Boost Your Shopify Sales with Hotjar: An Easy Guide

Today's focus is HotJar, the most commonly used app for heatmapping tool for eCommerce stores. Heatmapping is essential in your optimization process, and I'll be covering how we can integrate HotJar, and use it to boost your sales.

Understanding Hotjar

Hotjar, the OG of CRO tools, is more than just a CRO tool; it's a product insights experience tool. This means it offers a deep understanding of your users, connecting the dots between what's happening on your site and why. It's almost like mind-reading your customers. Even multinational companies make simple yet costly mistakes on their websites, and Hotjar helped us catch those and boost sales.

Note: Hotjar is a paid tool, but the cost is worth every penny. You can try it out with a 15-day free trial using the link below.

Setting Up Hotjar with Shopify

Now, let's discuss how to use Hotjar and set it up correctly to uncover hidden gems that can boost your business sales and customers. Here are the steps you should follow:

1. Sign Up: Go to Hotjar's website and sign up for the plan that suits you best. Their Plus and Business plans are great options, but choose based on your store's needs.
2. Add Your Website: After signing up, you'll land on a dashboard where you can add your website(s). Fill in your website name, URL, industry, company size, your role, and other details.
3. Add Hotjar Tracking Code to Shopify: Once your website is added, you'll receive a Hotjar tracking code. If you're using Shopify, navigate to your Shopify dashboard > Online store > Themes > Actions > Edit code > theme.liquid and add the Hotjar tracking code there.
4. Verify Installation: Return to your Hotjar dashboard, go to 'Verify Installation' and click 'Check Hotjar Installation.' If all is well, it will confirm Hotjar is now installed on your website.

Using Hotjar Tools

Once Hotjar is installed, you have a range of useful tools at your disposal including Heat Maps, Recordings, Incoming Feedback, Surveys, Funnels, and Forms. Let's take a quick look at each:

After successfully installing Hotjar on your Shopify store, it's crucial to understand the different features that this tool provides. From heatmaps to funnels, Hotjar offers a variety of functionalities that can give you deep insights into your customers' behavior on your website. Here, we'll explore five key features: Heatmaps, Recordings, Feedback, Surveys, and Funnels.

1. Heatmaps

‍Heatmaps in Hotjar are a visual representation of how users interact with your website. They show where users click, scroll, and move on your webpage, helping you understand what parts of your site users interact with the most.

To create a heatmap, go to the 'Heatmaps' section on the Hotjar dashboard, click 'New Heatmap', and provide the necessary details. The resulting heatmap will visually represent user activity on the specified page, allowing you to optimize elements of your website for better engagement.

2. Recordings

‍Hotjar's recordings capture screen recordings of user sessions, allowing you to see exactly how users are interacting with your website. These recordings can provide invaluable insights, such as identifying places where users get stuck or have difficulties.

To begin recording, navigate to the 'Recordings' section of the dashboard, and set up the page and user criteria you want to record. The recordings can then be analyzed to uncover any usability issues and help you create a more streamlined user experience.

3. Incoming Feedback

‍The Incoming Feedback feature lets you gather immediate feedback from users visiting your website. This tool can provide real-time insights into your customers' experiences and feelings about your site, this is great for identifying bugs you otherwise would not have known about.

Setting this up is straightforward: choose the 'Incoming Feedback' option from the dashboard and set the feedback criteria according to your needs. This will allow you to collect user reactions and make quick adjustments to improve your site.

4. Surveys

‍Surveys in Hotjar allow you to gather in-depth feedback from your users. They can help you understand your users' motivations, frustrations, and objections.

Create a new survey from the 'Surveys' option in the dashboard, and customize it as per your requirements. The responses will provide valuable insights that can help enhance the overall user experience.

Some example of survey questions:
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How would you rate your overall experience?

Why did you buy from our store?

What almost made you not buy from us?

How did you find us?

Give users a dropdown or radios with preselected options to choose from instead of making them type there own inputs, unless a unique answer is needed.
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5. Funnels

‍Similar to Google Analytics, Funnels in Hotjar help you visualize and understand the user journey through your website. They help you identify at what stages users are dropping off and how you can optimize the user journey to increase conversions.

From the dashboard, navigate to 'Funnels' and click 'New Funnel'. Define the sequence of steps (pages) that make up a user's journey on your website, and name your funnel. Once you've set up your funnel, Hotjar will start tracking the user's progress through these steps and show you where they drop off.

What's Next?

After collecting and analyzing data from Hotjar, the next step is to understand what this information means for your website and how to leverage it for improvements. Here's what you should do next:

Interpreting Data

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What trends are apparent in the data?
• Which parts of my store are the most engaging for users?
• At what point do users exit the funnel?
• What problems or obstacles do users encounter?
• What is the general sentiment of user feedback and surveys?

Your answers will help identify potential problem areas and opportunities for enhancement. For instance, if many users are exiting at the cart process, you can try skipping directly to checkout to streamline the process.

Formulating a Plan

Next, formulate a plan to address these issues or to take advantage of opportunities. Prioritize according to the impact each change could have on user experience and conversion rates. Create a list of proposed changes, such as redesigning certain elements, changing the checkout process, or updating the website navigation.

A/B Testing

Before implementing major changes, it's crucial to test them first. This is where A/B testing comes in. A/B testing involves presenting two versions of a webpage (version A and version B) to different segments of your website visitors at the same time to see which version performs better.

For instance, if you plan to change the color of the 'Add to Cart' button to make it more noticeable, create two versions of the product page: one with the existing button (version A) and one with the changed button color (version B). Use a tool like Convert or Google Optimize to randomly show either version to your visitors.

After a certain period, analyze the data. Which version had more users adding products to their cart? If it's version B, then it's safe to say that the new button color improves the user experience and should be implemented site-wide.

It's not easy to run A/B tests, so if you aren't technically inclined or wanting to put the time into running your A/B tests, skip to Gradual Rollout or book a call with us to learn about our done for you A/B testing.

Gradual Roll-out

If you're confident in a change but don't want to risk implementing it all at once, you could consider a gradual roll-out. With this approach, you implement the change for a small portion of changes to start with. Monitor the impact closely on a month over month basis in Google Analytics & Hotjar. If the change appears to have a positive impact, you can implement and gradually roll out other changes.

Conclusion

All these Hotjar tools together give you a crystal clear picture of what can be improved on your website and Shopify store. I've seen first-hand how understanding your website and customer behavior, coupled with testing changes based on those insights, leads to massive increased sales and profit.

If you need help with anything covered in this article, feel free to book a call with us.