Everyone is familiar with popups when shopping. Some people enjoy the reward that comes from it, but most people significantly dislike them for their annoyance and intrusiveness. The immediate pop in the face of shoppers the second upon arrival can have a severely negative impact on the online shopping experience, potentially leading to lost engagement and sales.
Alia is a new way for online stores to engage customers, reward them, capture emails and SMS, shopper data, and much more. In this article, we will go over why traditional popups can hurt your shopper experience and how Alia can be a far better alternative.
There are some obvious pitfalls to traditional popups:
Popups are disruptive to the customer experience, particularly for those that arrive right as you land on a store. The natural instinct for a shopper is often to exit or hit the escape button to quickly remove it, even if they might want a discount!
One of the most illogical things about popups is that the shopper receives them before they know ANYTHING about your brand. For a lot of shoppers, they will have briefly heard about your brand from someone or something. These mediums only show a glimpse of what your brand is about and what makes your products special. Why would someone need a discount for something they don’t know much about or give you personal information when there is no trust established?
A lot of money is spent bringing shoppers to your site. The first real taste of your brand should not be “Would you like 15% off today? Give us your email, phone number, and name.” This type of activity leaves a sour taste in shoppers' opinion of the quality of the brand. Why are they giving me a discount right away? Is this cheaper quality? Are they going out of business? All these questions dilute the value of your brand and can impact the willingness of shoppers to pay for your products. Not only for the first purchase but also for future potential purchases.
Here are some of the conversion rate averages for different popup variations compared to Alia (Source: Shopify App Drip):
No doubt there is room for popups potentially in certain customer flows, whether that be on exit intent, product pages, or even email marketing. With exit intent, for example, the intrusiveness plays in the favor of the mindset of the shopper when they are committed at that point to not purchasing. Even then, however, there are much better tools to help capture the attention and interest of the potential customer, leading to more conversions and sales.
Alia is an application listed on the Shopify App Store that allows businesses to engage and educate their customers while rewarding them for learning. After a store visitor completes an Alia lesson, there is a 30% chance on average they will make a purchase in that same session.
Alia has 22 five-star reviews on Shopify and is used by prominent brands such as Firebelly Tea, co-founded by David Segal of DAVIDsTEA, and Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. Take a look at what the experience of Alia looks like:
This means more conversions from site visitors, increased sales, and potential future loyal customers.
There is an inherent trust established between the shopper and the store. This trust helps to set the foundation for a lasting, profitable relationship with them.
Alia’s personal information collection is filled with shoppers who at least have a baseline understanding of your store and products. When they receive a future marketing campaign, you’re not starting on ground zero with their relationship. This also means higher converting future campaigns from these customer lists.
Through embedded survey questions in Alia lessons, you can probe and gather insights into each shopper. This data collection can help tailor and personalize future marketing efforts. You don’t need to send everyone from your popup collection the same cookie-cutter email flow anymore.
Through brand education and requiring shoppers to learn about you before earning their discount, they not only think higher of you as a store but also feel as though they have earned the discount. This is one of the big reasons Alia’s conversion rate is so high when shoppers start a lesson.
Alia is a much better alternative than traditional popups. While you can certainly entertain both on your site, if you want to optimize the results of your store, Alia is the ideal replacement.
Your store (and P&L) will thank you as you see conversions increase far more, collect higher-intent shopper information, gather zero-party data and unique insights, and preserve and grow your brand’s image in the minds of shoppers.
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