How to drive growth with eCommerce customer retention

Driving growth in an e-commerce business is not just about getting a greater volume of orders, what matters is how you can organically increase the eCommerce customer retention rate to generate more sales from existing customers. Yes, you’ve got to do everything that the customer expects from your e-commerce store- an easy checkout, industry-beating UI/UX design, easy returns and replacements, great customer service, and so on, but eventually, a customer would come again only when he’s satisfied with his first buying experience on your portal. In this article, we’ll see the strategies you could adopt to increase your e-commerce customer retention.

Leverage the power of technology- Advanced technology is your best friend when it comes to retaining your customers. This is possible with the help of advanced AI-based tools that automatically track customer journeys or help you market your e-store to boost conversions. Many of these services can be synced with your current digital infrastructure via APIs. Research such marketing optimization software and services for your e-commerce website and mobile app.

Improve customer service and success- Customers have a lot of expectations when it comes to customer service. You need to make sure your customer service works just as your customers would like it to. For instance, each email, call, or instant message should be replied to within a specific time. When it comes to onboarding the customer, the whole process should be smooth and quick, so that the customer can use the service or product right away.

Send tailored email campaigns to existing customers- Sending an email before, during, and after the sale is the best way to connect with your customers. Once you know the customer’s profile, you can send them tailored emails recommending them products that suit their profile. This helps you increase your e-commerce retention rate easily and cheaply.

Develop an easy onboarding program- This is extremely important, especially for small e-stores . Getting customers to sign up is half the battle won, the rest is getting them to buy and onboarding them to use the service to buy. Onboarding them may include getting their contact details, payment details, and other information that could help you serve them better. After that, you could send them an email stating what they could expect from the service. With the emails, you could send them tutorials and other details too.

Personalized communication- In e-commerce, customers expect personalization. After all, they are the ones who give you their details when they’re interested in a product or service. They may download your mobile app for free, but when they pay, the onus is on you when it comes to communicating well and remarketing your products for repeat purchases from these users.

Develop a customer loyalty program- A customer loyalty program should be designed to encourage your customers to make repeat purchases. Though this is quite a common customer retention tactic, you could be creative and add features to it to encourage customer loyalty. For instance, you could give your customers gifts for consecutive repeat purchases.

Post regularly on social media- Social media is the best place to have a conversation with your intended target audience. Besides posting regularly about your product or a topic, you could hire an influencer to promote your products or try your hand at paid advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Use referrals strategically-  Word-of-mouth marketing or referrals is a great way for you to increase customer retention, even better than hunting for new customers. For this, you will need to make sure the whole online shopping experience is worthwhile for every customer.

Keep customers updated with push notifications- Push notifications are the best way you could keep customers updated with all the latest updates going on regarding their purchases or other marketing methods. For instance, you could notify your customers of upcoming sales campaigns with push notifications.

In the end

Experts agree that retaining customers and encouraging them to make repeat purchases is the best way you could market your product and drive growth. With these eCommerce customer retention strategies, we’re sure you would be able to maintain and exceed the number of orders on your e-commerce store.