In our post about online store features, we discussed the impact that social proof, offering local payments and delivery options, engaging loyalty programs, and customer service can have on your store sales and conversions.

But for many brands, in Hong Kong and beyond, the devil is in the details of which tools can support multiple languages or the local market. Below, we will outline the apps that Shopify merchants in Hong Kong have used as well as the features that bring value to your online business.

Product Reviews

New visitors to your store will want to see proof that other people have bought and enjoyed your products. Product review apps do more than just display customer ratings and reviews on your store. Sophisticated review apps will have features such as a pop-up to request a review from customers, an analytics dashboard, and integrations for your reviews to platforms like Facebook and Google Shopping Ads.

Product Reviews by Shopify

Product Reviews by Shopify is free and a great place to start if you want to see how product reviews work. It allows you to get customers’ ratings and reviews, moderate them, and display the ones you prefer. The trade off is that its feature set is relatively limited when compared to other popular review apps that require a paying subscription.

Yotpo

Once you are ready to get more out of your product reviews, you can consider a paid app like Yotpo. Yotpo allows you to display your product reviews in different formats, such as standard ratings, galleries with photos, videos, and Q&A to display throughout a buyer journey. The app also has designed themes to give businesses choices that fit their brand when displaying popups. Analyse data to know exactly what customers like about your products, such as fit, quality, size, fabric, etc if you are selling garments.The app also has a Q&A function so that your answers to one customer can benefit all future visitors. You can also integrate your reviews to Facebook, Instagram, and Google, to boost your product’s social proof on these channels as well.

Translation Apps

If you are considering a single-language Chinese Shopify store, you do not need a translation app as Shopify has support for Traditional and Simplified Chinese. However, Hong Kong online stores that want to maximise reach to local shoppers will need to consider multilingual stores, which requires creating multiple Shopify stores or a third-part translation app.

When comparing translation apps, it is important to understand how different solutions approach translation and the extent of translation support. For example, some apps may have convenient features such as bulk word replacement. Some apps come with automated language translations without the option to manually change words, while others offer an interface for you to input your own target language. In addition, also consider whether your translation apps can have integrations with other third-party apps. Two popular translation apps that we have worked with to serve the Chinese-language market include Langify and Weglot.

Langify

Langify is a third-party app that provides a translation interface for users to create several target languages. Users with translations prepared can also bulk import translations in CSV, gettext, XLIFF, and JSON. Language options are displayed as a language switcher. In addition, Langify automatically detects a visitor’s preferred language, providing convenience to shoppers. Langify also helps translate all parts of your store, including navigation, themes, blog posts, e-mails, and SEO support when translating meta-tags for products and image descriptions.

Weglot

Weglot offers automatic translation for Shopify themes and store content, while also allowing for custom translation in their editor tool. We advise merchants to fully test the visual editor tool, which is convenient to make text changes without coding, but also has some limitations. The app also offers SEO translation for meta tags, a customizable language switcher button, and translate key parts of your store such as your checkout page and e-mail notifications. In addition, Weglot has professional translation support.

Delivery Apps

The final step of a customer’s online shopping experience is receiving their items. Shopify’s App marketplace has many apps that do automatic shipping price comparisons and order tracking to give shoppers options while also saving businesses time.

As one of the world’s leading logistics hubs, Hong Kong is home to several order fulfillment solutions, which means that they include Hong Kong delivery providers in their price quotes. When considering fulfillment apps, check to see if they fit as many of your delivery needs as possible, such as pickup options, shipping rules, price comparisons, translations, and label printing.

HK Pickup Options

Wave Commerce created HK Pickup Options for Hong Kong’s Shopify businesses to offer retail store pickup and SF Express pickup options in their Shopify checkout flow. As more and more ecommerce sites offer pickup options, Hong Kong shoppers come to expect pickup options as an integral part of checkout. It’s easy to see why - with options such as convenience stores and lockers that provide 24 hours services, your Hong Kong customers will be able to choose the option that best suits their schedule, whether it is a local EF locker, convenience store, SF Express center, or in-store pickup. In addition, this app has both English and Chinese versions to provide a cohesive customer experience.

Easyship

Easyship, which was started in Hong Kong, provides one of the largest courier network for cross-border sales. Easyship allows merchants to immediately offer shipping quotes to global shoppers that are transparent, as well as features such as automatic label printing, e-mail updates, and order tracking that help businesses differentiate their customer service.

Marketing Apps

As a growing online business, automating key touch points like marketing campaigns and personalised e-mails based on certain actions helps you re-engage customers with minimal time spent.

Shopify E-mail (Free)

Shopify has an upcoming E-mail App that includes mobile-responsive templates to set up quick e-mail campaigns. It has sophisticated features such as selecting whether you want to send to all your subscribers or repeat customers, allowing you to create truly tailored messages that can speak to every customer segment. As it is integrated with the Shopify platform, you can also see the performance of your campaigns, tracking not only e-mail opens, but the sales that come in.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is one of Shopify’s most popular email solutions apps because it has advanced integrated marketing and CRM options. In addition to offering e-mail templates and campaigns, it offers a sophisticated dashboard that integrates with Shopify to allow for customized product recommendations in your Shopify store and out of stock alerts for products. It is the all-in-one customer success solution.

Loyalty Programs

Finally, Hong Kong businesses should consider loyalty programs to retain hard-won customers. Merchants can explore the available rewards and loyalty programs on Shopify’s App Marketplace. Some basic ones come free, while more sophisticated ones charge because they offer full-featured programs that include in-store banners and pop-ups through to automated personal e-mails. Hong Kong merchants should pay particular attention to Chinese or multilanguage support, as many of the available rewards programs may only support English.

S Loyalty

Wave Commerce created S Loyalty in 2012 to create engaging, elegant, rewards features for Shopify stores that include points, rebates, coupons, birthday bonuses, and automated campaigns. All of this is available in multi-language, including Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Hong Kong-based Lee Kum Kee used S Loyalty to create their own branded loyalty program.

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With the Shopify app ecosystem, it is possible for entrepreneurs and teams to quickly adopt the right ecommerce tools for their business needs. We encourage Hong Kong online businesses to test related apps to compare features and better understand both the limitations as well as added-value services on offer. With the right combination of apps, free and paid, Hong Kong brands can give local English and Chinese shoppers a convenient, frictionless, and transparent shopping experience.

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