Shopify Retargeting: How to Get Customers Rushing Back to Your Store

How often do you buy something on your first visit to an online store? 

Not often, right? You might wait a few days for better options or scroll through different stores for more choices. As an ecommerce business, missing out on these potential consumers means losing a lot of money. 

That’s where retargeting comes into the picture. You can use many mediums like direct mail retargeting or ads to influence these customers to return to your Shopify store and complete their purchases. 

Let’s learn more about retargeting and how your store can benefit. 

What is Retargeting? 

Retargeting is a marketing strategy to increase ecommerce sales by targeting people who have visited your website or Shopify store. 

For example, when a person visits your store and clicks on a product page for shoes, they will see these Google ads for shoes when surfing different websites or social platforms. This is possible because your website uses “cookies” to collect visitors’ information, like the pages they visit, how long they spend on a particular page, their contact information, behavior, etc. 

These cookies then show relevant and dynamic retargeting ads when visitors leave your website. 

Why is Retargeting Beneficial? 

The four significant benefits of running a retargeting campaign are: 

Puts your brand in the spotlight 

Retargeting ads pop up on other sites and platforms your visitor surfs. Seeing the same pictures of products they were searching for puts your brand at the forefront of that visitor’s mind. 

Boosts site traffic 

When you have your retargeting ads on different websites that the prospect is browsing, you increase the chances of those visitors returning to your website to continue shopping. This boosts your website traffic. 

Drives more sales 

Without retargeting, you’d lose out on highly qualified prospects that would have purchased a product if given a slight push. You can highlight your products and increase sales by displaying retargeting ads or using campaigns.  

Increase conversion rates 

Strategically made retargeting campaigns can have great conversion rates. You can even use these campaigns along with other marketing campaigns like email marketing, direct mail marketing, etc., to increase your conversion rates. 

How Does Retargeting Work? 

Two key elements make up retargeting: tracking user behavior and creating campaigns. Let’s dive into more detail. 

Track User Behavior 

User behavior is tracked in the form of cookies which are pieces of code stored by a user’s web browser. They allow various forms of information to be tracked, like who visited your webpage, how long they were active, who saw your ad, and who clicked on the CTA. 

Retargeting Campaigns 

These campaigns can be divided into two types: 

List-based

1. Direct Mail 

 This entails sending mailers to consumers who have visited your store or expressed interest in buying your products. You can include offers or discount coupons that appeal to these users in these mailers. With Postalytics, you can create direct mail retargeting campaigns that are personalized and effective. 

Here are simple steps on how to get started. 

2. Email Marketing

Retargeting emails are a great way to share exciting offers related to the products the visitor was searching for. You can even recommend similar products or offer combos through saver deals. 

For example, look at how Adidas sends this retargeting email, including reviews and social proof, to motivate the customer to purchase that product. 

3. Direct Mail & Email Tandem

You can combine direct mail retargeting campaigns with your email campaigns to form an integrated approach to converting visitors. For example, once the recipient receives your direct mail offer, you can send them an email reminder if they don’t act within a few days.   

Pixel-based 

1. Retargeting Digital Ads

This is one of the most popular pixel-based campaigns that ecommerce businesses run. It involves displaying pictures of your products on other websites the visitor accesses. This influences their purchase decisions and improves conversions for your store. 

Here’s how Fanatics shows digital ads with reduced prices to motivate visitors to purchase their products. 

Effective Tips and Practices for Retargeting 

Just sending direct mail or launching digital ads retargeting won’t get you conversions. Here are some effective tips and practices you can start implementing. 

Maximize Retargeting Applications and Marketing Platforms 

1. Retargeting Postcards 

Postcard marketing is a form of direct mail that helps you reach a targeted audience with promotional print mailers like offers, announcements, coupons, etc.  

With retargeting postcards, you can influence purchasers with a previous history of buying products during offer periods or with coupons. By sending these buyers a postcard with an offer or coupon code, you can increase the likelihood of their returning to your Shopify store to purchase the product. 

2. Retargeting Letters 

Suppose you are selling expensive or time-intensive products via your Shopify store. In that case, you might need to encourage your visitors by providing more information to help them pick your product over others. 

Retargeting letters help you include more information; you can add imagery and provide detailed, engaging copy to increase conversions. 

3. Retargeting Self-Mailers 

Self-mailers refer to a direct mail piece that does not require an envelope. You can directly send the piece to your recipients.  

This can be a great tactic if you don’t want to invest too much in your direct mail campaigns, as self-mailers don’t require that much printing or creative costs. It’s perfect when you just want to send your recipients coupons or offer cards. 

4. Retargeting Emails 

Email marketing is a great strategy for sending multiple reminders or retargeting nudges. 

You can get creative with your email retargeting campaigns by understanding the recipients and helping them make informed decisions. For example, if someone was searching for “trekking shoes” in your store, you can provide them with an existing article about selecting the right trekking shoes and links with your recommended products.  

5. Retargeting Ads 

Ads are one of the common strategies to bring customers back to your Shopify store to complete the purchase.  

While implementing these ads, you can showcase the offers or discounts that are going on. If price is the issue, the prospect will take advantage of the reduced price and purchase. 

You can run these ads on Google, Facebook, and other social platforms. 

6. Combinations 

Retargeting works best when you use an integrated approach to bring customers back to your Shopify store. You can start experimenting with different retargeting strategies. Once you start getting results, you can combine these strategies to get better conversions. 

For example, once a prospect abandons their cart, you can send them an email reminding them to complete the purchase. Along with that, you can start displaying retargeting ads. 

Know Your Customers 

1. Cart Abandoners 

Cart abandoners are shoppers who add products to a website’s shopping cart but leave the store before finishing the transaction. 

These shoppers are more likely to convert than the rest because they have already shown an interest in those particular products. Sending them a retargeting ad campaign with a discount code or exclusive offer will result in them returning to your Shopify store. 

2. Big Spenders 

These customers are likely your repeat customers who have earlier spent a lot on products in your store and thus are likely to be your valuable customers. 

You want to focus on these customers as (a) they will probably make up much of your revenue, and (b) you already have information on these customers, so you can personalize their retargeting campaigns to get better results. 

3. Dormant Customers 

These customers haven’t purchased from you in a long time, but it would be unwise not to consider them for your retargeting campaigns. 

Instead of showing ads, an email or a direct mail would work as it helps you better track their response and open rates. Then, depending on these rates, you can further decide if you want to include them in your campaigns or if it would be good to remove them from your mailing list and keep it healthy. 

4. First-time Visitors 

As you would not have much information about these visitors, targeting them via display ads is best. You can track the products they were interested in and show similar recommendations or the same products via these ads. 

You can even show them limited-time offers to incentivize them to purchase products soon.

5. Different Demographics 

As ecommerce stores, you’ll likely get customers from different demographics. For example, people would buy shoes from different countries, genders, or age groups. 

In such a scenario, segmenting your audience and showing them relevant retargeting ads or sending them relevant product recommendations via email becomes crucial. After all, you don’t want to send shoes for males to your female prospects. 

Convert Leads Through Retargeting 

To convert leads through your retargeting campaigns, you must create a strategy that denotes your goals, the different mediums you’ll start with, like Google retargeting dynamic ads, the different audience segments you want to target, etc. 

The best way is to start small and experiment with a couple of strategies before you invest a lot of time and money. 

Personalize Campaigns and Offer Discounts 

If you want better results from your retargeting campaigns, personalizing the campaigns becomes important. For example, you can send emails with relevant product recommendations based on the user’s wishlist or recent searches. 

You can even showcase those offers that those customers have previously shown interest in. You can also create hype around your upcoming offer periods to get more customers to your store.

Prepare to Remarket After Abandonment 

Cart abandonment is a signal that your potential customers are interested in some of your products and are just looking for that extra push in the form of discounts or reminders to purchase them. 

That’s why your strategy should focus on remarketing to these customers after cart abandonment. This could be in the form of email reminders, offers, or extra information. 

Final Thoughts: Attract More Customers with Retargeting 

Your marketing plan needs a solid Shopify retargeting strategy to attract and bring back qualified traffic to your store. 

You can experiment with different campaigns like emails, direct mail, and ads. If you’re dealing with customers who are big spenders, it’s worth the time and money to send them direct mail for retargeting. 

With Postalytics, you can deploy these campaigns within minutes and gain access to the metrics and analytics that will help you improve. 

Here’s all you need to know about Postalytics’ direct mail retargeting features.