If you own an ecommerce business and don’t have a customer retention strategy, you’re missing out on big opportunities to increase your revenue. A high customer retention rates means that customers return en keep adding upt to your revenue. Bringing in new customers constantly is fantastic but keeping your existing clients is often cheaper and more rewarding in the long run.
When you turn your existing customers into loyal clients that make repeat purchases on your website, you can get a constant stream of recurring revenue for your business. Of course, it requires some investment in time and resources, but the payoff is often worth it.
The average customer retention rate for ecommerce is around 30%, according to Omniconvert. You can get countless benefits for your business by raising this number by only a few percentage points. Use these strategies and make them work for your ecommerce to increase your profit margin and save money on ads.
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Build customer communication channels
One of the most significant issues with customer retention in ecommerce is one-time purchases: clients come to your website, purchase an item, and then never come back. Opening up customer communication channels will remind customers that you exist and increase the chance of them returning to your website.
Think about creating incentives such as discounts, promotions, or anything else that you can offer a customer that sweetens any purchases they make from you. You can also recommend new products that you have related to past purchases to entice customers.
The top method for doing this is building out mailing lists and working on email marketing communications. Based on what you may already know about your ecommerce customer, make your communications as personalized as possible. It should feel as if you’re talking to the customer personally.
Make sure you bring some diversity and switch up the content of your communications. If you’re constantly sending the exact same message, your customers will end up unsubscribing.
Create value-added content
One of the best customer retention strategies is to provide value-added content in relation to your products or services. This type of content is customer-oriented, so it can help build trust and loyalty in your customer base.
You can create tutorial videos, information blogs, or anything else that answers questions that your ideal customer may have. This type of content provides information that actually benefits the customer rather than simply being a promotion for your products.
For example, if you sell make-up through your ecommerce website, you could create tutorials on how to apply the makeup, the best color combinations for different skin types, or anything else related to your products and how to better use them. Check out these B2B content marketing trends for inspiration.
Provide world-class customer support
If a customer reaches out due to issues with your product, website, or has questions, you should provide top-notch customer support as part of your ecommerce solution. One of the most common reasons why brands lose their customer loyalty is due to poor time to respond or lack of follow-up from customer support.
You don’t need to be a huge company to provide excellent customer support, but timing is everything. If you can meet customer expectations, they will be much more loyal and understanding when there are issues.
- All customer requests/communications must be acknowledged within 30 minutes, which doesn’t mean you answer the question or resolve the issue; just let the customer know you have their request and provide a timeline for when they can expect a resolution or update.
- Daily updates should be provided to customers so they know you haven’t forgotten about them, and they don’t have time to become as frustrated with you.
- Keep customers updated with full information, don’t try to hide issues or pretend something isn’t happening. Be open and transparent in your communications.
Request feedback on all purchases
An unhappy customer won’t always tell you why your ecommerce service or product didn’t meet their expectations. This could be related to your actual product, delivery, or anything else that causes them to not want to buy from you again.
It’s crucial that you follow up with customers not just with promotions and discounts, but you need to request feedback on their experience with your website, delivery, and product.
You can turn around customers that may never have bought from you again by fixing problems you didn’t even know existed. At a minimum, if you can’t turn this customer around, their feedback is valuable in updating your process so that other customers don’t experience the same issues or dissatisfaction.
How to retain customers for an ecommerce business
With thousands of websites offering similar products and services, it’s essential to focus on effective customer retention strategies. It’s hard enough to win new customers, make sure they remain happy and that you continue providing value to earn their loyalty.
If you’re looking to implement top-notch retention strategies for your ecommerce business, reach out to our team!
