What do you do to keep customers coming back to your e-commerce shop (retention marketing)?

There is a lot of information out there showing that repeat customers are the best factor in growing an online shop on the top- and bottom-lines, meaning: profitably.

We are wondering what online shop owners and managers are currently doing in the area of retention marketing, and how well it is working?

 

quite simple really. Make sure you do everything you say you will do on the tin. Make the customers experience seamless and smooth. Answer any enquiries or resolve any problems within 24 hours. Dispatch orders within 24 hours using an expedited service.

Remember, we are competing against Amazon now. They have set the bar. We must provide a service that at least equals Amazons.

 

Thanks for your answer ChrisMono. These are good examples of delivering excellent service. But how do you track the development of a customer's loyalty? How do you market your products to them when you are not actively providing a service around a specific order?

 

Your ecommerce software should be able to show your customer database. Then you can view things like your best customers, order history etc.

marketing your products to your customer database is easy - email marketing!

 

I typically have loads of stuff running like rewards points, coupons and a range of other marketing features that make the experience much easier across the board.

Nigel

 

Gift Cards. Not coupons.

There's a psychological difference between gift cards and coupons. A coupon is a mechanism for saving money, while a gift card is money. Give someone a coupon and they discard it or shelve it for later and forget about it unless they already intend to make another purchase.

But give them a gift card, and they will drop what they're doing and come back to your site and look for something to spend it on.

 

Customer retention is a wide concept wherein large organisations invest alot and have specialised departments for that reason. Though the crux of this is 'Customer Satisfaction', if you are able to keep a customer happy, there are chances that s/he would return and may pass a positive word about your store to others.
So, if you build your strategy around this, I'm sure you'd be able to fetch good success for yourself.

 

We've just installed Sweet Tooth Extension on one of our client's websites (running Magento). Basically it is loyalty program and users get points that they can use later on the website. They receive points for sharing, liking, tweeting, inviting a friend, writing a review etc. It's fun and sometimes can be very addictive.

 

Websites like EBay and Amazon have a huge fan following and loyal client base, which is why competing with them will require you to match their service quality. The thing that they do is no rocket science. Ecommerce is all about shopping at your doorsteps, so, try to make shopping for your clients as simple and pleasant as possible. Empathize with them!
If you are dealing in any specific services then, work on how a client views your services online. The answer to this will assist you with your query.

 

Find attached my thoughts

 

Recommend to check social shopping site - Shopcade. I can't say that it is perfectly implemented, but it works.

 

The best way to keep them coming is being in touch via Social networking site. Today every business should hold a facebook page to be in touch with clients or interested potential clients so that you can keep posting on your wall and they be in touch. This really works well for any size of stores. Even big companies are using this methods nowadays.

 

Absolutely, many online businesses fail to understand and think from a customers perspective. For a company a product that they offer might be the best, but it's more important that the consumers feel that way too. It's only then it'd be appropriate to term one of the products to be the best.

 

If you content is good and fresh, you need to discover why are they not coming back. It may be for a navigation problem or a trust issue. It can be solved with customer care. Check this whitepaper for info about customer care online: http://www.callmanagement.ie/landing/whitepaperecommerce/

 

I have a few customers that keep coming back to my online shop. At first, these people would negotiate if they could get a better price when they buy more. When this happens, try to be more flexible! One of these customers actually shop at my store more often than others, and he always buys a lot when he comes. There was one time that both of us miscalculated the price, and he found out later. I apologized and gave him a free product to show my sincerity. This type of customer is the one that you want to keep, and you won't know who is the one!

 

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Your ecommerce software should be able to show your customer database. Then you can view things like your best customers, order history etc. ​

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marketing your products to your customer database is easy - email marketing!​

I agree with you. To develop the successful retention marketing for your email marketing platform, you'll need to evaluate your in-house data, available industry data, and even potentially customer service data. Then you'll need to map out a plan and test a variety of offers, messages, and techniques to incentivize customers to continue, resume, or come back to purchasing with you. This article share detailed information about how to do retention program via email marketing. http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-ebook/win-back-customers.aspx