Lead generation for an online shop: count buyers, not sign-ups
A sales word for something every online shop already does: getting strangers to hand over an email address before they're ready to buy. Who they are matters more than how many.
- 074Lead Generation
- The process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company's product or service.
- A lead, here
- A subscriber with marketing consent who hasn't ordered yet
- The follow-up
- Your welcome flow, not a salesperson
- Judge it by
- How many leads from each source go on to order
- Never from
- Bought lists, which come without anyone's consent to hear from you
In a shop, the lead is a subscriber and the welcome flow is the sales team
Lead generation is a business to business phrase. In a company that sells software, a lead goes to a salesperson who picks up the phone. In your shop, nobody rings anybody. The lead's a subscriber, and the follow-up is whatever your welcome flow sends.
That changes what good looks like. A sales team can sort good leads from bad ones on a call. You can't, so the place a lead came from has to do the sorting for you.
Where a shop's leads come from, keenest first
- Back in stock and waitlist requests: people who already wanted one particular product
- Quizzes and fit finders: a subscriber, plus the answer that tells you what to send them
- Your pop-up form: the main source for most shops, and only as good as its offer
- Guides and how-to content: slower to build, and the readers arrive interested in the subject
- Giveaways and competitions: big numbers, every one of them there for the prize
- Joint giveaways with other brands: usable only if entrants agreed to emails from you specifically
Bought lists aren't on it, because they aren't a source. The ICO's guidance on email marketing says you need consent to email from you, and that the soft opt-in doesn't apply to new contacts, bought-in lists included.
Cost per lead flatters you, orders per lead doesn't
Cost per lead is the number agencies love, because it's easy to make small. Make the offer bigger and it drops. So does the quality.
Tag every sign-up with where it came from. Klaviyo already records the form someone submitted; give quizzes, giveaways and partnerships their own lists. Then, after a fixed window, check how many from each source placed an order. Put your effort behind the source that buys.
Related terms
FAQs
Are giveaways a good way to grow a shop's email list?
For numbers, yes. For customers, it depends on the prize. Give away your own products and the entrants at least want what you sell; give away a tablet and they want a tablet. Either way, put entrants on their own list, follow the CAP Code on prize promotions, and stop mailing the ones who never engage.
Can I buy an email list for my online shop?
No. The people on it never agreed to hear from you, and UK rules on email marketing need consent to email from you specifically. The inbox providers punish it too: complaints and spam traps drag down your sender reputation for every email you send after. Forget buying lists. It's a fast route to the spam folder.
What's the difference between a lead and a customer in ecommerce?
One order. A lead has given you permission to email them and hasn't bought yet. Once they buy, they should leave the welcome flow and start getting your post purchase emails, and everything you send them from then on should know the difference.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
