You’re running a number of marketing and advertising campaigns to drive traffic to your Shopify Plus store. Owing to the quality of your products, the deals and discounts you’re offering, you’re also seeing a lot of visitors interested in making a purchase from you. But when it comes to completing the purchase, you see a number of people dropping off. This is where your Shopify Plus checkout process plays a critical role.
Note: Shopify Scripts is not available on Shopify Advanced too; if you need help using or understanding the advanced features, or exploring the Shopify editor app or the Shopify scripts generator, please reach out to us here.
The checkout is your store’s most critical point in your sales cycle. It is the point where a consumer makes the final decision of either abandoning the purchase or completing it. And needless to say, the smoother the checkout process is, the more likely they are to complete it.
By smoother, we obviously mean the experience the shopper gets when progressing through it.
This is where you need to start focusing on Shopify Plus checkout optimization. Doing so typically includes embedding an array of easy-to-apply discount codes and coupons, promotions, selecting payment and fulfillment options at the right moment to the online shoppers.
We know that’s a lot to do for ecommerce checkout optimization.
But if you’re on Shopify Plus or Shopify Advanced, one of the easiest ways to do this is with the help of Shopify Scripts API. Let us tell you about them and a few Shopify best practices to keep in mind.
What are Shopify Scripts API?
Shopify Scripts API are essentially small pieces of code that let you create customized and personalized shopping experiences for your customers in their carts and at checkout.
For instance, here are some different types of Shopify scripts you can create:
- Line item scripts - These scripts are to customize the line items in a cart and enable you to change prices and grant discounts. This Shopify Script can be run every time an item is added, removed or changed in the cart.
- Shipping scripts - With these scripts, you’re customizing the shipping field in your checkout process. It can enable you to change shipping methods or even grant discounts on shipping rates to certain locations. They run every time a customer visits the shipping options page at checkout.
- Payment scripts - These are scripts that help you customize the payments. It lets you rename, hide and re-order payment gateways, and are run every time a customer accesses the payment method page at checkout.
What are some of best Shopify scripts examples?
Some of the examples of the different types of customizations that Shopify Scripts enables you to make include:
- Discounting products with specific tags to offer percentage or fixed discounts, or a combination of both
- Running promotions with simple or complex logic like BOGO, buy two get 10% off and more
- Offering dynamic pricing with volume-based price breaks
- Modifying, hiding or re-ordering shipping options and prices
- Modifying, hiding or re-ordering payment gateway methods
Sounds interesting and definitely that can nudge your Shopify Plus store visitors to complete purchases, right?
Well, let’s talk about a few discount, gift and shipping checkout optimization options that you can implement on your store with Shopify Scripts.
eCommerce Shopify checkout optimizations with Shopify Scripts generator
There are a number of Shopify checkout optimizations and customizations that you can make with the help of Shopify Scripts.
We’re going to share 7 of our favorite Shopify Scripts for checkout to help you get comfortable using this powerful tool on your Shopify store:
1. Buy one, give one
If you want to integrate the donations your brand makes with the orders you receive, this Shopify Script is for you. When checking out with an eligible product, an item for donation automatically gets added to the customer’s cart. It lets the buyer also see both the products they’re purchasing for themselves and those they’d be donating.
A good example of this is live on Allbirds, a New Zealand based sustainable shoe brand. You can know more about this Shopify Script here: Buy one, get one (discount).
People love brands that help them associate themselves with a cause they truly care about.
2. Free gift or discount with purchase/ order
Another strategy that leading eCommerce brands make use to make their customers feel special, is offering a free gift or an added discount along with the purchase. The gift or discount available to the customer qualifies based on what they’ve added to the cart and is automatically selected. You can learn more about this Shopify Script here: Free gift with purchase.
Chubbies, a lifestyle apparel brand uses this Shopify Script to encourage buyers to add more products to their cart to avail a free gift/ added discount.
3. Dynamic shipping costs for transparency
More than 50% of online shoppers abandon their purchases when presented with shipping costs that were not mentioned beforehand.
With Shopify Scripts you can pre-calculate the shipping costs and display them to the buyer, before they even begin the checkout process. You can learn more about this Shopify Script here: Shipping rate.
4. Auto-select default payment method
Agreed, most online shoppers seek multiple payment modes when making a purchase to find one that suits them best. But at the same time, there are also those who repeatedly make use of one payment method and just want it to be convenient for them to make a purchase with. This Shopify Script lets you enable auto-selecting the default payment method to nudge the buyer to complete the purchase, without overwhelming them with too many options. You can learn more about this Shopify Script here: Reorder payment gateways.
Here’s an example of this script live on Urban Planet. They have enabled it for their mobile shoppers to make the checkout process more streamlined.
5. First-time customer and new subscriber discount
With so many options available to an online shopper, it takes a split second for them to decide whether or not they want to make a purchase from you. Offering a welcome discount or a custom discount to encourage first purchases is a great tactic to convert visitors into subscribers or customers. You can learn more about this Script here: Creating discount codes.
SkinnyMe Tea leverages this Shopify Script on their store:
6. Tiered discounts on spending thresholds
One tactic that Shopify Plus stores can be commonly seen using to encourage customers to buy more, along with smart upsell and cross-sell strategies, is using tiered discounts on spending thresholds. This encourages them to add more products to the cart just to be able to avail a higher discount. For example, spend $100 and get $10 off and spend $200 and get $50 off. You can do this with Shopify Scripts using this script here: Tiered cart discount by spend.
Here’s an example from Brooklinen:
7. Disable discount codes during sitewide sales
Let’s assume you’re running a sitewide sale. You don’t want online shoppers to also stack more discounts with other coupon codes on the already discounted products. You’re not just going to hurt your profit margins, but also end up running in losses by the end of it.
With Shopify Scripts, you can disable coupon/ discount stacking on your store during checkout. You can learn more about the Shopify Script here: Disable discount codes.
Can you write your own Shopify Scripts for checkout optimization?
Yes!
Shopify Scripts are extremely flexible and can be used to create unique and powerful discount strategies for your checkout process. Depending on who your audience is, what motivates them to make purchases and your sales strategy, you can create your own Shopify Script to customize and offer a personalized checkout process in your store.
The above Scripts we shared are simply some of the popular examples of the powerful tool put to use! Let them inspire you, but get creative to suit the shopping experience you want to offer to your buyers.
How to get started with Shopify Scripts API?
Well, Shopify Plus has made this really simple. All you need to do is install the Script Editor on your store. The app will then take you through a series of steps to help you create your first Script with a pre-existing example or customize to make one of your own.
If you have a technical background, you can also dive deeper into how Shopify Scripts works with this document: Shopify Scripts API reference. Scripts are written with a Ruby API that gives you a great deal of control and flexibility if you know the language.
Do you need eCommerce checkout optimization on your Shopify Plus store?
The answer is YES again.
With fickle-minded buyers who have all too many options when it comes to making a purchase, you need to make the most of it, while you have their attention. Your checkout process has a direct impact on how you convert visitors into customers.
In fact, with checkout customizations, Shopify Plus brands like Peepers have been able to increase their conversions by a whopping 30%. You can read about their success story here.
Need help using the power of Shopify Scripts to optimize your checkout process for more conversions? Or looking for some advanced Shopify checkout tips?
Reach out to our Shopify Plus experts today to explore the Shopify Scripts API.
Additional reads:
