Where the world has shrunk into a global village, the online market grows even bigger. The popularity of e-commerce stores is also increasing day by day among customers as well as young entrepreneurs.
Making an e-commerce website is not difficult in today’s tech-savvy world. However, once you have set up your web store with all the necessary elements, there are two things that you need to do.
Firstly, you need to impress the visitors and convert them into buyers. And secondly, you need to make sure that your online customers are happy and satisfied, so that they return to your e-commerce store again. This comes down to customer retention.
The question that arises here is it important to retain customers?
While it is easy and relatively cheap to set up an online store, it is also quite difficult to stand out from the millions of other web stores. Remember that even if you have a lot of traffic on your website on a regular basis, it does not guarantee sales. There’s so much more to it than that in order to have a thriving online store.
If your website incorporates all the qualities of an outstanding-commerce store, it will uplift your conversion rate. However, that’s not where the work ends!
Once a customer has trusted you with their hard-earned money, the chances are that they will be happy to make the next purchase. But they won’t wait around and come back after a single purchase. That’s where you will need to put efforts to tempt them into returning for another round.
While it’s essential to focus on attracting new customers and grow your business, it is also very important to retain the old ones and build customer loyalty. A loyal customer is not only the lifeblood of any business, but, they also serve as your brand ambassador by telling others about you too.
And remember, it takes efforts in earning a customer, so you might not want to let your investment go to waste by letting them go that easily.
Check out these ways by which you can make your online customers happy and bring them back! Ultimately, how you can boost your e-commerce retention rate.
Stay connected
Once your customer is happy and satisfied with their purchase, don’t make them forget about you.
Put efforts and resources to build trust and relationship, meanwhile, focus on the next transaction.
You can send them weekly emails, telling them about your new products and services. These days, it has become very important for e-commerce stores to build a strong social media presence. It does not only help in lifting the conversion rate, but via these social platforms, you easily stay connected to your customers – thus preventing them from forgetting about you.
Social media has also shattered the invisible wall between a brand and a customer. They can now easily communicate for queries, feedback, and more. Remember that your emails/messages should be meaningful and short while promoting your brand voice.
However, while it is important to stay connected with your customers, you also don’t want to irritate them with constant promotional messages. Online customers are also pretty impatient, and they won’t think twice before muting your emails and messages if you become a nuisance in their digital world. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the promotional messages and ads on social media and the internet, and therefore, you need to make sure that your messages are actually bringing value, and secondly, that
Value their trust
Show your customers that you value their trust by offering them incentives in their next purchase.
You can come up with exclusive deals and offer discounts to make them come back on your website again. If you succeed in telling them that you care and remember their business, they will not hesitate to reach out to you again. The big challenge is just getting them to keep your business on top of mind, so that the first thing they think about when then need something related to your industry, is your company.
Another thing that builds trust between a brand and a customer is that you remember what they like. Where this is also target marketing tactic, but you can make them happy by promoting similar products with special incentives.
You can also surprise them by remembering a customer’s birthday or another special day by offering a gift. Well, who doesn’t feel happy when someone surprises them beyond their expectations? The key to stand out as a business is really to go above and beyond.
This way, you will not only earn a life-long customer, but they will be way happier and excited to tell about your brand to their loved ones.
And if you didn’t know already, returning customers are worth considerably more than one-time customers. In fact,
Hire professionals to interact with customers
Retaining a customer is not only about offering the best of the products. You need to make them believe that you are a person, not a robot, who cares about their needs and satisfaction.
Most customers prefer to know all about the product and your brand before making an online purchase. This is when your customer service comes into play.
You need to deal with your customers professionally right from the beginning. The first interaction is extremely important for making a good impression.
Hire professionals for this job as they will know how to deal with different kind of customers and don’t appear downright unpleasant to any of them. Moreover, listening to customers is yet another essential step in building trust. You need to tell them that their feedback and queries are not taken for granted and that you are paying attention.
If you succeed in making a good first impression, a customer will always remember that. And, when they want to make the next purchase, you will find returning to your e-commerce website.
Customer feedback and Google reviews
Once you have satisfied a customer, they will likely leave a review or feedback to share their experience with the world. A place where it is extremely beneficial for any business to show up on is Google. This also helps new customers make their purchase decision based on the past experience of others.
So it is important that you don’t take these reviews lightly and respond to them in the best possible way.
Here, the question arises is how to respond to customers on Google?
Well, you will need all of your Google accounts for reviews and evaluate them accordingly. You also need to respond to every feedback, whether negative or positive. Responding to Google reviews will help you build a relationship with customers and show empathy.
Moreover, with the help of ORM tools, you can effectively monitor, manage, and repair your brand reputation because you cannot overlook the importance of customer feedback in the online world.
Here’s a quick guide on how to respond to Google review:
- Sign in to Google My Business by navigating to business.google.com
- Click the three horizontal bars in the top left-hand corner to choose your listing
- Click “Manage reviews.” Once you find a review you want to engage with, click “View and reply” to type out a response
Keep improving
If your website is doing great with an awesome conversion rate and happy customers, don’t stop improving.
Keep coming up with innovative ideas and hone your offerings that will tempt the customers in landing back on your website again. Moreover, the more you improve and innovate, you will get more reasons to interact with your client base. Give them a reason to make their next purchase with even better customer experience.
Build a community
Let your customers know that you are more than just an e-commerce store, selling products/services. You can collaborate with your customers and build a community to do good things together. Social media is a great place to establish your community on.
From donating a percentage of sales to trust in collecting funds for the local food bank, you can also organize such charity events on your web store.
When your customers know that some part of their money will be going for a good cause, a lot of people will feel satisfied and more than happy to do more business with you in the future.
Final thoughts
To retain your customers, you need to make them happy and satisfied with their first transaction. The digital world is huge and wild, and it’s hard to earn the trust of an online customer. But if you succeed in doing so, devote resources to retain them. Keep improving your services and offer them incentives in order to tempt them into making next purchase.
Article written by Ashley Rosa.
