It is common knowledge that with the legendary WooCommerce superpowers, you can pretty much build any type of e-commerce store. But it is not as commonly discussed how thousands of stores end up getting abandoned or closing up due to amateur mistakes.
And it doesn’t happen just in e-commerce… it occurs in many other online business models. The good news is, with a WooCommerce store, you’re not constrained as to what you can and cannot do, and the only boundary is your imagination.
But how do you know what’s essential and what isn’t? How do you shape your brand, products, and store in a way that’s meaningful and “addicting” to your customers?
To answer that question, we’ve analyzed some of the most successful stores and extracted these 21 critical things you want to add to your WooCommerce store ASAP, broken down into three key aspects:
- Brand
- Products
- User Experience (UX)
Before diving in, remember that this list is not exhaustive. There are dozens of other things you can do to set your store up for success, but we don’t want you to get overwhelmed or fall into the category of people thinking, “this is going to take too long.”
You might’ve heard some of these tips before… but before jumping to conclusions, please take a minute to ask yourself, “have I really given this stuff the attention it deserves?”
The price of not taking proper action is the risk of your store not being where you want it to be or even worse – falling into the category of forgotten brands. To help you push through that barrier, we’ve condensed some of the quickest actionable tips you can act upon today, not in a month or a year from now.
If you`re here for the bonus calculator click here to get right to it.
Aspect 1: Brand
Tip #1: Focus On Your Branding
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room… most brands lack a soul. A lot of entrepreneurs start an e-commerce store focused on how much money they could make someday without putting too much emphasis on what sets them apart from any other hustler in the world.
In the age of Amazon and tens of millions of e-commerce stores across the globe, the playing field is different than a decade ago when you could pull up any product, slap it on a page, and wait for the sales to pour in.
And with the increasing trend of AI and automation, the biggest fish keep swallowing the small players because all they compete on is either price or marketing copy. The one thing they cannot copy is your brand’s soul – your uniqueness.
What makes your brand tick? Even though the purpose of this article is not to do a deep dive into advanced branding techniques, we want to reiterate the importance of a powerful brand presence. Make it your priority.
Tip #2: Laser In On Your Niche
Another critical aspect of branding has a laser-focused niche. Trying to appeal to everyone is a recipe for disaster. It’s much better to hone in on a specific target audience and tailor your products and messaging to them.
Think of it this way, if you have a store that sells athletic wear, would you rather be the go-to store for CrossFit enthusiasts or the store that sells everything from running shoes to yoga pants? Stay laser focused.
By doing so, you’ll not only attract a specific group of customers who are more likely to purchase from you (because you can optimize for what they want and need) but also establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
This will also make it easier for you to stand out in a crowded market and increase your visibility. Narrow down your niche and cater to them specifically.
Tip #3: Leverage Social Proof
People trust other people, and when your potential customers see other people talking about how great your products are, it makes them more likely to trust your brand and make a purchase.
Collect and display customer reviews on your product pages, and also consider working with influencers in your niche to showcase your products and build that social proof. Keep them authentic – fake reviews, and spamming artificial social proof can cause more harm than good.
A few ways to add social proof to your Woo store:
- Banners that show “John from California just bought X product”
- Testimonial sliders, cards, and other ways to show real reviews
- Real-life photos with your customers and your products (i.e. a hashtagged IG feed)
Tip #4: Create A Compelling Logo And Color Scheme
A strong, recognizable logo is essential for any brand and will help build your customer loyalty and trust.
Keep in mind that modern logos are taking a more minimalist approach, so don’t fall into the trap of making it too complex.
To make it stand out, experiment with color palettes to bring your brand to life, and be sure to keep consistency among all your branding elements.
An expert would help guide you toward putting up the right look & feel for your brand, but if you want to experiment with ideas and help them better understand what you’re looking for, you can use one of the following tools:
- Adobe Spark
- Canva
- Logo Maker by TailorBrands
And for colors, you can use tools like Coolors.co or Adobe Colors to experiment with combinations that go well together.
Tip #5: Develop Your Voice And Tone
Your voice and tone are the communication style and brand messaging used when engaging with your customers. Make sure that your communication style is clear and consistent across all platforms, be it on your product pages, reviews, or through customer service.
This can be done by writing your brand’s mission, values, and unique tone of voice to ensure your customers have a great experience and always know who you are.
Even though this is not as common with most e-commerce brands, it helps you stand out by showing the world why your brand exists and how it stands out from the ocean of competitors.
Tip #6: Create a Meaningful About Page
Adding an about page to your store is a great way to build customer trust and credibility. The about page should include your brand’s mission, values, and story. Help people understand… “why does this brand exist, what do they stand for”?
“If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” – Howard Schultz, 3-Times CEO of Starbucks
Additionally, you can also include photos of your team, customer testimonials, and success stories. Adding an about page will give your customers a better understanding of who you are and why they should believe in your brand.
Just like the previous tip, this isn’t as common of an e-commerce practice, but it helps build a bridge of trust between you and your customers. These little details make people fall in love with your brand and choose you instead of a cheaper version of your product from Amazon.
Tip #7: Use A Professional & Brand-Consistent Theme
Having a professional-looking design for your WooCommerce store can be the differentiator of customers choosing to stay and browse your store versus leaving it and never coming back.
Seriously… how many times were you browsing the Internet, found some cool-looking product, but got that “sketchy” feeling that you can’t trust that store?
For whatever reason… whether it’s because you thought you might end up scammed, they wouldn’t deliver on time, or the reviews weren’t on-point. You don’t want to come across that way to your customers.
Plus, taking the time to make sure your store is visually pleasing will also increase search engine rankings and convert more visitors. If you’re unsure where to start, as a WooCommerce experts, we at CoSpark would love to chat about ways to make your WooCommerce store look better!
Aspect 2: Products
Tip #1: Optimize Your Product Images
Optimizing product images can go a long way to help WooCommerce store owners increase conversions. Use proper lighting for your pictures, adjust brightness, contrast, and color, and maintain a consistent size and style amongst all images.
This helps give customers a clear idea of what they’re buying and makes the store look professional and trustworthy. Additionally, consider using image editing software to adjust your images’ brightness, contrast, and color for an even more polished look.
Tip #2: Improve Your Product Descriptions
Clear and detailed product descriptions can help increase conversion rates by providing customers with the information they need to make an informed purchase. Unfortunately, many e-commerce store owners fail to take full advantage of the opportunity to showcase their products in a way that will drive sales.
To improve your product descriptions, ensure they are well-written, easy to read, and include all the necessary details that customers need to know. Avoid overly technical language and focus on highlighting the key benefits of your products. Focus on the benefits, and the reasons why people need that product, and ask yourself:
- What problem or desire does this product fulfill?
- How can I frame this in a way that my customers will start thinking they need this?
- What are some of the things that would convince me to buy this if I ended up on this product page myself?
Also, consider including additional information, such as product dimensions, weight, and relevant details that people might be looking for.
Sometimes your customers can drop off your page for a reason as simple as not knowing how large a box is when it gets delivered. For example, people might be ordering things while traveling and they’re unsure whether it fits their luggage or not. Tons of scenarios like this, so give your customers all the context they need.
Tip #3: Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping can be a powerful incentive for customers to purchase, as shipping costs can significantly deter purchases. You’re much better off factoring the shipping costs into your product cost vs. charging separately whenever possible.
From a psychological perspective, even adding a few dollars for shipping risks throwing a user out of your checkout sequence just because of the “Surprise! Here’s another fee” phenomenon.
So maybe consider adding it for free for orders higher than a certain amount. If you want to “super optimize” that process, you can also play around with adding a time limit to encourage customers to take advantage of a limited-time free shipping offer.
Tip #4: Track and Analyze Your Metrics
Tracking and analyzing your key metrics is essential for identifying areas for improvement and for understanding how your store is performing. Tools like Google Analytics help you track your sales, traffic, and conversion rates and look for trends that can help you optimize your store.
This can help you identify patterns and make data-driven decisions to improve your store’s performance.
For example, you may notice that your sales spike on certain days of the week or that your conversion rate is higher on mobile devices than on desktop computers. Additionally, you can:
- Optimize for specific holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween, Independence Day, etc.
- Offer conditional discounts to users from certain countries (i.e. pricing parity)
- Give a returning user a discount if they visited your store once but came back the next day;
Stay on top of your numbers and actively optimize and feature your best-sellers – keep in mind that many successful e-commerce entrepreneurs go through dozens of products before finding their winning ones.
Tip #5: Partner Up With Influencers
Everyone is on social media nowadays. So why not go where the eyeballs are and put your product in front of millions of people? Partnering with influencers that align with your brand and development can help drive traffic and conversions.
Influencers have a loyal following and can help increase trust in your brand. Use influencer campaigns to showcase your products in a relatable and authentic way. Once they see their favorite IG or YouTube star use your product, they’ll want to try it out too!
It might sound a little intimidating at first, but you can find platforms that connect you with influencers or reach out directly to them via Instagram DMs or their YouTube Channels. Many YouTubers have a business inquiries email in the About tab on their channel.
Tip #6: Beautify Your Product Packaging
How many times you’ve gone to the supermarket and found some fancy-looking bag of chips you wanted to try out just because it had some eye-catching graphics on its packaging?
Your product packaging is the first impression a customer gets when they receive your product – whether it’s a physical product (i.e., the box, the tape, the actual product box if you’re white-labeling) or a digital product (from the welcome email to the final deliverable).
Offering a good product experience A to Z will make people fall in love not only with your brand but also with your actual products. And they’ll rather choose yours, even if more expensive because they’re associating a positive emotion with it.
Tip #7: Continuously Improve and Innovate Your Products
It’s easy to fall into your comfort zone and pray that your products will sell forever. While we all wish that’s the case, it’s instead the exception rather than the norm. Product trends come and go, products get over-saturated, and in some niches, unless you’re on top of the trends game, you’re toast.
It may not be necessary for you to release new products actively. Still, you’ll maximize your chances to stay on your customers’ good side by constantly making even the existing ones better.
You might’ve had a glorious spike in sales and get that “I made it” feeling, but never fall complacent or too comfortable. The next black swan event is most likely as your comfort zone grows.
Aspect 3: User Experience
Tip #1: Streamline Your Checkout Process
Making the checkout process as simple and straightforward as possible is crucial in encouraging customers to complete their purchases.
Removing any unnecessary fields or steps can make the process quicker and more efficient. Some of the most successful checkout pages remove all distractions, including headers and footers, and only leave the most relevant info on the page to prevent leads from clicking stuff and abandoning the cart.
Plus, the sooner you can collect a lead’s email address, the better – as you can start an abandoned cart sequence to reel them back in if they abandoned your cart (more on that below). If you want to make sure your checkout process is crystal clear, we are the perfect WooCommerce Agency to take care of it.
Tip #2: Send Abandoned Cart Emails
When a customer adds an item to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, it can be easy for them to forget about it. Sending an abandoned cart email can help remind them of the items they left behind and motivate them to return and finish their purchase.
An abandoned cart email might “sound” something like:
Hey [Name],
We noticed that you recently left items in your cart on our website, and we wanted to remind you that they’re still waiting for you! We understand that life can get busy, so we wanted to make sure that you have another chance to purchase the items you were interested in.
Your cart still contains:
- [Item 1]
- [Item 2]
- [Item 3]
If you’re still interested in purchasing these items, we’re happy to offer you a [discount/coupon code] to help make it happen. Simply enter [code] at checkout to redeem your offer.
If you have any questions about these items or if there’s anything else we can help you with, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to help!
Thanks for considering us, and we hope to see you soon!
Best, [Your Name]
P.S. You can access your cart by clicking on the link: [cart_link]
You can leverage one of the many abandoned cart email plugins out there, or work with an expert who can set up all the email sequences for you for maximum conversions. CoSpark would be happy to help you out if you need a hand on this.
Tip #3: Use Upsells and Cross-Sells
Upselling and cross-selling are powerful tactics for increasing the average order value of your customers. By recommending related or complementary products to customers during their shopping journey, you can encourage them to purchase more items, resulting in higher overall revenue.
This can be easily configured in your WooCommerce product settings under the Product Details section on each product admin page. As long as your theme supports upsells and cross-sells, you should be able to add them to your store right away!
Tip #4: Make Your Store Mobile-Friendly
With mobile shopping being pretty much mainstream at this point, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your store is optimized for mobile devices. This will improve your search engine optimization and make the shopping experience easier for mobile users, which can help increase conversion rates.
People live busy lives. They might come across your product while on their trip to/from the office, while waiting in their parking lot for their EV to charge, or in many other scenarios. Even this article was fully written on a tablet device, start to finish…
Tip #5: Personalize the User Experience
Personalizing the user experience can help build customer loyalty and increase conversion rates. One way to do this is using customer data to make personalized product recommendations.
Another way is to use data to create custom landing pages or to tailor the overall look and feel of the site to the customer’s preferences.
Additionally, offering a personalized customer support experience can also help to build strong relationships with your customers, such as:
- Live chat with an automated bot that helps answer critical questions
- Quick response time on your email (or phone) customer support
- Allowing your customers to track their orders, returns, and deliveries
Tip #6: Offer Satisfaction and Money-Back Guarantees
Giving customers the peace of mind that comes with satisfaction or a money-back guarantee can help boost their confidence in your products and brand.
This can lead to increased customer loyalty and help attract new customers who are hesitant to make a purchase.
Tip #7: Keep Your Store Updated
Ensuring that your store runs the latest version of your e-commerce platform and any installed plugins is essential to keeping it running smoothly. Regularly applying security and performance updates will ensure the best possible user experience and can also prevent hacking and data breaches.
Thousands of stores get hacked daily due to inadequate development practices, missing security systems, or harmful internal operating procedures. This causes stores to miss out on sales, lose customers that could’ve otherwise been loyal, and end up as just another link in a long browser history.
If you need help putting your store on autopilot, we’d love to recommend the WooCommerce Maintenance Plans from our branch exclusively focused on helping WooCommerce stores run 24/7 with zero headaches or hands-on management.
Bonus: Free Performance Calculator
Now that you’re supercharged with these epic tips… before you head off to take on Bezos with your legendary WooCommerce store, we’ve prepared a quick calculator that can help you assess where you’re currently at and help you better understand what it would take to get where you want to be.
Enter your metrics below and use our free exclusive calculator to visualize your journey to the next milestone with your store:
