PayPal Stories Archive

When entrepreneurs Brian & Paula Dagnon, the owners of Rad Dog, founded their business in 2008, they knew what their core values would be: honesty, a love for dogs and a passion for the outdoors. What they didn’t know is that their rapid growth would require them to work smarter by automating some manual tasks and gaining accurate, real-time insights about the state of their business.

 

So it was with great anticipation that they entered PayPal’s $10K Merchant Makeover contest for a chance to win a complete small businesses makeover with PayPal solution providers Shopify and Xero.  Rad Dog was one of the three lucky winners we announced in August.

 

We recently sat down with Brian and Shopify to learn more about Rad Dog’s real-life website challenges and captured a few key takeaways that any small business can learn from.

 

Rad Dog knows when they make a sale. What they needed to figure out was how to view and interpret all of their business, customer and website data in a more holistic, meaningful way to drive more conversions.

 

Solution: “Rad Dog needs to have access to real-time reports on sales, marketing, financials, acquisition, customer data and more,” says Shopify’s Success Specialist, Diana Glenn. “By connecting their existing Google Analytics account directly with their Shopify website, Rad Dog can also track where shoppers abandon their shopping cart as well as many other useful trends to help understand what’s working well, and identify where the buyer can use a little improvement.”

 

Makeover Takeaway Tip: Use a combination of free and paid tools to understand user behaviors on your website, so you can get real-time business insights and optimize the shopping experience. For instance, if the data show that shoppers abandon their carts in the middle of checking out, that may mean you have too many checkout steps that create friction for buyers. Use those insights to help streamline your checkout flow.

 

With automated, real-time views into data to help understand shopping behaviors, Rad Dog can start converting more of those shoppers into buyers. When someone abandons a shopping cart without purchasing, Rad Dog needs a way to bring them back to complete the sale. 

 

Solution: “Abandoned cart recovery is built directly into your Shopify website. Whenever a cart is abandoned, the system will automatically email the customer to remind them of the outstanding order.” Glenn mentions. “But sometimes an email isn’t enough to get the shopper to come back and complete the sale. Now, Rad Dog can choose to automatically apply a discount with the recovery email to increase chances of conversion and help create a loyal customer.”

 

Makeover Takeaway Tip:  Add a retargeting solution to your website to help bring shoppers back to complete a sale—and boost your revenue.  Retargeting can take the form of personalized email, online or social media ads that recapture shoppers’ attention. Start small by piloting one retargeting tactic, learn what works, and then expand into other tactics. Keeping your business top of mind can help convert a website visitor into a satisfied customer.

 

Ever get an after-the-fact email that something you’ve purchased is back-ordered and won’t be arriving in time for your special event? Remember your disappointment? Small businesses are especially sensitive to out-of-stock situations. Not only can they increase employee workload to rescue the sale or issue refunds, but also more importantly, shoppers are unlikely to return to your storefront. It’s the perfect anti-loyalty mistake. And… completely preventable.

 

Solution: “Small businesses need to use an e-commerce platform that has built-in inventory tracking to prevent products from being oversold,” Glenn comments. “This, along with custom built reports, will help companies prepare for seasonal sales variations and ensure that they aren’t low on that hot new product their shoppers want.” 

 

Makeover Takeaway Tip:  Build automated inventory tracking into your website to save time, eliminate manual errors, and proactively protect your brand from out-of-stock situations during prime selling seasons.

 

If your website could benefit from a makeover, visit the PayPal Partner Directory to discover more about our valued solution providers and take advantages of their discounted services.  Then, find additional tips for growing your business in the new year by visiting our small business holiday resource site.