If you know what makes a customer come back for more, you’re onto a winner. Customer acquisition cost can get out of hand, and the true cost of acquiring new customers can be as much as 25 times more expensive than holding onto an existing one.
The good news is that your customers want to be loyal to you – just like you want them to. It’s a win-win situation. But only if you know how to make your business so valuable that a prospect turns into a raving fan.
A lot of the times, this means putting yourself into the shoes of a customer and asking, what type of value do I want from an eCommerce store?
Below are 5 easy ways that you can keep hold of your loyal eCommerce customers.
Create a Customer Loyalty Program
There is no customer loyalty without a customer loyalty program. As the Future of Business and Tech points out, 29% of your customers wouldn’t be loyal were it not for a loyalty program.
A loyalty program does one very important thing: It shows the customer that you recognize them and the value they’re creating for your store, and as such you’re going to reward them for their custom.
This makes the consumer feel wanted, and more importantly, it makes them feel good about your brand.
Here are two of the most popular customer loyalty programs:
- Points: This is a simple one. Each time someone spends cash on your store, you reward them with points.
- Tiers: The more a customer buys from you, the more you’ll reward them. The Tiers system is a bulletproof way to make your customers loyal to you.
Recommended for you: 14 Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Brand.
Align Brand Values with Those of Your Customers
Research shows that we buy from brands who share our values, and as Adweek points out if you can’t define and demonstrate your values, you risk losing customers.
Think about it: It’s far easier for us to become loyal to those who fight for the same things as we do. It makes perfect sense!
Take Barkbox, for example. This is an online pet store that knows its values resonate with those of its audience – they all care about animal welfare.
However, it’s not enough that you define what your values are – you also need to find a way to maximize them to ensure customer loyalty.
One way to do this is to partner up with a charity. For example, you could donate a certain % of your sales to a chosen charity, and you need to make customers aware of this each time they make a purchase.
Alternatively, you could set up a loyalty program whereby a percentage of a customer spends is donated to a chosen charity.
Add a Logo
Logos make your business recognizable. They give your brand a face, and they help to make people familiar with you.
This is key in more ways than one. Faced with so many eCommerce choices, the attention span of a consumer is getting shorter and shorter. Logos can, first of all, keep a customer on your page, grabbing their attention. Matthew Woodward found that having a professional logo impacts landing page conversion.
Secondly, because a logo is intended to represent your brand and demonstrate your values, they act as powerful ways to generate customer loyalty.
If you don’t yet have a logo, you can have one set up within minutes if you choose the right logo maker.
Personalize the Customer Experience
Forget about being a marketer for one second and try to remember what it’s like to be a customer. What one thing would make you loyal to a brand?
We’ve already covered branding and, yes, this is important. But without wanting to sound harsh, customers can be really fickle. For example, they have to take price into consideration now and then. They have to consider their time spent shopping, too. Is your store slow at loading?
And they have to wonder if a store actually cares about them by, for example, personalizing their shopping experience.
The data that you can now capture and keep on your customers via AI is key. Customers want a personalized shopping experience. They want you to recommend them products based on their past shopping habits, and they want you to show that you care about them specifically.
Marketing cannot be devoted to a one-time acquisition. If it is, you’re doomed to fail. Instead, you need to now focus on personalizing the customer experience so that they feel super welcome.
This means adding their name to the top of each email you send them, but it also means segmenting your emails so that each customer receives offers, promotions and so on that are specific to their needs and past shopping habits.
It also means putting the right products in front of them when they enter your store. This sort of practice will improve both loyalty and conversions.
Do the Little Things
When it comes to creating customer loyalty, the little things matter.
And the little things are also easy to do.
For example, express your gratitude to your customers. Do this with both one-time customers and those who have already shown loyalty.
Surprise people with a thank you email after each purchase. Instead of sticking to the generic and dry confirmation email, be cuter and more creative.
The little things aren’t earth-shatteringly impactful but they build a crucial foundation on which you can build.
You may also like: Click Analytics: How to Grow Your ECommerce Site Using Click Analytics?
Conclusion
These are 5 ways to keep loyal eCommerce customers. Put together a loyalty program that offers a sufficient reward, work on your branding, personalize the customer experience and define and express your values. None of this is hard to do; so get to it!
This article is written by Michelle Deery. She is the content writer for Heroic Search. Her content has been published in Entrepreneur magazine and other authority publications. She specializes in writing about marketing and produces copy that helps businesses drive more traffic and conversions to their websites. Follow her: LinkedIn | Twitter.
This article is written by Michelle Deery. She is the content writer for 
