Launching an online business is easier, but building a trustworthy relationship with your customers to make them returning customers, is a much more difficult task. Even though you might have earned a good reputation in the online market and have a good lot of loyal customers who keep coming back, you need to keep the efforts going. Keeping in view the severe competition in the online market, you can’t afford to take your returning customers for granted. No matter how much loyal they are, they are customers at the end of the day and wherever they get good deals, they move there. Therefore, it’s imperative to keep your returning customer happy. One assured way of doing that is by rewarding your selective customers who keep coming back to your site. To help you out with this, we have come up with seven ways to reward repeat customers on your ecommerce site.
Create point-based loyalty programs
It might be an old method, but this strategy definitely works for ecommerce businesses. As customers don’t have to be physically present at the store to redeem them, the rewarding system is much more successful for online stores. However, you should keep it clear and transparent. For example, give your customer a point for every dollar they spend. And when the customer is able to collect certain points, allow them to redeem those points. A good points system encourages loyalty and you will surely see your customers shopping more often from your site to collect more points.
Offer promotional gifts to loyal customers
There should be something that is exclusively for your loyal customers. Integrate gift options to your ecommerce site and offer promotional products to exclusive customers whose shopping cart value crosses a predefined price slab. If your store is built on Magento you can achieve this by using an extension like Gift Promotions on Cart Total. You can define this slab as an admin to whatever amount that suits you. You can either display the products on the cart page or directly on the checkout page. When shoppers will get free gifts on high purchases, you will definitely see your customers coming back more often and the average shopping value for those customers will also go up.
Offer special discounts on your customers’ special days
Remembering your customer’s special days like birthdays and anniversaries help you maintain a hale and hearty relationship with the customer. Yes, many stores already do that and send messages to wish them. But does those messages means to the customer amidst all those well wishers who message them on their special day? Offer something that makes a difference. Provide birthday discounts or let them know that a gift awaits them at the checkout. Personalize your greetings and don’t make them sound like a marketing gimmick. You can also make this task easier by automating the process with a CRM system.
Promote Referral discounts
Now this is something which isn’t exclusive for your customers but still helps. To be clearer, referral discounts rewards your customers and moreover rewards your business as well. So, you not only get your customer back but also a few others in their friend’s circle. You can provide discounts to customers referring others to your site. If their referred person converts, they get a discount, or a free gift as a ‘Thank You’.
Make personal connections
Making personal connections do matter. The reason why people had been loyal to their favorite shops all these years had been the personal interaction they had with the shopkeepers. In an online store, lack of direct communication might be a disadvantage, but you can always take that extra step. Social media can work as a medium. Reply to your customer queries and respond back to their comments. They will have a sense of personal communication. You can also send hand written letter of appreciation to some of your selective customers who repeatedly order items from your store. Nothing says better ‘you matter to us’ like a handwritten letter, in this age of technology.
Some extra perks
Since your loyal customers are keeping your business alive, they deserve some extra perks in return. It doesn’t have to be something expensive on your part but little things like free access to special content or give them first access to your new products. You can also keep them in priority to sell new products when they are limited in stock. It makes your customers feel special and happy.
Feature their testimonials
All your rewards don’t have to be monetary. You can reward your loyal customers by letting them know that their opinion matters. Collect testimonials from your returning customers and feature them on your site and Facebook pages. It does give them a proud moment and they look forward to shop more and more from your store. Moreover, many online stores have gone over to make videos of their customers at their homes by fixing an appointment and used them as testimonial at their ecommerce store.
Happy customers make a successful business, there’s no denying that. Being ignorant to your repeat customers can be a major drawback for your business. Try to maintain a healthy relationship with your customers by offering rewards that facilitates a connection between your store and your returning customers. That’s the only way to earn customer loyalty. If you are rewarding them regularly, they won’t divert, even if they get 1/10 deals better somewhere else. All the ways mentioned above are aimed at the same target. You can select any or multiple of them according to what suit your business requirements.
