[For Marketers] Why you should create a LINE account after opening an e-commerce site on Shopify

• "I want to communicate with customers who visit the e-commerce site I created with Shopify."
• "The number of new visitors to our EC site is low"
• "I've heard a lot about LINE accounts, but I don't know why I would want to open one."

This article is for such people. I think that many of the people reading this article are people who are planning to open an e-commerce site using Shopify, or people who are already running an e-commerce site and are thinking of switching to Shopify.

There are three main methods of push-type measures on e-commerce sites:

• Email
• Apps
• LINE

Among them, LINE has an overwhelming number of users and is an indispensable tool for operating an e-commerce site in Japan.
In this article, we will explain the benefits of creating a LINE account.

What is a "LINE Official Account"?

This is a service that allows companies and stores to create their own LINE accounts and send messages and information directly to users who have registered their accounts as friends.

If you already have a LINE official account, please look forward to our upcoming articles on how to make the most of it. If you are having trouble managing your account, please feel free to contact us.

For those who are about to start an e-commerce business or those who are aiming to open an e-commerce business on Shopify, we will first explain the importance of having a LINE account.

The meaning of having an official LINE account

There are 5 points for having an official LINE account.

• Japan's largest communication platform
• Linking with LINE Ads
• It can be done in one go from new to existing CRM.
• Unlike other SNS, push notifications can be sent.
• You can easily link with LINE from the Shopify admin screen.

Below, we will explain the five points in detail.

Japan's largest communication platform

A platform used by 84 million people every month

There are many popular social networking sites in Japan, including LINE, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but LINE boasts the overwhelming number of users.
The figure of 84 million refers to the number of monthly active users, meaning that there are 84 million users who open LINE at least once a month.

For those just starting out in e-commerce, it is very important to have a communication channel on this platform.

Linking with LINE Ads

LINE Official Account and LINE Ads

LINE, which can reach 84 million users, also handles advertising.
LINE Ads is a type of programmatic advertising that targets users based on their age, gender, and interests, and delivers ads to the LINE advertising space.
Being able to reach 84 million people seems like a very strong mass media element, but when it comes to actually delivering their own advertising, it is true that many marketers feel that the reach is too broad and therefore not sufficient in terms of CPA (cost per achievement).
This is where the benefits of having a LINE official account come in. By having a LINE official account and linking it to your distribution, you can distribute to users who are friends with your company's account and have similar interests. Furthermore, by using tools linked to your LINE account, you can also distribute to similar users who purchased from LINE via a landing page.

If you want to know more about LINE ads, please refer to the following article. (External site)
[Official] What is LINE Advertising? 丨 Summary of delivery locations, costs, and how to advertise

It can be done in one go from new to existing CRM.

From acquiring new users to strengthening the loyalty of existing users

Taking into account the characteristics of LINE accounts, it is important to manage everything from acquiring new users to awareness, purchases, repeat customers, and loyal customers. Loyal customers here refer to customers who are familiar with the brand of your company's account, trust the brand, and will purchase products when they are released, or spread the word about the brand and its products.

Basically, the main things that companies send to customers are messages, announcements of campaigns, distribution of coupons, etc.

Currently, you can set segments on the official LINE account management screen:

• Friend period
• sex
• age
• OS
• area

It is as follows.
With this alone, it's difficult to distinguish between new friends who make purchases and repeat customers. Of course, it's fine when you want all your friends to know about it as a mass element, but marketing and customer support in the recent EC industry have become increasingly segmented, and I think that it is operated to the point where it is effective to send messages to when, to whom, and in what situation. When operating in this way, it becomes necessary to link with external tools.
We can also provide tool integration and operational support for LINE official accounts, so if you are immediately interested, please contact us.

Unlike other SNS, push notifications can be sent.

It is becoming standard for companies to have corporate accounts on Twitter, Instagram, etc. to disseminate information these days.
However, the characteristic of such social media is that users passively receive information when they want to view it.
Among these, LINE can send messages by push, so companies can proactively send information to users and provide them with "awareness." This is a big difference from other SNS media, and because it can deliver information to users in real time, it is possible to provide measures that match the user's lifestyle, such as time sales.

You can easily link with LINE from the Shopify admin screen.

Shopify App: Kisuke

You can easily connect LINE tools for free from the Shopify admin screen. Shopify allows you to connect with LINE API by simply selecting the app from the admin screen, and even difficult integrations that would normally require the involvement of a tool company can be done smoothly. The most famous app at the moment is Kisuke . There are things you can do, such as segmented delivery based on the filter function on Shopify, but when it comes to deep user segmentation as described above, it is true that free tools have their limitations.

Shopify App: Friend Addition Sweepstakes App

By installing the recently released friend-adding prize app , you can easily run a prize campaign using your official LINE account. By linking it with Shopify's coupon function, you can give incentives to add LINE friends with coupon codes, and you can also set the probability of winning a coupon within the app to create a game-like prize draw. There is a 30-day free trial period, so install it and try it out.

If you have any complex integration needs between Shopify and LINE, or would like to add features that are not available in Shopify, please contact us here.

[Summary] How to create a LINE account on Shopify

In this article, we have explained the benefits of creating a LINE account on Shopify.

Summary of this article

• LINE is used by over 84 million people monthly.
• LINE accounts and LINE ads can be linked
• By using external tools with your LINE account, you can visualize everything from new acquisitions to loyal customers.
• LINE account is the only push-type SNS advertising
• Shopify and LINE official accounts can be easily linked

Since you've opened an e-commerce store on Shopify, it would be great if you could get customers to become your fans on LINE as well, which would help boost your e-commerce store's overall sales and expand your services. We'll be updating this article in more detail in the future.
We also have members who have been working with LINE for a long time, so please feel free to contact us.

*The contents of this article are current as of September 2020. Due to future updates or changes to LINE specifications, it may not be possible to set up exactly as described in this article.