With BFCM around the corner, it’s crucial for merchants to plan their sale and set up strategies to get their brand in front of shoppers and sell more. With more competition, dropshipping stores especially need to find ways to sell their brand and ensure their store visitors end up buying.
What’s more, dropshipping stores also have to prove their authenticity to their shoppers and prove that they aren’t fake. With a large number of fake online businesses being set up today. Building credibility especially to new store visitors who visit your BFCM sale is hard.
We wanted to help you with 2 goals that you have this BFCM season—
- Build credibility so that new store visitors can trust your brand to shop from you
- Sell better with strategies that keep customers engaged and get them to purchase
We listed these 8 winning sales strategies to help you increase Shopify sales during and after BFCM so that you can use these pivotal moments around your big sale to increase Shopify sales.
Strategies for Dropshipping Stores to Increase Shopify Sales During BFCM
1. Keep shoppers on the store with recommendations on the product page
Oftentimes, store visitors start browsing your products only to drop-off at the end of the product page. Such a problem is especially damaging to your Shopify store sales during BFCM since you are attracting a large number of shoppers during this time.
You can solve this issue by placing relevant product recommendations on your product pages. Using Wiser, you can display recommendations like ‘Similar Items’ or ‘Recently Viewed Items’ to get shoppers to browse more. Such recommendations at the right places on your Shopify store ensure that the shopper ends up finding what they are looking for.
Brands like Amazon display recommendations across their website to increase customer engagement and ensure store visitors make a purchase before they leave.
To lower drop-offs on your Shopify store, place ‘Similar Items’ recommendation widget on your product pages. This will nudge shoppers to look at other items similar to what they were already looking at.
Install Wiser now to display relevant and personalized recommendations on your Shopify store.
2. Display upsell offers to increase AOV
One of the best ways to increase your AOV during BFCM is by displaying upsell offers. This sales strategy allows you to tap into the shopper’s interests and get them to buy more.
Upselling is a sales strategy where customers spend more by buying an upgraded version of what they planned to buy. This way, your customers would end up buying a higher-priced item that is better than what they intended to.
You can display upsell offers on your dropshipping store with the Discounted Upsells & BOGO app. The app lets you display upsell offers at different touchpoints. So, you can show an upsell offer when the shopper adds the item to their cart or on the product or cart page. You can also get shoppers to buy 2 items for a discounted rate.
Also read: The Growth Hack to increasing your Store AOV – Shopify Upsell
3. Show user-generated content on your storefront and product pages
As an online store, it’s crucial to build your credibility as a brand. Since a large number of yoru BFCM shoppers are new, you need to prove your brand’s authenticity and win your shoppers’ trust. What better way to do this than by displaying pictures of other customers using your products!
User-generated content is content like text, videos, images, reviews, etc. that is created by people, rather than the brand. With this content, you can show your store visitors how the product actually looks and assure them of your credibility.
In fact, brands that incorporate UGC into their websites see an 18% increase in revenue.
There are 3 ways you can display user-generated content on your Shopify store:
1. Shoppable Instagram feed
Let store visitors shop from your Instagram feed by embedding your feed onto your storefront and letting them pick on each picture and view the featured products. This way, they can see a picture shared on Instagram by your brand, see that a customer is wearing the item, and then add the item to their cart if it catches their interest.
Set up a Shoppable Instagram feed with Cameo.
2. Lookbooks
Lookbooks are a traditional visual style, allowing stylists to show how a product can be paired with other items or how one product can be worn in different ways. Today, many brands use lookbooks to show how their customers are using their products and even different products within one collection.
You can set up lookbooks with the Lookbook app to build a narrative about the products you sell on your dropshipping store.
3. Photo reviews
Shoppers want a more accurate portrayal of your products. You can display your UGC on your Shopify product pages with a review app like Photo Reviews & Testimonials. With the app, you can display reviews that show the product used by customers. This way, you can help your BFCM shoppers make quicker purchasing decisions and ensure they don’t worry about the product quality.
Also read: User-Generated Content: Why It Is Important and How to Use it to Increase Shopify Sales
4. Place your trust badges front and center
Another crucial visual element to build trust on your Shopify store is a trust badge. A trust seal or badge is a badge or seal that proves your credibility, showing how secure you are and the traditional payment methods you accept on your Shopify store.
One study found that placing a trust badge on your eCommerce store can bring in a 42% increase in sales.
Many brands place a trust badge on different parts of their Shopify store, from the footer to the product page to the cart page. If you haven’t already set up a trust badge on your Shopify store, you can install the Free Trust Seal Shopify app to get started. You can find the trust badges Shopify apps for free on app store easily.
Strategies for Dropshipping Stores to Increase Shopify Sales After BFCM
5. Personalized recommendations to show items shoppers viewed during the sale
Many brands tap into personalization tactics to further engage their shoppers and get them to buy even after the sale. One way you can use this sales tactic is by setting up personalized recommendation widget to remind your shoppers of products they showed interest in. This timely recommendation can help you create new sales opportunities on your Shopify store.
Wiser is an AI-powered Shopify app that lets you display personalized recommendations on your Shopify store. Using the app, you can display different kinds of recommendations personalized to each shopper:
- Inspired By Your Browsing History: Use your shopper’s browsing history to show them items similar to what they looked at. Since these recommendations will be based on what the shopper expressed interest in, you can give them a range of products to explore!
- Recently Viewed Products: Display items that the shopper looked at previously, reminding them of their browsing history and helping them find items they may want to buy.
Install Wiser to set up personalized recommendations and increase Shopify sales even after BFCM.
6. Send an email to customers highlighting bestsellers
Now that your sale is over, you can inform your customers about your bestselling products through a marketing campaign. Such a campaign can help you share the success of your BFCM sale with your community and make them feel like a part of the win. Moreover, any shopper who didn’t buy can easily be nudged to shop.
One popular marketing strategy used by many brands is the “last chance sale”. Stores send an email to existing customers who never bought during the BFCM sale, giving them an exclusive code that lets them avail a discount on their cart despite BFCM having ended.
This exclusive marketing promotion helps you capture the last few purchases for your BFCM sale from your existing customer base.
7. Cross-sell other complementary items to BFCM shoppers
Cross-selling is a powerful tactic, allowing you to sell relevant items that would pair well with the shopper’s past purchase. It is the equivalent of being asked if you want a side of fries with your burger at a fast-food joint. This is why such a sales tactic is perfect when getting your BFCM shoppers to make repeat purchases.
Past customers are 50% more likely to buy from you than new ones and by setting up a cross-selling promotion in a timely manner, you can bring them back to buy items they would enjoy.
Set up a cross-sell promotion for BFCM shoppers, featuring a product that pairs well with the item they bought. You can do this within your email marketing app like Klaviyo or even with SMS marketing apps like TxtCart.
8. Run retargeted ads to bring back shoppers who visited during BFCM
During the sale, many shoppers end up visiting your Shopify store but never purchasing. Post the sale, it’s always a good idea to promote your products to these shoppers with retargeted ad. Retargeted ads follow your past visitors around, reminding them of the items they looked at and bringing them back eventually. Many dropshipping stores run retargeted ads to bring back past store visitors successfully.
When running retargeted ads, your strategy is crucial to your success. Set up apps like RetargetApp and work with Shopify ad experts like Spin to understand the winning ad strategy to retarget BFCM visitors and bring them back.
Spin is providing a free ad consultation to Shopify stores. Avail their consultation to figure out your ad strategy better before BFCM.
Increase Shopify sales on your dropshipping store around BFCM with these smart strategies
We hope this list of strategies helps you build credibility around your dropshipping brand during BFCM and nudge more sales from your store visitors around the sales season.
BFCM allows you to capture more sales easily, playing a huge role in your annual profits. For dropshipping stores, it’s crucial to tap into this sales season and set up a winning BFCM sale that your existing customers as well as new store visitors can enjoy.
By participating in BFCM and setting up smart sales strategies, you can set up opportunities for your store’s growth, acquiring new customers, and bringing in repeat purchases from past ones.
Vanhishikha is the Content Marketer at Expert Village Media. She can be found looking for strategies to grow online stores, or browsing through Instagram.