Data series: Part 2 [UPDATED 2024] Using Shopify to enhance your email/SMS strategy

A good email marketer has the ability to develop a marketing strategy. An A++ marketer has a highly refined ability to understand, contextualise, and take action based on data.

In this article, I'll delve into some practical ways to extract data insights from your Shopify analytics in order to enhance your email and SMS marketing strategy.

Other parts of this blog series:

Data series: Part 1: Using Google Analytics to enhance your email/SMS strategy

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SHOPIFY VS. CUSTOM PERFORMANCE DASHBOARDS. WHICH ONE IS BETTER?

In short, they don't work in isolation from each other. A custom performance dashboard is just a more structured way to visualize raw data that you pull from Google Analytics, Shopify, Klaviyo, and a bunch of other data sources.

Here at Magnet Monster, we've built advanced customer dashboards for our client partners to make our lives 10X easier when using data to derive our clients' email/SMS strategies.

In this article, I'll share both screenshots from our customer performance dashboard, and directly from Shopify.

USE CASES FOR PRODUCT INSIGHTS

Email marketing is a sales tool; there's no denying its marketing function. A key focus for any DTC business is to move product inventory, whether it's their top sellers or slow movers that are just costing them money in warehouse holding fees.

How to use Shopify to feed your email/SMS strategy | Magnet Monster — *Image Caption: Shopify Analytics - Product Insights*

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How to use the insights:

Word of caution here: You want to cross-check Shopify product insights with your unit economics to ensure that you don't blindly follow what's been presented within Shopify.

Highlight your bestsellers more prominently. There's a reason why people buy your top sellers, and you want to highlight them more prominently. Consider using website opt-in forms, email banners, cross-sell/upsell emails, campaign promotions, and sweepstakes. You can view the most viewed products by items, categories, and SKUs to assist you in making data-driven email marketing decisions.

Sell high potential/trending up products. For example, run email/SMS campaign blasts to promote these products, bundle them up with free gifts, or feature them more prominently in key flows. The goal is to adjust your messaging to communicate that these are "highly trendy products not to be missed" and tap into buyers' psychology.

Collect qualitative surveys on frequently abandoned products. For example, send an email survey to your Klaviyo profiles who have shown interest in the product but haven't proceeded to checkout. Did anything prevent them from buying it? Collect, analyze, and adjust

USE CASES FOR SESSIONS BY REFERRER

It's becoming increasingly important for marketers to understand ways to bridge digital channels for an omnichannel brand experience to better attract and retain customers. Email and SMS are the lettuce sandwiched between most digital channels. You want to complement and support other channels, and not function in isolation.

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How to use the insights:

Integrate Klaviyo with your paid ad channels. Email marketing doesn't happen in a vacuum. You want to sync your audience segments back to your paid ad channels for retargeting and targeting new lookalike audiences.

Boost your list growth outside your online store. For example, you've identified that social media brings a lot of traffic to your site. This is a perfect opportunity to list a Klaviyo SMS subscribe link or opt-in keyword on your social pages to enhance your list growth efforts. Tap into influencers, affiliate sites, and review sites.

Shortcut your email and SMS marketing success. For example, you identify that the business is driving paid/social traffic. Sit down with these teams to understand the messaging, visuals, or offers that resonate best with high-converting buyers. By doing so, you'll shortcut your path to driving high-impact email and SMS strategies.

USE CASES FOR MANAGING DISCOUNTS

80% of eCommerce stores are misusing discounts by either being too dependent on them or not calculating them against their financial margins. As an email and SMS marketing strategist, you want to be the person who uses discounts tactfully in the business. Are discounts bad? Not at all, especially if your margins can support them. It doesn't mean we can't reduce the losses from discounts to increase cash flow for the business.

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How to use the insights:

Determine the discount dependency. The very first thing you want to do is determine how aggressive your team or client is when it comes to discount usage. This will impact the offer you present in your opt-in forms, flows, and campaign emails, so you need to be aware of its significance.

Plan better A/B tests. For example, you want to determine if you can sell at a high volume without discounts or with reduced discounts. Test different messages, products with a high dependency on discounts, discounts vs. cashback, and discounts with spend thresholds. Shopify is a great tool for identifying products with high discount applications, as well as seasonal trends.

Forecast revenue gains if you reduce discounts. For example, if discounts cost the business $255,000 in revenue losses, you could forecast the revenue gains if you reduce them by 5%, 10%, or even a much higher percentage. A 5% revenue gain from reducing discounts on $255K amounts to a total of $12,750 in revenue to be gained by reducing discount aggressiveness

USE CASES FOR MANAGING PRODUCT RETURNS AND REFUNDS

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing the shopping journey ends with returns. However, returns are the first step in extending your customer’s experience. When done well, you can retain revenue, increase sales, and earn brand loyalty. Enter emails and texts.

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Take note: You want to tap into Shopify's returns and refunds insights to determine if you should proceed with any of the tactics below. If you have a refunds problem within your business, you can take action on any of the below recommendations.

How to use the insights:

Develop a returns/refund flow in Klaviyo. For example, set up a flow that will trigger when a customer returns for a refund and their return reason is a sizing or styling-related issue and adjust the surrounding messaging. By connecting a tool like Loop Returns to Klaviyo, you'll unlock a new tool in your arsenal.

Reduce refunds and returns with smart content education. For example, you want to ensure that your return policy is clearly stated and accessible within key emails. If there are particular products with high return rates, you want to focus on post-purchase product education. This could include helpful guides, video tips, or automated check-ins.

Distribute return surveys to capture the 'whys.' As an email and SMS marketer, it's our duty to collect qualitative research at critical buyer touchpoints. If the business is not already collecting the reasons for returns or refunds, you can distribute a survey via an automated flow to capture these reasons. You'd want to distribute the collected information to other parts of the business for action

Adjust your segments if needed. Once you've collected the reasons why a buyer has returned a product for a refund or replacement, you could adjust your segments to either target them with email/SMS campaigns or exclude them entirely. Sending an email to a customer who have returned your product due to bad quality will just be more damaging to your brand reputation.

Concluding Thoughts

Let's wrap things up here before we conclude:

Tapping into product insights can help you adjust your email messaging and assist in moving inventory within your business.
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Data on session referrers is extremely valuable for improving the support of your email channels with other channels.
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Being on top of discount insights could potentially help your email channel drive positive cash flow more frequently.
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Email is a critical channel for mitigating the damaging effects of returns and refunds on the business. However, first, you need to tap into Shopify's data to understand if you have a problem to begin with.

Shopify's analytics and insights are a goldmine for any email and SMS marketer to analyze and take action on. When executed correctly, you will support the business across various areas beyond just driving more sales.

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