Introduction
As an ecommerce platform holder, you must have heard this golden line repeatedly as much as possible. “It’s cheaper and easier to retain an existing customer instead of generating a new one” this golden rule is applicable in any format of marketing either in the traditional one or for the trending digital marketing. This rule highly works in ecommerce business where every single click will reflect the conversion of a customer and determines their value.
It is agreed that ecommerce is a huge platform which is capable of pulling all set of customers irrespective of their demographic profile but, nothing gets valued like making the current or existing customer to get re-engaged. Just think of the last time you tried retaining your current customers and if you have not involved in this process frequently then it’s an alarming situation for you to wake up. iStudio Technologies is the best ecommerce web development in Chennai, which helps you in creating a customer-centric ecommerce website.
All About Customer Retention
Customer retention is all about following possible and effective business tactics in retaining potential customers of your store. Customer retention is giving and takes policies where you deliver values to the potential customers and they in return give you frequent business and uplift your sales. Through customer retention, you can increase your customer numbers and also gain more profit.
Customer retention is the only ultimate result which can justify your hard work done in acquiring them. Customer retention will help ecommerce stores in their long run and the strategy to implement it purely based on your store nature. iStudio Technologies is the best ecommerce web design and development company in Chennai, which highly engages customers visiting your ecommerce store.
Right Time To Do Customer Retention
It is very easy to determine the right time to carry out your customer retention process and, it is highly based on the lifecycle of your store. For example, if you are just a starter all you need to do is to focus completely on customer acquisition.
The same goes on with every stage of your store lifecycle, and you will be completely involved in customer retention process once you have achieved the landmark of hitting more than 10 sales per day. Apart from the store lifecycle you also need to focus on the products you sell and frame strategies accordingly. iStudio Technologies as an ecommerce website development company in Chennaialways provides the best service which keeps your customers highly engaging.
Fixing Retention Process Into Your Business
Customer retention strategy is purely based on your product category and the nature of your business; you need to follow different strategies for a different product category. Stores with high-value products get involved in more number of sales will be having the highest Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) which is achieved through Solid retention strategy.
Customer Retention Metrics
There are certain metrics which needs to be followed as standards for evaluating the customer retention for your ecommerce site. It involves few calculations which will determine the efficiency of your customer retention process and the ways to improve further for your ecommerce store.
1. Repeat Customer Rate
Determining the repeat customer rate will help you in finding the efficiency of your retention marketing strategy followed for an ecommerce store. Repeat customer rate is all about getting the number of customers willing to make a second purchase from your store.
Calculation Method:
2. Calculating Purchase Frequency
Purchase frequency is calculated similarly to that of repeat purchase rate where the same time frame is used, and it is divided by unique customers.
Calculation Method:
3. Average Order Value
As the name suggests it indicates the average of the amount spent by each customer during their purchase, once you are clear with repeat customer rate, and purchase frequency you can move on with average order value.
Calculation Method:
Customer Value- The Biggie
Retention marketing or any other marketing activities and promotional strategies are all intended to expand the customer base and also to increase their values. Customer value is the crucial deciding factor which shows you the worthiness of each customer this customer value can also be evaluated by applying simple formulae.
Purchase Frequency*Average Order Value
As an ecommerce web development company in Chennai, iStudio Technologies value every single customer and provides ecommerce services that will help in enriching your customer values as well.
Key Strategies To Improve Your Customer Retention
Similar to customer acquisition, retaining them is also equally important. Hence it is highly necessary to frame and follow strategies to retain your customers. Here I have listed few strategies to be followed in retaining your ecommerce customers which will work efficiently at any point in time.
1. Dual Shade Of Your Customer’s Account
The customer account can be highly beneficial and also be a hurdle which highly dependence upon the customer type i.e. if it is handled by an existing customer then it makes their work much easier in terms of pre-filling the shipping details. On the other hand, it becomes a tedious process for new customers to fill in their complete details. Due to this majority of the customer leave an ecommerce store as a visitor, the perfect solution to overcome this issue is to enable the account creating option post the first purchase from your site.
2. Customer Support System
The role of customer support system or help desk is unmatchable and plays a very important part in supporting the ecommerce store. Either it is a giant store like Amazon or a new starter having a customer support system really gives you a great niche. A valuable and effective customer support system will be helpful both in pre as well as post sales of your store.
Assistive customer support system can easily turn out a query into a sales lead and also a conflicting buyer issue into a resolution so; either way, having a customer support system is highly beneficial and helps in retaining as well as generating new customers. Customer delight is another notable approach to retaining your customers, even sending an e-mail of thank you note will induce customers to visit again for purchase.
3. Start Loyalty Programs
Starting loyalty programs are very much necessary to elevate the customer retention process to the next level where it highly motivates a customer to increase their purchase rate. Providing reward points is a simple and effective approach to generating more number of repeat customers, you can also set reward points limit according to their categorical purchase which will highlight the value of each customer. Automated loyalty apps can highly support you in providing the loyalty points for your customers based on their store activities.
4. Retention Through E-Mail
Retaining a customer through sending e-mails is one of the best and effective methods ever compared to other approaches. Even the lead generation for any ecommerce store shows that a maximum number of customer inflows is made through e-mail marketing and it can also be effective for customer retention.
Initially send the customer a thank you mail post their first purchase and this should take place exactly after a week of their purchase, and then do a regular follow up in order to build a strong pipeline. Post sending the initial mail start sending them some exclusive emails related to their product purchase. This can also be based on their product view history which stimulates them to visit you again.
5. Discounts And Freebies
Discounting needs to be carried out in a highly calculated way where your customer expects a dropped price over the product which you offer them. Sending e-mails and notifications regarding exclusive product related to customers previous purchase history and product preferences will be highly helpful in pulling the customers towards your site.
End Note
Keeping a strong customer base and maintaining them in a proper way is always a boon for any ecommerce store because these customers value your services and have already got well established with you as a brand. Keeping their pace on is always superior and greater when compared with generating fresh customers.
We are a highly innovative team in creating the most admiring and effective ecommerce websites. We at iStudio Technologies have always provided great value to our clients in servicing some fantabulous ecommerce websites. iStudio technologies are known for providing best ecommerce web development in Chennai.
