BigCommerce Tips To Improve Customer Retention
Customer retention is vital to the health of any ecommerce business. Not only do repeat customers spend more money, it costs less to retain them then to attract new shoppers. Plus, they can do the work of promoting your business through referrals, social media engagement, and word-of-mouth.
And while it’s always a good time to re-engage shoppers, it’s especially crucial during the holiday shopping season, when most B2C sites get the majority of their new customer sales. It might be a challenge getting it off the ground, but if you have a strong retention strategy in place, the rewards of your holiday prep will extend far beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
While it’s always a good time to re-engage shoppers, it’s especially crucial during the holiday shopping season, when most B2C sites get the majority of their new customer sales.
With that in mind, here are our top tips to turn one-time shoppers into regulars!
Re-Engage During The First 30 Days
Studies have shown that 69% of a customer’s first year spend comes within their first 30 days as a customer. Take advantage of the time when you’re fresh in a customer’s mind by sending them targeted marketing offers that incentivize them to purchase again.
69% of a customer’s first year spend comes within their first 30 days as a customer
Email Marketing
Email is one of the simplest, yet most effective, ways to get customers to return. Sending out coupons and welcome messages during that crucial 30-day period is a great way to get customers to purchase again. And if you want to take it to the next level, you can use segmentation tools on a platform like Klayvio to create shoppable emails that showcase products that you know will tempt them back.
Social Media Retargeting
Facebook retargeting campaigns are also a great option to keep yourself at the forefront of customers minds. Retargeting campaigns use cookies to show customers carousels of products they’ve previously browsed while they’re looking at Facebook. These ads target customers where they choose to spend time, reminding them of what the products they’re missing out on and encouraging them to spend more.
Tailor User Experience To Make Reordering Easy
For many merchants, particularly those in the B2B sphere, “repeat customers” means purchasing the same item multiple times. A product may run out, need to be replaced, or have a component that needs to be refilled.
If that’s the case, focus on creating a user experience that makes it easier for returning customers to find what they need. This will encourage customers to turn to your site when they need additional, replacement, or refill products.
The best way to achieve this? Try one of these add-ons:
Reorder Button For BigCommerce
This add-on creates a button that lets returning customers easily reorder items they’ve purchased before. When clicked, customers are prompted to log in through a popup window and then shown a shoppable breakdown of all their previous orders. They can quickly add individual items or entire orders to the Cart and check out.
Not only does this allow for near-instant shopping, it also facilitates repeat buying by helping customers find relevant information. For example, if you need to buy a replacement part but can’t remember the model number, you can easily look it up. Or if you need refills for a product, you can access your usual order with just a few clicks.
Quick Order Page
Quick Order is a search page that lets customers find Products by name or SKU and add them directly to the Cart without navigating throughout the site. This is a great option for users who pick up multiple products in an order, such as B2B customers who order from a departmental shopping list. It’s an example of how smart UX can improve the shopping experience on all sites, including B2B and wholesale ones.
Build A Loyalty Program
A longer-term strategy for customer retention is to develop a loyalty program. Loyalty programs usually have a clever or exclusive-sounding name (“insiders” or “VIPs” are common) and promise customers rewards for shopping and other types of brand engagement.
Many loyalty programs use a “point” system that ties purchasing to rewards (e.g. earn 1,000 points and get free shipping or 10% off), but it’s possible to have a successful loyalty program without dealing with all that data. You might offer your insiders early access to sales or new launches, or send them a birthday greeting with a small coupon. Crafting an appealing loyalty program is a major step towards improving customer retention.
Get BigCommerce Help Today!
Need marketing, design, or development help with an eye on improving customer retention? Call us today for a consultation on what you could be doing to make more money!
