How to improve ecommerce customer retention rate

Getting people to visit and place an order is half the battle won when it comes to marketing your e-commerce website. If you want to increase sales, you have to encourage first-time buyers to place their second and subsequent orders. It is a known fact that repeat sales are a crucial factor that helps you reach your business goals.

In fact, repeat customers help increase brand awareness, give a positive word of mouth, and thus help increase sales. However, one big challenge you will face is getting your existing customers to make repeat purchases.

In this post, we’ll see how you can get your existing customers to make repeat purchases, thereby improving the Customer Retention, as this is a crucial factor of your e-commerce business success.

Up your email marketing game

Email is one of the best tools you can use to retain customers. Once your customers have made a purchase, you can send them welcome emails along with discounts and offers that you run periodically. Once your customer buys from you, you can upsell and cross-sell products from your catalog.

Besides this, you can send engaging and valuable content to your first-time customers through email. Though these mails would be non-promotional, they can help you increase your brands' awareness and brand recall.

Nurture customers on social media

Being active on social media is the easiest way to nurture long-lasting relationships with your customers. To start with, you need to have a power-packed social media feed with content that people would love to know about. You can use your Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter accounts to run contests, share links to your latest products, engage with your customers one-on-one and do much more to interact with them hands-on.

Personalize the customer experience

Personalization is perhaps the biggest asset you have in your marketing campaign. Based on their previous usage behavior, you can suggest the customer products they may be interested in. For instance, if you have a men’s fashion e-commerce mobile app, you can suggest pants and jeans to match the T-shirts they purchased from you recently. Then for those who have abandoned their carts or haven’t made a purchase from you for quite some time, you can offer them customized discounts and offers to encourage them to buy.

Devise SOPs to improve customer satisfaction

The first time someone buys from you, you have to make sure they had a great shopping experience. You have to train your staff to get the work done according to a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document. For instance, once the payment is made, the product should be packed, dispatched, and delivered within the promised time.

Create content that customers look forward to

To engage with your customers, you would need to create content that they look forward to. This could be in the form of a blog on your website, videos on your website or YouTube channel, and other content that would interest them and increase your brand’s awareness. For instance, if you are an apparel e-retailer, you could publish blogs or make informative videos showing how men can look fashionable within a set budget.

Offer a customer loyalty program

This is a great way to get repeat purchases. This could be in the form of exclusive discounts, freebies, or anything else that could ensure your customers come to you the next time they want to make a purchase.

You could also give your customers loyalty points for each purchase and gift when they reach a predetermined level. This way, you could encourage your customers to buy exclusively from you.

Use User-Generated Content for your marketing efforts

Customers who create content for you are a great way to give your brand social standing. Customers regularly post videos, comments, and testimonials of the service and products that they buy from you. You can use this user-generated content to help you get genuine goodwill amongst your first-time customers.

Summing Up

Getting repeat purchases is not a one-time job. You will have to channel resources, time, efforts, and money into encouraging customers to make repeat purchases and improve your brand’s customer retention rate. If you take steps in the right direction, no amount of effort by your competitors can disrupt your customer retention rate.