4 Tips for Boosting Loyalty and Customer Retention in E-Commerce

Congratulations, you just got yourself a sale! Your hard work has paid off and you can relax with a glass of wine tonight. What a great feeling! But wouldn’t it be nice to have that feeling again? How can you get this customer to come back for more? Start by following these four customer retention tips.

1. Be Honest – When a customer buys from your site they expect transparency and they want to know when their order will be shipped. Send shipment notification emails so they aren’t left wondering. And don’t be afraid to inject your brand’s personality into these emails, it will make the experience much more memorable.
2. Have Stellar Customer Service – Great customer service is absolutely essential for a positive e-commerce experience. You or your customer service team should be able to answer any questions your customers have. Including an FAQ or help page is the most cost effective way to provide answers. Consider creating how-to videos or other content that will help your customer to enjoy their purchase once they receive it. This will help reinforce a sense of loyalty. If you can, add a live chat component. This option requires more resources but customers will really appreciate it.
3. Create a Tribe and Personalize the Shopping Experience – Have you ever gone to a small store or deli and started having a conversation with the storeowner? He or She wasn’t particularly trying to sell you anything, they were just chatting away and being friendly. Chances are if you were there on vacation or living nearby you probably went back to the store. Why? Because you now had a connection with this person. With online shopping it can be harder to create a connection with your customers. But brands that are successful do just that. They are able to create a buzzing tribe who can’t seem to shut up about their product: think Warby Parker, Black Milk Clothing, Asos, Nasty Gal and more.E-commerce brands are able to create this connection by offering added value with their unique content. If you aren’t able to manage a blog think about other content you can provide your audience more sporadically. Perhaps create a lookbook or recommendations. Utilize Instagram to share style tips or customer submitted outfit of the day photos. Have fun with your content and consider the value it’s going to provide your audience.
4. Incentivize – Give your customers a reason to come back for more by following up with email incentives. You can be quirky here and inject some personality – tell your customers how much you miss them, and that you can’t wait for them to come back. There are many ways to incentivize your customers, so think beyond just offering discounts! Perhaps create a loyalty or frequent shopper program that offers special bonus gifts. Incentify by points.com is an app on Shopify that you can leverage to help you keep track of loyalty program points. Make your emails worth opening. But remember not to send too many emails! Look at your open rate and determine the best frequency for your audience.

The most important thing to get return business is to make sure you capture email addresses at check-out and inform customers they are joining your newsletter. Inject lots of personality within your site and send regular communication to your customers – at least once a month. Make your customers remember why they came to your store the first time.