The Ultimate Full Cartflows Tutorial For Mastering Your eCommerce Store

Picture of Nicolai Palmkvist

Nicolai Palmkvist

Written by a Wordpress Warrior | 6 min read
11/07/2023

full cartflows tutorial

Welcome to the ultimate guide to mastering CartFlows and taking your eCommerce business to the next level.

Whether you’re a newbie diving into eCommerce, an expert marketer, or an existing store owner, CartFlows is a top-rated WordPress sales funnel builder that can help you get results. One that’s loved by many for its ability to create custom, high-converting sales funnels quickly.

There are plenty of reasons why CartFlows is regarded as the #1 funnel builder for generating more revenue.

Made by and for digital marketers, unlike most existing page builders, CartFlows leads prospects through a journey to turn them into happy customers and drive awesome sales. We like to think of adding Cartflows to your WooCommerce online store like getting a powerful new sidekick.

It arms your business with optimized checkouts, dynamic offers, and tons of customizable templates to fit your unique brand vibe.

That said, how do you actually go about using it to its full potential? How do you build killer funnels, control your checkout flow, and capitalize on strategic upsells and cross-sells? What can you do to offer a better customer experience, leading to higher conversions, bigger order values, and skyrocketing business growth?

Join me as we journey deep into the universe of CartFlows in this full cartflows tutorial. I’ll help you unlock the full potential of your eCommerce platform, one awesome funnel at a time.

Let’s get into it.

What is CartFlows?

A screenshot of the Cartflows homepage

 

Alright, let’s start with the basics – what is CartFlows?

CartFlows is a powerful WordPress plugin explicitly made to boost eCommerce sales through fully customized sales funnels. But it’s way more than a plugin – it’s like your personal eCommerce sidekick, leading visitors toward a purchase through an optimized, personalized journey.

CartFlows hooks up your store with features aimed at pumping up conversions, including:

  • Seamless checkout experience – Total control over checkout design for smooth transactions, although most sales funnel builders offer this. It’s kind of the point!
  • Strategic upsells, down sells, and cross-sells – Offer extra related products to increase order value
  • Ready-made templates – Drag-and-drop customizable templates to quickly build funnels and save time
  • A/B Split Testing is available for testing out your data-designed checkout page
  • Multiple checkout form layouts
  • Plenty of templates to customize to suit your branding and style

The masterminds behind CartFlows are Adam Preiser and Sujay Pawar – two forward-thinking dudes in the WordPress world. Adam is known for his top-notch WordPress tutorials and digital marketing guides. Sujay co-founded Brainstorm Force, the powerhouse behind big-deal plugins like Astra and Ultimate Addons.

Together, they created CartFlows to revolutionize sales funnels in WordPress. And revolutionize, they did!

How to Set Up CartFlows

Alright, before we dive into the magical world of CartFlows, let’s chat setup. Gotta make sure you’ve got everything ready to rock and roll in a way that’s actually going to benefit your business.

First and foremost, CartFlows is only available on WordPress, meaning you can’t use it on Shopify or similar platforms. If you’re not using WordPress, this isn’t the guide for you.

If you are on the platform, however, head over to the plugins or the Cartflows’ website, sign up for an account, and install Cartflows on your website. You can follow this guide on how to do this as well, but it’s essentially the same way you’d install any plugin.

Cartflows work with any theme, but you need a payment gateway like WooCommerce for the transactions part of the sales process. So make sure Woo is set up in your WordPress site. (Don’t worry, everything integrates smoothly.

So, to recap:

  • Download CartFlows – Grab the free version from the WordPress plugin store or get the Pro one from their website.
  • Install and activate – Go to your WordPress dashboard, hit Plugins > Add New. Upload the file you downloaded and click “Install Now.” Then hit Activate, and you’re golden!
  • Welcome screen – Once it’s activated, you’ll see a welcome screen to set up key things. You can instantly create a flow, import templates, or check out tutorials.

And that’s it! With CartFlows installed and ready to party, you can now build kick-butt eCommerce funnels better than ever before. Let’s do this!

An Introduction to the Sales Funnel Concept

A top down view of a marketer's desk as they create a checkout page and sales funnel

Before we dive deeper into CartFlows, let’s chat about sales funnels and how they work.

A sales funnel guides potential customers through their journey to become buyers and make a purchase – aka convert.

It might look something like this:

#1 – Awareness Stage

  • Visitors land on your website or eCommerce store via ads, social media, email, search engine results, or direct visits.
  • They learn about your products or services through blog posts, social media updates, webinars, or videos.

#2 – Interest Stage

  • Prospective customers start showing interest in your product or service.
  • They may sign up for your newsletter or follow your social media channels.
  • They start exploring your product offerings, reading reviews, and comparing options.

#3 – Consideration Stage

  • At this point, prospects are considering making a purchase.
  • They will likely interact with more specific marketing materials, such as product demos, case studies, or detailed product descriptions.
  • They may add items to the shopping cart or wishlist.

#4 – Decision Stage

  • Prospects are now ready to make a purchase.
  • You can present them with time-sensitive offers, discounts, free shipping, or bundles to incentivize buying.
  • You can also offer product comparisons and customer testimonials to support their decision.

#5 – Action Stage

  • The prospect completes the purchase and becomes a customer.
  • After successful checkout, they are directed to a “Thank you” page, confirming their purchase.
  • This stage may also include post-purchase service, like follow-up emails about shipping confirmation, requests for reviews, or cross-selling/upselling relevant products.

Remember, this is a simplified version of a sales funnel, and actual customer journeys may vary significantly based on specific business models, industries, and individual customer behaviors. There’s certainly a ton of room to get creative with how you set yours up and how it works.

Oh, and while we’re here, let’s make this visual. This entire process is called a funnel because of how it works: Lots of people enter the wide top (awareness stage), but as they move down, many bounce, and only some reach the bottom narrow end (purchase). As mentioned above, the funnel has four main parts:

  • Awareness – Folks become aware of your products through marketing.
  • Interest – Customers research and compare options, deciding what they want.
  • Decision – Time to purchase! Offer bundles, discounts, or incentives so they buy now.
  • Action – Potential customers complete the purchase and become actual buyers.

CartFlows optimizes this whole process by creating a seamless journey from awareness to cha-ching! It provides solutions for each stage:

  • Engaging landing pages for awareness
  • Easy product comparisons for interest
  • Dynamic offers at checkout to incentivize decisions
  • Smoothing the actual transaction

By mastering your sales funnel with CartFlows, you maximize conversions and revenue for your store. Let’s learn how!

An Overview of Cartflow Features 

Now we’ve got sales funnels down, let’s overview some of the killer features CartFlows brings to the table to make funnel building easy and effective. How does it help you make effective funnels that actually convert into sales?

Ready-to-Rock Templates

No need to reinvent the wheel every time! CartFlows gives you a library of pre-built page templates for different business types to start from. These checkout templates for each funnel stage give you an awesome foundation to then customize for your specific brand and needs.

Customizing is a breeze with the options panel, where you can tweak colors, fonts, layouts, and more. Swap out text, images, CTAs, and modify layouts until it’s just right. These templates pave the way for high-converting funnels in no time.

Plays Nice with Page Builders

Another biggie is how CartFlows integrates seamlessly with popular page builders like Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder. This lets you intricately customize your flows without needing to be a coding wizard.
A screenshot graphic of the integrations Cartflows works well with

 

Checkout Optimization

CartFlows seriously optimizes checkouts – one of the biggest pain points for eCommerce. Abandoned carts often happen because of clunky, time-sucking checkouts.

But with CartFlows, you can create one-page checkouts, remove unnecessary fields, and make them distraction-free. This makes checkout a breeze, increasing satisfaction and reducing cart abandonment.

Advanced features like order bumps, upsells, and down sells make the experience even better, encouraging higher order values and customer lifetime value.

How to Create a Sales Funnel with CartFlows

Let’s get into the good stuff – how to create an optimized sales funnel with CartFlows!

Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started:

Step 1: Make a New Flow

First, log into your WordPress dashboard and go to the CartFlows menu section. Click on “Flows” then “Add New”. Choose a pre-made template that fits your vibe, or start designing your own custom flow from scratch.

A step by step guide to starting a new Flow with Cartflows

Step 2: Customize Your Flow

Each flow has several steps you can add, remove, or change – usually, a landing page, checkout, upsells/downsells, and a thank you page.

  • Landing Page: This is your sales pitch page. Use your preferred page builder, like Elementor or Divi, to tweak the template design, adjust the content, and add powerful CTAs.
  • Checkout Page: Use the CartFlows checkout feature to create a checkout page with WooCommerce, essentially optimizing your checkout process. Customize the full look and feel for customers, including removing unnecessary fields for simplicity.
  • Upsell and Downsell Checkout Pages: Show new offers on these pages based on if customers bought the initial product. Customize content and design to match the specific upsell or downsell.
  • Thank You Page: Create an engaging thank you page that appropriately thanks customers and potentially cross-sells or upsells relevant products, ending the journey on a high note.

Fortunately, getting set up is pretty easy since there are a few Flow Templates that can basically fast-track the entire process. Find them all under the Templates header.

A screenshot of the available Cartflows templates

Step 3: Activate Your Masterpiece

Once your flow is customized to perfection, hit Update, activate the flow, and…voila – your sales funnel is ready to turn visitors into loyal customers!

CartFlows Versions: Free vs Premium

CartFlows comes in a free plugin and a paid premium version. Their differences can significantly impact your eCommerce platform, so choose based on your needs.

A screenshot of the free vs Pro pricing structure and available features

Free Version

The free version is open to all WordPress and WooCommerce users. It includes making unlimited flows, basic templates, and a global checkout to replace standard WooCommerce. You also get to customize with popular WordPress website page builders like Elementor.

However, the free app is INCREDIBLY limited, not giving access to a whole host of features, and is only available for a 14-day trial period, after which you’ll need to pay for Pro anyway. Whether this is suitable for you is up to you.

Premium Version

The premium version brings advanced features but costs extra. Pricing starts at $299 per year for one site and goes up to $999 for up to 30 sites. Along with all free features, you also get premium templates, one-click order bumps, upsells/downsells, and the ability to create optimized checkout, cart abandonment, and thank you pages. CartFlows Pro users also get VIP support from the CartFlows team.

If you’re a small new business, the free version may be enough to start. But if you’re dealing with high sales volume and want to optimize every funnel step, the premium could be worthwhile. It’s especially beneficial for aggressive growth plans, providing more control and personalization to boost WooCommerce checkout conversions.

How to Craft Killer Funnels with CartFlows

While CartFlows is super powerful, the real magic lies in how you use it. Building high-converting funnels takes strategic planning, execution, and optimization based on your audience and goals. Here are some pro tips:

  • Know Your Peeps – Understanding your customer’s full journey is key. Map out their path from awareness to purchase and beyond. This will help you design effective funnel stages.
  • Optimize Each Stage – Use CartFlows features to align with goals for each part of the journey: awareness, interest, decision, action.
  • Leverage Templates – Especially when starting out, take advantage of the optimized CartFlows templates to save time. Customize them for your brand’s tone and style.
  • Use Upsells and Downsells – When done right, these can dramatically increase order value. Offer related products or bundles to get customers to spend more.
  • Simplify Checkout – Complicated checkout kills conversions. Use CartFlows to simplify and remove friction from checking out.
  • Go Mobile – With increasing mobile eCommerce, make sure your funnels are optimized across devices.
  • Test and Tweak – Track funnel metrics to see what’s working and what’s not. CartFlows makes it easy to continually improve based on data.

Creating an effective funnel is an ongoing process. Always be testing, learning, and enhancing based on customer feedback and your evolving business. With CartFlows, it’s smooth sailing!

Wrapping Up our full cartflows tutorial 

In summary, CartFlows is clearly a powerhouse tool for optimizing your customers’ eCommerce journey. With its robust features like templates, page builder integration, and checkout optimization, it’s invaluable for boosting conversions.

Before deciding, think about your business size, needs, and growth plans. The free version could be great for a small startup, while larger companies with big growth goals might benefit from the Pro version despite the cost.

Either way, CartFlows can streamline your eCommerce funnel and propel your success. It’s an awesome way to lead customers seamlessly from discovery to delighted buyer.

So why not give it a spin? I hope this guide has shown how CartFlows can level up your eCommerce game. Just don’t forget – funnels are a continual process. Keep learning, testing new things, and enhancing the customer experience. 

This is where the real magic happens!

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