Tips for Turning One-Off E-Commerce Customers Into Repeat Buyers

When it comes to seeking methods to maximize the sales of your e-commerce business, there are really two main ways to do it – expanding the reach of your business to more people, or maximizing the total revenue made off of the customers you already have. However, what more businesses should be concerned with is retention, as 80% of business comes from the same core customers.

Paying for Online Order
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After all, what’s the point of investing all of the resources and energy into converting a single sale, when they eventually churn? For that reason, in this article, we will explore some wonderful strategies for how to keep your customers around for ages.

Causes of Churn

For starters, we have to first begin by understanding why customers why it is that some customers just make one single purchase and then disappear never to be heard from again.

There are several key causes for this:

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

In the competitive world of e-commerce, customers have countless options at their fingertips, so just a single negative experience can drive them away for good. On the flip side, one act of going above and beyond can win their hearts for years to come.

Personalized Experience

Collage of customer experience concept
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This is not a wow factor or a luxury – it’s a must. It’s a matter of showing them that they aren’t just a pocketbook to you and that you understand them. Leverage data to propose particular content and targeted promotions to them to fortify a stronger connection. Forbes recently declared personalized customer treatment as one of the top 3 keys for e-commerce success.

Product Recommendations

One of the simplest yet most effective ways to create a tailored shopping experience is by recommending products according to a particular user’s behavior. Such things are analyzed as:

These allow businesses to suggest items that most appeal to the user’s tastes. Chances are that someone who recently purchased running shoes would consider athletic socks or fitness trackers too.

Dynamic Email Campaigns

Using the subscriber’s name in the subject line, mentioning their past purchases, and aligning your offers to suit their taste work wonders. It’s a great idea to also integrate automated workflows like cart reminders or “you might also like” messages to ensure that the content is timely and relevant. Include a discount code shortly after purchases are made to offer a related product to pair with it.

Some shrewd ideas to implement into them are:

Besides email, SMS and push notifications have emerged as a popular follow-up method too. These can be used for order updates, personalized offers, and timely reminders, often with higher open rates than email. Try not to message them too frequently this way, but customers will appreciate timely reminders.

Chatbots

These can assist customers with hyper-relevant suggestions and messaging alongside relevant ads. Every touchpoint is worth personalizing.

High-Quality Images

The quality of the images on a website has a big influence on whether a consumer makes a purchase and then returns to continue making more. Since, online, customers can’t physically touch or try products, images are the main medium used for conveying product details, benefits, and value. It pays off manifold to invest in top-tier visuals, as it not only drives initial sales but it also has a profound impact on customer satisfaction as they provide true-to-life representation of the product.

Good images make customers more confident of their purchase decisions. Using a poor-quality image will also have customers doubting the product’s quality and wondering what other shortcuts the producer must have taken. Also immersing shoppers as closely as possible in the product and helping them imagine it in their lives, they are given an emotional connection to it as well as a higher perceived value of the product.

When shoppers see well-lit, sharp, visually aesthetic photos, they start to associate your brand with professionalism and high quality.

Loyalty Programs

Rewarding customers for their continued business incentivizes them to keep coming back as you kindle a feeling of connection to your brand and that they’re appreciated. Adding in gamification in the form of points, goals, and milestones also fuels their engagement and motivation.

Vividly feature the program’s benefits on your website and at checkout. Educate customers on how to take advantage of rewards in emails and social media. Harvard Business Review recently investigated the science behind loyalty programs and why they work.

Track Performance

Keeping track of your success in various metrics and areas is a must to maintain clarity in what to build on and where your bottlenecks are.

These include:

Use feedback surveys to help identify specific areas of improvement.

Build Trust with Social Proof and Testimonials

People use other people’s opinions as the basis of their confidence in the value of a particular product. First and foremost, they trust their own personal experience with it, which is why plugging the holes in the product should be a higher priority than any other tip in this article. Beyond that, people trust their personal acquaintances and friends the most. The next level down is other people’s opinions who have used the product.

For that reason, you have some powerful tools at your disposal. These include:

When customers feel part of a community of satisfied buyers, they are more likely to remain loyal. This creates a positive feedback loop leading to increased customer retention and lifetime value.