Customer loyalty and retention strategies for e-commerce

A loyal customer is a holy grail of the e-commerce sector. Getting one isn’t easy and requires a well-thought-out strategy and sustained efforts. In this article, we want to talk about customer loyalty and customer retention. What can your store do in order to attract and retain more customers? And what are the most effective customer retention strategies?

When it comes to customer loyalty, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze. According to smallbizgenius.net, increasing customer retention by just 5% boosts profits by 25% to 95%[1]. Building customer loyalty is the best, most efficient, and most straightforward way to increase your profits. Easier said than done? Perhaps. That’s why today, we want to equip you with the knowledge that will help you achieve this goal.

Customer retention strategies

The list of strategies and techniques which should help you retain more customers is quite long. For the sake of this article, we’ve selected five techniques that prove to be effective in most situations:

LOYALTY MARKETING

Over 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand if it has a good loyalty program.

Creating an engaging and attractive loyalty program can give your brand a real boost! However, there is one condition – you have to devise a program that’s attractive from your customers’ perspective (not yours!). If collecting points is difficult or time-consuming, if points are not worth much, if the offer to exchange points for products is limited, don’t expect spectacular success. When it comes to loyalty programs, you have to give something first. Take a look at how other companies deal with loyalty marketing:

Loyalty program examples

First off, let’s take a look at the Nike Membership program. The company offers member-exclusive offers, additional programs (like Nike Run Club), and wide customization options (Nike by You). What’s particularly interesting, Nike loyalty program is not based on points. Members get rewards just for being with the brand. We will talk about the importance of this approach in a minute.

Image source: https://www.nike.com/membership

 

And here’s another example: Tesco Clubcard. This large British retail chain uses a mobile app to support their loyalty program. And this app comes with features that allow users to:

• Collect and spend points simply by scanning their phones
• Pay with their phone for purchases in Tesco supermarkets
• Find nearby stores
• Browse the latest deals and new coupons

 

Image source: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/tesco-clubcard/id351841850

The gathered points become vouchers, and customers can use them to save money in-store, online, or even on fuel.

PERSONALIZATION

58% of companies pursue personalization strategies for customer retention.

Personalization is all about reaching customers with an offer or content tailored specifically to their needs. On the one hand, it’s based on showing personalized offers (based on previous purchases and activity in the store – you can use intelligent algorithms based on machine learning for that), but you can do more. Many stores track personal information about their customers and surprise them with happy birthday emails, we miss you emails, or simply special offers just for them. This way, customers feel important to the brand and are more likely to stay with it.

Image source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/77968637273879791/

REMINDERS

Abandoned cart emails have a 40% open rate.

You have to remember that we live in a dynamic world with thousands of offers, ads, and distractions. In such an unfavorable environment, customers can simply forget about your brand! That’s why you have to remind them about yourself, especially when it comes to abandoned carts (use remarketing to deal with this problem).

Brands remind users about their offers and products through several channels, especially:

• Newsletters: It’s a good way to remind users about your offer but also to distribute discount codes and vouchers.
• Push notifications: These are small notifications displayed in the browser. First, users have to give their consent to receive them, but when they do, you can use push notifications to rescue abandoned carts and promote new arrivals and special offers.
• Social media: The majority of your customers visit Facebook and Instagram daily. Encourage them to like and follow your brand. This way, they will constantly see your new posts, which is also a great way to stay in touch with customers.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)

79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions[2].

And here’s yet another customer retention strategy. UGC covers all content that is created directly by your customers and users and consists of:

• Opinions and reviews
• Video materials (tests and reviews on YouTube)
• Podcasts
• Comments in social media

Encourage users to share their opinions and give them necessary space on your social media profiles and in your store. Think about tests, unboxing videos, reviews of technological innovations, tutorials, and DIY videos/guides. These types of UGC materials, not only on YT, can generate hundreds of thousands of views and comments. And your brand remains in the background all the time! This is where the real power of user-generated content lies.

This is a perfect example of UGC in action. This YT unboxing video has whooping 2 million+ views:

Remember about impeccable customer service…

All these efforts will be for nothing if your customer service is poor. Once a year, Gladly.com publishes the Customer Expectations report. And in the 2021 edition, we can read: “82% of customers will spend more money on brands that deliver great service online”. That’s what this is all about. Excellent customer service and UX is ALWAYS your starting point for everything you do, marketing and sales-wise. Applying virtual PBX services and applications, it is, however, easy to take customer service to excellence, since you offer a professional and trustworthy approach. If customers see that you try to do your best to provide them high-quality, personalized services, they will more likely return to you in the future. It’s really that simple.

…and prices

Lastly, bear in mind that prices are extremely important, too! If you want to retain customers, your prices should be calculated so that they are profitable to you and attractive from your customer’s standpoint. Impossible? Not with us! At Dealavo, we offer advanced automated pricing solutions for e-commerce companies. See what we can do for you, and reach out to improve pricing in your store!

[1] https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/customer-loyalty-statistics/#gref

[2] https://stackla.com/resources/reports/bridging-the-gap-consumer-marketing-perspectives-on-content-in-the-digital-age/