Top 5 Shopify Stores and What We Can Learn from Them
Review of Shopify capabilities: Facebook messenger integration, custom email subscription forms, custom galleries, local delivery app.
According to Sumo and LeelineSourcing, the number of websites powered by Shopify reached 800,000 in the US just in 2018, 1 billion people bought from the Shopify-based online stores during this year, and Shopify’s revenue reached $350 mln in March 2019 – compared with $200 mln in March 2018.
We have studied 100 Shopify stores and compiled a list of the top 5 stores to reveal the platform’s capabilities.
Shopify store #1 Madsen bucket cycles’ integrated with Facebook messenger, with catchy subscription form pop-up
It all starts with the Homepage – visitors are shown a banner depicting the product and its positioning (“Perfect bike for school drop-off + pick-up), free shipping opportunities and blue messenger button engaging the visitor to talk – “Message us.”
Combined with a smart social media marketing (SMM) strategy, Madsencycles has 18K followers on their Facebook page – they build trust in their brand using direct communication via messenger.
The video below shows how you can customize the sales funnel in Facebook messenger:
- Add a welcome message
- Add options to “Learn More” or “Shop Now” for the product
- “Shop now” will allow you to show several pre-defined product descriptions
- After that you can set up options such as “View details,” “Share,” and “Buy now” – all performed seamlessly in just one click
The biggest benefit of Facebook Messenger on Shopify is that Shopify provides a simple integration for online stores to get started using Messenger right away.
If a client taps on the “Buy now” button within Facebook Messenger, the product is bought directly through Shopify’s checkout portal, which operates exclusively in Facebook messenger.
The second takeaway from Madsen bucket cycles is that their subscription form pop-up is created in accordance with the best email marketing practices:
The pop-up shows us a friendly greeting, a catchy offer to save $100 and an emotional picture of the family with toddlers – their exact target audience portrait. If you go for “That sounds wonderful” option, you’ll get the following message:
Who can resist the temptation of leaving their email address? Not us! Very well done, Madsencycles.
Here’s an example of a not so engaging email subscription pop-up by contrast:
It pops up out of nowhere and demands that the user share their email address without any discounts, interesting news, or invitation to join a community of soulmates. “What’s in it for me?” – always keep in mind this question while creating your marketing communication. The more personal your request is, the more likely a person would like to respond to it. Nobody wants another newsletter in their inbox – you have to persuade people there’s actually something useful in it for them.
To create a customized email subscription pop-up, you need to install Privy Shopify app, which automatically integrates with such emailing services as
- MailChimp,
- Klaviyo,
- Bronto,
- smile.io,
- octane.ai,
- Retention Rocket
Shopify store #2 Harris farm local food store integrated with Local delivery app
Harris farm is a local business providing individuals and shops located in 22 areas in 2 Australian states (ACT and NSW) with the freshest products.
To manage a huge number of orders from 22 different locations, they implemented Local Delivery Shopify app, which allows customers to reserve their delivery by entering the postcode, date, and time in a special window in the upper right corner of the website.
After that, a “Delivery reserved” notice appears even without registering a user account – very easy and convenient on the customers’ end.
As for the site administrator’s end, it is also quite user-friendly: all reserved deliveries are saved in the app calendar assigned “pending” status, leaving you zero chances to miss one. After the delivery is completed by a courier, you can simply press the “complete” button in the Shopify admin panel.
Shopify store #3 Tanner goods apparel & accessories store integrated with cross sell recommend products app
Tanner goods apparel & accessories store sells both one-item products and collections, for example, Summer essentials (including hats, sunglasses, tees, bracelets, and sneakers).
When there is a big variety of items in your store that can be matched in different combinations, the Cross Sell Recommend Products Shopify app is a perfect addition.
It allows smart customizing of the “Related products” block:
- Add it on the Cart, or on the Category/Product page
- Show an optional cross-sell pop-up when the product has already been added to the cart
- Leverage the “Smart cart” feature to show the recommended product based on the last product added to the cart by the customer
- Show only products that are available, both hand-picked and default ones
- Change the pop-up theme styling
- Show up to 15 cross-sell products per page
Let’s say, customers pick an orange vegetable tanned “Journeyman” wallet – the “Related Products” cross-sell block will be based on the color:
This is a wise choice because it is considered to reflect good taste to match leather accessories – wallet, belt, etc. So, the customers may be more inclined to consider the opportunity to buy a matching item for the “Journeyman” wallet, and your average order value (AOV) metrics will grow respectively with each accurate cross-sell recommendation.
Shopify store #4 Hauser home decor store integrated with Covet.pics app
Hauser home decor store’s main goal is to sell beauty, coziness, and warmth of a home, and there is nothing more convincing and visual than a proper image gallery.
They implemented several kinds of galleries into their store using Covet.pics Shopify app.
Instagram feed gallery:
Designer’s collection gallery:
Fall furniture categories galleries:
Shopify store #5 Luxy hair extensions store custom Shopify theme with Product Reviews app installed
Sometimes default settings are just not enough to implement all of your desired functionalities for your store, and here comes custom Shopify themes created by skillful developers.
Let’s review an example of Luxy hair – a hair extension store targeted at women who want to experiment with their hairdos. Often when users come to Luxy’s shop, they are unsure of what they want to do creatively with their hair. To overcome this purchase block, Luxy’s hair team developed a smart design tool: under the hair collections listing, there is a button “help me choose” which leads to a 3-step test.
https://www.luxyhair.com/collections
The test offers 3 choices:
- Volume or Volume and length
- Is your hair thin/medium, or thick/short
- Hair color
Each choice is illustrated using high-quality photos and text tips, which makes the end result more or less predictable.
And for those customers who still have some doubts, there are a ton of user generated reviews shown on the website with the help of the Product Reviews Shopify app. The app allows you to create custom review fields to match any theme (even custom ones), set the text style and colors, import\export the reviews to .CSV format file and add review scores (the number of stars) to your products Google search results page.
Key takeaways
More than 4000 Shopify apps give you a wide variety of opportunities to sell online and adjust your store functionality to any marketing strategy. But the more custom your requirements are, the harder it is to find an all-in-one solution that will cover all of them. We here at Magecom know all about custom e-commerce solutions – drop us a line to discuss your Shopify project and we’ll implement your boldest ideas.
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