ECommerce customer Retention: 5 ways to create a loyal customer base

Every eCommerce seller has heard the phrase: “customer retention is more important than acquisition”. Despite knowing this, new sellers are easily tempted to implement more resources for customer acquisition. And while it is easy to label this approach as recklessness or entrepreneurial myopia, sellers often do so because they are not confident about the loyalty of their early customers. 

Without proper analytics, it is difficult to track and understand a customer’s buying patterns, and whether the purchase and service satisfied them. Attempts at trial and error may go in vain as an eCommerce startup faces the risk of losing buyers. And in today’s age, a customer may not think twice to switch to your competitor sellers. 

Customer retention is the art of situational binding and emotional bonding. While certain temporal offers can give your startup a monopolistic advantage, the customers will associate it with trust and satisfaction. Keeping this binding-bonding strategy in mind, here are some tactics to create a loyal customer base:

1. Personalised Experience:

Considering the rapidly increasing competition in eCommerce, startups cannot expect customer retention through a “one size fits all” strategy. A personalized shopping experience helps a customer feel at home. To achieve this, a seller needs to keep track of the activity through the customer’s account, frequent searches, preferred sizes and product categories, wishlists, and carts. Sellers must use this data to provide suggestions, offers, and updates on a particular product/category. Responding to customer reviews is another way to make them feel that their problems are being heard. 

2. Valuable Content/Email Marketing:

When it comes to online selling, it never helps to directly cut to the chase. Before making a purchase, it is essential to make one realize why and how much they need a product. Informative blogs, videos, social media pages, and emails pique one’s interest and redirect their attention to the product. Customers feel that their problems have been solved by your business and increase their chances of repurchasing. Follow-up emails and weekly subscriptions help stay in the customer’s mind.  

3. Purchase Points:

Providing purchase points is an excellent strategy for customer retention. Quite straightforwardly, it is a way for startups to express gratitude to their early buyers. Customers are rewarded for their trust in the seller and are made to feel like they are a part of an online community. This creates a situational bond as no other seller provides them with such benefits. 

4. Promotional Offers and Discounts:

While discounts may seem like a cliche tactic to attract new buyers, it is an integral part of a customer loyalty program. There are several discounts and promotional offers for general shoppers. However, exclusive offers for repeat customers are an excellent way to incentivize them. The key is to let the customers know that they are being rewarded. 

5. Free Shipping:

All promotional offers, referral codes, and purchase points go in vain when the customers see the shipping charges at the checkout. Without much knowledge about the shipment procedure, customers often view shipping charges as a way to settle the losses from the discounts. Partnering with a reliable third-party logistics company like AAJ, eCommerce startups can greatly reduce their overall shipping costs, and at the same time speed up the fulfillment process.