Top 7 Ways to Grow your Shopify Sales

The following article was contributed by StoreLab. StoreLab is a Shopify Growth service that helps SMEs boost their online sales through meta ads, mobile apps, and business coaching.

As a Shopify store owner, you’re likely always looking for more ways to maximise your sales and grow your business. Whether you’re just starting out or have been at it for a while, there are always new strategies to explore that can help take your store to the next level. 

In this article, we’ll dive into seven effective ways to grow your Shopify sales, including: 

1. Showcasing UGC on your Shopify store
2. Getting a mobile app for your Shopify store
3. Focusing on performance marketing 
4. Creating an effective SEO strategy
5. Up-selling & cross-selling strategically 
6. Having a well-designed Shopify store
7. Making the most of social commerce 

These tips will help you to attract more customers, and ultimately boost your sales. Let’s dive in…

1. Showcase UGC on your Shopify store

Showcasing reviews, testimonials and user-generated content (UGC) is a great way to build trust and credibility for your Shopify store. When potential customers see real feedback from others, it reassures them that your products deliver on their promises. Social proof is one of the strongest tools out there for influencing buying decisions.

If you don’t have visible reviews or UGC, customers can end up feeling unsure or hesitant about making a purchase. Without that social proof, they might start questioning the product’s quality, reliability, or whether others are happy with it—all of which can lead to lost sales or abandoned carts.

By showcasing reviews and UGC right on your product pages, home page, and social media channels, you can tackle those concerns head-on. When shoppers see real, positive feedback from people like them, they’re much more likely to trust your store and make a purchase. In fact, 93% of consumers say online reviews influence their buying decisions.

To gather UGC, reviews, and testimonials, offer incentives like discounts or loyalty points in exchange for feedback. You can also send automated post-purchase emails asking for reviews or encourage customers to share photos or videos of their purchases with a branded hashtag. For example, offering 10% off their next order for a review or hosting a giveaway for the best product photo can motivate customers to share their experiences.

American Eagle pulls in a gallery of customer photos from Instagram right onto their product pages, showing off real, relatable UGC. They make it happen by encouraging customers to post and tag themselves wearing American Eagle clothes for a chance to be featured. It’s a fun way to build community and bring a sense of authenticity to the brand.

2. Get a mobile app for your Shopify store 

79% of Shopify store traffic comes from mobile devices, showing just how much customers prefer mobile shopping.

But let’s face it - mobile websites can be frustrating at times, with slow load times, difficult navigation, and a lack of personalisation. Additionally, having to repeatedly search for and log into your store through a browser every time? Not exactly convenient for shoppers. 

That’s why, if you really want to deliver the best mobile experience, it’s not enough to just optimise for mobile, you’ve got to think mobile first. This is where getting a mobile app for your Shopify store is key. 

On average, mobile apps have a 157% higher conversion rate than mobile websites, and it’s easy to see why. Apps offer a faster, more convenient shopping experience where customers can browse, buy, and receive updates quickly and effortlessly. 

A well-designed mobile app enhances this experience with features like push notifications, smooth navigation, personalised recommendations, and a streamlined checkout. All of these features work together to help reduce abandoned carts, keep shoppers coming back, and improve overall customer satisfaction. It’s a huge benefit for both you and your customers. 

And you can’t fully capture these benefits on a website or even a mobile site - a mobile app will always be able to deliver a better user experience.

For Shopify store owners looking to grow their business through a mobile app, services like StoreLab can help. With mobile app plans including fully designed, customizable iOS and Android apps, you can unlock higher sales, increase average order value (AOV), and drive customer loyalty.

3. Focus on performance marketing 

Performance marketing is all about using smart, results-driven strategies that let you pay for specific actions—like clicks, traffic, or sales—rather than simply for ad exposure. The job is pretty straightforward: it directly contributes to increasing conversions.

By tapping into channels like social media ads, paid search, and affiliate marketing to promote your Shopify store, you can actually track and measure which marketing efforts are bringing in sales.

With the right tracking tools, including Facebook’s ad platform, Google Ads, or retargeting techniques, you can quickly spot high-converting channels, fine-tune your campaigns, and use your marketing budget more efficiently. 

Embracing a performance marketing approach means your Shopify store can enjoy lower customer acquisition costs, a better ROAS, and clear insights into what’s working. This not only leads to more sales but also ensures that your efforts always align with your goals. 

On top of that, focusing on digital ads and performance marketing can increase your brand awareness by up to 80%. By putting your Shopify store in front of highly targeted audiences across multiple channels, you build recognition and recall—even if customers don’t convert right away. With more exposure, you're building trust and familiarity, which are key to growing your Shopify store in the long run.

4. Create an effective SEO strategy

To effectively grow your Shopify store, it’s super important that customers can find you organically. 

That’s where having a solid SEO strategy comes in. It helps your store climb the search results, making it way easier for potential buyers to discover your products. Plus, with 75% of internet users not bothering to look past the first page of results, improving your rankings is key to attracting more visitors to your site.

To get your site noticed by search engines, you’ll want to focus on a few key areas like blog content, site speed, keywords, and backlinks. Creating engaging blog posts helps position your store as the go-to solution for customer questions, while a faster site speed shows search engines that your pages are high-quality. Plus, by optimising your content with relevant keywords and building quality backlinks, you’ll really enhance your online visibility and authority.

A well-refined SEO strategy can really up the organic traffic to your store, which means more chances to turn visitors into buyers. Plus, SEO is a long-term, cost-effective way to grow your Shopify store. With the right tweaks and optimizations, your store can rank higher, pull in more engaged customers, and drive sales—all without the ongoing costs that come with paid ads.

One of the best parts about SEO is that it’s something you can largely manage yourself using tools like SEMRush, Ubersuggest, and Google Analytics. These resources help you to spot keyword opportunities, track your progress, and make adjustments to keep your Shopify store ahead of the competition.

If you do not have time to or knowledge to manage your SEO, ConvertMate is a SEMrush alternative which automates eCommerce SEO.

5. Up-sell and cross-sell strategically

Up-selling and cross-selling are great ways to increase your average order value (AOV) and skyrocket overall sales. Up-selling nudges customers towards a more premium version of a product, while cross-selling suggests complementary items they might not have thought about. For example…

• Suggesting a larger size or upgraded version of a product
• Recommending related add-ons, like pairing a phone with a case or charger
• Offering bundle deals, like “buy 3, get 1 free” or discounted product sets
• Displaying “customers also bought” items during checkout to highlight related products

When done right, these tactics help you maximise revenue by offering products that genuinely enhance the customer’s shopping experience.

The key to smart up-selling and cross-selling is offering personalised, timely suggestions based on what customers are browsing and buying. Shopify apps and AI-powered tools make this a breeze by automating the process and ensuring the right products are recommended at just the right moment, without overwhelming your customers.

This approach makes the shopping experience better by helping customers discover products that really matter to them. In fact, 63% of shoppers want personalised recommendations and offers from retailers. When customers feel understood and supported, it leads to stronger, long-lasting loyalty.

The Shopify App Store has a variety of tools to help with up-selling and cross-selling on your Shopify store.Take Selleasy, for example—it lets you create six different types of up-sell offers, like bundle deals and product add-ons. You can showcase these offers on various pages, from the product and cart pages to the thank you page, and even with post-purchase up-sells.

These tools are designed to blend right into your store, helping grow sales without compromising a smooth customer experience.

This post by H&M is a perfect example of social commerce in action. It shows how different products can fit right into the lives of their target customers. They’ve tagged and featured multiple items, showing off how great they look together as part of a decorative display. 

6. Have a well-designed Shopify store

A well-designed Shopify store makes shopping super easy for your customers, creating a smooth and engaging experience from start to finish.

It guides visitors effortlessly through product discovery, helping to build trust and encourage them toward completing their purchase. When your store looks professional and is easy to navigate, it’s so much simpler for shoppers to find what they’re looking for—which means more conversions and happy customers.

In fact, having a well-designed user interface on your website can increase conversions by 200%. 

• Pick a clean, professional theme. Go for a high-quality, responsive theme that fits your brand. A clean, visually appealing layout means customers can browse and find what they need without any hassle.
• Optimise for mobile. Since most people are shopping via mobile, your store needs to be fully mobile-optimised. Think fast load times, easy-to-tap buttons, and clear images that adjust perfectly to smaller screens. Also consider creating a mobile app for your Shopify store.
• Streamline navigation. Keep menus simple and intuitive. Organise your products into clear categories and use search filters to help customers find what they're looking for quickly and easily.
• Use high-quality product images. Great product photos make all the difference. Invest in professional photography, ensuring your images are high-res with multiple angles and zoom features. This gives shoppers a clear view of what they’re buying.
• Prioritise fast load times. A slow site can turn customers away fast. Compress images, cut down on unnecessary plugins, and make sure your store loads quickly to keep visitors browsing and reduce bounce rates.

This works because Shopify’s platform provides customisable templates and themes that are designed with ecommerce best practices in mind. With easy-to-use tools for personalisation and optimisation, plus access to a range of Shopify apps for add functionality, you can build a store that not only looks great, but performs well. 

By providing this great experience for your customers, shoppers will stay on your site longer, explore more products, and are more likely to make a purchase, driving overall sales growth.

7. Make the most of social commerce 

As a Shopify store owner, you’re likely already using social media to gain exposure, promote your brand, and showcase your products. 

But with social commerce evolving, it’s crucial to go beyond just driving traffic to your website. Shoppers now want a seamless buying experience within the platforms they already use, like Instagram and TikTok, and as a Shopify store, and if you’re not making that happen, you could be missing out on some big sales opportunities.

Many social media platforms now have built-in shopping features that make it super easy to set up shoppable posts and videos. These let customers buy directly from your content, so they can simply click and purchase without ever leaving the app.

With interactive shoppable videos boosting conversion rates by up to 70%, they’re definitely going to be one of the best channels for expanding your reach and growing your Shopify sales.

By making the most of features, you’re not just keeping up with the trends - you’re meeting your customers where they’re most comfortable and providing them with a smooth, frictionless shopping experience.

And because the process is so seamless and convenient, it also increases the likelihood of impulse buys because shoppers can see something they like, click, and buy instantly - before they have a chance to second-guess or get distracted. 

Conclusion

Growing your Shopify sales doesn’t have to be complicated. 

By fine-tuning your SEO, embracing social commerce, and showing off those great reviews, plus diving into up-selling & cross-selling, or even getting your very own Shopify mobile app, you can create a stronger connection with your customers and achieve higher conversion rates.

Even just trying out a few of these strategies can spark some serious growth for your business. Just find out what works best for your Shopify store, and see your brand reach those new heights you’re striving for.