How to repeat customers? It is one of the most sought-after questions that you will hear coming from a retailer. A business owner knows that getting a repeat in customers and purchases is essential for a business’s upliftment. If you see as little as 15-20% of your customers who revert to you every month, there is a higher chance that they will continue to do so. Further, they will also take a backseat from churning away as well. That is when it is vital to know what is meant by repeat purchases?
Repeat purchases are the purchases that an existing customer makes and you must have some Selling tips. They are the ones who are satisfied and happy with your brand and are often driven by the need for convenience. They feel comforted by shopping with you. These facets make the journey of purchase of the repeat customers way different from that of the buyers who are coming to purchase from you for the first time. Fortunately, here we will tell you about some of the best customer retention strategies. These customer retention strategies will help you increase repeat customers for your e-commerce store. Without any further ado, let us know them right away.
1: Install an EV SSL On Your E-Commerce Website
EV SSL or extended validation secure socket layer certificates are the first choices for e-commerce website owners. The primary reason behind that is that they offer a high security and safety level to the online store and keep you away from the multitude of malicious activities that can take place on the social front.
Additionally, installing an EV SSL certificate offers the highest validation level to your site and allows the customers to trust you even more. What adds to the trust factor is when they see the green address bar with a green padlock. This stands as a testament to the fact that your business is proper, authenticated, and is validated through a very stringent yet thorough procedure. When that happens, your customers would come back for some more and do more business with you. Additionally, you may see the following:
- An EV SSL certificate is the highest level of assurance certificate that you can have on your site.
- It follows the highest level of authentication and is issued only after a verified process.
- This also reinforces the trusted stamp for your customers.
- Aside from this, it helps in improving your SEO rankings on Google pages.
- With this, you will see a drastic improvement in sales and get a good return on your EV SSL certificate investment.
Wondering where to buy cheap EV SSL certificates from that are premium in quality yet don’t burn a hole in your pockets? ClickSSL is the solution to all your SSL-related problems as it is the best SSL provider at the cheapest price.
2: Create an Email List
One of the best tricks to increase repeat customers for your e-commerce site is sending out regular yet targeted emails to your clients. This has been said as a battle-tested e-commerce strategy to drive repeat purchases. And in contradiction to the AdWords, social ads or remarketing ads, you will not have to pay a single dime to reach your email list. On that note, know that while sending an email is cost-effective, it does have its own cost.
First, the more you frequent a customer’s inbox, and if they do not find enough value out of your emails, there is a good possibility that they might wish to tune your brand out completely. Some of the examples of triggered emails that you can plan on sending include welcome emails. These are the introductory emails that a brand sends out to a customer once they have onboarded.
This is where they offer their best features, products and a glimpse into these offerings in a nutshell. It has also been seen that the welcome emails have some of the highest open and click rates of any other email that a company sends out. So make sure that you spark your presence and message here.
3: Say Yes to Personalization
Of the many things that a customer adores, one that makes it into the top 3 is the great trait of personalization. When a customer sees a personalized note, they make it a point to stick around for more. The more you interact with them, and the more you collect their data based on their recent purchases and transactions, they will see you in a positive light. You must rely on this data to tailor your messaging and promotions by using marketing automation.
One of the easiest ways of doing that is by showing the returning customers the items in the similar or same category as they had purchased before – this increases their chances of purchasing those items again. Additionally, you might as well choose a specific time to send out an email to them.
It has been seen that the email send time optimization has been shown to significantly enhance the engagement by timing your messages to go out when the customers have previously checked out or clicked on your emails. This way, you know exactly what your clients want and cater to their needs and demands seamlessly. This way, it calls for a win-win for both parties.
4: Respond to your Customer’s Comments – be it Positive or Negative
Note that a happy customer is a loyal customer and is here to stick around with you. That is why having a great response to each of your customers should be a given, and one should not take a backseat on doing that. If one of your primary goals is to create a long-lasting relationship with your customers, you must make sure that you respond to them with an immediate effect.
First and foremost, it is always a good idea to deploy a certain group of staff whose primary task is to respond to the customers – be it on social media or be it on the portal.
This will see that the customers get a higher return on investment and will likely do more business with you as and when they see your quick responses. This way, you will always prefer to pick your brand over the rest of your competitions.
5: Incentivize on the Go
Who doesn’t like to see incentives now and then? Well, your customers are no exceptions there. Start to incentivize your customers with special customer loyalty programs that retailers generally use to increase their repeat purchases. So, what happens in these loyalty programs is that the customer is incentivized with a loyalty point every time they make a purchase.
Now, this can take place in many ways. If they add a product review, share anything related to the brands or the products on the social media channel, or buy an item that crosses a specific zone of prices, a customer will get a loyalty point under all of these situations. Once these loyalty programs reach a certain point, the customer will then be eligible to get any item of their choice for free. This has been a tried and tested formula and has worked wonders for many brands.
This is also a great way to keep your customers from churning away and increase repeat purchases. All that a customer wants is your attention, and incentivizing a customer’s purchases acts as a great way to seal the deal.
6: Placing an Order should be a Cakewalk
Some of the customers claim that ordering from certain e-commerce platforms is addictive. And, all they want to do is keep ordering from the sites again and again. Also, browsing is always a fun activity and getting the packages delivered to your doorstep is even joyful. But what is not fun is adding on your credit card credentials every time you make an order.
On similar tracks, adding on your full-fledged address is not something that a customer looks up to. In that case, what needs to be done is to let customers create their accounts and have their data saved. This will also act as a streamlined process for the buying transactions. Once you do that, you will soon start to see a massive reduction in the churn rates.
The people can now easily choose their address and place their orders seamlessly. Now, they are no longer required to type down every single bit of information. This will save their time as well your time. This is exactly what makes the customers choose you, do business with you and stay loyal to your company.
7: Let your Box do all the Talking
Imagine this: You have your prom coming up in the next week, and you have placed your order. You have chosen the prepaid option too. And now you are desperately waiting for your order to arrive. Suddenly you see the mailman with your brand’s box. The amount of happiness you get is inexplicable. This brand box of yours has a substantial latent power to increase repeat customers.
Sometimes, most e-commerce marketers are so focused on the online front that they tend to forget that much of the customer experience that comes through is from the product and the way it is delivered to them. That is where your product box has a definitive say. Many of the top brands also add a logo on their boxes on the outside, which speaks on their identity, brand score, and individuality. Consider your box, the way you package your items, the additional catalogs that you club inside of it, the optional coupons, if any, or the brand-story information that you put in your box, too, has got a lot to say out about your brand in a positive light.
That’s a Wrap
When you are in a nascent stage as a brand and are growing, vying against the industry experts, it is more than necessary that you allow your marketing team to zero in on the customer acquisition part. This is something that your primary goal should be thriving on, at least at the very beginning of your journey.
Also, remember that it is the customer who has the power to make and break your business. You make a living out of their love and support. Therefore, make it a point to show them the care and attention they need, and in exchange, they come back with repeat purchases.