Customer attraction, retention, and customer care strategies for your e-commerce business.

Every business thrives on its customers. To run a successful business you need happy customers. From tiny fluctuations to seismic shifts in demand, understanding what matters to people, creating meaningful messages at scale, bringing them on board, and then retaining them as long-term members have always been critical business challenges. In today’s e-commerce world, businesses have to focus on customer attraction and retention at every step. In this article, Team Luxeveda explains this journey by breaking it down into customer attraction, retention, and care.

This article will cover strategies of a “Customer journey plan” by answering 3 main questions:

Why do I have to consider customer Attraction?
What is an E-commerce Customer Retention Strategy?
How does Customer Care work?

Why do I have to consider customer Attraction?

Big Commerce notes that 43% of e-commerce sales are generated from existing customers and the rest comes from new ones. Just like brick-and-mortar stores, online stores also need to work on attracting customers. With the online space crowded with competitors of forms, shapes, and sizes how can your business stand out?

#1 Search Visibility

Whether it’s an online presence, social media accounts or store signage, it is essential that you’re easily found on search engines. The right SEO strategy will attract new customers, by making you visible in front of the right audience. This means more traffic, more conversions, and eventually, increased revenue.

An SEO strategist does this by conducting regular SEO audits on your webpage, creating optimised landing pages using a combination of short and long-tail keywords, and reducing a major load of your online business’ struggle of being seen online.

#2 Email Marketing

Email marketing is a cheap and effective solution for customer attraction and retention. Sending emails about new products, promos or a few styling tips or solutions your product brings is a great way to grab your customer’s attention. ‘Daily Look’ an online premium styling brand sends a weekly personalised newsletter on ‘Different ways to style their products’. Even users who are not customers subscribe to the newsletter to take styling tips. This strategy has helped them build a global community, one that is not just limited to the customers. It plays a huge role in the customer retention process as well.

#3 Quality images and Product Description

Product descriptions and images are the crux of an E-commerce store. A well-described product and a high-quality image give the buyer an opportunity to visualise the product. A power previously reserved for brick-mortar buyers. When customers can know how the product/service adds value they are most likely to make a purchase and even come back the next time promoting e-commerce customer retention.

What is an E-commerce Customer Retention Strategy?

Often businesses start with the uphill struggle of getting customers to make their first purchase and then shift their focus to acquiring new customers. They end up neglecting the customer journey and lose focus on the customer retention phase of the journey. According to the Harvard Business School, by deploying e-commerce retention strategies, customer retention rates can be increased by 5% and profits by 25-95%. Following are some of the strategies that your online business can implement to improve customer retention. We have listed the 2 most important ones we believe are crucial.

#1 Integrate attractive, engaging customer loyalty programs

Call it old-fashioned but it is an effective way to maintain your customers. Incentivising customers for purchases or to stick around will boost brand reputation. It makes your customers feel valued. A well-planned unique loyalty program can do wonders for your online business. It will play a crucial part in influencing the buyer’s behavior. You can implement engaging loyalty programs by understanding your customers’ shopping habits, including something new and in trend every now and then or including personalised items based on past purchases. Use loyalty programs to show your users that your brand values them. Customers who feel included in your business journey are the ones that stay.

#2 Web design and experience

Website design is another promising strategy for customer retention. When a customer visits your website you have less than 4 seconds to impress them. Your website design can make or break your first impressions especially when you are looking at retaining your customers. For a more detailed understanding of how to make the best of your e-commerce website design and experience read our article on “Importance of Design for an E-commerce website”

How does Customer Care work?

Customer care, or in other words, customer support is essential for businesses in all industries, and that’s particularly true of those in e-commerce. The support you offer your customers can make all the difference in an e-commerce business. Several issues can arise when your customers shop online. For example, the website freezes, the item they’re looking for is no longer in stock, the promo code they’re using isn’t applying their discount, etc. Since the customer’s entire purchasing journey can take place online e-commerce businesses have to put a little more strategy into interacting with shoppers. It can be overwhelming and tough to know where to begin. That’s why we’ve listed a few tips to help you get started.

Provide omnichannel customer support options
Offer quick responses
Tailor your approach by personalising the response
Ask for feedback
Damage control when customer service is lacking

For a sustainable and successful online business, you have to focus more on finding new ways to improve all aspects of your business. It is how you keep your customers happy, make sure they’re satisfied with their purchases, and encourage them to continue shopping with your brand that will determine the future of your online business. Invest time and effort in setting your company apart. For complete support in setting up your e-commerce business contact us. Our e-commerce solutions will take your business to the next level.