Why create landing pages for your Shopify store?

Every Shopify merchant probably has the same question at the top of their mind: how can I increase the sales rate of my eCommerce store? While there’s no one-size-fits-all magical solution to this question - one strategic approach to try is creating customized landing pages. 

Well-designed landing pages, when added to your marketing campaigns, can drive higher conversions. 

This article will clarify the value of creating eCommerce landing pages for your Shopify store. 

The difference between landing pages versus product pages 

In order to understand the role landing pages can play in your sales strategy, it is essential to understand the difference between eCommerce landing pages and product pages. Both have an important role to play in your buyer’s journey. 

A Shopify landing page is a page dedicated to one specific conversion goal - like taking advantage of a limited-time offer, joining your subscription service, or launching your new product.

A product page is designed to educate potential customers about your product. Product pages have to include a lot of information because they are meant to answer any potential questions a customer could have. That way, customers can understand exactly what you sell without seeing it in person.

Here’s a breakdown of the key differences between the two: 

You might be thinking - if a product page has all the information customers would need to know about my product, then why do I need a landing page? 

Both pages need to contain all the information shoppers need to make a purchase. But the difference is that they are tailored to different groups.

• Product pages contain more information because they are shaped for a broader, wider audience.

• Landing pages contain all the essential information that a specific target group needs to make a purchasing decision. That's why they may be less detail-rich, but are more content-rich.

Because product pages are so information-rich, it can be harder to guide visitors to take a specific action. 

That’s where landing pages come in. 

With a landing page, you can zoom in on one goal - one action that you want visitors to take. 

You can remove elements that distract from this goal - like additional navigational links, etc. 

CRO experts often refer to landing pages as “sales conversations” because every element of a well-designed landing page is meant to nudge you toward a specific action. 

Both are important - after all - you need a page that can inform your visitors about every detail of your product. 

And adding landing pages to your strategy can help you to increase your conversion rate for specific goals. 

Why you should create Shopify landing pages 

Adding landing pages to your Shopify site increases your conversion rate because they are more relevant to your audience. 

Content tailored to a specific audience: 

Building custom landing pages on Shopify can help your conversion because they make it easier for shoppers to make decisions. 

Part of this can be explained by Hick’s Law. 

• This refers to the concept that the more options we are presented with, the harder it is for us to make decisions. 

• More specifically, the time and effort of the decision-making process increases. 

• As the amount of choices increases, so do these two factors. 

With a dedicated landing page, you can remove the “fluff” i.e. anything that is not relevant to the audience. 

Now, they are presented with a clear path toward the action you’d like them to take. 

This makes for a much easier decision-making process. And is what makes landing pages ideal for PPC campaigns. 

Higher conversion on PPC campaigns

One advantage of dedicated landing pages is that you can create a page that perfectly matches the expectations of someone who clicks on your PPC ads. 

Of the top 100 stores on Shopify, a recent study found that 66% of them sent PPC traffic to their homepage (with the remaining 34% sending traffic to product or collection pages). 

While your homepage can act like a landing page in many respects, a dedicated landing page can create an even more personalized experience for your audience. 

Relevant landing pages are much more likely to convert from your ad clicks because you can drive your traffic toward a specific action. Your homepage and product pages are less focused, and may not fit the exact context of your ad. 

Because landing pages can be hyper-tailored to your audience, you can more easily convert them. 

Converting from PPC ads is a big pain point for a lot of brands 

Here’s what, Rishi Rawat, a Shopify conversion expert, has found with clients he’s worked with:

“I work with customers to spend an inordinate amount of money on advertising and they convert, let's say 2% of their ad spend or maybe two and a half percent of that ad spend, and there's this huge universe of people that they aren't converting. And so what they would ask me to do is to figure out, you know, why those people aren't buying. 

And at first, I was like, this is awesome because now I can look at 98% of the audience, and it's I have so much more to play with. And I started realizing that the reasons why people don't buy are infinite. I mean, there's a whole variety of reasons that they don't buy. And so even if I would have figured it out, it's gonna be really hard. But more importantly, there are many reasons why people don't buy, which I have zero influence over.” 

So how does Rishi deal with this issue? 

He focused on creating tailored pages that are targeted specifically at part of this audience: the Healthy Skeptics. 

By creating pages that are specific to the needs of this audience, he’s had great success in increasing the conversion rate for his clients on Shopify. 

Not only do landing pages help convert better, but they can also be built in a short amount of time - removing bottlenecks from marketing and sales campaigns. 

Launch your campaigns faster

Creating bespoke, custom landing pages is easy with the assistance of a Shopify page builder. 

This enables you to avoid the limitations of coding or web development experience. 

So that you can build custom pages that match up with your ads for your PPC campaigns or align with your brand look and feel. 

This makes running seasonal campaigns (like Black Friday or holiday campaigns) and product promotions easy to create and execute. 

With a tailored landing page that matches with your campaign, every part of the customer journey fits together like a puzzle. 

Now that we’ve clarified the potential benefits of creating custom landing pages for your Shopify store - let’s check out a few examples of high-performing landing pages. 

Examples of high-converting landing pages on Shopify

Seasonal landing page: Magic Spoon

Landing page type: seasonal product landing page

Conversion goal: buy product 

This seasonal landing page from Magic Spoon promotes their fall flavors - which are only available for a limited time. Compared to the Magic Spoon homepage, they’ve tailored all the colors and graphics to match the season with Halloween and fall vibes. 

Clicking on the CTA will lead to their limited edition - fall product: 

This is a great example of how to use landing pages for product promotions. 

Special offer/giveaway landing page: Olipop

Landing page type: promo campaign

Conversion goal: email address collection

This special offer landing page from Olipop is a great example of how you can create pages for specific campaigns or partnerships. Their goal here seems to be collecting email addresses to grow their list. This list can later be used for email campaigns or ad retargeting. 

As you can see, it’s a super simple page with one clear action that visitors can take. 

Subscription landing page: Death Wish Coffee 

Landing page type: subscription landing page

Conversion goal: subscribe 

Death Wish Coffee’s landing page is aimed at nudging visitors towards a subscription to their Society of Strong Coffee.  

This page does a great job of highlighting the benefits of joining their subscription service (extra reward discounts and exclusive access) while mitigating the risks (flexible shipments and free shipping). 

Product launch page: Wild

Landing page type: product launch

Conversion goal: add to cart

This landing page by Wild helps to introduce a new product to their audience - a shampoo bar, rather than their hero product: deodorant. 

On this page, they have information that helps to nudge visitors to buy this specific product. 

And offer opportunities along the page to convert by adding this product to your cart. 

This landing page would pair well with a marketing campaign to spread awareness about their new product. 

New collection landing page: Wrangler

Landing page type: Collection landing page

Conversion goal: shop their new collection 

To launch their new Barbie collection - Wrangler has this landing page. 

This page tells the story behind their collection. 

Here’s what their Wrangler x Barbie collection page looks like - so you can see the difference: 

Notice that their landing page uses storytelling to show off their products in a different way. 

This sort of page would align well with ads that are promoting this collaboration. 

And offers two easy paths:

• Either shop their women’s collection

• Or shop their girl’s collection

But, their targeted audience is actually one group: moms. 

The messaging of this page is focused on convincing moms to buy coordinating outfits with their daughters. This is why creating a page with strong storytelling can help frame their products in a way that is sure to help with conversions. 

Conclusion

Shopify landing pages are an effective tactic to try with your marketing and sales efforts. By creating custom, dedicated landing pages, you can target one specific group, with a clear and concise message, that will drive visitors towards taking action. 

This is the power of landing pages versus product or collection pages. 

Instead of being bombarded by a lot of information, a landing page creates a clear path. 

This is why you should consider testing landing pages as part of your upcoming campaigns.