Ready for AI-enabled product discovery? | Conversion Hacks

Happy Monday to 8,621 rested (hopefully) Shopify savants! 👋

Ada here, with another edition to help increase your sales by 1% this week!

Cutting to the chase, here’s what’s inside today’s edition:

• AI In Product Discovery 

• Ecom trend: Dumb phones

• Conversion Rate Optimisation Hacks

• Challenge: Optimize Your Conversion Rate

Ready for AI-enabled Product Discovery? 🛒✨

Source: Reddit

Search is changing. (Almost) gone are the days when customers with dry skin simply typed “Best cleanser for dry, flaky skin” into a search engine. A BCG paper published just last month (June 2024) revealed that customers find AI recommendations for certain products more valuable than those of traditional search engines. 

This means that more customers will turn to AI to recommend products for them at the point of purchase. As AI platforms evolve and build advertising ecosystems into their offerings, now’s the time to get your business ready to be seen by customers looking for your products using AI.

Here’s how you can do this:-

• Optimize your content (product descriptions, titles, etc.) for AI learning language models

• Think about creating a licensing strategy that allows your photos/products to be ingested into AI search results

• Test and learn. Be open to more commercial opportunities (e.g sponsored content, product placements, etc.)

Trend alert: The Dumb Phone Boom 📵🎉

Switching gears to something a bit more nostalgic yet incredibly relevant – dumb phones! A dumb phone is a bare-boned phone with limited features, like calling and texting. 

This trend is fueled by overstimulated adults and Gen Z’s turning to dumb phones as a dopamine detox to improve their mental health and focus. 

Experts predict that the global dumb phone market could grow to $10.6B by the end of 2024. Searches for CAT 22 (A $70 dumb phone brand) have increased by 200% over the last 2 years.

How you can jump on the trend:

• Test more positive mental health-themed products: paper journals, breathing necklaces, art and craft items, etc

• Test partnerships with mental health influencers

• And of course, test dumb phones in your store if it fits your niche

Conversion Rate Hack-timization🚀📈

What’s better than doubling your store’s conversion rate? Doubling your store’s conversion rate (CR) and organic traffic!  Here’s an example of the figures from a Shopify store selling craft items

It’s clear that improving your conversion rate and organic traffic gives you the best chance of skyrocketing your revenue.

But improving your conversion rate is hard work that requires A LOT of testing. Some tactics might work, and some might not. So, future-proof your CRO efforts by kickstarting a parallel, slow-burn SEO optimization strategy to grow your organic traffic slowly as your fail-proof, low-cost back-up.

By the way, did you know that the average conversion rate for online stores is around 2-3%? If you’re falling short, take a step back and:

• Analyze your customer journey. Where are visitors dropping off? 

• Review your checkout process. Is it smooth and user-friendly? 

• Do you offer multiple payment options? 

• Do you have trust badges and live chat support to help reassure and retain customers? 

…which leads us to this week’s challenge

Hack Your Conversion Rate 🏆🔥

If your store’s conversion rate is below 1%, take 60 minutes this week to bring it up to 2 - 3%. Here’s what you need to do: 

1. Sign up for Google Search Console to analyze your website’s traffic sources and drop-off rates. 

2. The page with the highest bounce rates is the page you need to optimize

3. Review your page menus, product description, images (e.g swap lifeless photos for photos with product in use), add a trust badge if none, add a live chat option if you have none

That’s a wrap for this week’s edition. Stay curious, stay innovative, and keep improving your store🚀

P.S

I’d love for you to reply and tell me what one big problem you’re facing with your store. I’d love to feature you (anonymously, if you like) in our future editions.

P.P.S

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Till next Monday,

Ada