How to drive traffic to a Shopify store: Ideas & expert tips [2025]

Reading Time: 13 minutes

Learning how to drive traffic to your Shopify store is a key aspect of a successful online business. While elements like the quality of your products and your online store’s design are critical to success, they only matter if visitors actually make it to your site. Just like a brick-and-mortar store, you can have a pretty front window and amazing products, but that won’t help much without effective foot traffic.

Luckily, there are many things you can do to improve your online store’s visibility.

This article will explore the common reasons your online store may be struggling to attract visitors. We’ll then dive into actionable strategies to turn that around and get more people to see your products.

Reasons for a lack of traffic on a Shopify store

Before learning about how you can drive traffic to your Shopify store, it’s important to explore what may be holding you back. These are some common reasons why many Shopify stores fail to attract potential customers:

• Poor SEO: Having sound SEO (search engine optimization) practices, like a good website design, quality content, and relevant keywords, can help drive organic traffic to your website. Poor SEO, on the other hand, can tank your search engine rankings, reducing your visibility and leaving your store unvisited.
• Weak marketing: Bad marketing practices can hurt your Shopify store’s traffic. Practices like failing to define your target audience or maintaining an inconsistent social media presence can be especially detrimental.
• Technical issues: People expect online stores to run seamlessly. Problems like poor mobile optimization, broken links, and slow loading times will likely drive visitors away before they even see your products.
• High competition: Some reasons for a lack of traffic to your Shopify store may also be external. For instance, you may be entering an oversaturated market with highly established competitors.
• Limited content: Buying a product without actually seeing it in person requires plenty of information. Without enough product photos, descriptions, and customer reviews, your website’s traffic may suffer.
• Budget issues: Organic traffic is essential. And so is the traffic you gain through paid marketing and advertising.

How to drive traffic to a Shopify store

Here are some ways to get more visitors to your online store:

Post videos with your products on social media

Nearly everyone is on social media one way or another, making it an ideal place to post videos showcasing your Shopify store’s products. Besides exposing your products to a broader audience, posting videos with them on social media can increase engagement and boost awareness by making users like, share, and comment.

Here are some tips on how to implement this into your marketing efforts:

• Use trending formats: Some common examples include unboxings, how-to videos, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage, and before-and-after comparisons
• Find the best places to publish your videos: Short-form videos work best for most products and users, so you can focus on places like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts
• Determine the best times of day for posting: Research the best times to post videos for each platform, as most social media platforms experience an audience boost early in the day and during lunch breaks
• Find the optimal value-content ratio: 80% of your video content should provide value to the viewer (educational, entertainment, inspirational, etc.), while the other 20% should be promotional content (call to action, showcasing product features, etc.)

Example of an online store showcasing its products on social media:

Expert tip: The best way to leverage your online store’s social media presence is by building an engaged online community that discusses your brand and uses your products, offering credibility, authenticity, and long-term value. This approach, utilizing real people to build an online community, is much more cost-effective than using influencers, provides excellent value for money, and is one of the best uses for social media.

Partner with influencers

Finding the right influencers to partner with can do wonders for your online store’s traffic. Their audiences trust and admire them, so attaching your name and products to their brand will help you benefit from their online reputation.

These are some aspects to consider when implementing this tactic:

• Determine the proper compensation method: If the influencer has a large following, you might consider paying them a flat fee for their services. For smaller influencers, you can offer free products and gift cards, or even set up a commission-based payment structure if you want to incentivize them to promote your brand.
• Find a suitable ROI tracking method: There are several ways to determine an influence campaign’s success, like having the influencer promote a unique referral link, giving exclusive discount codes, or simply analyzing changes in sales and online presence immediately after an influencer promotion.
• Develop effective content ideas: Ensure the content that influencers generate matches your brand and connects with the right audience. This will help strengthen your brand’s message and engagement.

Example of an influencer in an Instagram Reel:

Offer time-sensitive discounts

Creating urgency is a powerful tactic to encourage traffic to your Shopify store. It can inspire impulse buying and attract customers who are interested in what you’re selling but need a little incentive to make a purchase.

Some ways to implement this are:

• Create flash sales and countdown timers: Adding countdown timers on some product pages and implementing promotions that only last a few hours or days are great ways to generate urgency
• Use emails to announce the deals: You can use an email marketing automation tool like Omnisend to announce your time-sensitive deals via email
• Implement scarcity messaging: Offer a limited quantity of products at an attractive price 
• Be creative when creating discounts: Determine the most effective discounts based on the products you’re selling and your customer personas

Example of a time-sensitive offer:

Optimize your store for SEO

Effective SEO practices can increase your online store’s visibility, likely leading to increased traffic. SEO is one of the most effective and budget-friendly ways to drive traffic to your Shopify store. Here are some tips to help get you started with SEO:

• Optimize product titles and descriptions: Make sure your product titles and descriptions provide relevant information
• Use meta descriptions: Include short and relevant summaries for each page’s content, as this helps users instantly understand what it’s about when seeing it in search engine results
• Make image alt texts: Web accessibility is a major part of good SEO practices, so you can add alternative text to your store’s images to help those who can’t view them
• Watch your URL structure: Using clean URLs that describe the product and its category will place them higher in search engine results
• Optimize your store for mobile use: Many people browse online stores on their smartphones, so mobile optimization is absolutely essential
• Optimize the page loading speed: Fast-loading sites will show up higher in search results, so make sure your online store doesn’t use large files and runs on a fast server

Example of optimal product categories:

Expert tip: Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are essential for assessing the competitiveness of your SEO practices. They allow you to analyze traffic, measure the effectiveness of your keyword use, and experiment with various ways to refine your SEO strategy. Check out this step-by-step Shopify guide on setting up a Google Analytics account and linking it to your Google Ads account.

Add trust signals

Building trust with potential customers is essential for driving traffic to your online store. Unlike physical shops, where customers have the chance to take a look at products for themselves, online shopping relies heavily on creating a sense of reliability and security.

Some practices that can help you establish trust are:

• Create a review collection system: Reviews from previous customers are crucial for establishing trust with potential ones. Besides collecting them from various online sources, you can actively pursue them by sending customers a product review email.
• Place trust badges on your website: Trust badges are digital icons you can display in various locations within your online store, including your homepage, product pages, and the checkout page. Some common examples include SSL certificates that show that your website is secure, review badges that showcase your product reviews on multiple platforms, and secure checkout badges that showcase your advanced payment security measures.
• Use social proof popups: You can create popups that showcase positive user reviews and testimonials. These popups can reassure potential customers by highlighting the satisfaction of others.
• Create a customer photo gallery: Offer customers a discount on their next purchase by encouraging them to share pictures using your products. Use these photos to build a gallery that showcases real-life experiences with your brand.
• Implement satisfaction guarantees: Build up trust by guaranteeing customer satisfaction, such as offering a money-back guarantee for purchases that don’t meet expectations. This approach reassures potential buyers and shows confidence in your products.

Example of a trust badge that showcases an online store’s multiple payment options:

Send cart and browse abandonment emails

Cart and browse abandonment emails are automated emails you send to customers who placed items in their cart without completing their purchases. They work because they can motivate customers who already showed interest in a product to re-engage with your store and buy those products.

Here are some tips on using them effectively:

• Send more than just one: An effective strategy is to send a follow-up email a few hours after the customer abandons their cart. Then follow this with another reminder within 24 hours if they haven’t completed their purchase.
• Research ways to draft high-converting emails: It’s important to learn how to write cart abandonment emails that resonate with your audience. You can start by reading our best practices for nailing your abandoned cart emails and this guide to the perfect browse abandonment email.
• Read case studies: You can model your cart and browse abandonment email strategy by analyzing examples from other online businesses. This case study, for instance, shows how To’ak Chocolate achieved a 49.3% open rate for its cart abandonment emails, a 44% conversion rate, and $3.64 revenue per email. 

Expert tip: Combine strategies to drive traffic and boost conversions by including satisfactory customer reviews in your cart and browsing abandonment emails. This double-duty tactic incentivizes undecided customers to make the purchase while also reinforcing their trust in your store and products.

Use gamified campaigns

Gamification introduces game-like concepts to non-game situations, turning routine interactions into engaging experiences. By integrating it into your campaigns, you make shopping more interactive and exciting while encouraging users to engage with your content.

Besides boosting engagement by encouraging users to play and have fun, gamified campaigns are also a great way to collect email addresses for promotions and newsletters. Popular types of gamified campaigns include:

• Wheel of Fortune: Visitors can spin a digital wheel and win various discounts or exclusive offers
• Scratch cards: You can use digital scratch cards that reveal various prizes
• Easter egg hunt: Hide special offers and discounts on your website and encourage users to browse until they find them
• Loyalty rewards: Create a points system for loyal customers and a leaderboard, as this can encourage them to become repeat customers

Example of a Wheel of Fortune-type gamified campaign:

Produce blog content

A well-written blog can drive traffic to your Shopify store by providing valuable information to readers. It can also establish your brand as an authority on one or more specific subjects. Here are some tips on how to maximize your blog’s impact:

• Choose strategic keywords: SEO keyword research is essential for increasing your blog’s online visibility. Try to find keywords that relate to the blog topics and your products.
• Link to your products: Since your blog content is about topics related to your products, you should be able to integrate product links and mentions naturally within the content. This way, readers can explore your products subtly — without feeling like it’s too hard of a sell.
• Include calls to action: Make sure to tell your audience to engage with your products. The best place for a call to action is usually at the end of the blog post, as it’s easy to integrate within the conclusion.
• Create various content types: There are multiple types of blog content. Some of the most effective for online stores are product tutorials, how-to guides, buying guides, industry-specific news, and frequently asked questions on a specific subject.

Example of an online store blog:

Run paid ad campaigns

Investing in paid ads can provide excellent value for your money. However, targeting them properly is essential to ensure you reach your desired audience.

You can advertise on Google and other search engines to have your ads appear when people search specific keywords. You can also strategically place banners on specific websites to capture the appropriate audience.

To that end, social media advertising can be particularly effective, allowing you to target specific groups based on demographics and online behavior.

Other tips on running effective paid ad campaigns include:

• Target your audience: The internet is a big place, so your ads will only be effective if you target people based on relevant factors like demographics, interests, and past purchases. This involves creating customer personas starting from these criteria.
• Create attractive ads: The design of your ads also depends on their target audience. Personalize them accordingly, use high-quality images and videos, and complement them with compelling copy.
• Establish a budget: Finding the right budget for your paid ad campaign usually requires some testing. Try it out and find that sweet spot between spending too little to make an impact and spending too much to make a profit.

Example of a Google ad:

Host contests and giveaways

Contests and giveaways can be powerful tools that attract traffic to your Shopify store. The allure of either winning a prize or getting something for free can motivate visitors to engage with your content. Not only does this increase your brand awareness and website traffic, but they also help you collect customer data.

Here are some tips on implementing contests and giveaways into your strategy:

• Offer relevant prizes: The prizes you offer should match your products and target audience. Some examples are free products, gift cards, exclusive promotional content, or discounts.
• Choose appropriate entry method options: You should choose the entry methods that fit your goals. For example, if you want to build your email list, you should ask visitors to sign up via email. Other popular methods include following and liking your social media accounts, sharing a specific post, tagging a friend, and submitting images or videos of them using a product.
• Make sure the contests and giveaways reach your audience: You can promote them using social media posts, paid advertising, influencer campaigns, a dedicated landing page on your website, email marketing, and blog posts. Reaching your target audience ensures you’re attracting customers who are more likely to engage.

Example of a giveaway:

Get featured on other websites

Another effective way to drive traffic to your Shopify store is to get featured on other related websites, adding credibility to your brand and expose your products to a different audience. Here are some tips to help you:

• Find the right websites: The websites that would work best depend on the products you’re selling. Try Googling your product categories to determine which websites can help you reach a wider audience.
• Use bloggers: Find influential bloggers in your niche and reach out to them. Try to determine what they’d want in return; it’s usually money or products, but if your audience is large enough, they may settle for exposure.
• Follow up with website admins and bloggers: If you reach out to websites and blogs for collaboration opportunities and don’t hear back, don’t hesitate to follow up after a few days. They may be receiving many collaboration invites and could have missed yours.
• Build relationships: Get bloggers and admins to like you by offering them free products, sharing their content, or adding positive comments to their content on social media. This helps create a genuine connection and makes them more likely to collaborate with you in the future. 

Example of a website promoting external products:

Capture emails with popups

A newsletter is a great way to boost your sales, but only if it reaches enough people. You can capture visitor emails by creating an attractive popup that convinces people to sign up. These tips can help you do that:

• Make sure they’re visually appealing: Your popup should instantly grab the viewer’s attention, so make it as visually attractive and relevant as possible. A well-designed popup increases the likelihood that visitors will engage with it and take action.
• Provide incentives for signing up: The viewers should feel like they’re getting some kind of reward for signing up for your newsletter. These could be special discounts, limited-edition offers, and exclusive content.
• Make sure you time them right: A popup can be annoying and intrusive if it appears at the wrong time. A/B test multiple situations and find the most effective popup placement on your website during a visitor’s journey.
• Connect popups with email marketing software: You can design and implement effective popups with the help of dedicated email marketing software. Some tools, including Omnisend, also have built-in popup forms and templates.

Example of an effective popup:

Be active on messaging boards

You can get people interested in your products and establish yourself as an authoritative figure in your niche by being active on dedicated message boards and other online discussions. Find topics where you can provide a valuable contribution and genuinely help people with what they need — boards like Reddit and Quora are great places to start.

Here are some tips on taking advantage of messaging boards:

• Search for relevant topics: Only contribute to topics that have a direct relevance to what you’re selling
• Use your expertise to give valuable advice: Showcasing your knowledge regarding relevant subjects can help build your personal brand
• Link your store’s products or blog posts: Find ways to include only links relevant, as admins may not accept unrelated links

Example of a relevant message board topic:

Summary 

Knowing how to drive traffic to your Shopify store is a crucial skill, but using a single method is often not enough. It’s important to analyze all the methods outlined in this article and choose which ones best fit your online business and overall marketing approach.

You can also regularly test your methods and change things when one or more stop being effective. This dynamic approach can help you stay on top of your competition and constantly attract new people to check out your products.