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Shopify is a lot like chess.
Sounds weird, right? But hear us out – both are easy to learn, hard to master, and involve a lot of moving pieces. And when it comes to strategy – the kind that makes you a chess or Shopify grandmaster – standing out from the crowd takes time, patience, and practice.
And it’s a big crowd: there are currently 2,744,406 active Shopify stores. That’s a lot. This gigantic number is why average online conversion rates are sitting around 2%.
To add salt to the ecommerce wound, acquisition is also only getting more expensive. Between Apple’s iOS privacy updates, the phaseout of third-party cookies, and tightening data laws, it’s becoming harder for brands to retarget customers through paid ads and pixel tracking.
So how do you promote your Shopify store effectively? The answer is a healthy mix of customer acquisition methods, and we’re breaking down 8 of them in this article.
Let’s dive in!
What is customer acquisition?
Let’s start with the basics: customer acquisition is the process of attracting and converting new shoppers into paying customers through a mix of organic, paid, and owned.
The key success metric to monitor is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – the average amount spent to acquire a new customer. This average CAC for stores is rising year-over-year – the current average in 2025 is $70-$80 (up 40% from 2023).
Customer acquisition isn’t a one-and-done – it’s an ongoing process for you and a multi-touch, omnichannel journey for your customers. A shopper might see an Instagram ad, read a blog post, scan a QR code, and get a push notification – all before finally converting.
With this mini lesson out of the way, let’s take a look at how to advertise a Shopify store through 8 powerful customer acquisition methods.
#1 - Paid ads and retargeting
Remember how we said it’s becoming harder to attract and re-convert customers through paid ads and retargeting? It is, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
Despite the limitations, paid ads are still a key part of acquiring new customers.
One big change is the way you use this strategy: with the aforementioned privacy restrictions in place, successful ad campaigns now depend on owned data and hyper-personalized messaging. Instead of casting a wide net, focus on granular targeting to reach specific segments.
Paid ads platforms to try
- Meta (Facebook/Instagram): great for social proof or product carousel ads
- Google Search & Shopping: powerful when targeting high-intent buyers ready to make a purchase
- TikTok: an impactful platform for discovery-driven audiences
Using retargeting
Setting up the campaign is only half of the strategy – retargeting is the yin to paid ads’ yang. Retargeting allows you to cash in on your messaging and convert customers who didn’t make a purchase the first time around. While 70.22% of online carts are abandoned, effective retargeting can help you recover around 26% of them.
Paid ads and retargeting in action
Good Protein is a good user of paid ads and retargeting. By pairing social ad retargeting with a welcome offer to encourage first-time purchases, they have a customer acquisition plan that comes together as deliciously as a mixture of their chocolate and peanut butter-flavoured shakes.
#2 - Reactiv Clips
Getting a prospective customer to download your app is a tough sell. It’s time-consuming, takes up precious storage on their device, and, honestly, it’s just kind of a whole thing. That’s why Reactiv Clips are such a powerful mobile engagement tool.
What’s a Reactiv Clip?
Reactiv Clips are lightweight versions of mobile apps. They allow users to access specific parts and features of your app without actually having to download it.
With an open rate of over 60%, Reactiv Clips are the perfect way to let potential customers experience your app without the risk of them bouncing before downloading. Plus, once someone engages, you have an 8-hour window to send personalized push notifications – no opt-in needed.
A typical Reactiv Clip user flow
Here’s a look at how a hypothetical customer (we’ll call him “Bill”) would interact with your brand using Reactiv Clips:
- Bill clicks your Instagram ad, leading him to a Reactiv Clip. Hi Bill!
- This immediately launches your product or collection landing page.
- Bill leaves the page to respond to his multitude of Instagram DMs.
- Bill is retargeted with a personalized push notification. He clicks the notification, bringing him directly to the checkout page with the product already in his cart.
- Bill places the order.
- He receives a push notification encouraging him to download the full app to track his purchase. Great work, Bill!
As you can see from Bill’s ecommerce adventure, Reactiv Clips take a few moves off a customer’s path to checkout, providing a streamlined experience for them and a stronger conversion flow for you. Win/win!
P.S. Social ads are just one of many ways to use Reactiv Clips in your campaign. More use cases can be found here.
#3 - Conversational commerce: Shopping via LLMs
The rise of AI chat tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini has sparked a new era of shopping called conversational commerce. Instead of scrolling through product pages or sifting through Google results, shoppers are simply asking AI to find what they want.
And it’s taking off fast: the global conversational‑commerce market is projected to grow from roughly US $8.8 billion in 2025 to about US $32.7 billion by 2035 (CAGR ~14.3 %). Ecommerce brands are clearly betting big on AI-powered shopping.
How conversational commerce impacts Shopify stores
Conversational commerce means your Shopify store can now be discovered inside AI chats – where customers are actively making purchase decisions. OpenAI has even made it possible for Shopify brands to let customers check out directly in ChatGPT, effectively consolidating the entire customer journey into one chat.
This trend combines personalization, immediacy and conversion. Shoppers get contextual recommendations, while brands gain a new channel to acquire high-intent customers.
Improving your visibility on LLMs
To appear more frequently on LLMs, optimize your product descriptions, collections and overall content for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). AEO involves optimizing your content to be better understood, trusted and sourced by LLMs.
Strong AEO helps your store and products appear when shoppers ask intent-driven questions like “I’m gluten intolerant. Help me find a probiotic supplement to improve my gut health”.
AEO in action
Cozy Earth wraps their customers in comfort – and their content in strong AEO. When our hypothetical friend Bill asked ChatGPT for a “cooling sheet set,” it responded with helpful tips and product recommendations – including a set from Cozy Earth.
Retargeting customers via LLMs
With more and more customers getting product recommendations from LLMs, retargeting them just makes sense. Reactiv is the only platform that lets you do this. With Reactiv, you can:
- Run Reactiv Clips directly out of ChatGPT and other LLMs
- Send shoppers to a mobile app (without requiring a download!)
- Retarget them for 8 hours with push notifications
Conversational commerce is redefining the customer journey – make sure your pieces are on the board so you’re part of the game.
#4 - Email marketing
Email marketing predates the modern internet, with the first recorded instance occurring in 1978. There’s a reason it’s still around: it works.
While the first-ever marketing email was sent unsolicited by Gary Thuerk (giving him the nickname “Father of Spam”), today’s email marketing couldn’t be more different.
Powered by owned, zero-party data, customers are now choosing to hear from you by actively showing interest in your brand. This powerful (and profitable - the average ROI per $1 spent is $36 - $40) intent makes them the perfect candidate for future outreach.
Building your email list
If you don’t already have an email list, it’s never too late to start:
- Before opening your store, create a pre-launch page: You’ll have to pair this with another strategy to get the word out, but having a list of interested customers before you start selling gives you zero-party data from day zero.
- Add opt-in forms across your site: Make signing up worthwhile by offering perks like early access to new releases, exclusive discounts or product tutorials.
- Run giveaways: Incentivize sign-ups by offering a simple reward or contest entry. It’s a quick, time-tested way to grow your list.
Remarketing with re-engagement flows
Once a customer creates an account with your store, email becomes a powerful re-engagement tool. Remarket them with re-engagement flows like:
- Welcome sequences for first-time visitors
- Abandoned cart triggers
- Running promotional or holiday-specific campaigns
Email marketing in action
Indigo is one of Canada’s favourite bookstores and one of our favourite users of email retargeting. When customers browse a book but don’t purchase, Indigo sends a “Take a second peek” email that’s supplemented with additional books from the customer’s wishlist. This strategy is personal, timely, and a powerful way to encourage customers to take another look.
With email marketing, it’s all about the setup. Start building your list and strategy early, and you’ll keep reaping the rewards.
#5 - Organic content marketing
While it’s easy to get distracted by flashy new options, organic content remains one of the best strategies to market your Shopify store, especially when you’re just getting started.
Why? It’s free.
Free is good… And practical.
Organic content lets you test your messaging, drive discovery, and build an engaged community before investing in paid ads. Over time, present-day community members can become profitable future customers.
Organic content marketing formats
Organic content comes in many formats – mix and match to see what resonates most with different segments:
- Blog posts
- Product tutorials and guides
- YouTube videos
- Social media content
- FAQs
- And more – you’re only limited by your imagination!
Once you create content in one format, repurpose it across others. For example, a cosmetics brand could turn its YouTube tutorial for its new eyeshadow palette into a TikTok video, an Instagram carousel, a blog post, and an infographic. One great idea, multiple different channels!
SEO and AEO for organic content
Organic content is also a powerful tool for showing up in both search engines and LLMs.
Use search engine optimization (SEO) and AEO best practices across your site – including blogs, product descriptions, and tutorials – to improve visibility and organic discovery.
Let’s say you’re a skincare brand writing a holiday product guide – you’d want to include searchable queries like “best winter skincare routine” (you can find these using SEO keyword research tools). This will help you appear in both Google results and AI-driven discovery experiences.
Content marketing in action
Missouri Star Quilt Company is a star in SEO and AEO content marketing.
Beyond their shop, their site features hundreds of quilting tutorials, blogs, and templates to attract new and experienced crafting enthusiasts – all rich with keywords.
They also worked with Reactiv to prioritize the in-app tutorial experience through searchable content linked to products and patterns. In less than 2 weeks, they were able to attract 50,000 new app users. That’s a lot of stitches and a lot of app users!
Organic content might take longer to see results, but it builds an essential foundation for your brand. Once it clicks, your board will be set for long-term success.
#6 - Geolocation-triggered tactics
For years, ecommerce and retail have been treated like opposing forces. But shoppers never saw a difference. They move seamlessly between stores, mobile, and desktop, expecting every interaction to feel like part of one brand experience.
As of 2025, 73% of retail consumers identify as omnichannel shoppers: browsing online, researching on mobile, and buying in person. Yet most acquisition strategies are still built in silos. It’s time to bridge both worlds.
With Reactiv Clips, brands can bridge that gap effortlessly.
Using geolocation triggers, NFC taps, or QR codes, Shopify brands can create fluid, real-world moments that convert on the spot and feed right back into their digital ecosystem.
Picture this:
- A shopper walking past your store gets a Siri prompt to explore your latest collection.
- Fans at a stadium can buy a jersey instantly from their phone without having to download anything.
- A nearby coffee lover gets a notification to order ahead from your café and skip the line.
Once a shopper interacts with one of these Reactiv Clip experiences, brands can send push notifications and personalized updates that strengthen the relationship long after that first scan or tap.
Here are some creative ways you can leverage this:
1. Turning every store shelf into an interactive experience
QR codes on shelves or product tags can instantly unlock:
- sizing guides
- ingredient details
- UGC
- care instructions
- customer reviews
- stock availability (especially for variants not displayed on the floor)
Customers can pull up this information on their phones instantly.
2. Converting retail visitors into digital subscribers
Clips let shoppers opt into:
- loyalty programs
- product launch notifications
- restock alerts
- limited-time in-store offers
…right from the aisle they’re standing in. (Or seat they’re sitting in, like how we built this experience for a basketball game at Madison Square Garden.)
3. Recovering missed sales in-store
If a location is out of a product or a size, Clips can automatically open a pre-filled cart for:
- ship-to-home
- same-day courier
- pickup at the next-nearest store
It removes the “we’re out” friction and saves an otherwise lost sale.
4. Turning staff into storytellers, not cashiers
Reactiv Clips give store associates tools they can pull up instantly to:
- demo complex products
- share comparison charts
- guide purchases
- trigger add-ons or bundles
- text a Clip to the customer for later
This turns retail into a high-conversion consultative experience.
#7 - Influencer marketing and partnerships
If you’ve been on any form of social media or video platform in the last decade, you’ve encountered influencers.
And for good reason: influencer marketing has become a staple in many acquisition strategies because it gives you access to one of the most effective ways to reach new audiences – leveraging someone else’s.
Finding the right influencer
By working with an influencer, you’re able to tap into the trust and engagement a creator has already built with their audience.
This makes choosing the right influencer incredibly important – you need to ensure you’re reaching your ideal customers and that your message comes across as authentic. As tempting as it may be, partnering with the right micro-influencer is often a lot more powerful than splurging on Kim Kardashian.
Play your cards right, and you can see incredible success: 31% of social media users say they prefer discovering new products through influencers they follow over any other format or channel. For Gen Z, this climbs to 43%!
Influencer strategies to drive acquisition
There are endless ways to work with influencers to drive acquisition, such as:
- Using personalized discount codes or affiliate links to track engagement and measure ROI
- Collaborating on unboxings, tutorials or TikToks that drive directly to your Shopify store
- Use Reactiv Clips to sponsor influencer posts from your store’s social accounts to driving users directly to an app-like experience
Influencer marketing in action
Mejuri may be a fine jewelry brand, but their influencer marketing is more than fine.
Fine jewelry – especially online – is a hyper-competitive market, so Mejuri leverages a wide network of creators and influencers to break through the noise.
Just take a look at their #MejuriPartner hashtag, and you’ll find thousands of posts with hauls, unboxing videos, jewelry tours, and more.
When you find the right creators to partner with, it’s not about spending money on the biggest star you can find – it’s about making the right moves to set you up for success later in the game.
#8 - Loyalty and referral programs
It makes sense that a referral program is a strong acquisition strategy that doesn’t break the bank – but you might be surprised to learn loyalty programs are, too.
In fact, they’re more than strong: 79% of customers say they’re willing to create a store account in exchange for loyalty points.
Once you have their data, you can add them to segments and re-engage via email, SMS, and other channels to secure that first purchase. Loyalty programs are also an excellent incentive for app downloads – pair them with exclusive app-only offers, bonus points, or personalized content to drive app engagement.
With a referral program, you can leverage the loyal customers you already have to do your marketing for you.
Strategies and tactics for loyalty and referral programs
There are plenty of great Shopify app options to build your loyalty and referral programs in minutes, including:
Once you have your foundation in place, use these tactics to get started:
- Add referral code prompting post-purchase emails and order confirmation pages.
- Incentivize social shares and repeat purchases with loyalty points.
- Understand and track key referral metrics such as the number of referrers, referred new customers, cost per referral, and the retention rate of referred shoppers.
Loyalty and referral programs in action
Obvi obvi-ously knows what they’re doing when it comes to loyalty and referral programs. Not only do they offer a robust rewards program with multiple ways to earn points, but their referral program also benefits both sides: referrers and new customers each receive a $15 discount on their next purchase. That’s one healthy discount!
Sticking with our chess analogy, every customer is another piece on the board – the right loyalty and referral programs let you set them up to play the long game.
Promote your Shopify stores wherever your customers are
People aren’t monolithic. There’s no magic “one size fits all” approach to customer acquisition, even with the most niche target audience.
With omnichannel shopping more common than ever and customers receiving messages on every possible platform, it’s important to capture customers across multiple touchpoints with a strong multichannel strategy. The best way to tie it all together? Reactiv Clips.
Pairing Reactiv with these customer acquisition strategy examples, like influencer campaigns, paid ads, email, SMS, and geolocation-triggered tactics, will ensure you stay top of mind and can re-engage customers wherever they are.
Interested? Talk to our team today and start turning your acquisition strategy into a winning board.
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