Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create a Shopify Sales Funnel

So you’ve launched your Shopify store filled with products you’re passionate about.

You sit back and wait for the sales to roll in. But they don’t.

Days turn into weeks, then months.

Nada.

The question pops up: What’s missing?

Well, here’s the secret — you need a Shopify sales funnel!

A sales funnel is a marketing model that illustrates specific stages that your visitors go through before they decide to buy from your Shopify store.

In other words, it’s a visual representation of the Shopify customer journey.

In this guide, you will learn how to create a Shopify sales funnel — from identifying customers’ pain points to writing thank you pages for cross-sell opportunities.

If you want repeat purchases and loyal customers who advocate for your brand, then you better start mastering these steps now.

Let’s start with the basics — what is a Shopify sales funnel?

Table Of Contents:

• Shopify Sales Funnel – What’s That?
• How to Create a Shopify Sales Funnel
  • Awareness Stage: Attract the Right Visitors to Your Shopify Store
    • Know Their Pain Points
    • Increase Visibility Through Ads
    • Guide Shoppers Through the Shopify Customer Journey
    • Study Your Shopify Analytics
  • Consideration Stage: Show Your Product Is Worth It
    • Craft Compelling Product Descriptions
    • Showcase Professional Images
    • Highlight Positive Reviews
  • Conversion Stage: Turn Your Visitors into Customers
  • Loyalty and Advocacy Stages: Make Your Customers Happy
    • Personalize Offers
    • Surveys and Feedback
    • Create a Community Around Your Brand
• More Tips & Strategies for Building an Effective Shopify Sales Funnel
  • The Value Ladder Sales Funnel Model
  • Order Form Bumps
  • Lead Magnets and Introductory Offers
  • Upselling Strategies
  • Cross-Sell with Thank You Pages
• Conclusion

Shopify Sales Funnel – What’s That?

If you’re running an online store on the Shopify platform, it’s important to understand how a well-constructed sales funnel can help guide shoppers through the buyer’s journey and ultimately lead to more conversions.

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel consists of five stages: Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action, and Retention.

Each stage represents a step in the sales cycle where potential customers are either moving closer to making a purchase or dropping out.

At each stage of the funnel, there will be fewer people than at the previous one – hence why it’s shaped like a funnel!

By understanding this process and analyzing data from tools such as Google Analytics or Hotjar (to track visitor behavior), you can identify areas where visitors may be dropping off and work to improve them.

The 5 stages:

1. Awareness: This is when potential customers first become aware of your brand or product.
2. Interest: At this stage, they have shown some interest in what you offer but haven’t yet committed.
3. Decision: Here they’re weighing up their options before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
4. Action: The customer has decided to buy from you and now completes the checkout process.
5. Retention: This final stage involves keeping existing customers engaged with your brand so they return for repeat purchases.

With an effective Shopify sales funnel, you can increase conversion rates by guiding potential customers through the buying process.

By understanding how visitors behave on your online store, you can identify areas where improvements can be made to increase sales and repeat purchases.

Screenshot from Revenue Hunt

How to Create a Shopify Sales Funnel

Let’s discuss effective strategies you can implement at each stage of the Shopify customer journey.

Awareness Stage: Attract the Right Visitors to Your Shopify Store

The first step in creating a successful Shopify sales funnel is attracting potential customers to your website. The best way to do this is by identifying their problems and showcasing how your products can solve them.

Know Their Pain Points

Conduct surveys or host focus groups to find out what’s bugging your customers. Tools like Hotjar provide heatmaps and user recordings to see how visitors interact with your site.

Increase Visibility Through Ads

Don’t just sell products in your ads — solve your customers’ problems. A well-crafted ad that addresses a specific problem can boost click-through rates and conversions.

Facebook advertising allows you to target specific demographics based on interests, behaviors, location, and more. By using eye-catching visuals and persuasive ad copy that highlights the benefits of your product or service instead of just its features, you can capture users’ attention and build brand awareness among those who are most likely interested in what you have to offer.

Google Ads is another platform that can further increase your store’s visibility during the awareness stage of the sales funnel.

Google Ads allows businesses like yours to get seen at top SERP positions when people search for keywords related to your products without needing any prior SEO experience. You can bid on specific keywords through the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model where you will be charged only when someone clicks on your ad.

Guide Shoppers Through the Shopify Customer Journey

The awareness stage of a Shopify sales funnel is all about guiding shoppers from initial discovery to consideration.

How do you do it? By providing helpful information that answers their questions along the way.

One effective way of doing this is by optimizing product pages with relevant content like detailed descriptions, high-quality images, videos showcasing features/benefits/uses of your products, and customer reviews/testimonials.

Make sure these elements are easily accessible so visitors don’t have to search too hard for them.

Use clear calls-to-action throughout your website directing users towards specific actions like “Add to Cart” or “Learn More.”

Study Your Shopify Analytics

To truly understand where your traffic comes from during the awareness stage, it’s important to monitor your Shopify analytics regularly. This will help identify areas that need improvement while highlighting successful marketing campaigns that should be replicated.

Make sure you track everything related to visitor behavior: page views, bounce rate, time spent on site, pages visited, etc. This will provide insight into how well each element of your sales funnel performs at every step along the path to purchase.

Screenshot from HubSpot

Consideration Stage: Show Your Product Is Worth It

When potential customers reach the consideration stage of your Shopify sales funnel, they are actively comparing you against your competitors. They will scrutinize every aspect of your online store and evaluate whether or not to make a purchase from you.

At this point, you need to convince them your products are the best choice available.

Craft Compelling Product Descriptions

Your product descriptions should appeal to customer needs and emotions while explaining how they can benefit from using your products. Be sure to use language that resonates with them, highlighting unique features and benefits relevant to their lives.

Too many product descriptions to write? How do you make each one unique? Let BrandWell take care of your writing tasks! Our super smart chatbot AIMEE can write any type of marketing content for you — so you can focus on what you do best: selling. Here’s an example of product descriptions that I asked AIMEE to write for a new dog food brand:

Showcase Professional Images

67% of online shoppers say high-quality images are “very important” when deciding whether or not to buy something. This means you should incorporate high-quality images on all of your pages as part of your sales funnel strategy on Shopify stores.

Use real people in photoshoots if possible. Avoid stock-looking images in favor of more realistic ones.

Tips for taking great photos:

• Avoid blurry pictures: Make sure all photographs look professional by ensuring they’re sharp and well-lit.
• Show off angles: Show multiple angles so customers can see what the product looks like from different perspectives.
• Add context: Include other items within an image so customers have a better understanding of how big/small/versatile the item is compared to other objects around it.

A hard-to-explain product needs effective photos to help customers decide if they want to buy it, like this stone knife sharpener from Mollyjogger

Highlight Positive Reviews

Social proof plays an important role in convincing potential buyers during their decision-making process. Embed positive reviews on homepage sections such as “Testimonials” or “What our customers say” to help convince visitors that your product is worth it. You can also use them in ads or on individual product pages as well.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to showcase the value of your products and win over potential buyers during the consideration stage of their customer journey.

Source: HubSpot

Conversion Stage: Turn Your Visitors into Customers

Congratulations! You have successfully guided potential customers through the awareness and consideration stages of the sales funnel. Now, it’s time to turn those visitors into paying customers.

Create effective CTAs: One way to convert your visitors is by using clear and motivating calls-to-action (CTAs). A CTA can be a button or text that invites your store’s visitors to take action. It should create urgency, promise value, and be simple yet catchy.

Place CTAs strategically on product pages or throughout your website to encourage purchases.

Design for better UX: Your Shopify store design plays an important role in conversion rates. Avoid a spammy-looking store with too many pop-ups as this may drive people away from buying even if you’re selling great products.

Invest in a paid theme for your online store and customize it according to your brand’s identity for a better user experience.

Moreover, make sure that navigation within your site is easy so shoppers won’t get lost looking for related products they want to purchase.

The Citizenry is a great example of a Shopify store with good UX, clear navigation, and solid design.

Prioritize customer support: Bad customer support can ruin all of the hard work you’ve put into creating a well-constructed sales funnel on Shopify stores. Prioritize good customer service by minimizing wait times for customer service lines, replying promptly via email, or providing live chat options available 24/7 if possible.

Source: HubSpot

Loyalty and Advocacy Stages: Make Your Customers Happy

The loyalty and advocacy stages are crucial for the success of any business. It is essential to retain current customers as it is cheaper than acquiring new ones, and having satisfied customers who advocate for your brand can significantly impact potential buyers’ decisions.

Personalize Offers

Analyze your customers’ purchase history using Shopify analytics or other apps available on the platform. Based on their past purchases, send personalized offers that relate to their interests instead of generic discounts that might not appeal to them.

This approach shows that you care about their preferences and appreciate their business, increasing the chances of repeat purchases.

Surveys and Feedback

After a customer completes a purchase from your online store, send them a thank-you email or follow-up email expressing gratitude for choosing your brand over others. You could also include surveys requesting feedback about their experience with the checkout process or product pages.

This information helps you understand what works well in terms of user experience and identify areas where improvements are necessary. Responding promptly to negative feedback demonstrates good customer service skills. Meanwhile, addressing issues raised by existing customers can prevent future problems from arising.

Create a Community Around Your Brand

Your social media presence should be more than just posting promotions for products sold in-store. Use platforms like Facebook or Instagram to create communities around your brand by sharing entertaining content relevant to followers’ interests.

• Share tips related to products sold at the store.
• Create posts around popular social media holidays relevant to your brand.
• Promote contests encouraging followers to tag you in stories featuring your products.

By implementing these strategies, you can build a loyal customer base that advocates for your brand. Remember to focus on creating personalized experiences and engaging content that makes customers feel valued. Happy customers are more likely to return and recommend your online store to others!

More Tips & Strategies for Building an Effective Shopify Sales Funnel

The Value Ladder Sales Funnel Model

Want to skyrocket your revenue? Try the proven value ladder sales funnel model.

• Simply add complementary items to your best-selling product to create an irresistible offer bundle for customers.
• Start with your most popular product and think about what accessories or services could enhance its functionality. Perhaps an extended warranty? Personalized customer support? Anything that adds value to the customer experience.

Source: Heights Platform

Many Shopify stores have found success with this model — seeing increased conversion rates and higher average order values from bundles offered in their funnels.

Order Form Bumps

Order form bumps are the easiest way to upgrade your main offer and encourage additional purchases.

Simply add an enticing product or service that complements the main purchase, like premium support packages, discounted accessories, or exclusive content.

Not only will this increase average transaction values, but it will also reduce cart abandonment rates by streamlining the checkout process.

With fewer steps for shoppers and less friction in the buying process, you’ll see more completed transactions and repeat purchases.

Lead Magnets and Introductory Offers

Take your customer relationships to the next level by implementing lead magnets or introductory offers into your sales funnel strategy.

This gives customers an incentive to remain involved with your brand, not just draw in potential ones.

To do this:

• Create an enticing lead magnet that solves a problem for your audience. Popular lead magnets include cheat sheets, PDFs, ebooks, checklists, guides, reports, white papers, toolkits, tutorials, workbooks, and more.
• Promote it through social media channels and email marketing campaigns.
• Analyze its performance regularly and make necessary adjustments based on feedback from users.

Upselling Strategies

Offering a more expensive product or extra item to an existing purchase is one method for improving engagement and conversions.

Integrating upselling strategies with other digital marketing tactics like Facebook ads, YouTube promotions, and blogging can significantly increase reach and drive more traffic to your site.

Track your success by using Google Analytics in conjunction with Shopify’s built-in analytics tools to measure metrics like average order value (AOV), conversion rate percentage (CR%), and cart abandonment rate (CAR%).

Cross-Sell with Thank You Pages

Don’t underestimate the power of thank you pages in your sales funnel — they’re a goldmine for cross-selling.

Once a customer has made their purchase, they’re likely feeling pleased with themselves so why not capitalize on that emotion? Why not take advantage of that positive vibe?

The key to successful cross-selling is relevance. Offer products that complement or enhance what the customer has already bought to boost your revenue margins.

You could also bundle related items together at a discounted price to create an irresistible offer that encourages customers to spend more than they planned.

Offering value-added products that customers may not have thought of is an effective way to improve the shopping experience, encouraging more sales and customer loyalty.

This approach helps build stronger relationships with your customers, boosting brand loyalty and repeat purchases over time.

Conclusion

Learning how to create a Shopify sales funnel is essential to increase conversions and generate repeat purchases. By understanding your prospects’ needs and preferences, you can create an online store that caters to their requirements and delivers a seamless shopping experience.

Throughout this article, we have discussed the importance of having a well-constructed sales funnel for your Shopify store. We explored various stages of the sales cycle from awareness to retention and highlighted how each stage plays an integral role in driving revenue growth.

Remember to use Google Analytics to track customer behavior, optimize your product pages, simplify the checkout process, and leverage apps to enhance functionality and performance. By doing so, you can take advantage of Shopify’s powerful features and build long-lasting relationships with your customers.

So what are you waiting for? Start building your Shopify sales funnel, integrate BrandWell into your workflow, and watch your online store grow!