The Simple Guide To Thank-You Page Optimization

What would you say if I told you that you’re sitting on a goldmine? You probably wouldn’t believe me, right?

Well here’s the thing – every Shopify business that’s using the standard thank you page isn’t making as much profit as they could be.

Big claim, I know.

But we’re about to go on an exciting 1,300 word journey that will explain why an optimized thank you page is arguably the most underexploited aspect of your post purchase upsell funnel.

I’ll also show you five practical tactics you can use to unleash the potential of your thank you page, boost your average order value and improve customer retention.

Sounds good? Let’s go!

Why Your Thank You Page is an Untapped Goldmine

As merchants, we spend so much time optimizing our front-end marketing.

I get it. 

There’s nothing like a new Facebook ad strategy to get me as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve.

But while getting a new customer is awesome, savvy merchants know that the real profit starts when you seduce customers for a second, third and forth purchase.

This is where focusing on post-purchase revenue maximization comes in – and building a post-purchase funnel with Judge.me and ReConvert is a great place to start.

For example, consider that you can use your thank you page to:

• Offer customers post-purchase cross sells
• Recommend related products based on shopping behavior
• Collect & showcase customer reviews and improve the shopping experience
• Gather additional customer data and segment your audience
• Add a welcome video, tracking widgets and more

Basically, anything that you can do with post-purchase emails, you can do on your thank you page – only your thank you page offers four distinct advantages:

• Thank you pages have a 100% ‘open rate’ 
• They get an average of 2.2 impressions per customer (more impressions = more conversions)
• Customers who land on your thank you page are in peak buying mode
• Your thank you page already exists – you don’t need to do anything except put it to work

But here’s the thing – despite these obvious benefits, it still baffles me how many merchants completely overlook their thank you page.

Especially when you consider that eCommerce giants like Amazon and eBay are using their thank you pages to get more conversions.

So, with that in mind, let’s look at five proven ways you can tweak your thank you page to transform it from a placeholder into a conversion powerhouse.

How to Optimize Your Thank You Page

The great thing about optimizing your thank you page is that small upgrades can deliver massive results.

Here’s five of the best ways to get your thank you page working for you:

1. Tempt Shoppers With Related Items

I bought a pair of tennis shoes earlier this week. At the till, the cashier asked me if I’d like to buy a packet of socks to go with them.

Since I didn’t have any at home, I said yes and the cashier proceeded to add an extra $20 to my bill. This type of cross-selling has been used by in-store retailers for years. 

But it got me thinking about how not enough eCommerce stores deploy this tactic.

ReConvert empowers you to offer one-click upsells to customers – just like the socks trick. 

But not everyone will convert at this stage. By strategically placing the same offers on your Shopify thank you page, you can increase the number of impressions your cross-sell offers get.

Whenever customers return to look for shipping updates, your cross-sell offer will be there, tempting them to spend more money.

The key here is to use triggers and personalization to offer relevant upsells and cross-sells that customers simply can’t resist.

Seriously, don’t overlook how powerful this strategy can be. It’s one of the simplest ways to get more sales on Shopify. Data from ReConvert suggests that implementing thank you page product recommendations can increase your net revenue by a whopping 10-15%.

2. Gather Customer Feedback

If you’ve ever tried to get feedback from customers you’ll know that response rates can be discouragingly low.

But without feedback, it’s almost impossible to figure out how to deliver the best shopping experience to your customers.

Enter the thank you page survey. Here’s an example from fashion retailer ASOS.

Thank you page surveys are awesome for two reasons:

• They adhere to the psychological principle of ‘consistency’ – which states that people who’ve said yes to you (i.e. bought from you) are more likely to comply with your future requests. Hello, higher response rates.

• They collect feedback while the shopping experience is still fresh in your customer’s mind which gives you more reliable data.

On Shopify, you can deploy quick thank you page surveys for any number of end-goals. 

For example, you could get feedback about your store’s design, find out what products customers want to see or calculate your net promoter score.

Use your survey data to track your goals, refine your shopping experience and deliver more of what your customers want.

3. Add Value With Videos

Your thank you page is your first point of contact with a new customer.

That makes it the perfect place to get your relationship off on the right foot.

One super easy to kick-start your retention efforts is to add a personalized welcome video or thank you video for new customers.

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Sven Jakelj, CEO of plant retailer feey who’s using thank you page videos to move customers closer to his brand.

Instead of deploying just one thank you page video, feey shows a different video depending on how many times a customer has purchased.

This is huge for retention – customer’s no longer feel like they’re just another order number. Instead it feels like they’re getting a personalized thank you from Sven everytime they buy.

Pretty clever, right?

Think about creative ways you could use thank you page videos to give customers a little ‘wow’ moment immediately after they purchase (or if you’re busy, just copy Sven’s tactic!)

4. Encourage Referrals & Shares

Sometimes your best source of new shoppers can be your existing customer base.

That’s because your customer’s likely hang around with a lot of people who are very similar to themselves.

If a customer is stoked about your product, there’s a good chance they’ll want to share it with a friend. 

And referrals are seriously powerful – when referred by a friend, people are 400% more likely to purchase. 

Plus referral customers typically spend 200% more than folks who found you by themselves.

For example, check out how AliExpress offers shoppers the chance to give a friend $19 on their thank you page:

Another way to encourage indirect referrals is to add social sharing buttons to your thank you page.

Especially when you consider that friends’ social media posts influence the purchase decisions of 83% of US online shoppers.

Here’s a really clever way to get free reach and social proof from eyewear brand Warby Parker:

Notice how they have a pre-filled message to make it easy for even the most tongue-tied customer to flaunt their new purchase all over social media.

Plus, the ‘I hope you’ll help me choose!’ part engages the customer’s friends and followers in the process. 

Bravo, Warby Parker. Bravo!

5. Link to Your Support

Our data shows that customers come back to view the thank you page 2.2 times per order, average.

The main reason your shoppers come back to the thank you page is to check for shipping updates. So, ensure you have a tracking widget on the page.

But what’s more, you should also make it super easy for paying customers to contact your support from the thank you page.

Think about it: these shoppers are as qualified as can be – so if you resolve issues and delight them, there’s a high chance you’ll turn them into repeat customers.

A link to your live chat and a business phone number is the best approach here. These two support channels are becoming more and more preferred by consumers all over the world.

Leverage Your Thank You Page Today

As merchants, if any other part of our marketing funnel was converting at 0%, we’d be panicking to fix it.

But for some reason, lots of us happily stand by while thousands of customers land on our unoptimized thank you pages.

In a world where acquisition is becoming more and more expensive, maximizing the value of every transaction is crucial.

No matter if you’re launching your first Shopify  store, or already running multiple Shopify stores, optimizing your thank you page is one of the easiest ways to instantly upgrade your customer’s post purchase experience and add real revenue to your bottom line.

Don’t sleep on it!

Special thanks to our friends at Judge.me for their insights on this topic.