Boost Your Shopify Email List: How AI is Revolutionizing Opt-Ins for E-Commerce

How many times have you checked your email today? While technology is leading to rapid shifts in how we communicate, email remains a staple worldwide. This makes it a strong potential marketing channel. No matter your industry, most e-commerce companies should try to grow a healthy email list to use for marketing campaigns.

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That said, getting subscribers isn’t as simple as throwing a form in someone’s face. Ask yourself, when was the last time you subscribed to an e-commerce mailing list? More so, how many newsletters do you engage with regularly?

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Email can be great for reaching customers and growing a loyal following, however, merchants that want to connect with their audience via this channel need a sound strategy beyond simple newsletter forms and annoying popups.

Assessing Email Capture Methods In Today’s E-Commerce Landscape

Unfortunately, many brands employ an ineffective approach to getting email opt-ins. A study from Omnisend reveals that popups are the most common type of email sign-up form, despite having the second lowest conversion rate (3%). The next most popular is the traditional signup box which has even lower conversions at 1.3%.

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These lead capture methods are suboptimal. People tend to dislike popups and sidebar and footer forms are subject to banner blindness. Plus, forms lacking any context can cause friction. Shoppers are less likely to sign up without some insight into how often they will be emailed.

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A common tactic to alleviate this friction is to offer an incentive like a discount or intro offer. But, this isn’t always a sound choice depending on the business. For example, let’s say you sell low-margin products where any notable discount will affect profitability. Or, you could have a premium brand whose reputation is lessened by discounting your offering.

AI Concierge to Grow Subscriber Lists Through Natural Conversations

One-size-fits-all marketing is less effective than before. Today’s brands must leverage personalization beyond post-subscription messaging to expand their following. While mainly regarded as a support tool, AI shopping assistants can be effective at capturing email subscribers. This is done through detailed behavioral segmentation and more intuitive interactions.

How Rep AI’s Natural Conversations Eliminate Opt-in Resistance

Rep AI’s natural conversations and right-time engagement improve user rapport to increase the likelihood that a visitor subscribes if prompted. Instead of relying on exit-intent popups for email subscriptions, the AI uses its behavioral algorithm to approach disengaged visitors in an unintrusive manner. This approach helps foster stronger brand loyalty and can lead to purchases beyond the initial subscription.

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AI Training and Predictive Analysis Increase Opt-in Rates

With extensive data, the AI knows how different segments will respond to email capture tactics based on where they are in the consideration process. It can then know the ideal time for your opt-in forms and when not to prompt for a subscription as it may inhibit the conversion path. 

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AI training also lets merchants prepare for more nuanced situations. With it, you can add custom FAQs to address specific questions. For example, let’s say your products are missing an important feature compared to competitors. To handle situations where shoppers ask about it, you can train a response to offer a discount (in exchange for an email subscription). This can help grow your list while potentially avoiding an otherwise negative shopper experience.

Connecting Your Email Marketing Tech Stack

While AI can help engage visitors and gather subscriptions, it often isn’t the same tool used for email marketing campaigns. This creates the potential of siloed lists and contact data with limited usability. You can address this by manually transferring data between solutions. However, this is time-consuming and exposes you to errors.

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Your primary lead generation tool needs seamless integration with your marketing tech stack. With Rep AI, your chatbot’s signup forms connect directly to several leading list-based marketing tools. There is native support for Postscript, Attentive, and Klaviyo. When configured, subscribers will be automatically added to lists in your marketing solution. They can then start receiving campaign messages immediately.

Seamless Integrations to Sync AI Chat and Email Marketing Platforms

The integration process varies depending on the platform. However, all are straightforward and can be done in a few short steps. For example, you can set up a Rep AI Klaviyo integration by navigating to Settings > Integrations in Rep AI, finding Klaviyo, and selecting Connect. You then provide your private Klaviyo API key and the integration will be in place. From there, you can configure the integration by defining which segment subscribers are added to.

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Beyond contact details, Rep AI has data that can enhance Klaviyo's marketing segments. Through conversational analysis, you get new insights such as which specific questions they ask about products. You can use this to create unique audience groups and better targeting in your email campaigns.

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NYCMode provides a great example of how to grow a strong email community using Rep AI and Klaviyo. When shoppers converse in the chat, there are several ways they can ask or receive a prompt to subscribe to more marketing messages. Upon capturing the subscription, the contact is immediately added to a corresponding Klaviyo list where they can begin receiving automated email messages. This has given NYCMode higher brand loyalty among subscribers and better overall engagement with email campaigns.

Final Thoughts

Chat-based email signup forms add a personal element to your requests. They do so while removing the limitations and nuisance of more common methods. With this balance and through better data, you can steadily increase your email opt-in rate while also ensuring a more responsive, higher-converting email community.

Get started with a free 30-day trial of Rep AI to start turning more of your valuable visitors into subscribers