Robert Cialdini published the now-famous book Influence, detailing seven ways to influence people. This can also be used in e-commerce — to influence people to make more purchases on your website. Most of the points below fit into one of those categories quite well. See if you can notice as you go along; I'll reveal the split at the end.
1. Optimize your checkout settings
Many stores make checkout harder than it has to be. Keep it as simple as possible — and keep as much as possible optional: let customers use email or phone number, and make company name, address line 2 and shipping phone optional unless your business model truly needs them. You'd be surprised how many customers drop off last-second because of one extra required field.
2. Change your "decline charges" settings
Counterintuitive but powerful: by default, Shopify automatically declines orders that fail CVV or postal-code verification. Good intentions — but many of those are legitimate customers using a company card or a family member's card. Instead, let those orders through, let Shopify flag the suspicious ones, and cancel flagged orders afterwards (you can automate this with Shopify Flow, including an email asking the customer to retry with a new payment method). You avoid all the false positives and recover conversions you were silently losing.
3. Fix your abandoned checkout flow
Go to your Abandoned Checkouts tab. Does that orange "not recovered" color look familiar? Set up one super-effective abandoned cart flow — conditional & trigger splits, time delays, multiple follow-up emails, incentives like discounts and countdown timers. Don't rush the design: do it once, well, and it pays dividends forever.
4. Add or fix all other email flows
There are really only 5–6 flows every store needs: welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase/upsell, win-back. And instead of copying anyone's parameters — A/B test constantly within the flows themselves. That's how they get customized to your store.
5. The same flows for SMS & push notifications
Shouldn't you leverage all the information visitors leave behind? Not just emails — phone numbers at checkout, cookie permissions in the browser. Mirror your email flows on SMS and push (PushOwl is popular for push, with several alternatives).
6. Shipping fee optimization
How much you charge for shipping directly changes the price at the very last step before "Pay now." First, establish your baseline: test your conversion rate with zero shipping fees for a week. Then optimize from there. Two rules of thumb:
- Always have multiple shipping options — price discrimination in action. A free option, an expedited option, a priority option: 5–10% of customers always pick the most expensive one, while nobody is scared off because free is available.
- A/B test your free-shipping threshold — download your abandoned checkouts and count how many were below your threshold. In one store I worked on, the threshold was $200 and 81% of abandoned checkouts were below it, getting hit with a $15 shipping fee. Testing $100 and $150 thresholds improved conversion significantly.
7. CRO split analysis
In your analytics conversion funnel, break down conversion by country and device type. Find the segments below your average — that's where the highest-ROI fixes hide. Example: one store's US conversion was 3× lower than Canada's because of higher shipping rates — an instantly fixable weakest link. Same for mobile vs desktop: their mobile conversion lagged, we cleaned up the mobile view, average went up.
8. Page speed
You've heard the Amazon millisecond studies. Shopify now has built-in speed scoring on your Themes page — if your score is horrendous, fix it. A faster website is a better website.
9. A/B testing price
If you A/B test anything on your product page, test price first — everything else pales in comparison. A projector tested at $69.95 vs $79.95: the lower price won on revenue per 100 visitors. Then $69.95 vs $74.95: the higher price won — $5 more per unit, pure margin, no ROAS hit. Keep testing; the results will surprise you.
10. A/B testing product page layout
After price: headlines, description, layout, images, GIFs, design, color coding. Keep these separate from app add-ons (sticky bars, timers, badges) — fundamentals first. Watch out for the three classic A/B mistakes: unclean traffic splits, testing multiple variables at once, and concluding without statistical significance. Your brain will want to make all three mistakes; resist.
11. Localize currency & language
Relevant if at least 5% of your traffic comes from countries with a different language or currency. Use an app that switches automatically by IP address — a German visitor sees German text and EUR prices without touching anything. Just switching to an app with IP-based detection has fixed conversion rates for stores we've worked on. Locals want local; bonus points for a local vibe overall.
12. CRM improvement
CRM isn't just post-sale complaints — a significant share of tickets come from customers before their first purchase: clarifying a product, checking if you're legit, asking about shipping. Nailing those interactions converts them. And great post-sale CRM drives retention, which lifts your long-term conversion rate with every returning customer.
13. Improve shipping speed (dropshipping → 3PL)
Show your shipping time clearly on product or FAQ pages — hide it and customers assume the worst. The biggest speed upgrade most stores make is switching from dropshipping to a 3PL model. Be specific: same-day dispatch? Overnight options? Tracking and warranty? The more precise the details, the more sophisticated your store looks — and the better it converts.
14. Retargeting — and cross-targeting
If you advertise on Facebook, retarget on Facebook. Same for Google, TikTok, everywhere. But within-platform retargeting isn't enough: cross-target your warm audiences between platforms. People who see your Facebook ads also use Google — at minimum, run a brand campaign on Google for anyone searching your store name. Stop the leaking bucket of warm traffic dropping off anywhere in the funnel.
15. Bulk discounts & bundling
The more they buy, the more they save — simple and effective, and bulk orders are cheaper for you to fulfill per unit. Bundle complementary products (it's standard practice on Amazon for a reason), or run BOGO and conditional-discount variations.
16. Timers, badges, popups, stock-outs, sticky banners…
A word of caution: be very selective. Strong brands rarely use these; at most 1–2. Fake countdown timers and invented "only 7 left in stock" messages erode trust — and stacking seven popups is just annoying. That said, for low-ticket high-volume products, some can work: countdown timers, sticky add-to-cart banners, urgency messages, trust badges, signup popups, cart-button animations. Use sparingly.
17. Embed social media posts on your product page
If content performed well on TikTok or elsewhere, embed it on your product page and cross-link it. Social proof, better product showcase, higher conversion — wherever your best content lives, bring it home.
18. Authentic reviews on your product page
Image reviews beat text reviews. Video reviews beat image reviews. And authenticity beats everything: most Shopify store reviews are fake, modified or redacted, and customers see through it. Stand out by being real.
The Cialdini split
- Reciprocity — provide value before the first purchase (welcome-series discount).
- Scarcity — limited stock, banners, popups, countdown timers, limited editions.
- Social proof — embedded social posts, authentic reviews, affiliates & influencers.
- Authority — influencer names on your page, badges, awards, "trusted by 17,000 customers."
- Consistency — don't run an Easter-only discount timer that never ends.
- Liking — a personal touch; a likable, authentic face of the brand.
Most other steps simply make sure your store operates on all cylinders. The high-level influence strategies matter — but a great product offering and clean operational processes will always be the basis of a successful funnel.
PS. If you've tried all the steps above and your conversion rate didn't improve, contact me and I'll refund you for the time it took you to read the article (and maybe even help you implement some stuff).