Statistically, approximately 70% of online shoppers who visit a site abandon their cart without buying anything.
You might be asking; Why can’t I convert my window shoppers into actual customers? There are multiple reasons why. The two main deal-breakers include expensive shipping rates and a lack of trust in your brand and products.
With Shopify Scripts, you can improve the buyer experience and boost your conversion rate. Scripts allow you to offer special incentives such as discounts and free gifts, a factor that increases the customer’s trust in your brand.
What are Shopify Scripts?
Shopify Scripts refer to pieces of code that allow you to create a personalized shopping experience for your customers on Shopify. The app is exclusively for merchants on the Shopify Plus plan. It will enable you to create a smooth checkout process and increase the chances of your customers completing their purchases instead of abandoning them.
Scripts let you fully customize your checkout settings based on who the customer is and the items they have on their cart. In doing so, you can manage sales and discounts, modify the payment gateways and change shipping rates. Ultimately, Shopify scripts let you create your own customizations and address enterprise-level needs without going through complicated workarounds.
From our perspective, Shopify Scripts is an exciting feature that allows you to modify your Shopify Environments based on your customer’s needs. To create new scripts, you will use the Shopify Script Editor and the Shopify Scripts API.
Shopify Script Editor
The Shopify Script Editor is used to write, edit and manage new scripts. The app offers various templates to help you create them. It also provides a debugger to help you test the scripts. For the scripts to function, your website must have a built-in shopping cart functionality.
Some of the main benefits of Shopify Script Editor include:
- Saves time
- Customizes your scripts to deliver a personalized customer experience
- Enables you to create effective loyalty programs
- Allows you to establish automatic online discounts for your customers. In this case, they do not need to use vouchers; you can include the discount code at the checkout.
Shopify Scripts API
Shopify scripts are written using the Shopify Scripts API. The primary Shopify scripting language is Ruby. With the Ruby API, you have increased control and flexibility when writing the scripts. You need knowledge of the Ruby programming language to leverage Shopify Scripts' benefits.
You do not have to worry if you are not a programming expert. The Shopify Plus plan gives you access to a developer or a Shopify expert, and you can always consult them when you need to create scripts.
Types of Shopify Scripts
Whenever you create a new script, it is assigned a category in the Script Editor app. The category assigned depends on the script template you choose. The main script types include:
- Line Item Scripts
- Shipping Scripts
- Payment Scripts
Line Item Scripts
Line item scripts modify the cart and the items in it depending on the conditions you have included in the script. Usually, they run whenever there is a change to the cart. These scripts let you offer discounts on specific products, add more products to the cart, discount an entire cart or manage the product quantities. Examples of line item scripts include buy one get one free discounts, % off specific products, and bulk discounts.
Shipping Scripts
Shipping scripts are used to manage shipping. When you create a shipping script, you can modify the shipping methods and offer a discount on some shipping rates. They usually run at the checkout when the customer reaches the shipping options page. Shipping scripts include reordering shipping rates, modifying shipping rates, or hiding shipping rates.
Payment Scripts
Payment scripts modify payments in your store, and they run at the checkout when the customer is at the payment page. You can hide, rename, or even reorder payment gateways with payment scripts.
How to use Scripts in Shopify Script Editor
Creating Shopify Scripts is simple. You can use the available templates to modify the scripts that you want. Follow these steps to create new scripts on your Shopify Store:
- Go to the Shopify Admin and then click on Apps.
- Open the Script Editor
- Click on “Create Script.”
- Choose the script category you would like on the “Select a script template” dialogue. It can be either “Line items,” “Shipping rates,” or “Payment gateways.”
- Select “Blank Template” or identify an example template and use it as your starting point.
- Click on “Create Script” and create the category of script you chose.
- Write a descriptive name for your script on the Title box.
- Click on “Code.” This opens the Ruby source code console.
- Input your script’s code. You can use Shopify Scripts API documentation as your point of reference for this step.
- Select “Run Script” and run your new script.
- Once you are done, you can select “Save Draft” and save your unpublished script, or you can select “Save and Publish” to create and publish the new script.
Shopify Script Examples that you Should Know
Shopify Scripts offers versatility that allows you to customize and improve your checkout process. Check out a few scripts that you should consider for your store:
Bundle Discount
This falls under line item scripts. It offers a discount whenever customers add a specific bundle of items to their cart. Implementing bundles in your Shopify store reduces inventory wastage and improves your customer’s buying experience. For example, you can offer a 10% discount on a customer's order if they purchase a combination of a hat, a dress, and a pair of sunglasses simultaneously.
Buy One, Get One Free
Buy one get one (BOGO) free discounts are very popular. This discount strategy is typically used to quickly clear out old and unwanted stock. When you offer these deals, there is a high chance that window shoppers will turn into actual customers. They might even buy other items in your store for the full price! These deals also increase your store’s profits.
Shopify scripts allow you to create a buy one get one free promotion and generate buzz and excitement for your store.
Free Shipping for Customers
As we have seen, most customers abandon their carts due to expensive shipping. Even the best Shopify stores experience face this issue. Shopify Scripts lets you modify the shipping rates and offer shipping discounts to repeat customers.
With scripts, you can offer shipping discounts to customers who have subscribed to your newsletter or those who have shared their email addresses. By providing an excellent buying experience to your repeat customers, you stand a chance of exponentially increasing your store’s conversion rate and revenue.
Tiered Discounts
Most millennial shoppers continuously surf the internet for the best deals and sales. Everybody loves getting rewards when they buy more. With tiered discounts, you can create excitement around your products and offer your customers a chance to save more when they shop with you.
Shopify scripts allow you to include tiered discounts at the checkout page. With these scripts, you can highlight that the more items a customer adds to their cart, the more they will save. You can include enticing pop-ups such as “Add one more t-shirt and save $3!” Usually, tiered discount scripts run whenever an item is added or removed from the shopper's cart. This way, your customers see how their cart price changes based on the items in their cart.
Free Gift with Purchase
This script falls under line items. It is the perfect script for offering 100% discounts on specific products. In this case, you can set the condition that if a cart total exceeds a particular amount, the shopper will get a specific item for free.
Free gifts enable you to increase traffic to your store. People love free stuff, and most shoppers prefer free stuff to discounts. Shopify scripts let you create customized shopping thresholds and offer free gifts to shoppers who meet them.
Conclusion
Shopify scripts enable complete Shopify Plus Checkout automation. This allows you to offer the best buying experience and increase traffic to your store. If you want to differentiate yourself from other retailers, offering enticing discounts and free gifts is the way.
With Shopify scripts, you can manage the shopping cart and the checkout process. Furthermore, they allow you to optimize various offers and increase conversions in your Shopify store. Once you learn how to leverage the benefits of scripts, you can realize the full potential of the Shopify Plus platform.
From our perspective, scripts are a win-win for your brand because they let you create powerful promotions. Thankfully, the scripts are on the Shopify servers. You don’t have to go through the trouble of finding and maintaining new scripts; you can always use the Script Editor to find the desired templates.
