You don’t have to be a veteran e-tailer to understand the value of loyal customers. They’re not only repeat purchasers, but they have higher average order values than one-time buyers. They’re also brand advocates who consistently refer new customers to your online store. And they increase your average customer lifetime value. Considering all these benefits, it’s no wonder why e-tailers are looking to boost loyalty amongst their customer bases.
With 20% of your customer base driving 80% of your revenue, increasing your number of loyal customers will make a massive impact on your bottom line. Here are some powerful ecommerce tools that help improve long-term loyalty.
Improve Customer Service with Live Chat
Customer service is a core function of every ecommerce business, and it should be an area you aim to improve whenever there’s an opportunity. Your customers can provide valuable feedback about your products and their experiences shopping with your brand. It’s also more cost-effective to focus on retention rather than acquisition — up to 25 times more economical, in fact. In the long run, focusing on the customer has massive benefits for e-tailers.
So, how can you go about improving customer service? Consider adding live chat to your site. It’s quickly becoming the top choice of support channel with 41% of consumers preferring it to phone or email support. Shoppers love the convenience and immediacy of digital chat, which lets them skip the instrumental hold music of a phone call but still communicate with a human representative. Adding live chat to your site is as simple as installing a widget or plugin, and you’ll see a major return on investment.
Personalize Experiences with Artificial Intelligence
Personalization is the name of the game in ecommerce, where there are no face-to-face interactions like in a brick-and-mortar store. Today’s consumers are looking for a way to get that same recognition, and e-tailers are responding by curating personalized experiences. Everything from emails to product recommendations are tailored to each shopper, and the results are overwhelmingly positive. Eight in ten shoppers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers personalization, and 44% will become repeat buyers after having a curated experience.
Artificial intelligence will help you bring this ecommerce personalization to life and improve long-term loyalty. It’s a broad category that covers everything from chatbots to “smart” search results, and it’s already changing the game for e-tailers. There are plenty of tools available to personalize your customer journey and digital marketing, so do some research and determine what’s right for your business.
Boost Consumer Confidence with Returns Software
Purchasing from an online store always comes with a bit of risk because shoppers can’t touch or try out products before buying them. They have to rely on photos, descriptions and product reviews to get an idea of whether they want to make a purchase. Sometimes orders arrive damaged, or the e-tailer sends the wrong items altogether. Like we said, there’s a risk, especially when ordering from a brand for the first time.
E-tailers can assuage this consumer uneasiness by offering shoppers a forgiving returns policy and hassle-free process for sending items back. Studies have shown 58% of consumers want a “no questions asked” return policy, and a whopping 92% said they’d buy again if returns were easy. Thus, hassle-free returns are your key to long-term loyalty. The simplest way to revamp your returns system is with ecommerce returns software, which gives your customers an intuitive self-service portal and streamlines the back-end once returns are initiated. And everyone gets to breathe a sigh of relief knowing the days of jumping through hoops to return an order are behind them.
Stay Top-of-Mind with Retargeted Ads
How many times have you had a customer make one purchase and then never buy from your store again? If you have good prices and a solid email marketing strategy, it’s probably not your fault. With so many online stores on the market today, it’s easy for your brand to get lost in the noise — and buried in a shopper’s inbox. Instead, try retargeted ads to stay top-of-mind so consumers buy from your store next time they shop online.
Tools like the Facebook Pixel make it incredibly easy to set up retargeted ads. Once the code is added to your website, shoppers get served ads on social media platforms and on other sites they visit. Each ad is a subtle reminder to circle back to your online store, and it can turn one time purchasers into longtime customers. Research backs it up: ecommerce stores see a 128% increase in conversions from retargeting, as well as a 1046% jump in brand awareness.
Long-Term Loyalty Is Just a Few Tools Away!
Even the best e-tailers can use a little help from technology, especially if it helps them win over more shoppers and convert them to lifelong customers. Try these loyalty-boosting ecommerce tools in 2021 to supercharge your bottom line.
About ReadyCloud
ReadyCloud is a suite of connected systems designed to improve the way you work. Shipping, Returns, Growth Marketing and more are all connected through ReadyCloud for better communications from Admin to Operations. To learn more about how aACE+ ReadyCloud can help you accelerate your operations, check out our aACE+ ReadyCloud ReadyShipper video.
