Case Study: Driving sales for a product in the wedding industry

Project Background

The client runs a wedding guestbook e-commerce business on Etsy and Shopify. With rising Etsy fees, their primary goal is to boost sales through their Shopify store. However, they face stiff competition from large online marketplaces in the wedding niche. Their focus is to optimize their site for growth and reduce reliance on third-party platforms.

The Challenge

The Shopify site has had little to no SEO work done, leaving it under-optimized and not fully leveraging organic search opportunities. While the website isn’t brand new, it has never undergone a comprehensive SEO strategy to improve visibility and rankings.

The main challenge is competing with large online marketplaces like Etsy in search engine rankings while simultaneously building the Shopify store’s authority and relevance within the wedding guestbook niche.

Unforeseen Challenge

Recent changes to key collection pages caused a drop in rankings for the client's primary target keywords, impacting overall search visibility.

The Solution

Transfer Missing Products to Shopify

Disjointed product catalogues can lead to customer mistrust, as buyers may prefer purchasing directly from the vendor rather than through Etsy. The objective was to create a seamless transition for Etsy customers to Shopify, ensuring brand trust remained intact

This involves scraping product data from Etsy and uploading them to Shopify, ensuring a complete product range is accessible on the client's primary site.

Comprehensive Audience Research:

Conduct in-depth audience research to better understand the target market, including preferences, demographics, and buying behaviors. This will inform a data-driven marketing strategy aimed at attracting relevant traffic to the Shopify store.

Incorporate Etsy Reviews on Shopify: 

Build trust by displaying existing Etsy customer reviews on the Shopify site. This adds social proof and helps establish credibility, encouraging conversions on the new platform. 

There was no plug-and-play solution for this task, making it a significant technical challenge. While Etsy allows merchants to access customer reviews, it does not provide an easy way to export and transfer them. Additionally, Klaviyo's data structure for reviews requires a product handle or SKU, meaning this process had to build on the initial product transfer we completed

Set Up Key Email Marketing Flows: 

Implement essential automated email marketing flows, including:

- Browse abandonment

- Cart abandonment

- Checkout reminders

- Review request emails

- Winback campaigns (targeting inactive customers)

These will help re-engage potential customers and boost sales.

Analyze and Optimize Key Pages: 

Identify high-converting or high-potential pages on the Shopify site. These “money-making” pages will receive special focus for optimization, ensuring they rank well and drive the most revenue.

Redirect Old Collection Pages: 

To recover lost search rankings from recent changes to key collection pages, implement 301 redirects from the old pages to the new ones. This will help preserve SEO equity and avoid traffic loss.

Develop a Targeted SEO Strategy: 

Create a tailored SEO strategy focusing on keyword research and optimization. This includes tracking relevant keyword opportunities, improving on-page SEO, and building the Shopify store's authority in the wedding guestbook niche to compete with large marketplaces like Etsy.

 Sales Analytics Overview: Shopify Dashboard (January 2023 - January 2024)

Between 2023 and 2024, we witnessed remarkable growth and success. Store sessions surged by an impressive 31%, reflecting increased engagement and interest from customers. Total orders soared by 108%, demonstrating a rise in demand for their main product the wedding guest books.

Even more exciting, total sales experienced a 99% boost, showcasing the strong performance and appeal of our offerings. Finally, conversion rates saw a solid 30% increase, highlighting the effectiveness of our marketing strategies in turning visitors into loyal customers.

Sales Analytics Overview: Shopify Dashboard (January 2022 - January 2023)

As shown in the screenshot, despite a 55% increase in online store sessions, the brand experienced a decline in sales over the year. This is why they reached out to us, seeking our eCommerce SEO and CRO services to help further help convert traffic into sales.

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