How to Retain Online Shoppers

It’s exciting to watch customers learn what you have to offer when you launch your eCommerce store. As they browse your inventory and buy your products, it’s easy to feel a sense of accomplishment. However, as wonderful as it is when new customers find your site, keeping the old ones coming back for more is key to ensuring the longevity of your business.

To accomplish this, you need to give them a reason to buy from you again. With so many new eCommerce websites launching every day, offering great products may not always be enough. Yes, fielding terrific stock is important, but knowing how to retain online shoppers will ensure they choose you over the competition every single time.

Customer Retention

First off, what is an eCommerce website? According to Shopify, a popular eCommerce platform provider, eCommerce is the sale of goods in exchange for digital dollars over the world wide web. Because the Internet is so large, many e-sellers believe there is an infinite expanse of potential customers.

Funny enough, many eCommerce websites that find success with retaining customers do so by offering their shoppers a sense of temporary status. That’s a bit counter intuitive, but it is true. Offering a guest checkout option has been proven to help boost conversion rates, and even bring back customers.

Why do customers enjoy the ability to bypass creating an account?

Everyone has their reasons, but a main influencer is the lack of intrusion. If prompted to create an account, some customers can feel they might be bombarded with emails, promotions and other materials they probably get enough of already.

If a customer is not interested in these things, offering them a way to shop while still allowing them to avoid these marketing tactics allows them to feel autonomous. This entices them to spend more money and return frequently.

On the other side of the coin, some shoppers love the idea of being kept in the loop. If you run sales, add new products, and even just promote what you have to offer, some customers love hearing about it. This helps them keep you in mind when they shop.

For that reason, a strong email marketing campaign can go a long way.

If you have a customer who subscribes to your email list, you can assume they are interested in your products. Impressing them with great copy writing, flashy visuals and concise marketing pitches can influence them to click-through to your site and shop some more.

If they don’t want this, they won’t choose to subscribe.

Crafting  a strong brand also leads to robust sales. The easiest way to boost your brand is to create a catchy insert to add to your packaging. If branded packaging seems too expensive for your operation at the moment, come up with other ways to catch the customer’s attention when they open your shipments.

Perhaps you have a friend who could do a small series of artwork inserts. Have them do a larger piece that can be cut up into smaller parts that still make sense when viewed. Launch a social media campaign to challenge your customers to collect all of the pieces to create the larger piece of art. Offer a discount code or a free gift to the first 10 winners.

Or, it can be a simple as adding a note of thanks, along with a declaration of your mission statement to help your shoppers connect with you. In the end, it’s all about building a relationship with your customer base to ensure that they look to your store as a source of enjoyment

Grow with the Flow

Building a new flow of customers is tough but keeping them is tougher. In order to retain customers in the online space, it’s important to stand out in a unique and original way. Whether that’s a creative email marketing campaign or some fun packaging add-ons, there are no wrong ways to promote return sales. This is particularly true when you have the customers’ best experience in mind.