Marketing for webshops: where do you start, and what actually works?

Marketing for a webshop makes sure the right people find you, trust you enough to buy, and come back, through your own store, email, Google, social media and ads. Start with the store itself: in the first half of 2026, Dutch shoppers made 45% of their online purchases on a smartphone, so almost every post and ad lands on a mobile product page. Then build email and search visibility, and advertise with a budget you've worked out against your own margin first.

In short

• Marketing sends people to your store, but the store has to convince them. So start with your product pages and everything that builds trust.

• Email and SEO build something that stays yours. Ads stop the moment you stop paying.

• In the Netherlands, you need consent for marketing emails and tracking cookies, and a discount has to be based on your lowest price of the past 30 days.

Not sure where to start? Book a free call, and we'll look at your store together and what you can improve first.

When your store is live and the orders don't come in on their own, the first thought is often: I need more visitors. More posts, an ad, a collab with a creator. Sometimes that's true. But the real problem isn't always the one you'd expect. If people are already coming in and not buying, a bigger audience won't move you forward. Sending more people to a store that isn't selling well yet only makes that problem more expensive.

That's why this guide starts with the store itself, and then goes channel by channel: email, Google, Instagram and social media, ads, reviews, and customers who come back. You won't get promises about returns, because nobody can honestly make them without your numbers. You will get what each channel does, what it costs you, and what's involved in the Netherlands.

What is marketing for a webshop?

Marketing for webshops is everything that helps the right people and potential customers find your store, trust you enough to buy, and come back. So online marketing for a webshop is about more than reach. It's four jobs, and every channel does one or two of them:

• Getting found. Through Google, Instagram, ads, a creator, or a friend who recommends your brand, so you also reach new customers.

• Being trusted. Through your product pages, reviews, your business details, and clear information about delivery and returns.

• Buying. Through a checkout that works on a phone, with iDEAL and no surprises in the total.

• Coming back. Through email, good service and a reason to look again.

The work is in how those four connect. An ad that promises something the product page doesn't show costs you money with every click. A beautiful Instagram without a store that lives up to it mostly brings in likes. That's why marketing your webshop starts by looking at the place all those channels lead to.

Start with your store: product pages and trust

According to the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, Dutch shoppers made 45% of their online purchases on a smartphone in the first half of 2026, and 42% on a laptop or desktop. On a phone, they spent €80 per purchase on average, on a laptop or desktop €126. So whoever sees your ad or Story often arrives on a phone, and often straight on a product page, not your homepage.

So first, open your best-selling product on your phone and look at it as if you didn't know your brand. Can you see right away what it is and why you'd choose this one? Is the price there, with what shipping costs and when it arrives? Is the answer to your doubt right where the doubt comes up, like size advice next to the size choice? And can you always reach the button? A good mobile user experience simply means: fast loading, logical navigation and no hassle that makes people drop off. How to build a page like that is in What makes a product page that sells?

There are also things that build trust before anyone has looked at a single product:

• Who you are. Your KVK number (the Dutch Chamber of Commerce number), VAT number and contact details where people can see them, for example in the footer, and an about page that sounds like a person.

• Delivery and returns in plain words. What shipping costs, when the parcel arrives and how returns work, without anyone having to read your terms.

• Payment methods people know. iDEAL for the Netherlands, Bancontact for Belgium, and cards. More on iDEAL and Wero in iDEAL and Wero in your Shopify store.

• Real reviews and real photos. From customers, close to the decision, and photos that show what the product looks like in real life.

Only once this is in place does every euro you put into marketing become worth more. It's simple math: if one more person in every hundred visitors buys, every visitor your marketing brings in is worth more.

Email marketing: the welcome email, abandoned carts and after the sale

Email is the channel that's most yours, and that's exactly why it works so well for repeat purchases. You only reach an Instagram follower when the algorithm says so, but the email address of someone who signed up stays with you. Don't start with a weekly newsletter. Start with three automated emails that always run:

1. The welcome email. For everyone who signs up. Tell them who you are, why your brand exists and which product is a good place to start. If you give a welcome discount, say clearly what it applies to.

2. The abandoned checkout reminder. Shopify counts a checkout as abandoned when someone has entered an email address and hasn't finished the order after ten minutes. In the Shopify Messaging app, formerly Shopify Email, you switch on an automatic reminder, choose who gets it and how long after it's sent.

3. The email after the sale. A thank you, how to use or care for the product, and a few weeks later a request for a review, which also encourages the next order. If you sell something that runs out, like skincare, it's also the moment to remind people when it's almost finished.

Shopify Messaging charges per message sent. If you choose a separate email tool, mostly check that it works well with Shopify, so orders and customer data come along on their own. With automated or targeted email campaigns, you test what's relevant for different customer groups. The tool is the easy part. What matters is what you write: an email that sounds like your brand and adds something, for example with personal recommendations, instead of only a discount code. And watch consent: who you can email, and about what, is in the Dutch rules below.

SEO for your webshop: getting found on Google

SEO, search engine optimization, is the channel for people who are already looking for what you sell. It mostly takes time and works slowly, but where paid channels can give you instant placement, here you build organic visibility that stays in place even when you take a break. For a webshop, it starts with the basics:

• Product titles in your customer's words. "Silver pearl earrings" is easier for Google to find than only the internal name you gave the product.

• Your own product descriptions. Not the supplier's text that sits on ten other webshops, but your own explanation, with the questions customers really ask.

• Collection pages with a short text. A few sentences at the top of a category help Google and your visitor understand what they're looking at, and add valuable content.

• Speed and mobile. Large images and lots of apps slow your store down, most of all on a phone.

• Free product listings on Google. Through Google Merchant Center, your products can appear at no cost on the Shopping tab and in search results. In Shopify, you connect it with the Google & YouTube app. Visibility isn't guaranteed, but you don't pay for it.

We cover the technical side of SEO in Shopify, from URLs to structured data, separately, precisely because those parts also add to your visibility in search engines, in Shopify SEO.

Social media and Instagram for your webshop

For fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands, Instagram can be the place within social media where people see your brand for the first time. It works best when it shows what a product photo can't: the product in use, the people behind it, how it's made, and customers wearing or using it. A few things help turn viewers into buyers:

• Keep the path to your store short. A clear link in your profile, and in Stories a link to the product you're talking about, not your homepage.

• Show it, and explain it. Videos that show how something falls, feels or works answer the same questions as your product page, just earlier, so the right message makes you relevant earlier in the customer journey.

• Use customer photos, with permission. Ask first, and credit who it is.

• Working with creators? Be clear about it. Make it visible that it's a partnership, and pick people your brand fits with, not only people with a lot of followers.

Social media mostly costs time, and that's also the reason to be deliberate about it. Pick one or two channels where your audience is active, and do those well, instead of being everywhere halfway.

Advertising on Meta and Google: what should it cost?

Ads are the fastest channel, and the only one that stops as soon as you stop paying. They do two different things. With Meta, meaning Instagram and Facebook, you reach people who don't know your brand yet. With Google, in search results and through Google Shopping, you reach people who are already looking for what you sell. There's no honest average budget for a webshop, because it depends on your product, your margin and how often customers come back. What you can do is work out what an order is allowed to cost you.

Example, not a real client. You sell a product for €60 including VAT. Without 21% VAT, that's €49.59. Take off what it costs to buy or make (say €18), the shipping and packaging you pay for (say €6) and the €0.29 iDEAL fee on Shopify Payments. You keep about €25. If a first order costs you more than €25 in ads, you lose money on that first order. Whether that's a problem depends on what happens next: if a customer buys twice more on average, that first order can cost more than if it stays at one purchase.

So start with a test budget you can afford to lose, on a few products whose pages you know are right, and give it enough time to learn something. Then compare different campaigns and adjust based on real orders. After that, check in Shopify itself how many orders really came in, because ad platforms count in their own way. Advertising to people who already visited your store, retargeting, is only possible with their consent to tracking cookies, and it helps you reach earlier visitors again. More on that below too.

Reviews: collecting them and showing them honestly

Reviews do what your own copy can't: they come from people like your customer. Ask for them in the email after the sale, once the product has been in use for a while, and show them close to the decision, on the product page and not only on a separate page. Positive reviews build trust, as long as you collect and show them honestly.

The ACM, the Dutch consumer authority, is clear about this. Fake reviews have been banned outright since May 28, 2022. You explain how you check that reviews come from real customers, you show positive and negative reviews, and if someone got a product free or at a discount for a review, you say so. If another company collects reviews for you, you share the responsibility.

Getting potential customers to come back

A customer who already bought from you knows your brand, trusts your store and has had your product in their hands. Keeping your brand top of mind makes every euro you spent on that first order worth more. What helps:

• A good first experience. Shipped fast, packed with care, and an email that shows there's someone on the other side.

• Existing customers first. Let them see new products or a new collection before everyone else.

• Segments. In Shopify, you create groups of customers based on what they bought or how long ago, so you can respond to what someone ordered before instead of sending everyone the same email.

• A loyalty program, if it fits. With products people buy again and again, it can make sense. With a piece of jewelry someone buys once, a personal thank you might work better than points, and make it more likely that customers come back.

Good to know in the Netherlands

Marketing emails: according to the ACM, you can only send commercial emails to people who deliberately gave consent beforehand, so not through a pre-checked box or your terms and conditions. You need to be able to prove that consent for up to five years after sending. You can email existing customers about products related to what they bought before, as long as they can unsubscribe. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you send under your own name, not an alias.

Cookies: according to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, the Dutch data protection authority, you don't need consent for functional cookies or for limited analytics cookies with little privacy impact. For tracking cookies, like those from ad pixels, you do. Stricter rules around third-party cookies mean you can measure less precisely. That makes first-party data from your own store and email more important. So your cookie banner partly decides how much of your ads you can measure.

Discounts: since January 1, 2023, a discount has to be based on the lowest price you charged in the 30 days before it, with a few exceptions, like perishable products or products on sale for less than 30 days. Planning Black Friday? Don't raise your prices just before. The ACM checks for this.

The market: according to the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, Dutch shoppers spent €35.7 billion online in 2025, across 347 million purchases, and 13% of that went to webshops abroad. So your customers don't only compare you with Dutch brands.

In Belgium: European rules on consent for marketing emails and cookies apply there too, with the Data Protection Authority (Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit) as the supervisor, and the 30-day lowest price rule comes from European law. Switch on Bancontact for Belgian customers, and if you sell in Flanders and Wallonia, you'll need your emails and ads in French too.

What it costs you when visitors do come but don't buy, you can work out below with your own numbers.

In what order should you tackle marketing for your webshop?

There's no order that's right for every webshop, but this one is a good starting point to grow your store profitably, because each step makes the next one cheaper.

1. Look at your numbers. Use Shopify Analytics to analyze your traffic, conversion and product performance every month: you see where visitors come from and which products get viewed a lot but bought little. That's your starting point.

2. Make your three most important product pages strong. On your phone, with your customer's questions next to you.

3. Switch on the three automated emails. Welcome, abandoned checkout and after the sale, with a sign-up form that asks for real consent.

4. Lay the groundwork for Google. Product titles, your own copy, collection pages, and your products in Google Merchant Center.

5. Pick one social channel and do it well. With a short path to your products.

6. Only then test ads, with a budget worked out against your margin, and a cookie banner that's right.

7. Ask for reviews, and keep improving. Every month, look at what your first customers did, make small improvements that add up, and after your first tests, keep optimizing based on what brings in the most.

Add a calendar for the moments that matter to your brand, like a new collection, Sinterklaas, Christmas or Valentine's Day. Then you don't have to make every campaign at the last minute.

Do it yourself, outsource it, or fix the store first?

There are roughly three ways to handle your marketing, and which one fits depends on whether you mainly need an effective marketing strategy right now, want to buy extra reach, or first need to improve your store.

• Do it yourself. With Shopify Messaging, the Google & YouTube app and a plan for one social channel, you can go a long way, especially at the start. You mostly pay with time, and it helps to improve one thing a month instead of everything at once. When budget and time are limited, this is often one of the most effective ways to start.

• A freelancer or marketing agency for reach. Makes sense when your store already sells well and you mainly want to reach more people, for example with ads or creators. Do ask how they measure results, whether they also look at your store or only at the campaign, and where they think the biggest opportunities are in your channel or store.

• The store first, with a strategy. If your store isn't selling the way it should yet, start there: who your customer is, what they need to see, where they drop off now, and which conversion optimization is needed first. After that, every campaign gets cheaper, because fewer visitors leak away. If you'd like to know where that leak is first, a Store Audit is one way to start.

Who we are and what we do

We're Design by Karina, a boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam. We design and build strategy-led Shopify stores for ambitious fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands. Combining brand strategy, UX and thoughtful design, we create shopping experiences that turn what makes you different into a reason to choose you.

Ecommerce strategy

Who are your customers, what do they want to know, and what helps them choose your brand? We define the positioning, how you reach the right audience, the customer journey and the structure of your store before design begins.

Shopify design

A store should feel unmistakably yours and work intuitively. We design Shopify stores around your brand, from the homepage to the product pages, and always mobile first.

Shopify development and migration

From a custom Shopify theme to migrating an existing store. Coming from WooCommerce or another platform? We help you with a clear plan for your store, your content and your customers' experience.

Conversion optimization and retention

What customers need to see, understand and feel before they choose, from product pages to reducing abandoned carts and the emails after the sale.

Growth after launch

We look at how real visitors use your store and improve, step by step, what brings in the most, and after launch we keep measuring which approach works best.

Brand Sites

For coaches, creative studios and service businesses with something to say.

Why business owners choose us

• Strategy before pixels. Before we open a design file, we want to understand who buys from you and what those people need to see first.

• A background in product design. Before starting Design by Karina, I worked in product design at Uber, where I helped shape payment experiences for drivers.

• Fewer projects, more care. We work on a limited number of projects at a time, so I'm closely involved in every project.

• We say it straight. If your store is already ready for more visitors, we'll tell you.

• Launch is the starting line. After launch, we keep improving your store step by step based on what real visitors do, so it keeps performing at a higher level.

What does it cost to make your store sell better?

If your store is already live and you want every visitor to be worth more, and attracting better customers to really pay off, the Growth Plan fits this article best. If you're moving to Shopify from another platform, the migration comes as an add-on in your quote.

Online marketing for webshops: the short version

Marketing for your online store makes sure people find you, trust you, buy and come back. Start where everything leads: your product pages on a phone, with clear delivery, returns, payment methods and real reviews. Then switch on three automated emails, lay the groundwork for Google, pick one social channel, and only then advertise, with a budget worked out against your margin. In the Netherlands, ask for consent for marketing emails and tracking cookies, and base discounts on your lowest price of the past 30 days.

What we see with clients

When business owners come to us because their marketing isn't working, it's usually not the channel. The ads bring people in, the posts get seen, and then all those visitors land on a product page that doesn't answer their question and doesn't make clear right away what sets you apart. Once that page is right, the same marketing, which also helps you stand out from the competition, suddenly gets a lot cheaper.

Sources

• Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, first half of 2026 (published September 22, 2026), via the Dutch Payments Association (Betaalvereniging Nederland), https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/news/cross-border-online-purchases-now-one-in-seven/, checked November 2026

• Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor 2025, NielsenIQ for Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders (published March 31, 2026), https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/news/more-online-product-purchases-less-spending-on-travel-and-events-in-2025/, checked November 2026

• ACM, preventing spam in your advertising, https://www.acm.nl/nl/verkoop-aan-consumenten/reclame-en-verleiden/spam-voorkomen-uw-reclame, checked November 2026

• Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, cookies, https://www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/themas/internet-slimme-apparaten/cookies, checked November 2026

• ACM, using reviews and ratings, https://www.acm.nl/nl/verkoop-aan-consumenten/reclame-en-verleiden/online-beinvloeden/reviews-en-beoordelingen-gebruiken, checked November 2026

• ACM, stricter rules for online sellers (May 28, 2022), https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-strengere-regels-voor-online-verkopers, checked November 2026

• ACM, an end to fake discounts with the stricter rules (from January 1, 2023), https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/acm-wil-einde-aan-nepkortingen-na-komst-strengere-regels, checked November 2026

• Shopify Help Center, abandoned checkouts, https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/abandoned-checkouts, checked November 2026

• Shopify Help Center, Shopify Messaging pricing, https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/create-marketing/shopify-email/pricing, checked November 2026

• Google Merchant Center Help, free product listings, https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9199328, checked November 2026

• Shopify pricing, iDEAL fee, https://www.shopify.com/nl/prijzen, checked November 2026