The holiday shopping season is still several months away, but marketing teams, e-commerce owners, and customer experience (CX) specialists are already preparing for the surge of consumer activity.
Unsurprisingly, cultivating customer loyalty is at the top of their to-do lists.
In the first quarter, orders from repeat buyers increased by 5 percent in the first quarter. Additionally, Salesforce expects more than one-third of online holiday shopping orders from repeat buyers this year.
That’s why even the smallest amount of increased customer loyalty can impact conversion rates, sales rates, and bottom-line results. Post-purchase customer experience, the critical moments after completing a purchase when a buyer decides if they will return, is central to those efforts.
Here’s how retailers can improve post-purchase consumer experiences to drive revenue this holiday shopping season.
Tip 1: Enable Real-Time Order Tracking
Customers can be wary of shopping online, worried that their packages won’t reach the right location at the right time. This is especially true during the holidays when buyers have a can’t-miss deadline for package arrival.
In response, up to 96 percent of consumers track their order status and nearly 60 percent claim that real-time tracking significantly impacts their loyalty to a brand.
Real-time shipment tracking alleviates customer apprehension by instilling trust in the delivery process, which is crucial for customer contentment. Without it, visibility into an item’s location at any moment would be nonexistent, and customer satisfaction (and loyalty) would plummet.
At the same time, brands must have clear, easy, and reasonable return policies that complement their shipping efficacy, further alleviating customer online shopping concerns.
78 percent of shoppers will abandon their cart if free returns are unavailable at checkout. Similarly, Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) is increasingly important for shoppers who expect a compelling omnichannel shopping experience.
A brand’s ability to deliver a convenient experience on buyers’ terms is best positioned to bolster customer loyalty. Real-time order tracking is the beginning, and helpful add-ons, like easy returns and multiple pick-up options, begin that process.
Tip 2: Personalize Follow-ups and Engagement
Post-purchase automation can offer personalized follow-ups to customers that express gratitude, request feedback, and provide assistance or discounts.
This fosters customer engagement and can stimulate repeat business.
As online stores scale up their operations during peak shopping seasons, email automation becomes crucial in managing customer communication.
Automated emails can confirm orders, provide tracking information, offer discounts, and suggest targeted product bundles.
What’s more, novel generative AI solutions enable brands to make these communications more personalized and impactful than ever before.
This holiday season, consider adopting a practice that leverages customer data to enhance and personalize shopping experiences that create customer loyalty.
Tip 3: Launch or Enhance Impactful Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are tied to discounts and special offers for regular customers. These programs are facilitated in several ways, including:
- Tracking page upsells. Upsells could be adjusted, and best deals can be amended with additional discounts or secret offers for loyal consumers. This represents unique opportunities for shoppers and increases the average order value for the store.
- Automated flows. A notifications system can offer a level of personalization that targets consumers with relevant offers, upsells, and add-ons to goods they purchased.
Implementing loyalty programs and incentives for repeat customers can boost revenue. Customers who feel appreciated and rewarded are more likely to make additional purchases.
Customers are increasing their participation in loyalty programs, considering them important ways to engage with their favorite brands. These initiatives resonate with customers because they provide a sense of reward and acknowledgment for their continuous patronage.
Loyalty programs manifest this acknowledgment, often providing tangible benefits such as discounts, early access to new products, or exclusive deals. They foster a sense of belonging and personalization, allowing customers to feel part of a privileged group.
Tip 4: Account for Cart Abandonment
Customers come and go, but online, they can leave in droves.
The current cart abandonment rate for e-commerce platforms is up to a staggering 77 percent.
However, not every customer that leaves is lost, and enabling customers who return to pick up where they left off is a powerful way to reclaim sales opportunities.
Automation can be used to encourage the completion of purchases from customers who’ve abandoned their carts. Such strategies can recover potential lost revenue.
Critically, cart abandonment is more often a sign of an obstacle that’s easy to overcome than losing a customer for good. For example, common reasons customers don’t complete a purchase include:
- An overly complex buying process
- Unexpected additional taxes or heightened costs
- Long delivery times
- Unsupported payment gateways
- Out-of-stock items
- Missing variations
These are inconveniences, not deal breakers.
In many cases, additional nurturing via email reminders or text (SMS) can recover a purchase as soon as an identifier, like an email address, is received. To achieve this, retailers can offer special discounts, free shipping, product stock updates, enticing bundles, or split payments as incentives to re-engage visitors in the shopping process.
Rush: Bolstering Revenue with Enhanced Customer Experiences
A strategic and well-implemented approach to post-purchase automation can substantially enhance the customer experience, foster loyalty, and drive increased revenue for online businesses.
By enabling real-time order tracking, personalizing customer engagement, launching impactful loyalty programs, and accounting for cart abandonment, brands can ensure a seamless, personalized, and satisfying shopping experience.
Brands that achieve these priorities can expect to elevate loyalty, retention, and sales.
For instance, Primal Harvest, a health and wellness retailer, elevated its customer loyalty initiatives to produce $166,000 in revenue annually with a 2,075 percent ROI in annual revenue, underscoring the connection between customer loyalty and sales outcomes.
First, the retailer deployed an innovative technique of presenting good-looking, native-related products on the order tracking page. This proved to be an effective way to grab customer attention as 39 percent of all customers were found to track the status of their orders daily, resulting in 4 to 15-page lookups during the shopping journey.
Consequently, this served as an avenue to expose these customers to more products, with the added incentives of coupons, discounts, and the attraction of new stock. This targeted approach is much more effective than blanket advertisements, as it seizes the opportunity presented by an engaged and already invested customer, fostering increased sales and customer loyalty.
Additionally, the company deployed personalized, segmented communications, addressing customers’ individual interests and past purchasing behavior to make each customer feel valued and understood.
As the retail landscape becomes more digital and competitive for all brands, these strategies can provide the much-needed edge to succeed in a demanding market. Embracing these tips and tricks before the holiday season can significantly boost performance and revenue growth.
