The Gartner Group found that 20% of loyal customers resulted in 80% of a store’s profits. Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review found that acquiring a new customer is five to 25 times more expensive, than retaining the ones you already have.
These studies make sense and most business owners know that converting first-time customers is harder than converting an existing one to buy. A first-time customer has had no experience with your products or services, so you’ll need a lot of marketing to convince them to make a purchase!
So how do you improve customer loyalty? How can you increase repeat purchases on your eCommerce store?
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Improve Your Customer Service
First-time customers want great customer service. In a physical store, you can ask the sales team to tell you about the product or even give you a demo. Great service can turn a sceptical or frustrated customer into a satisfied customer.
It’s the same for your eCommerce store. People want to be able to talk to your online sales team through live chat and other communication, be it email or phone. So, providing great customer service is vital to your business’s success. First-time customers will demand a lot of information because they want to make sure that their money is spent wisely. So you also need to make sure that you answer all the questions a prospective customer may have which means adding more content than everyone else!
This suggests that good service is a mark of a premium online store.
2. Create A Loyalty Scheme
Another way you can improve loyalty is to build a loyalty scheme.
Loyalty schemes, reward customers for making more purchases. So, they not only increase your sales, but also provide incentives to continue buying products from you
3. Offer Discounts To Customers
Generally, eCommerce store owners don’t like offering sales and discounts. Let’s face it no one wants to lower their profits. After all, that’s a race to the bottom and unsustainable in the long term.
However, giving discounts to first-time customers is one exception. It might be the most effective way to bring a customer into your business and get them to make their first purchase. What you need to think about is 20% off the price of the first purchase is worthwhile for a long-term business relationship, but most of the time its worth it.
What Are You Doing To Increase Customer Loyalty?
Converting first-time customers into loyal customers is hard but not impossible and well worth the thought and effort!
You can create loyalty programs that reward more purchases. You can also improve your customer service and improve communication with your customers.
If that doesn’t work, then give discounts for first-time or second-time purchases. It’s a small price to pay for a long-term business relationship that is probably worth so much more!
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