Top 3 WooCommerce Customizations For a Memorable Shopping Experience

A million dollars is spent online every minute. At least. Do you have some skin in the game? If you’re reading this article, you probably do – or plan to. Online shopping is a big deal – and it’s not just for the big players. You don’t need a Shopify account to sell online. You can sell things online using your WordPress websites with the free and easy WooCommerce plugin.

Today, making money has never been easier. What do you want to sell today? You can sell that eBook you wrote. You can sell your client’s entire line of cat toys. You can even sell your agency services with an online booking form. You don’t even need to accept credit cards – you can just add PayPal.

Is having a plugin and a blog enough to make money these days? Probably not. Customers are done with “satisfaction.” They are over “online shopping.” Gone are the days even when free shipping got you sales. Today, customers want to be delighted. Customers want an online shopping experience. So, are you ready to impress?

Plug in WooCommerce and Excite Your Customers

Building an online store sounds daunting, but it’s not. You don’t even need to code. WordPress and WooCommerce can help you create a memorable and personalized shopping experience – both of which are crucial for standing out in a crowded marketplace.

Think about the last article you wrote or the website you built. Was it “working” enough? No. Content has to be tailored for an audience. It has to rank for keywords. It has to be more than good. The same for websites – and, the same for your online shop.

As a WordPress agency owner or niche online store salesperson, you need to transform your WooCommerce store into a true reflection of your brand and your customers’ preferences. And, you can do it!

We’ve got 3 ways you can customize your WooCommerce store and deliver a unique shopping experience that will keep your customers coming back.

WooCommerce Customization Store Tip 1: Enhance Your Product Presentation

Product presentation is even more important online than offline. Why? You can’t touch what you’re about to buy. It’s all about tangibility.

Tangibility helps customers examine the material, texture, fit, workmanship, and quality of products, which are considered important for purchase decisions.

When products are offered online, they become more intangible, which can lead to greater difficulty in evaluation, higher perceived effort, higher risk perceptions, and lower customer engagement. Plus, our attention spans are shorter! We’re scrolling, not walking.

To overcome the intangibility constraint of online shopping, you need richer product presentation formats like 360-spin rotation tools and virtual mirrors, which can enhance the perceived tangibility of your products.

It’s All About Your Product Pages

Product pages can take different approaches, from a direct display of the product and its benefits to more elaborate, interactive pages that provide an authentic experience for the user. Remember: the most captivating product pages don’t require complex programming and WordPress offers thousands of plugins and themes that can support whatever you want to build.

WooCommerce enables you to create unique product pages that fit you and your customers.

1.1 Utilize Compelling Product Images

High-quality, professional-looking product images make a significant impact on your customers’ purchasing decisions. Invest in a good camera or work with a photographer to capture visuals that showcase your products from multiple angles.

Use real product images for your store – not AI images. AI images are great to pep up your blog content but not ideal for shopping decisions.

Woo says: https://woocommerce.com/document/adding-product-images-and-galleries/

Product Thumbnail plugin tip: https://iconicwp.com/products/woothumbs/

1.2 Implement Engaging Product Descriptions

You have to think about your customers here. What were they searching for, and why? What’s the context of this purchase? Get those search terms and pleasure points out there and visible.

Describe your products in such a way that they appeal to potential buyers. How? Try the Problem/Agitate/Solve formula. Or use the Attention/Interest/Desire/Action model. How about the Feature/Advantage/Benefit angle? Don’t just list features – list advantages and benefits.

Here’s an example: selling an online social media course. FAB!

Feature: Comprehensive online course covering the latest social media trends and best practices.

Advantage: Stay ahead of the changing social media landscape with weekly, 30-minute lessons.

Benefit: Maintain a strong social media presence leading to increased lead generation and sales.

WooCommerce: https://woocommerce.com/posts/how-to-write-product-descriptions/

WooCommerce SEO plugin tip: https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/yoast-woocommerce-seo/

1.3 Leverage Product Variations and Customization

Offer your customers the ability to customize their purchases by providing options for size, color, or other product attributes. You’re enhancing their shopping experience and increasing the chance of a sale. Don’t make your customers look for customization options. Get those options front and center.

How? Use the WooCommerce Custom Fields for Variations plugin. The plugin allows you to display additional static data on specific variations. WooCommerce custom fields allow you to do two things: you can add extra product options and additional data to specific variations.

Woo says: https://woocommerce.com/document/variable-product/

Advanced WooCommerce product variations: https://woocommerce.com/document/advanced-product-variation/

WooCommerce Customization Store Tip 2: Personalize the Customer Journey

Personalization is a powerful tool in creating a unique shopping experience. By tailoring the customer journey to individual preferences and behaviors, you’re building stronger connections with your audience and fostering brand loyalty – all the while making the shopping experience better.

Personalization is crucial. Shoppers have too many choices. Walmart has 83 types of ketchup! Is that helpful? Probably not. If you can excel at personalization, you’ll differentiate yourself. It’s better to offer unique value propositions that your competitors have difficulty replicating. Stand out from the crowd.

“Over three-quarters of consumers (76 per cent) said that receiving personalized communications was a key factor in prompting their consideration of a brand, and 78 per cent said such content made them more likely to repurchase.”

McKinsey.com

2.1 Implement Personalized Recommendations

Utilize WooCommerce integrations that analyze customer browsing and purchase history to provide personalized product recommendations. This can help customers discover new items they might be interested in leading to increased sales and satisfaction.

Woo suggests: https://woocommerce.com/products/product-recommendations/

This guide lists some of the most common, high-performing product recommendation strategies that you can implement with WooCommerce Product Recommendations: https://woocommerce.com/document/product-recommendations/recommendation-strategies/

2.2 Offer Customizable Account Settings

Allow customers to personalize their account settings, such as preferred payment methods, shipping addresses, and communication preferences. This level of control can make them feel more invested in your store and more likely to return.

Customize My Account for WooCommerce: https://woocommerce.com/document/customize-my-account-for-woocommerce/

Enable users to personalize their My Account page with the WooCommerce Customize My Account page plugin: https://woocommerce.com/document/customize-my-account-page-user-dashboard-for-woocommerce/

Woo suggests the full-featured My Account page with the Custom My Account Dashboard for WooCommerce extension: https://woocommerce.com/products/custom-my-account-dashboard-for-woocommerce/

The dashboard customizer extension allows you to add features such as custom endpoints, user avatars, and banners. You can also change the layout of the page and display information in tables.

2.3 Leverage Abandoned Cart Reminders

Do you want to know where the real money is? It’s sitting in abandoned carts. Carts that never made it to the checkout are currently valued at 4 trillion dollars (Hotjar.com). Don’t leave that money on the table.

Set up automated abandoned cart email reminders to gently nudge customers who have left items in their cart without completing the purchase. This can be an effective way to re-engage potential customers and recover lost sales.

Read what Woo has to say about how you can reduce your abandoned carts: https://woocommerce.com/posts/fewer-abandoned-carts-more-sales-nine-proven-strategies/

Woo suggests: https://woocommerce.com/document/abandoned-cart-recovery/. The AutomateWoo extension excels at sending abandoned cart emails for WooCommerce. It can identify returning registered users even when they’re not logged in, while also tracking guest customers.

Find out more: https://woocommerce.com/document/automatewoo/abandoned-cart/

WooCommerce Customization Store Tip 3: Enhance the Checkout Experience

This is where you can lose a lot of your business. No one likes waiting in line, and no one likes clicking seven times to buy their product. The longer customers take to complete their purchase, the more likely they are to abandon their shopping cart. That’s lost revenue.

The checkout process is the critical touchpoint in the customer journey. Optimizing it can significantly improve the overall shopping experience – and save you lost sales.

“A complicated checkout process deters 17% of shoppers. Checkout flows with too many form fields, too many steps or a confusing setup drive almost one in five customers away from their online shopping carts.”

Hotjar.com

3.1 Streamline the Checkout Flow

Ensure your checkout process is intuitive, straightforward, and easy to navigate. Check out in as few steps as possible. No one likes to click ten times. Minimize the number of steps required to complete a purchase and provide clear instructions and progress indicators to guide customers through the process. Your customers will thank you. 

Here are two ways you can optimize your checkout in WooCommerce:

Tailor your checkout to fit customers’ needs in WooCommerce. The extension allows you to add, remove or edit fields to best suit your store. Check out the extension here: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-checkout-field-editor/

You can create one-page checkouts easily with the WooCommerce One Page Checkout extension: https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-one-page-checkout/

“Customers can add or remove products from their cart and complete payment without leaving the page and waiting for a new page to load.” Woo

3.2 Offer Multiple Payment Options

Provide a variety of payment methods, such as credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and alternative payment gateways. Don’t forget PayPal and Venmo. Options cater to the preferences of your customer base and reduce friction during the checkout process. Translation: People just want to shop – so let them. Fun fact: in Fallout, bottle caps are used for currency. Be flexible. 

According to Statista, PayPal topped the charts of the most used online payment in the USA, followed by Apple Pay, Venmo, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay. Traditional merchant accounts are becoming a thing of the past.

Woo Payments allows you to accept major credit and debit cards as well as popular local payment methods on your WooCommerce site. You can also boost sales with the Buy Now, Pay Later option of accepting Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm.

Woo suggests: https://woocommerce.com/products/woopayments/

3.3 Implement Order Tracking and Updates

Order and delivery tracking is essential, and not just so you can monitor your system. Customers want to track the status of their orders from processing to delivery. Provide timely updates and shipping notifications to keep them informed and build trust in your brand.

Reminder: notifications for each step of the process are probably too many. However, if your customers want to be informed about each step, build that into the system. For most customers, the ideal is probably “order received, order shipped, order arriving on —.”

Woo suggests: https://woocommerce.com/products/order-tracking-for-woocommerce/ and https://woocommerce.com/products/shipment-tracking/

Are You New to Woo?

You may be completely new to WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you to add eCommerce (an online store) to your WordPress website. We’ve listed three links below that will help you get a foot on the ladder.

Rocket.net offers not only Managed WordPress hosting, but also Managed WooCommerce hosting.

How to build an online store Using WooCommerce

How to personalize your online store

Looking for extensions? Visit the WooCommerce Marketplace

Are You an Experienced WooCommerce Seller?

You may be an old hand at WooCommerce, and you may already be enjoying our supersonic WooCommerce hosting. If not, then please give us a call to see how we can support your shop. If you are already onboard, you may like to check out other WooCommerce articles we’ve written.

The Top 10 Best WooCommerce Plugins for Your WordPress Online Shop

Optimizing Your WooCommerce Button Color for Conversions

Top Winning WooCommerce Email Marketing Plays

Top 3 WooCommerce Pre-Launch Social Media Tips to Explode Sales

Why Instagram Social Selling Drives WooCommerce Success

5 Tips to Optimize Your WooCommerce Store for SEO

WooCommerce Styling And Design Tips For Managed WordPress Hosting

We’d Love to Show You What the Fastest WordPress Hosting Means for Your WooCommerce Online Shop!

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