So you built your store with Shopify. And it’s about to be a great day because you are ready to publish it for the world. Woo hoo! Time to make some money.

The hard part is over! 

Well… not exactly. Now that you’ve built your store, do you know how you are going to get people there?

You could write content, start a newsletter, or spend money promoting your brand on Instagram to drive traffic.

But before you do any of those things, you need to make sure your store is ready to:

• Convert a visitor into a buyer
• Drive repeat purchases with those buyers

That’s where most ecommerce businesses struggle to grow.

There are an estimated 12 million online businesses in the world. But only 8% will sell more than $1,000 this year. 

At Privy, we talk to hundreds of small and growing ecommerce brands every day about this problem. And over the last 5 years we’ve discovered there are a few very successful tactics in converting new visitors into buyers and driving repeat business with those buyers. We call these tactics “plays.”

And today we’re launching our top 10 plays for ecommerce brands to grow sales on their Shopify store. 

We’ve organized the plays by type:

• How to convert more website traffic into email contacts 
• How to prevent buyers from abandoning their purchase 
• How to drive more, repeat and bigger sales on your store

And by the way – all these plays are all possible with Privy’s three products: Privy Growth, Privy Email and Privy Text. In fact, we even have templates for these plays in our products. We'll tell you how to use Privy for each play and which product you'll need below 👇 

Convert More Website Traffic Into Email Contacts 

Play #1 - The New Customer Magnet

Build a massive list of future customers by asking new website visitors to join your email list in exchange for a 10% discount on their first purchase. 

Who doesn’t want a coupon to make that first purchase? It incentivizes a faster first-time purchase. And that’s the beauty of this simple yet powerful play: it increases the speed of turning a visitor into a buyer!

On average, 98% of website visitors won’t convert into buyers on your store. Convert more with this play. 

What you need to build this play:

• A popup that’s triggered for new website visitors
• A coupon for 10% off when they sign up 
• An automated email with the coupon code included after someone signs up

You can use Privy Growth to build the popups, coupon and Privy Email to send the automated email. 

Play #2 - The Paid Traffic Converter 

Target people coming from a specific campaign - like a newsletter, Facebook or Instagram ads with a spin to win offer.

Spin-to-win is one of the most engaging offers you can put on your website. Who doesn’t want to spin? It’s just fun. 

But because it’s so engaging, we recommend using it with a select audience. For example, if you’re running a specific campaign (like sponsoring a newsletter), the spin to win offer is great. Paid promotion, ads or newsletters, it’s harder to convert people once you’ve driven them to your website. Spin to win increases your chance of converting them.  

What you need to build this play:

• A popup that’s triggered by URL parameter (like utm_campaign)
• Several coupons for 10%-30% off when they sign up and spin
• An email with the coupon code included 

You can use Privy Growth to build a popup, target visitors with utm_parameters, create the coupons and Privy Email to send them the coupon in an automated email. 

Play #3 - The Birthday Gift

Help your customers celebrate their birthday and drive future sales by offering them a discount or free item on their birthday.

Who doesn’t like a birthday gift? If you sell something you think makes for a great self-birthday gift, you should try this play. It’s a great offer to get people to opt-in to your email list. 

What you need to build this play: 

• A popup for new visitors to collect email addresses
• A discount or free item coupon 
• An automated email that sends on their birthday

You can use Privy Growth to build the popup and collect email addresses and the coupon that can be redeemed in Shopify stores.

Prevent Buyers From Abandoning Their Purchase 

Play #4 - The Cart Saver

Stop cart abandonment in its tracks with exit intent driven popups that are triggered as soon as a visitor’s mouse starts to navigate away from completing their purchase. 

Here’s the truth: most exit intent popups aren’t used in the right context and with the wrong offer. Like on a homepage, asking someone to subscribe before they’ve even browsed your website or shown interest in your product. 

But this play is different. It has context and a great offer. If someone has added something to your cart and is about to abandon, a discount offer can be very high converting. 

One of the most common reasons people abandon their cart is they see the final cost. Often it’s the cost of shipping that triggers someone to rethink purchasing. So offering a 15% coupon (or the equivalent of shipping cost) can save the purchase. 

What you need to build this play:

• A popup that’s triggered on exit intent
• A coupon for 10% off when they sign up 
• A thank you message that shares the coupon code 

You can use Privy Growth to build the popup, create the coupon that syncs with Shopify and display the coupon code in the thank you message. 

Play #5 - The Abandoned Cart Reminder

Reach every one of your contacts that abandoned their cart with a high converting cart recovery email.

While Play #2 is about saving someone before they’ve left your store, this play is for people that have left your store. For contacts you've already identify, you can email them to drive them back to your site to complete their purchase. 

But here’s the trick: don’t just send them one email. Instead, you should have a sequence of 3 emails, separated by one, twenty-four and forty-eight hours. Here's what I mean:

Email #1 -  one hour later, this email should be from the founder of the business, and simply remind them they forgot to complete the purchase and offer to answer any questions they may have. Don’t offer a coupon yet. 

Email #2 - 24 hours after the first email, send another and remind them again but this time offer a 10% discount. The coupon is only good for 24 hours though. Make sure you create a unique coupon, so each recipient has a unique code and set the expiration for 48 hours.

Email #3 - Okay, now 23 hours after the coupon has been offered (and 47 hours after they abandoned their cart) you can email them again and remind them their coupon expires in one hour.

By the way, I learned about this sequence from Privy CEO, Ben Jabbawy. 

What you need to build this play:

• 3 automated emails, to send 1 hour, 24 hours and 48 hours apart
• A coupon for 10% off to include in the 2nd and 3rd email

You can create this play using Privy Email. In fact, it’s a template so all you have to do is add your content and coupon. 

Play #6 - The Text Reminder

Texts are opened much faster than emails. Drive revenue from a simple automated text to people that abandoned their cart.

Text or SMS marketing is new. And that’s why it’s so exciting. It gives you an edge over your competitors. 

But to be effective, it has to be used the right way. For instance, a cart abandonment text is a great use-case. If they’re opted into texts with your brand, text them to remind them they left something in your cart. It has higher open rates than email. 

What you need to build this play:

• A text message with link back to website
• A 15% coupon included in the text

You can use Privy Text to send these texts and create the coupon that can be redeemed in a Shopify store. 

Drive More, Repeat and Bigger Sales On Your Store

Play #7 - The Upsell

Increase your average order value by recommending additional items for a shopper to add to their cart during check out. 

And the screenshot above is the perfect example. Nature Reflections sells jewelry. So when you’re about to buy a pendant – which is sold without a chain – they let you know you can buy the chain from them as well. A great upsell opportunity for Nature Reflections. 

What you need to build this play:

• A flyout that’s triggered when 1+ item is in your Shopify cart
• A suggested additional item that’s relevant to what’s in their cart

You can use Privy Growth to build the flyouts and link to another item. 

Play #8 - The Brand Builder

Send regular newsletters to keep your email subscribers engaged with your brand and coming back to your store. 

After you’ve converted your visitors into buyers, a newsletter is one of the most popular ways to keep those buyers engaged and coming back for additional purchases. 

What you need to build this play:

• A popup or landing page that offers newsletter sign up
• A newsletter template for your email
• Your contact list 

You can use Privy Growth to build your popup or landing page for people to sign up for your newsletter and Privy Email to send your newsletter. 

Play #9 - The Repeat Shopper

Send automatic emails triggered by a customer making a purchase to say thank you, ask for a review, or suggest other products.

This is perhaps one of the most underrated plays by ecommerce brands. After someone has made the purchase, doesn’t mean you stop marketing to them. Actually we encourage the opposite: now win them over for life. 

So for this play, show your brand’s personality. If you are a small family owned business, like Old Try (the email example above) show your customers that! For instance, Old Try lets you know you're supporting their family with a family photo. 

What you need to build this play:

• An automated email triggered when someone purchases
• An order confirmation template that automatically pulls in whatever they bought
• An email that reflects your brand, perhaps with an ask like "leave a review" or offer a discount for the next purchase

You can use Privy Email to send the automated confirmation email, in fact it’s a template so all you'll need to do is add your content. 

Play #10 - The Thank You Text

Send a text immediately after someone makes a purchase on your store. Early text users are getting 90%+ open rates.

This play will help you drive repeat purchases. You could send a discount, or you could just send a thank you message. Either way you're meeting your buyers where they are: on their  phones.

What you need to build this play:

• A popup on your website to collect new subscribers
• A 15% coupon to text people
• A text message with the 15% coupon included 

You can use Privy Growth to build the pop up and the coupon.

Play #11 - (A Bonus Play) The List Builder

Turn your existing Privy contacts into textable contacts instantaneously with one email.

Okay so if you read Play #6 or #10 and thought, “I don’t have anyone to text yet” then this is the play for you 😀

This play involves an email, a landing page and a text. The email offers a discount if the person opts into text messaging, the landing page is where they submit their phone number and the text is sent out as confirmation with the discount when they submit their phone number. 

What you need to build this play:

• An email to the contacts offering a discount 
• A landing page with phone number field in the form 
• A text message that sends after someone signs ups 

You can use Privy Email to send the email, Privy Growth to create the landing page and Privy Text to send the text with the coupon. 

How To Get Started With These Plays

First of all: I don’t recommend you go set up all 10 of these plays right now. 

These are the top 10 plays, not 10 plays you must have running. Some of these plays won't be a good fit for your business. But a few of them are perfect for every online store.  

So here’s where I’d start: if you don’t have any of these, set up Play #1 - The New Customer Magnet, Play #4 - The Cart Saver and Play #5 - The Abandoned Cart Reminder. 

Once you have those up and are measuring the impact on your bottom line, you can expand and try the other plays.  

And by the way, if you want to try these plays for 15 days for FREE, you can sign up for a Privy trial today. You might be surprised by how fast these plays can help you sell more stuff.