Innovation that increases online sales? Really?

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Stylaquin1

There is a Shopify App that will Increase sales!

Are you a Shopify website owner with great products but not enough site traffic and sales? Are you frustrated and confused about how to get more traffic and increase conversions?
Would you like your site to show a growth curve that even vaguely resembles a hockey stick? Before you say it’s impossible, or too much work, or crazy expensive, take a look at the results from three years of beta testing Stylaquin on a small gift and clothing site. The pink indicates when Stylaquin was active on the site.

For two years before the site started beta testing, their sales and conversion rate was flat and not showing even the slightest sign of traction. The owner did her research and learned that content was king so she hired a blogger, but nothing much changed. She tried a loyalty program, and still nothing. Then the store joined the first Stylaquin beta program. In the first few months things started heading up, and up, and by the end of the first year, sales had increased a whopping 486%. That was just the beginning. Click here to see the data from three years of testing, or check out the 2-minute video below that shows how Stylaquin is re-imagining the online shopping experience.

If you’ve tried other apps that didn’t deliver, it’s probably hard to imagine another app will really move the needle, but Stylaquin is different. Most apps that say they increase sales don’t really get you past the problem of Google’s algorithm. Some are gimmicky, and most are covering things you’ve already done. Of course, Stylaquin isn’t a magic bullet, it does take time to work and the results build over time. That’s why we offer a month free, so you can experience the increases in time on site, items viewed, and return customer visits for yourself.

Stop trying to discount your way to success, and start delighting the shoppers who love to shop. Discount shoppers who just want everything for 50% off with free shipping should not be who you focus on. They are fickle and kill your ROI. Stylaquin helps you focus on power-shoppers, the folks who love to shop. They are more brand loyal, more likely to buy, and more likely to come back and buy more when they do. Power-shoppers are looking for a great online shopping experience, something engaging and fun. That’s exactly what Stylaquin gives them, a beautiful, unique and engaging online shopping experience. Give Stylaquin a try! It’s available in the Shopify App Store.

Why engagement solves more problems than you think

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Stylaquin1

Don't underestimate the power of engagement to get your Shopify store to the next level

You hear a lot of Shopify experts talking about SEO and marketing being what you need to focus on, but you don’t hear as much about engagement. What’s odd about that is engagement is the Big Kahuna in how Google ranks your Shopify site. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making your site more understandable to the Google algorithm. It is, after all, just a machine. Google doesn’t actually view or engage with your Shopify site, it just indexes the site and collects data about the visitors who do visit. Sounds simple, and it is. Google doesn’t know if you have great photography, it doesn’t know if you spend hours creating deep and meaningful copy, it doesn’t know if you have the most amazing products ever. Google analyzes your site to see if it can identify what you sell; lawnmowers, perfume, sox—whatever, and then it tracks how visitors interact with your site. If you have beautiful photography, great copy, and amazing products, visitors are likely to stay longer and view more products. That’s what Google uses to determine if you are a good site to send its customers, the searchers, to when they type in a query that matches up with what Google thinks you have. Even if you advertise with Google, you are not the customer who Google serves. Google serves the searcher, because without searchers, Google doesn’t have a business.

Okay, so how does this help small Shopify stores (or large ones) who are trying to stand out in a crowded market in a way that Google can track and quantify? Increasing engagement really moves the needle. You have probably already spent time and money creating great photography, meaningful copy, and amazing products. If you haven’t tackled those, stop reading and get started. But most of you can engage and delight your customers so that they stay longer and come back more often with what you have already, just make it more fun to shop. Yes, shameless self promotion coming, Stylaquin is the easy way to make your site more fun than the rest. Stores that use Stylaquin have seen shoppers spend more time on site, view more products, and get more return visits. This all adds up to an increase in organic traffic, a better conversion rate, and more sales. Why? Because Google is just a machine that takes it’s direction from how users interact with your Shopify site. Make your site more fun to engage with and BINGO! Visitors stay longer, view more products and come back more often. Sounds simple, and it is. Check out the video and see for yourself.

How a link from the Dalai Lama boosted my Google site rank

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Stylaquin1

Give your Shopify SEO a boost with external links

Years ago, I helped out a non-profit, and they asked if they could do something for me in return. I asked them to link to my website, and I linked to theirs in return. A few months later, my site’s Google site rank skyrocketed. It turned out that the Dalai Lama’s site had linked to the non-profit’s site and my site had benefited from the link juice. Helping others is its own reward, but sometimes the universe sends thanks.

Google doesn’t share how its algorithm works, and the panda release may have reduced the importance of external links in favor of relevant content. External links still count and depending on the quality of the link can still move the needle.

Linking to content outside your site tells Google that there is more to the story. Google doesn’t really care what the story is, just who is telling it and how relevant the content is to the search terms it’s looking for. For an example, let’s say you sell cruelty-free cashmere sweaters, a link to PETA.org is not just appropriate, but also highly relevant to the customer looking for that product. If you can get PETA.org to link back to your site, that’s pure gold.

Not every product will have an easy link opportunity like that, but there are always link opportunities. Say you are selling a tee shirt with sunflowers, you can link to a fan site for sunflower lovers, organic sunflower seeds, or the Van Gogh painting of sunflowers. Have fun with it. Want to know what Google thinks is relevant to sunflowers? Yup, just search “Sunflowers”. Don’t add links that will confuse Google. Keep it simple and targeted.

If you’d like more help with improving your Shopify SEO download the Smart Shopify SEO Builder. It’s free, and packed with useful information.

Using names to increase SEO in Shopify

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Stylaquin1

There is real SEO power in a product's name

What’s in a name? Well, you determine that when you add it to your Shopify site. You can call a product anything you want, so here are some ideas for leveraging the product name for SEO success.

Once a product is popular and well known, i.e. Bean Boots, iPhone, Levis; the name is the keyword. For most products though, the product name is an easy opportunity to get keywords into the most important tag for Google, the H1 tag.

Example: Essential Cashmere Sweater

What would a customer type into Google if they were looking for this sweater? In this example, the manufacturer named the sweater “Essential Cashmere Sweater” so we’ll use that as the starting point. The more you can drill down, the more likely it is that you’ll find a connection.

What sets this sweater apart from the competition is that it is made from, more expensive, but cruelty-free methods of wool-gathering. Cruelty-free is a good keyword for this product and we’ll add it to the title. So now we have Cruelty-free Essential Cashmere Sweater.

Are there any other things that customers would type into Google if they were looking for this sweater? The (fictitious) company that makes the sweater has created content on their site that supports their mission. They also have a large following on social media, so the brand name, Karma Isles, may be something customers would search for. Women’s is another keyword that could help Google determine if it is a good fit for what their customers searched for.

Women’s Karma Isles Cruelty-free Essential Cashmere Sweater is a mouthful, but it is also a goldmine of searchable terms. You could also call it, Karma Isles Women’s Essential Cashmere Sweater—Cruelty-free, or The Essential Women’s Cashmere Sweater, a Cruelty-free classic from Karma Isles.

It’s easy to dismiss this naming strategy as not on brand. Branding is important, but free organic traffic is, well, free traffic to an item potential customers are looking for. As a wise mentor once asked me “Do you want to be pure, or do you want to be rich?”

If you’d like more information on how to improve your Shopify site’s SEO on the product level, click to download the Smart Shopify SEO Builder. It’s free and loaded with good info.

Is Sugar and Spice the Next Technology Disruption?

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Stylaquin1

Is Sugar and Spice the Next Technology Disruption?

What is the biggest differentiator between your customer segments? By that I mean, when you sort your customers what are the first big buckets? Gender? Age? Geographic Region? Income? If gender is the biggest differentiator, then what I’m going to say is very, very important.

We treat all genders the same online. We shouldn’t. While life is a bell curve there is a real difference between how men and women shop. Does your website offer male and female customers the shopping experience that works for them?

The current online shopping experience was designed for the way men shop. That’s perfect if your customers are men. Men are mostly item shoppers, and they value speed and efficiency. Let’s say a guy needs a new white dress shirt, he’ll go online, choose color and size and make the purchase. He probably won’t worry about how the new shirt will work with his existing wardrobe and he probably won’t keep shopping just for fun. Women shop for fun. They usually think about how the items in their wardrobe will work together AND they have a lot more choices for fit, fabric, and fashion than men do.

There is a huge gender bias in how websites are built that favors the way men shop. Women make 87% of all purchases, so there’s a huge opportunity to make websites more appealing to women. If you want to see how to add the shopping experience women want to an existing website, without re-engineering or re-platforming, Stylaquin may be the right fit—give us a call.

So, did it work? Yup, big time!

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Stylaquin1

Does Stylaquin work? Yup, big time!

When we first started testing Stylaquin, we saw right away that it worked, but the site was small, and the increases were HUGE in percentage terms, 400% in year one, over 350% so far in year two. Heck, they were up 1200% during the first wave of the pandemic. Still, we wanted to see it on a larger site. Recently we were able to test on a site with significantly more traffic. Here’s what we saw in our first 15K sessions.

14% of visitors used Stylaquin (STQ) when they shopped but 27% of return sessions used STQ when they shopped.
70% more time on site when shoppers used STQ.
185% more items viewed when shoppers used STQ.
Average return visits are 28% higher when shoppers used STQ.
Conversion rate 3.5% higher when shoppers used STQ.
AOV is 8% higher for STQ users.

It’s so exciting to see such a great benefit for e-commerce brands. If you are an innovative company on Shopify, we’d love to talk with you about increasing conversion rates, AOV and, time on site with Stylaquin. Look for Stylaquin in the Shopify App Store Spring 2022!

Read our white paper that shares the results from three years of testing Stylaquin and the decline when it was removed from the beta site.

Are your customers having a “micro moment”?

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Stylaquin1

Did you know that 71% of consumers shop in “micro-moments” AKA: shopping while doing something else. More than a third say they do so at least weekly and some do it several times a day.

While what makes something worth buying is still about value, brand, and convenience, how customers get to the decision point is very different in today’s always online, always on the phone, always distracted reality.

So how do you engage with customers who aren’t paying attention?

Make it easier to shop while distracted of course!

There is a myth that we can force customers to be the customers we want, rather than who they are. Making the online experience work for the way customers really are, rather than who we want them to be, is the only choice if you want them to come back. So how do you do that?

Why not make it faster to browse? That would let customers view more items in less time.

Why not make it easy to collect all the things that shoppers are interested in, and be able to engage with them in a meaningful way—see items together, change colors and sizes, and just have fun?

Why not make it easy to come back and see what was interesting from a previous visit? Remember, they are so busy that they are trying to do multiple things at once.

If you are following this so far, thank you! I reject that we all have a shorter attention span than a goldfish.

Stylaquin solves all of these problems and makes online shopping more engaging and more fun.

Shoppers who use Stylaquin:

Increase conversion rates by up to 5%.
Increase return visits up to 10%
Increase average order value (AOV) by up to 10%
Increase time on site by over 60%

If you are looking for innovative ways to make your site’s online shopping experience worth coming back for, give Stylaquin a try. Still not sure? Read our white paper that shares the results from three years of beta testing and the decline when Stylaquin was removed from the beta site.

Unseen lessons from a chair

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Stylaquin1

Unseen lessons from a chair

Chairs are mostly perfect right? We don’t think about them much as we sit down. Comfortable, uncomfortable, but mostly they’re all the same height. The next time you are at a public seating area, (I know there’s a pandemic but it will happen eventually), look at how men and women sit. Most men sit with feet flat because chairs are designed for someone 5’9″ height. Most women sit a little forward and just their toes touch the ground. It isn’t as comfortable, but women are used to it, so they don’t notice anymore and besides, they don’t have other options.

Chairs can teach us a lot about e-commerce too. The web is designed for the people who built it—mostly men. Men buy, women shop. And so the web is designed to make buying easy, but it isn’t designed for shopping. We’re so used to it that we don’t even notice. Women have learned to adapt and keep multiple tabs open when they shop because, even though they do the most purchasing, they don’t have the tools they need to shop the way they want to.

Is this a big deal? It depends on if you are a man or a woman. Like all life experiences, our perspective is altered by how we see the world and how our unique personal attributes frame and contribute to that experience. We all adapt, and after a while, we don’t really notice the accommodation. But when we have a choice of experiences, we will choose the one that fits us best. That’s why we all have a favorite chair. That’s why creating an online shopping experience that caters to women will make more women shop with you. Because it’s better, because it’s more comfortable, because we all have favorites.

If you’d like to see what an online shopping experience that is designed for women would look like check out the Stylaquin demo site or visit Stylaquin.com. Once you see it, you’ll understand how big the opportunity is to make online shopping work for women.

Is Stylaquin right for your site?

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Stylaquin1

Is Stylaquin Right for Your Site?

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” is one of my favorite sayings. But not trying new things lets your competition get ahead of you. Here’s a handy decision tree to help you see if Stylaquin is a good fit for your customer, and if it will help increase sales and conversion rates on your site.

Decisions tree to help you decide it Stylaquin is the right answer for your site.

Gender bias, e-commerce and artificial intelligence

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Stylaquin1

Gender Bias, E-commerce, and Artificial Intelligence

Do you ever just know that something is wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on why? AI is coming. AI will revolutionize e-commerce. AI is the future. But is AI fixing the right problem?

When you hear “I need to buy a shirt” did you picture a man or a women? When you hear “I need a new outfit” did you picture a man or a woman? Women don’t item shop the way men do. I’m talking in general here, please don’t hit the outrage button.

Men shop differently than women do and online shopping is designed for the way men shop. Will AI be designed for the way men shop or the way women shop? Both is the obvious and easy answer, women shoppers will get shown things that women buy, men will get show things that men buy. Which is how the web treats women shoppers—item shoppers who buy different items. But they aren’t. Women who like to shop don’t item shop unless they have a specific need. It’s often what starts a longer shopping experience. Women shop because they like to shop. They like comparing and considering. They like to spend time looking at things they know they probably won’t buy. Data bears this out, women shop significantly more than men. 85% of all online purchases are made by women.

Think about the term “retail therapy” do you picture a man or a woman? What if the whole concept of online shopping needs to be rethought? The vast majority of all online purchases are made by women, and yet the web is designed for the way men shop. That’s the result of gender bias created by the lack of women in tech. #womenintech #diversity #genderbias

What if you could have add a shopping experience to your website that gives women the experience they value without replatforming and without changing the experience for men? What if you could do it without replatforming? What if it was easy? What if it was inexpensive. What if it increased engagement, increased return visits, and increased sales? Check out this one minute video that shows that it’s possible, easy and super fun to shop with. #Stylaquin

Stylaquin

Shoppers stay longer, view more, return more, and buy more!

Tag Archives: e-commerce innovation

Innovation that increases online sales? Really?

There is a Shopify App that will Increase sales!

Why engagement solves more problems than you think

Don't underestimate the power of engagement to get your Shopify store to the next level

How a link from the Dalai Lama boosted my Google site rank

Give your Shopify SEO a boost with external links

Using names to increase SEO in Shopify

There is real SEO power in a product's name

Is Sugar and Spice the Next Technology Disruption?

Is Sugar and Spice the Next Technology Disruption?

So, did it work? Yup, big time!

Does Stylaquin work? Yup, big time!

Are your customers having a “micro moment”?

So how do you engage with customers who aren’t paying attention?

Unseen lessons from a chair

Unseen lessons from a chair

Is Stylaquin right for your site?

Is Stylaquin Right for Your Site?

Gender bias, e-commerce and artificial intelligence

Gender Bias, E-commerce, and Artificial Intelligence

There is a Shopify App that will Increase sales!

Don't underestimate the power of engagement to get your Shopify store to the next level

Give your Shopify SEO a boost with external links

There is real SEO power in a product's name

Is Sugar and Spice the Next Technology Disruption?

Does Stylaquin work? Yup, big time!

So how do you engage with customers who aren’t paying attention?

Unseen lessons from a chair

Is Stylaquin Right for Your Site?

Gender Bias, E-commerce, and Artificial Intelligence

Book a Quick Demo!