When you're shopping online, the only human contact you have with the company is through the customer service chat – if you’re lucky! Everything else is automated, which can feel cold and detached.

One way to add a personal touch to your ecommerce platform is by including a thank you page after checkout. It's a small gesture that can make all the difference.

In this post, we’ll understand what the Shopify thank you page is, why the default Shopify thank you page needs optimization, and the best ways to go about editing it in Shopify admin.

What is the Shopify Thank You Page?

The thank you page on Shopify is the page people see after leaving the checkout page. It’s typically used as the order confirmation page or order status page and summarizes the order details.

You could also use it to thank customers for their purchases and to encourage them to take additional actions such as subscribing to your newsletter, following you on social media, or linking through to other product pages.

Why Does Your Thank You Page Need Optimization?

Optimizing your thank you page on Shopify has been shown to result in increased conversions in your store, improved customer satisfaction, and an enhanced experience of your company branding. 

The thank you page is a great place to use psychology to ensure another sale. The customer has just converted. If you can stir up positive emotions in them at this stage, they’ll be inclined to convert again (even if subconsciously) simply to re-experience those emotions! 

That means repeat purchases. This page is also an opportunity for you to upsell or cross-sell additional products or provide customer support information.

More Return Customers

A well-optimized thank you page can make your customers feel appreciated – giving them that post-purchase satisfaction. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and referrals. 

A good customer experience makes one more likely to return, and a returning customer is even more likely to purchase than they were when they were a new customer!

The numbers here are remarkable. A customer who’s purchased once has a 30% chance of purchasing a second time. But after their second purchase, that probability jumps to 52%!

Higher Average Order Value

A thank you page can increase the average order value (AOV) by providing a post-purchase upsell opportunity. For example, on the thank you page, you could offer a discount for a related product or suggest a complementary product. 

You could also provide a link to a post-purchase survey or questionnaire that customers can fill out to provide feedback about their purchase. This information can help you improve your shop and create better products and services.

Stronger Brand Identity

A thank you page can lead to a stronger brand identity by reinforcing the message that the customer has just experienced. Ensure that your thank you page contains images and colors consistent with your brand and website. This will provide customers with a sense of familiarity, reinforcing the idea that they have just experienced a favorable transaction. 

9 Best Ways to Optimize Your Shopify Thank You Page

Shopify makes it simple to modify the thank you page that your customers see. Let’s take a look at the best ways to optimize this page to ensure your customers keep coming back for more, and you make more and more profit.

1. Display Product Recommendations to Get the Cross-Sell!

Product recommendations can help to encourage customers to make additional purchases after they've already completed a transaction. Furthermore, showing product recommendations on the thank you page can help increase the chances that customers will return to your store in the future as you're giving them a reason to come back and explore your store further.  

Finally, optimizing your thank you page with product recommendations can help you build relationships with your customers. By providing them with personalized product suggestions and displaying relevant items on the thank you page, it demonstrates that you value their opinion and are willing to go the extra mile in order to provide a better shopping experience. This is a great opportunity to cross-sell and upsell!

2. Include Links to Social Media Platforms

The more of your brand and ecosystem you can show to the customer in one session, the more memorable an impression you’re likely to make on them. Including links to your social media accounts gives the customer the opportunity to see more brand elements, more products, and more engagement from their peers. These are all likely to make your Shopify store more sticky!

Providing these links will help to keep your brand top-of-mind, and give customers additional opportunities to learn more about your products.

3. Add Social Share Buttons

This is sort of like the previous one but in this case, you don’t simply link through to your social accounts. Rather, social share buttons provide a means for a customer to:

• Leave a review about your store in a public place; or
• Publish a post about their purchase to their social followers.

Positive reviews are a huge determinant in a shopper’s decision-making – you’ve likely read reviews before making a purchase before. If you choose to enable the customer to post about their purchase, try pre-composing it to save them time, while providing the functionality to make edits if they like. Many social share button widgets will include this.

The effects here can be powerful. Remember, a human will believe what another human tells them, especially if they already trust that human. By making it easy for someone to evangelize your product, they may end up doing a lot of free marketing for you.

4. Don’t Forget About SEO!

The Shopify thank you page is an excellent place to add keywords related to your ecommerce store and products. This helps search engines like Google better index and understand your website so that customers looking for what you offer can easily find you. 

By including the right keywords and phrases, you can ensure that customers looking for products like yours will be directed to your Shopify store first! 

The net effect of improved SEO – and of most of these optimizations, really – is a dramatically increased sales funnel. Your brand and store is being placed in front of more eyes, giving you the opportunity to generate more conversions.

5. Provide An Incentive to Return

You might do this through discount offers for future purchases or by providing exclusive content for returning customers. Offering a coupon code or discount after their first purchase is an easy way to entice customers back into your Shopify store and encourage them to make another purchase. You can also create exclusive content just for people who have purchased from you, such as additional product information or an invitation-only newsletter.

This helps to create a sense of loyalty amongst your customers, making them more likely to come back for future purchases. Make sure you add links to relevant products and categories on the thank you page so that customers can quickly find other items they may be interested in. They may even choose to use their discount offer immediately!

6. Encourage Referrals

By setting up a referral program on your thank you page, you can encourage customers to refer their friends and family to your store.  This can help you grow your ecommerce business and increase sales. There are several different types of referral programs you could choose from, each with its own benefits. Some common referral programs include:

• Loyalty programs reward customers for their loyalty by awarding them with points, discounts, or other special perks. Customers can then redeem these rewards for discounts on future purchases or other goodies.
• Referral programs give customers a special incentive (usually a discount or free coupon code) for referring their friends to your store. This helps spread your business by word of mouth and can result in more sales. 
• Contests offer customers a chance to win prizes by participating in competitions or giveaways. This can help generate excitement about your store and attract new customers. Use an app like ViralSweep to implement contests like these quickly and easily.

7. Provide Tracking Information

81% of shoppers don’t feel comfortable in online stores they’re not familiar with. They’ll be less likely to return to the store, recommend it to friends and family, or leave positive reviews. Improving trust with your customer is a powerful and lasting way to improve sales.

One way to foster trust with your customer after they’ve parted with their hard-earned cash is to keep them informed of the status of their order. If possible, try to include shipping and tracking information, including a tracking number, right there on the thank you page. Do you work with a dropshipping company? Include the name of the courier the customer can expect to take delivery from. The more information, the better.

Humans love to see progress, so if you can provide a way for the customer to see the progress of their order, you’ll go a long way towards boosting the trust they place in your store.

8. Show Trust Badges

Speaking of trust, an easy way to improve it with your customer is by showing credibility from other known sources. Do you have ratings on popular ecommerce verification services? Embed the badge on your thank you page and watch your customers become more and more comfortable.

When customers see that your business is trustworthy and has a good reputation, they're more likely to feel comfortable buying from you.

9. Use Thank You Page Templates

Popular ecommerce providers have teams of people building out templates, designs, and functionality for websites. And they work! You’ve probably got a good idea of what Shopify’s checkout and thank you pages look like – even if you had no idea they were connected with Shopify. But the feeling of familiarity you get when you see one puts your mind at ease: this store is legit and I can trust it.

Using a template from your ecommerce store provider will give your page a consistent look and feel, which can help to increase your conversion rate. Plus, templates make it far easier for beginners to start playing in the big pond from the get-go.

Get the Most Out of Your Thank You Page With Conversion Bear

Clearly, a well-crafted thank you page for your online store is a secret weapon for maintaining and even improving your rate of sales. A good thank you page can lead to more returning customers, and we saw that returning customers are more likely to buy compared to new ones. 

Store owners using upsells and cross-sells on this page, as well as providing incentives to return, should see increased AOVs. Hopefully we also now understand the important role that trust plays in online shopping. Trust badges, referrals, and improved brand identity can all help to improve customer trust.

One Shopify app that can help you optimize your thank you page is Conversion Bear. Easily create a unique look and feel for your thank you page that matches the design of your shop. Add details about delivery times or tracking information. And use targeted promotional offers to increase customer loyalty.

Get started with Conversion Bear by simply installing it from the Shopify App Store. You will be able to start customizing your thank you page within minutes. Our 5X ROI guarantee is an offer you’ll struggle to find anywhere else. With Conversion Bear, the revenue you make from upsells should make more than 5 times what your plan costs. If not, we’ll refund you.