Loyal customers are hard to find and are extremely valuable for eCommerce stores. New eCommerce businesses need to retain loyal customers and nurture their relationship with them to ensure repeat business and build brand loyalty.
Businesses must create brand value and resonance with new buyers to grow exponentially. So, here are a few customer retention strategies you can implement immediately if you run an eCommerce business.
5 Customer Retention Strategies
1. Provide Outstanding Post-Purchase Experience
Most eCommerce businesses have great products but fail to provide a superior post-purchase experience that would lead to retaining customers. Only some companies offer exceptional customer care. If your business is one of those few companies, you will surely stand out, and customers will want to return to your store again and again.
Here are a few customer service tips that can help you stand out from the rest-
- Be reachable — by phone, email, online chat, etc. — employ multiple methods that work for you.
- Respond to questions and problems timely — don’t aggravate customers by ignoring them.
- Be well-informed and honest — there’s nothing more frustrating than talking to a ‘customer service representative’ who doesn’t know their products and services.
- Listen to your customers.
- Don’t make your website frustrating to navigate — deliver a pleasing user experience.
Remember that customers with bad experiences would probably go elsewhere, so you must keep them delighted and engaged.
2. Follow Up With Customers
Always value your customers; keep them engaged and informed. Send email confirmations for purchases and send updates about their shipment status. Shiprocket Engage can help you send updates to your customers for abandoned carts. You can send WhatsApp updates about incomplete purchases and drive additional conversion rates of up to 5% using automated messages.
Not only this, but you can also ask for feedback on your service or the products they bought, send them newsletters, and offer to help so that they have a seamless shopping experience.
3. Reward Loyal Customers
You can reward first-time customers with thank-you discounts and other special offers and reward your long-time loyal customers with rewards, points, and exclusive offers.
Also, make sure that you use discounts smartly. It doesn’t have to cost you much. One simple trick is to use flat discounts instead of percentages.
For example, suppose you’ve created a segment of customers who have made five or more purchases from your eCommerce store, and you want to reward them. Instead of saying something like “save 10% when you spend over Rs. 1000,” say “save Rs. 100 when you spend over Rs. 1000.”
That way, however far over Rs. 1000 they go, you’re still only discounting Rs. 100 over the total purchase value. The more they spend, the more profit you make above that threshold.
This type of discount increases average order size without costing much profit, and your customers will still appreciate a bargain.
4. Communicate Consistently
Maintaining consistent communication with your customers is vital to stay ahead of your competitors. You can give your customers a chance to subscribe to your newsletter and incentivise them to do so.
Send weekly or monthly emails to your subscribers and a quarterly catalog, so they stay connected with your business at different levels.
You can send all sorts of helpful content like how-to guides, product insights, solutions to problems that your customers have, answers to common questions, and much more. Much of this communication can also pitch products and offers. But primarily, this form of conversation is meant to stay on top of the mind of your customers.
5. Say Thank You
The easiest way to retain a customer is to say ‘thank you’, which is the most straightforward and obvious customer retention strategy. It is recommended to put it on your order confirmation page after checkout and on your automated emails.
You can also put a note inside your package; a phone call might be appropriate for higher-priced products.
Also, managing orders can be tedious, and many eCommerce businesses rely on 3PLs to help them smoothen their delivery process. You can use Shiprocket and manage all your orders from a single platform. Not only this, but sellers can also integrate their Shopify account with Shiprocket to simplify their eCommerce operations and shipping processes. Sellers can now use Automatic Order Sync, which helps you automatically sync all the pending orders from the Shopify panel into the process.
Final Thoughts
You can use these customer retention strategies to scale your eCommerce business to new heights and thrive in this highly competitive market. These will enable you to get more customers, better reviews and referrals to scale your business. Good luck!
