on your Shopify store. This stage also has retargeting ads. These are good reminders for potential customers who have seen products, but have left without buying.
Stage 4: Action - The Sale
The sale can either happen or not and this is the fate of the products in your customers carts. Most stores lose revenue at this stage.
A clunky checkout funnel loses sales. Some issues include:
Multiple steps to payment, forced account creation, hidden shipping costs showing too late, limited payment options and lack of trust badges near the payment button. Improving this funnel can significantly improve conversion rate.
Making checkout one or two steps, providing guest checkout, and displaying shipping costs early can reduce cart abandonment. This is the exact focus of a Shopify CRO service; small, tested changes geared toward your bottom line.
Stage 5: Loyalty - Building Repeat Customers
The first sale is only half the battle. True profit lies in repeat customers, and that’s the focus of this last stage. A one-time customer costs money, but a returning customer costs essentially nothing.
This stage includes:
- Email sequences, loyalty, and rewards programs.
- Personalized product recommendations.
- Follow-up discounts on future orders.
A Shopify upsell funnel, implemented correctly, can be one of your biggest sources of revenue. Bundling discounts and add-on offers can increase the value of a sale without having to get new customers.
Why Most Shopify Stores Struggle With This
Building all five stages takes time, testing, and experience that most store owners don't have. This is where working with a Shopify funnel expert comes in handy. Instead of building a funnel based on guess work, a funnel expert builds a funnel based on proven successful funnel building patterns.
Hiring a Shopify funnel expert means not having to design the customer journey, construct ads, fix the shopping checkout process, design order upsells, or set up email marketing flows. It allows you to run your business while having an expert design a funnel for you.
Final Thoughts
It is not a secret that every Shopify store has a funnel. The question is if this funnel helps you generate sales or not. Understanding the five stages of a funnel (awareness, interest, desire, action, and loyalty) shows you a clear customer journey funnel map and where you lose customers at the most.
Shopify Funnel Service professionals will map, build, and optimize your funnel from start click to purchase repeat.
