How to build customer loyalty for your online store

Why invest in strategies for building customer loyalty? The answer is simple: because it’s more profitable and economical than acquiring new customers.

If you want to ensure the longevity and growth of your online store, it’s time to learn how to retain customers.

5 strategies for building customer loyalty in e-commerce

If your online store is successful, then one thing is certain: you have many satisfied customers. Happy customers = successful business.

And when we talk about satisfied customers, we’re referring to those who return to your store every time they make a purchase. In other words, they are loyal to your brand.

What many e-commerce owners fail to do is invest in building customer loyalty.

According to Harvard Business School, by increasing your customer retention rate by 5%, your online store can experience a profit increase of 25 to 95%.

This happens because existing customers spend on average 67% more than new customers. 

And ironically, it’s cheaper and easier to convince someone to keep buying from you than to convince them to start.

That’s precisely why customer lifetime value is a fundamental metric for measuring your business success.

Most online stores strive to get users to make their first purchase on the site, and as soon as they achieve this goal, they immediately move on to acquiring new customers.

In doing so, companies neglect the customer journey and they forget to worry about making their current customers happy.

This leads to an eventual drop in customer retention rates and causes retailers to face the following question: while acquisition strategies are necessary for the sustainability of the business in the online market, how to satisfy new customers when existing ones are unhappy?

To answer this question, we’ve listed five strategies on how to build customer loyalty and increase your e-commerce sales.

1. Create loyalty programs

It may seem like old news, but loyalty programs are still one of the most effective ways to retain customers.

According to Matilda Dorotic, PhD, associate professor in the Marketing Department at BI Norwegian Business School, a loyalty program is a ““An ongoing incentive program offered by a retailer to reward customers and encourage repeat business.”

Loyalty programs offer exclusive benefits to their members, such as discount coupons, redeemable points, rewards, and special offers.

The results of this loyalty strategy have surprised and benefited many companies.

This type of action makes the consumer who frequents the store feel valued, which increases their satisfaction with the brand.

Here are some simple steps to implement attractive loyalty programs that can work for your business:

• Study your customers’ buying habits: For effective action, it is necessary to know your target audience well, their preferences and desires.

• Choose your rewards: After profiling your customer, it becomes easier to discover what types of products/services interest them most.

• Analyze your expenses: Conduct a financial analysis to determine what your store is capable of offering and what it is not.

• Determine how it will work: There are several ways to organize a loyalty program, such as magnetic point cards and mobile apps. Define the technology that best suits your store.

• Implement new options: To maintain customer interest, be sure to offer something new at regular intervals.

• Measure results: Whether through sales charts, program enrollment, or simple satisfaction surveys, monitor the results and effectiveness of this action to build customer loyalty. This is essential to improve your strategy and increase your return on sales.

– How to offer a customer loyalty program in e-commerce

2. Send emails focused on retention

The best way to get inside your customer’s mind is through their inbox.

Email marketing is a fundamental tool for retaining or acquiring new customers.

Emails aimed at retaining and building customer loyalty focus on addressing specific user needs and proposing solutions based on their interests.

This type of strategy yields excellent results because it focuses on offering something the consumer wants, which, in addition to sparking the desire to buy, makes them feel more connected to the brand.

To put this plan into action, first you need to build an email list of potential customers and leads.

Then, when creating content, remember the 3 golden rules:

• Attract
• Involve
• Accompany

With these rules in mind, the following categories of retention emails are considered the most effective:

• Activation: Invite and help users get started using your website.
• Transition: Offer attractive solutions and deals.
• Education: Talk about your products, including new offers.
• Notification: Remind them about products that are waiting in their shopping cart.
• Acknowledgement: Send a thank you note for shopping with you.

TIP: Segment your email list and create a sales funnel to know what type of email to send to each client.

– How to use email marketing to sell more

3. Offer customer support

Providing exceptional customer service and support is an art that, when done well, can significantly improve both customer acquisition and retention.

This indispensable service aims to listen to the consumer and provide the necessary assistance during and after the purchase.

Nowadays, many people judge stores and brands based on how the company interacts with and responds to a given situation. And most of the time, poor customer service is a definitive reason to never return and generate negative reviews.

According to a Kissmetrics report companies lose 71% of their customers due to poor customer service.

The best way to serve online shoppers is to provide multiple customer service channels such as:

• Centralized help desk
• E-mail
• Chat online
• Social media
• WhatsApp

All of these contact options should be clearly displayed on your website’s main page.

– Tips to improve customer service in your online store

4. Optimize your online store

When users visit your website, you have less than 4 seconds to impress them. 

These few seconds are critical because during that time you can either lose or gain a potential customer.

There are two aspects of an e-commerce business that should be optimized to attract and retain customers:

Web design

• pleasant and well-organized layout
• dynamic content

User experience

• website loading speed
• easy navigation
• few processes
• quick checkout
• responsive website

Every online store should have an attractive and user-friendly design for all types of users.

And remember to pay attention to the images and descriptions of the products. Nothing is worse than having an order returned because it didn’t match what was shown on the website. 

This generates negative reviews that can have repercussions and cause significant damage to your store.

– SEO for e-commerce: how to optimize product descriptions in your online store

5. Implement continuous improvement strategies

Unless you try new things, you’ll never know what works or doesn’t work for your e-commerce business.

Continuous improvement strategies are fundamental to ensure the sustainability of your business and maintain consumer interest.

It’s a long-term goal that you can achieve through continuous analysis of the various aspects of your store’s operation, observing and implementing improvements, regardless of how trivial they may seem.

Ultimately, consumer behavior is constantly evolving and changing, so your customer loyalty strategy can’t be rigid and must allow for adjustments to remain effective.

It is important to analyze and monitor the market situation, competition, and consumer behavior.

When you are constantly looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction, your business becomes successful in retaining and building customer loyalty in the long term.

By implementing these strategies, you gain happy customers and, according to Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, “If you take care of the customers you already have, they will take care of your new customers.”

Offering excellent delivery service helps build customer loyalty

The e-commerce industry is growing rapidly and intelligently.

In order to remain competitive in this market, many companies end up investing heavily in acquiring new customers.

Although it is an important marketing strategy, it is easy to notice a decline in the growth rate when existing customers are ignored.

Discover why customers who have already bought from you aren’t coming back, and you’ll be surprised to learn how easy it is to change that with the tips above.

And remember, some of the factors that generate the most criticism from online store consumers are shipping costs, long delivery times, delivery delays, and damaged products.

For this reason, a successful e-commerce business must have a great delivery team.

Focused on ecommerce and express delivery, the app Delivery365 is a complete solution for your business.

Among the advantages that the app offers are:

• Own online freight quotation system;
• Tracking code;
• Ways to receive payment online;
• Base of hundreds of registered delivery people.

– How to calculate shipping for e-commerce

All this to ensure the viability and perfect functioning of your e-commerce and online sales.

Visit our website, get to know our services, and offer the best delivery solution for your customer.