Shopify Free Gift with Purchase: Top Strategies & Best GWP App for 2024

In the competitive landscape of e-commerce, finding effective strategies to increase sales and enhance customer satisfaction is crucial. One proven method is implementing a free gift with purchase (GWP) offer. This approach not only incentivizes customers to complete their purchases but can also encourage repeat business.

If you’re using Shopify, integrating a GWP strategy can be straightforward, especially with the right tools. In this article, we’ll delve into the benefits of GWP, how to implement it on Shopify, the limitations of automatic discounts, the importance of A/B testing, and how to measure the success of your GWP campaigns. Additionally, we'll address common questions about GWP to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of this powerful strategy.

Why Gift With Purchase (GWP) Works

Offering a free gift with purchase leverages the psychology of receiving something extra, creating a sense of added value for customers. This tactic can significantly influence purchasing decisions, encouraging customers to spend more to qualify for the gift.

As a result, a GWP can often benefit eCommerce stores in a few ways:

• Increase in Average Order Value (AOV): Stores that implement GWP strategies often see up to a 30% increase in AOV.

• Enhanced Conversion Rates: GWP offers can boost conversion rates by as much as 20%.

• Customer Retention: Approximately 70% of customers who receive a GWP are more likely to return for future purchases.

These data points highlight the effectiveness of GWP in driving sales and fostering long-term customer relationships.

How to Setup GWP on Shopify

To effectively manage a free gift with purchase Shopify strategy, utilizing a dedicated app is essential. While Shopify now offers a built-in automatic discount features, a specialized app can streamline the process, offering more flexibility and better integration with your store.

Shopify's Automatic Discounts Fall Short for GWP

While Shopify’s automatic discounts might seem like a viable solution for GWP, they often fall short in several areas:

1. Increased Friction: Customers need to manually add the gift to their cart, which can lead to cart abandonment, confusing, and increased support requests for your store.

2. Discount Stacking Issues: Automatic discounts can conflict with other promotions, causing a poor user experience and potential loss of sales. If you've had a Shopify store for any amount of time, you're more than familiar with discounts conflicting with each other.

3. No Inventory Backup: Without a dedicated GWP app, running out of gift inventory can negatively impact conversion rates, as there’s no automated fallback option.

Using a specialized app for GWP helps overcome these challenges by automating the process, reducing friction, and ensuring a smoother customer experience.

One very important note here as well is most gift with purchase apps dramatically outperform automatic discount-driven GWP because the shopper experience is so much better. How do they do it? The best GWP apps automatically add and remove the gift from the cart at the right times.

Why a Dedicated Gift With Purchase (GWP) Shopify App is Preferred

We know that Shopify's automatic discount falls short. Unfortunately, so do many existing GWP apps. That's why we made sure our GWP app at Raleon covered what our customers were asking for, like:

1. No Discount Stacking Restrictions: Raleon avoids the common issue of discount stacking, ensuring that your promotions run smoothly without conflicts.

2. Versatile Theme Integration: Raleon offers multiple ways to integrate seamlessly with your Shopify theme, ensuring that the GWP offers does not feel glitchy, and looks natural with your store.

3. Comprehensive Analytics: Gain insights into what's working like how often your GWP converts, is abandoned, and other important metrics allowing you to refine your GWP strategies based on real data.

4. Gift Split Testing or A/B Testing GWP: We'll cover this more later, but being able to test what GWP has the greatest impact is VERY helpful and not possible with automatic discounts

5. Automated Gift Backups: In case you run out of inventory, Raleon automatically backs up your gifts, preventing lost sales and maintaining customer satisfaction.

The Importance of A/B Testing Your GWP Strategy

Not all GWP promotions are going to get the same results. Additionally, some promotions are going to cost you more than others. That's why it's so important to make sure you really test what GWP promotions perform best. If you don't you could be leaving precious margin on the table!

Here's 3 key ways to make sure you're testing your GWP:

• Optimize Offer Details: Test different types of gifts and spending thresholds to find the most effective combination.

• Improve User Experience: Experiment with how and where GWP offers are displayed to maximize visibility and engagement.

• Targeted Gifts: Not all products or channels require the same kinds of gifts to convert. Test GWP promotions against different ads, in different seasons, and with different hero products.

Regular A/B testing ensures that your GWP campaigns remain effective and aligned with your customers’ preferences.

Measuring the Success of Your GWP Campaign

To determine whether your GWP strategy is working, it’s essential to measure its impact accurately. The best way to test this is to make sure you perform an incremental revenue test (Raleon does this automatically).

How do you perform an incremental revenue test? Conduct a holdout test by segmenting your customers into two groups: one that receives the GWP offer and one that does not. Compare the conversion rates and AOV between these groups to evaluate the impact of the GWP. This method helps you understand the direct financial benefits of your GWP strategy.

Don't forget - you want to make sure you're tracking the margin impact of this revenue as well! It's not just about driving topline revenue!

Conclusion

Implementing a free gift with purchase Shopify strategy can enhance your store’s performance by increasing sales and boosting conversion rates. While Shopify’s built-in features offer basic functionality, leveraging a dedicated app like Raleon can help you overcome common challenges, streamline your GWP processes, and gain valuable insights through comprehensive analytics. By focusing on informed strategies and utilizing the right tools, you can maximize the benefits of GWP and drive your e-commerce success.