Shopify & Bold Commerce: a high-risk software spotlight
Shopify is one of the biggest names in e-commerce. We have helped hundreds of Shopify merchants who were turned down by Shopify Payments with high-risk processing and e-commerce solutions over the years. While Shopify is well known, you may not have heard of Bold, a company that builds useful e-commerce plug-ins for Shopify.
Many of Bold’s apps can be very helpful to your high-risk e-commerce site. Whether these are a recurring membership program for a cigar or wine of the month club, a seamless upsell for a tactical supply website, or a loyalty program for premium cigar websites looking to accept payments while rewarding frequent customers, Bold’s suite of plug-ins may be of interest.
The Bold apps we will be discussing have a varied price range, making them scalable with your business even if you are operating with a “non-enterprise” budget.
Bold Upsell
Bold Upsell is a specific and common tool used at the beginning of the checkout process. While users are reviewing their cart you can show shoppers similar products or other packages to entice them to spend more money at your e-commerce shop. This kind of app is especially useful for those who sell e-juice or vape products on Shopify. Add another pack of juice or a variety pack of flavors, or maybe even upsell them to a better vaporizer! It’s especially useful for add-on products that enhance the shopper’s experience with the main product they are buying.
Recurring billing and memberships
With recurring orders, the possible advantages almost go without saying. Instead of the customer having to look for the same or better deals every time they shop, give them the convenience of a recurring order. This will make sure they keep buying from you with the added convenience of not having to worry about searching for products or forgetting to buy necessities. This should be a huge priority for any e-commerce shop, and it is easily utilized by tobacco and premium cigars web stores, or alcohol sites with “wine of the month clubs”. It can also be customized once a customer knows how long it takes them to get through a pack or case of product they can set a recurring order to ensure the next batch arrives before they run out.
Loyalty points
Loyalty points can be a huge incentive for customers to shop more often. Set up easy, cheap, yet appreciated rewards for your loyal customers and watch your sales soar. This can be particularly useful when you have a large product catalog. For example, dietary supplements or e-liquid sites that have a lot of flavors and nicotine levels. Give your customers a reason to sample your entire product line by rewarding them for shopping with you more frequently.
Product options
Nothing is quite as frustrating for an e-commerce merchant as product entry. Mindless data entry can be quite tedious and repetitive, but Bold Commerce attempts to alleviate this by adding options for your customers to specify exactly what they’re looking for. Instead of having 3 different listings for a product with a variety of choices, such as different quantities of vape juice, or purchasing a case of wine instead of buying a bottle at a time, you can have 1 product listing with multiple options and choices. This will not only help your customers get what they want but also save you from overly repetitive product entry and cataloging.
Bold Brain
Bold Brain is possibly one of the most valuable of Bold’s apps. It is a new smart app that takes data from your website and its customers. This allows for the app to make recommendations to shoppers based on their purchase history and other analytic factors. Bold Brain is more than just the simple upsell. It uses a lot of data to help you make more sales and additionally will track your sales and show you the ROI it builds. Bold’s app can be invaluable to a high-risk merchant, who often has multiple high-risk product categories running at once. If you have a customer who buys from more than one of your channels, Bold Brain will use all of that information to entice them to buy in larger quantities and with more variety. Just about any high-risk revenue stream could easily capitalize on the advantages of this tool. 
Social Autopilot
While not specifically intended for high-risk e-commerce, all e-commerce merchants can appreciate an automated social media app. Instead of taking the time to share new updates and products, this autopilot will do it for you. It can be set up to post any updates on your site or any new products you’ve listed. However, it must be said that high-risk website owners must be careful with this type of tool. Many product advertisements could be considered a violation of any given social media platform’s terms and conditions.
Bold Commerce and Shopify have a lot to offer high-risk e-commerce merchants but it needs to be done right. Contact us today to get started with a high-risk-friendly payment gateway for Shopify.