Customer acquisition – the fundamental element for all businesses to operate, for undeniably, there can be no business without customers. Companies go to great extents to grow sales and increase revenues. Sales executives are given targets to reach to bring in new customers. Nevertheless, most companies fail to understand that retaining your existing customers is as crucial as gaining new ones. A recent study shows that having repeat customers will help increase your ROI in the long run.
A successful E-commerce company will have a good mix of new and existing customers. In the E-commerce world, where there is so much competition, if a customer is unhappy with your website they can immediately turn to a million others in a heartbeat. Keeping a customer happy sounds like an easy job but is the hardest part of the game – unless you think like a customer.
Why should you focus on retaining your customers?
Firstly (and most importantly), because keeping your existing customers is way cheaper than acquiring new ones! According to a recent study, it costs about six to seven times more to gain new customers than retain existing customers. For example, you won’t need to provide your existing customers with so many discounts as you would to attract new customers.
Secondly, repeat customers spend much more than new customers. According to a study by Bain & Company, a customer who has been shopping at a store for more than 30 months is likely to pay 67% more per order. And that’s huge!
Thirdly, when you have repeat customers, it definitely means that you have kept them happy. Either your product was outstandingly amazing or the customer experience was superlative. Or it could be both. In any case, a happy customer will always have good things to say about your product and e-store. The more they spread the word, the more organically generated customers you get!
What can you do to retain your customers?
About 68% of your customers will leave you if they feel that you don’t care about them. To provide the best possible customer experience, you need to think like a customer. What else would you need to re-engage your customers?
A UX that is as amazing as your CX
When you provide your customers with a compelling UX and a great CX, you can expect them to keep coming back to shop at your E-commerce website. While UX (User Experience) is the first step towards impressing a user and focuses primarily on the experience with a product (website, App etc.), CX (Customer experience) encompasses a much larger scope of channels (Advertising, Customer Service, Sales process, Product delivery, etc.).
For a good User Experience Design you need to-
- Ensure your website/app is real fast and you’re not making the customers wait.
- Have an easy navigation throughout your website/app.
- Avoid cluttering your website with too much content. Less is more works well here.
- Have a Responsive website to cope up with the mobile world.
- Provide an easy, simple and hassle-free check-out process.
For a good Customer Experience you need to –
- Allow your customers to review products and services.
- Reward your customers by implementing a loyalty program.
- Keep in touch always by sending regular useful Newsletter emails.
- Send out Thank you notes or gifts or discounts to your most loyal and repeat customers.
- Build and cultivate your relationship with your customers on social media by reaching out to them or posting regular updates.
- Be available to solve their issues all the time. Offering Live Chat is a welcome bonus.
- Try to offer free shipping. Include convenience fees and taxes as soon as they add the product to their shopping cart. Don’t surprise them at the end.
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