Shopify is one of our favorite ecommerce platforms for its extensively customizable themes and user-friendly backend. If you’re among the 1.7 million business using Shopify to sell online, we have a quick 2-in-1 tip when it comes to improving your customers’ experience.
Do you sell customizable products, or items that can be personalized? Chasing down a buyer to find out exactly what they wanted can be tough when they’ve already submitted their order. Your request for more details may get trapped in spam or otherwise ignored for hours, even days before you have enough information to move forward with creating their order. Maybe you’ve even shied away from offering customizable products for fear of slowdowns and communication hiccups like these.
We have good news: There’s an easier way. Easy as 1-2-3, in fact:
If you have a Shopify store and you’re ready to improve your customer experience when it comes to personalized products, add a custom note field with this 2-minute tip.
When you turn on order notes, you’re actually adding a text box to the shopping cart on your store. You may have seen this type of feature yourself from the shopper side when you visit your favorite online retailers. Etsy stores, where customizable and commissioned products are incredibly common, the order notes text box is an indispensable tool for communication between seller and shopper.
You can use order notes to collect special instructions from customers about how to prepare and deliver an order. Most free Shopify themes let you enable an order notes text box on your cart page.
While including a place for customers to send special instructions can be an invaluable asset to streamlining the steps in your sales pipeline, it may not be the best move for every product in your store. Give your customers control when they need it! Here are a couple instances when order notes are a great idea for your business:
The order notes section is best suited to the products in your shop that allow buyers to put their own spin on what they get. A ball cap with bespoke embroidery, for example, would require customers to tell you which words they want added to the hat. They can spell it all out for you in the order notes section to ensure you’re on the same page.
Bundled or bulk products are another opportunity to improve communication between you and your buyers using order notes. If you’re selling 5 lb. bags of mixed candy, for instance, a text box at checkout would allow shoppers to tell you which candies they want included in their mix.
The same goes for bundles like gift sets wherein customers can mix and match products to create the perfect pack – an exceptional option for upselling during the holidays. Jewelers could allow shoppers to indicate which earrings, necklace, and bracelet get packaged together for the ultimate Mother’s Day gift, while a home electronics company could invite shoppers to pair a set of speakers with their choice of wireless headphones for a music lover’s ideal birthday present.
The presence of a Notes to Seller text box for products that don’t allow for or require personalization may confuse your customers. In that case, leaving this setting turned off can prevent shoppers from submitting special instructions or requesting alterations to your products when they can’t be readily accommodated.
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Shopify is a wildly popular website-building platform that’s ideal for small business owners seeking a smooth transition to e-commerce. We’re proud Shopify affiliates because it offers:
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