Every eCommerce company aims to increase its product sales every quarter and plans a roadmap accordingly. The most common strategy which almost every company applies is the acquisition of new users for their platform.
The company then invests huge amounts mainly in advertisement and brand awareness programs specifically targeting the new customers, which may or may not onboard the customers as per the sales requirements. Often these companies fail to understand that the gold mine they are planning to hit is already available as a part of their existing customers.
According to a survey by Marketing Metrics, the success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is only 5-20%. This is where customer retention plays an important role for every eCommerce company and this is the metric that needs to be prioritized the most.
Why you should focus on Customer Retention for your business!
Customer retention increases the profitability of your business in a number of ways that are cost-effective and efficient. Here are 5 best strategies to improve your customer retention metrics and why customer retention should be the key focus for your business success.
1. Better Purchase rate
Customers who have previously bought products from your platform will be more likely to purchase again if they had a good experience with your service. When customers get familiar with your website or app environment they are more relaxed to browse through your products more and thus it will help you to easily predict their needs so you can show them the best choices of products accordingly.
2. Reduction in marketing spends
When you establish a better network with your existing customers then you will need less time and money to invest in marketing for getting new customers. This will allow you to invest the money in other parameters that can solve your existing customers’ problems associated with your business.
3. Quality feedback for improvement
The customer feedback you receive from your existing or loyal customers opens up the room for your service improvement. They are the best judges to tell what problems they have faced in your line of service and what improvements they will need in order to continue shopping from your company. Thereby, complying with these changes you will not only build better relationships with your existing customers but also provide an improved service to your new customers as well.
4. Existing Customers can become premium users
The loyal customers who have been part of your business journey are far less price-conscious than new customers as they value your company already and, thus, are willing to pay the price for your services. This is the best opportunity to pitch them about your premium services and what benefits they can avail through it which can easily intrigue them to apply for premium subscriptions.
5. Word-of-mouth Advertising
Whatever technological advancement happens in the field of eCommerce, word-of-mouth is and will be the most cost-effective advertising you can achieve from your loyal, happy customers. Your loyal and satisfied customers are more likely to tell their friends and family about your business and its products, which can successfully convert them into your customers.
5 Strategies which you must Implement for improving your Customer retention
As eCommerce trends and techniques continue to evolve, brands have to work harder on their current strategies to keep their customers engaged and make them return to your eCommerce platform.
Here we will discuss 5 effective strategies that should implement in your eCommerce business and understand how you can plan these techniques accordingly.
1. Improve the customer loyalty program
Before you plan out this strategy, you must make sure you’ve very well defined the metrics you need to track for identifying different levels of customer loyalty. The factors you will need to measure are repeat purchase frequency, volume, dollar value, or average order value. This will help you in segmenting customers into relevant groups based on their loyalty levels.
Provide a subscription model membership for any products based on the customer group that will require a frequent or regular purchase. The convenient and cost savings offers in the model involved with a specific time period subscription will encourage customers to commit to getting in long term relationships with your business.
You can even offer freebies, exclusive deals, or access to limited-time products to make your premium customers feel special. Referrals are also an excellent practice to get more new customers on-board by rewarding your customers with better incentives.
2. Develop customer relationships with social media
Social media platforms are the best medium to built a community of your customers and keep them engaged with quality content posts about your business. With a majority of buyers highly engaged with social media channels, you can provide an insight into your business rather than just promoting your brand, which helps the customer to connect with you on a personal level as well.
With focus on posting quality content around your products the customers will get better knowledge and thus will be highly interested in purchasing it when they are pitched for doing so. The social media channels also play an important role in knowing and interacting with your customers as well which helps you in improving your communication as a brand with the customers.
3. Send personalized messages to customers
Personalized messages in the form of emails or app notifications provide you the opportunity to continue improving the relationship with your customers before and after the product purchase from your platform. It is very much important to add a sense of personalization with each message you send to your customer which then adds as a valuable experience for them.
By sending follow-up messages in every stage of their product purchase, customers will build better trust and confidence with your brand. After getting the product successfully delivered to their place, send them a message that acknowledges and appreciates them for buying from you. Also, ask about the overall customer journey which they had with you. This type of acknowledgment helps customers feel good about their decision to buy from you and makes your brand more approachable.
4. Provide faster delivery and returns options
Fast, easy and cheap delivery with simple returns policies will encourage customers to establish the trust in purchasing from your business more frequently. You can provide relaxation in shipping charges in order to convert one-time buyers into loyal repeat customers. With free shipping, you can lure the customer into your repeat-customer-generating marketing machine, and recoup the loss on your profit margin with subsequent purchases you wouldn’t otherwise have made.
Similarly making the return policy more flexible your customers will have a better approach towards your business. Quickly taking the return items back and making a faster refund makes your customer confident about the overall customer journey experience and assures them that they can completely trust you with their money.
5. AI-based customer service
Customer service plays a vital role in communicating with your customers on a direct level and are expected to solve their problems as soon as possible. With any delay in addressing their queries it leads to customer frustration thus disrupting the customer retention cycle you worked to establish. Thus, Artificial intelligence-powered customer assistant solutions are gaining popularity among retailers and eCommerce business owners now.
These AI assistant solutions can help in instantly addressing the customer problems and help them in solving it without much interference of any human assistant. This will not only help in saving a lot of time and effort for customers and business but also help in reducing the unnecessary burden on customer representatives as well who can then focus on major problems of customers better.
Conclusion
Customer retention is a highly important aspect that should be kept at the front of the mind through the entire customer journey process. Many eCommerce businesses are now shifting focus towards improving their customer retention strategy.
With new trends and advancements in the eCommerce industry, businesses are always presented with new and powerful strategies to ensure they are retaining their customers and building up a strong customer base.
Ready To Upgrade Your Logistic Solution?
Speak to Floship ecommerce logistic consultant about improving your global support chain today
