The Guide to Shopify Customer Accounts in 2023

Online Shopping is Broken

The online shopping experience in 2023 leaves a lot to be desired – especially for shoppers eager for more personalization. Brands know almost everything about us, yet our on-site experiences are almost identical. While many brands improve loyalty programs in hopes of improving lifetime value, a growing number of merchants are using the customer account to drive retention and profitability.

Benefits of Customer Accounts for Shopify Stores

The customer account is often one of the most overlooked pieces of a brand’s site. It’s also one of the most valuable tools for creating a hyper personalized shopping experience. A great customer account experience can sign-in more shoppers, help you collect zero-party data, personalize the on-site experience, and increase AOV. Here’s what a great customer account can unlock for Shopify brands.

Identify Customers & Collect Zero-Party Data

Shopify customer accounts are valuable for brands looking to identify and track their signed-in shoppers. When a visitor creates a customer account, they not only provide valuable information such as personal identifiers (name, email, shipping address, etc.), but also begin leaving a trail of data about their preferences and shopping behavior. This includes wishlist items, abandoned carts, order history, and product views. Across several visits, brands can create a holistic profile on a signed-in shopper and use this information to personalize their on-site experience. This can be a massive unlock for brands that want to build long-term relationships with their customers.

Personalize the Shopping Experience

When shoppers are signed-in, brands know exactly who they are. This means that the on-site experience can be customized to each customer. Savvy brands use the customer account to offer signed-in shoppers exclusive pricing, reveal hidden products or collections, create custom discounts, and change content based on shopper preferences. Princess Polly offers a personalized onsite experiences by displaying products that signed-in shoppers previously interacted with or abandoned from cart.

Accelerate the Buying Journey

Additionally, customer accounts allow brands to increase customer engagement and retention. Signed-in shoppers generally display a higher degree of purchase intent and are more likely to add items to their wishlists and cart. By automatically saving items that shoppers love to their customer account, brands can personalize the shopping experience and resurface these items during future sessions. This helps keep customers engaged, and motivates them to return in the future. A strong signed-in shopping experience allows customers to continue their shopping journey during future sessions. They can pick up where they left off and avoid starting from scratch, leading to a smoother and more enjoyable shopping experience.

Increase Average Order Value (AOV)

A great customer account experience can help improve Average Order Value (AOV). By saving everything relevant to signed-in shoppers to the customer account, brands make it easier for shoppers to navigate collections and find items that they love. This is especially true for brands with large catalogs. Simplifying the shopping journey and putting high-intent products in front of signed-in shoppers, allows brands to create opportunities for upsell and improve conversion – ultimately improving AOV.

Princess Polly uses Status to improve AOV by automatically saving previously viewed and carted items. These items are resurfaced to shoppers during future signed-in shopping sessions to help improve engagement and increase AOV.

How To Get Customers to Create Accounts

Although customer accounts can be a valuable tool for collecting zero-party data, personalizing the shopping experience, and increasing Average Order Value, it can be difficult to get shoppers to create accounts and stay signed-in. Status data suggests that brands using a traditional account experience sign-in 15% of customers or less on average. Simple strategies such as creating a seamless sign-up process and offering incentives can improve sign-in rates.

To help get more shoppers signed-in, Shopify brands should make the account creation process quick and easy. Brands should consider allowing customers to create an account using their social media profile, Google log-in, or email, and only request essential identifying information. Keep it simple and create additional opportunities for data capture later.

Shopify Plus brands using an account tool like Status can sign-in more shoppers by offering passwordless and one-click login methods. This removes sign-in friction and dramatically boosts account creation rates.

Integrate Your Apps Inside the Account

Brands that use apps for tracking, loyalty, credit, and returns can increase account sign-ins by integrating these apps within the customer account. This ensures that every tracked order, point redemption, credit click, and return request becomes a signed-in shopper. Additionally, by integrating apps within the customer account, shoppers do not need to sign into each app separately. This creates a rewarding and streamlined experience while also drastically reducing login related support tickets.

Offer Incentives

Incentives are often used to encourage customers to create an account. By adding value prior to account creation, shoppers may be more likely to sign-in. Some sign-in incentives that we see brands use are one-time discounts, free shipping, and additional rewards points. One off discounts can incentivize short-term behavior, rather than long-term loyalty. As a result, we find that brands that integrate rewards find greater success in keeping shoppers signed-in.

How To Leverage Customer Accounts for Growth

In order to get the most out of the signed-in shopping experience, Shopify brands need to remove sign-in friction, provide signed-in shoppers with tools that help them shop, and integrate existing technology within the account. By doing so, brands can improve their sign-in rates, turn the customer account into a source of revenue, and supercharge engagement with existing tools.

Get More from the Same CAC

You know it, we know it, customer acquisition costs are up. Brands face two options – continue to spend budget to acquire and reacquire customers, or do more to retain first time customers. The latter of course – but how? A great customer account experience. By identifying opportunities for account creation and leaning into existing customer behaviors, brands can turn first-time customers into signed-in shoppers. In fact, Shopify Plus brands using Status drive 5x more first time customers into customer accounts.

Get More from Existing Customers

Use your customer account to save everything existing customers “want” but haven’t bought yet. This not only creates a more personalized experience, but also increases the speed at which customers move through their buying journey. Additionally, saved items can be used to drive upsell and increase AOV.

Get More from Your Loyalty Program

More signed-in shoppers drive more shopping activity. By putting credit and loyalty apps (Yotpo, Loyalty Lion, Rise, etc.) at shoppers’ finger tips, brands increase point engagement, redemption, and loyalty revenue. Brands using Status have been able to increase loyalty member revenue by as much as 200%.

Get More from Email and SMS

By increasing the percentage of customers that shop signed-in, brands can grow a new segment for nurture. Segment growth, in combination with saved preferences, unlock highly-personalized email and SMS flows.

The Customer Account for Shopify Plus Brands

For Shopify Plus brands that want to get the most from their signed-in shopping experience, we recommend using an app like Status. Brands like Princess Polly, LSKD, and SHEFIT use Status to sign-in more shoppers and turn the customer account into a personalized shopping tool.