E-commerce Customers: 3 Reasons to Focus on Customer Retention

Attracting new customers is a priority for most e-commerce brands — and it should be — but overlooking your existing customers is a common and costly error. When you market to your current customers, you dramatically lower your marketing costs and get a second chance to sell to customers who may have moved on.

Learning more about retention when it comes to e-commerce marketing provides you with a low-cost, high-reward way to expand your sales and boost your revenues. Best of all, these customers have already been identified, are aware of your brand and are far easier to convert than new arrivals.

3 Reasons to Focus on Retention Marketing

Affordability: When you sell to an existing customer and keep them happy, your marketing costs automatically decline, sometimes substantially. According to HubSpot, acquiring a new customer who is unfamiliar with your e-commerce brand can cost you up to five times more than it does to sell to a retained customer.

Customer retention programs can also help increase overall revenues and profits as it gives you more opportunities to sell without increasing your costs.

High success rates: Since returning customers have a higher chance of repurchasing, directing part of your e-commerce marketing strategy toward these willing buyers can help you boost your overall conversion rates. According to HubSpot, your existing customers are five times more likely to buy from you again — and seven times more likely to try your latest product.

When you cultivate a great relationship with your past customers, you have a built-in market for new holiday launches, new product releases, and more. Your past customers are familiar with your brand and products, which makes it far easier to connect and resell.

Outstanding ROI: The combination of low cost and high success will positively affect your ROI. Even if retention is only a part of the overall e-commerce marketing strategy, your business will still see sizable gains. According to Harvard Business Review, focusing on your retention rate and improving it by just 5% can boost your profits by 75% or more. For some brands, that figure soars to 95%, resulting in significant ROI for your retention focused efforts and programs.

3 Ways to Focus on Customer Retention

How can you reap the rewards of customer retention and create a built-in segment for your e-commerce marketing efforts? Staying in touch with your customers. Let your customer know how much you value them with exclusive perks and events just for them. Rewarding your customers will build loyalty, and that loyalty will benefit your brand vastly.

Engaging and Staying in Touch

You can simply fulfill the order, and hope for the best — or you can make a concentrated effort to engage with your customers once the transaction is complete. You have plenty of tools at your disposal, and most of them are affordable and easy to use — like DataQ. Engage in social media or via targeted email campaigns so that customers remember you exist and feel connected to you. A simple follow-up email or message shortly a fulfilled order can let your customer know you care. Additionally, focusing on their experience by asking for feedback without the salesy talk will build good sentiment. Regular touchpoints can further develop your relationships without additional costs.

Let Customers Know You Appreciate Them

Follow-up with purpose. When you re-engage with a customer to thank them for their business and make sure they are happy, you can also make them feel appreciated. A few ways to go about this are:

• A simple thank you message on your social media profiles.
• Free-shipping on their next order to show how much you value their business.
• A hand written thank you note that arrives with their order.

When a customer chooses a small business to support, they make a difference to other individuals who own and work for that business. It is a far more personal engagement — and when you remind customers how important they are to you, they will return again and again. If their other option is an anonymous big box store, then most will opt for the brand that acknowledges and appreciates their purchases.

Offer Special Perks

If you’ve ever received an email offering VIP savings or a deal just for existing customers, you know how appealing this type of promotion is. Offering a special perk for “insiders only” make your repeat clients feel special — and increases the chances they will buy again. Creating a targeted segment of repeat buyers and offering them a one-of-a-kind offer can boost sales in the short term and increase retention over time, too.

While you should always seek to add new clients to your roster, taking time to serve your existing customer base pays off in more ways than one. For a relatively low investment, you’ll be able to reap the increased ROI and profits that only returning customers can provide.