5 eCommerce Customer Retention Strategies

Today, you cannot play smart with your customers. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Safari, and a lot more such applications and search engines have become a sea of knowledge with an abyss for the customers that have extended the knowledge bank of these customers. When a customer comes to you:

He would have a thorough research about your SaaS product or services
He would have got referrals
He would have read reviews about your services

After all this, he would have decided to choose your business to at least try. Even after this process of research, customers are not satisfied. They remain skeptical. If customers are to be retained, you have to win their trust.

In the eCommerce business market, many retailers and wholesalers offer the same subscription plans, boxed subscriptions, and gift subscription options. And you have to hunt customers in this jungle that is already so crowded with hunters equipped with almost the same hunting skills and tools.

So, what to do? What needs to be your eCommerce customer retention strategy?

Team SubscriptionFlow is here just like a genie out of the bottle with a solution for your worries regarding customer churn.

Also Read: Lessons to Learn from Churned Customers for Improved Customer Retention

1. Loyalty Reward Program

So, here is the first strategy that you need to opt for customer retention in eCommerce business market—a loyalty reward program. Onboard your marketing and sales teams. Plan and discuss with them the strategy to offer perks to the customers who are associated with your business for a long time. The purpose of the loyalty program is to encourage the customers to continue shopping with your eCommerce platform.

Sometimes, customers purchase subscriptions for a year. With time, the usability of the software for the customer decreases. And if your competitors offer something luring enough at this time, the chances are high that the customer will leave.

You should not let customers reach that level. Plan a loyalty program to communicate with these loyal customers. When you offer loyalty programs, the emotions of customers attach to them. Here, you can build your emotional loyalty program to retain customers.

You can offer your eCommerce loyal customers promotions, promo codes, discounts etc. as a reward. Loyalty is a rare trait, especially in the customers so, you should award loyal customers. It will not only benefit your customers but your business as well by improving the customer retention rate.

2. Emotional Loyalty Building

Do you remember the scent of the shampoo that you used in your childhood? Do you want to taste the chocolates that you used to enjoy with friends in your teenage? Yes, right! These things make all of us feel nostalgic. And what if you are offered such things in the form of a subscription box?

It will be irresistible!

That’s where the eCommerce businesses have the margin to build their customer retention eCommerce strategy around the emotional loyalty of the customer. But first, of course, you need the emotions of the customers attached to your eCommerce products.

For instance, many eCommerce platforms used clever marketing tactics to attract customers during pandemic outspread. They offered sanitizers and masks to their customers when the world was facing a shortage of these personal care supplies. Today, when the episode of COVID-19 is ending, these customers of such businesses are still emotionally attached to them for they were helped in the tough times.

That’s how you build the loyalty and emotions of customers around your eCommerce platform.

Also Read: How to Control High Customer Churn with SaaS Customer Retention Management – RetentionFlow App

3. No Competition with the Big Fish

“Think big, plan bigger, and achieve the biggest.”

That sounds motivating but only theoretically. When it comes to the practical world, here is a tip for all eCommerce startups and entrepreneurs. You should think big but plan for the near future, target the local market first and compete with small retailers in the market. Your target should be to beat all local retailers who offer the same subscriptions for services or products.

If you have just entered the market and you consider Alibaba and eBay your competitors, then your approach is not right. Competing with the big fish is not wrong, but sometimes this approach makes you neglect the small business opportunities that you have on your way.

So, it is better to start with the baby steps and feel accomplished and appreciate the efforts of your team. Do not pressurize your teams to perform better and increase productivity because your target is to replace the market leader. That only happens in fictional movies. Life is beyond these fictions. And here, you need to have small plans to achieve big things so that you may not let even a single opportunity slip from your hands.

4. Consideration for Customers Outside the Buying Cycle

Customer retention in eCommerce market is not easy, and we all know this. But the strategies we are discussing here can bring huge benefits. So, here is another strategy that needs to be part of your plan when you are working on customer retention. If you are among those retailers who offer perks only for loyal customers, then your approach is wrong.

You need to consider even those subscribers who make a one-time purchase or those who have less customer lifetime value (CLV). You need to turn such customers into loyal customers.

And to do that you should incentivize these customers as well. You can divide the perks that you offer to customers so as to retain them. Those who are loyal and associated with your business for many years will get more discounts than new customers. That’s how you will be able to maintain the balance between different tiers of your customers.

5. Personalized Emails

When it comes to customer retention and customer satisfaction, you need to communicate with customers. And you need to be good at communicating with the customer. So, if you are afraid of the eCommerce customers who are leaving your platform, then personalized emails, messages, and notifications can help you.

You need to make your customers feel special, important, and the centre of your attention. Email marketing and personalized emails are also part of calendar billing. When you bill customers, you need follow up emails. Personalized emails can convince leaving customers to come back. Include personalized emails in your billing calendar and retain your customer base.

Also Read: Important SaaS Customer Retention Metrics for Subscription Businesses

In Conclusion

It is important to understand that attracting, converting, and retaining customers are the most important phases of the customer lifecycle. However, we are living in an age where tactics to lure customers might help in customer onboarding, but they cannot be of any help when it comes to eCommerce customer retention. Customers are smart enough to do a cost-benefit analysis. They know what you provide, and they have their reasons to not choose your competitor in the eCommerce subscription business market.

So, consider the strategies that we have discussed and SubscriptionFlow is the platform where you can implement your retention strategies because we also offer to monitor customer retention metrics eCommerce.