Is your ecommerce store missing a customer retention strategy?

When you shop online yourself, do you find yourself going back to the same stores over and over to make repeat purchases?

Sure, other stores may have what you need, they might even have it at a cheaper price. But you’re happy shopping at the same store.

You are a retained customer.

WooCommerce store owners spend a great deal of time and effort to advertise and get new visitors to their sites to hopefully convert into customers.

Continually going after ‘cold’ audiences with advertising is an expensive way to make sales.

It costs more to acquire new customers than it costs to sell to existing customers. However most ecommerce stores focus on acquisition rather than retention.

Why should you work at customer retention?

Sure, every store needs a steady supply of new customers. But if you look at your store’s sales reports you’ll find that most of your revenue will come from a small group of customers. It’s similar to the ol’ 80/20 rule.

Customers who have bought from you before are easier to sell to.

The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%.
The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%

(Marketing Metrics)

Identifying high value customers

The standard WooCommerce reporting isn’t fantastic. However, there are some extensions that will allow you to discover which of your customers have a higher lifetime value.
https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-customer-history/

If you want detailed analytics and reports for your store, there are some great services that can help such as Metorik, Klaviyo and Kiss Metrics that all work with WooCommerce.

The metrics you should pay attention to are:

  • Purchase frequency
  • Average Order Value (AOV)
  • Customer Lifetime Value

These are the customers that value your brand and your products. The people that tell their friends about your store.
You need more of these guys / gals.

How can you make more high value customers?

Feedback

Firstly, you can try asking your high value customers some questions. Asking high value customers for feedback also has the benefit of making them feel heard and cared for.

  • Why do they return to buy from you again and again?
  • How can you improve their experience?
  • Do they have any recommendations?

You can use their feed back to improve areas of your store or service that might be lacking. These improvement alone can help you get more repeat customers.

Reviews

Use reviews on your site. Ask high value customers to leave reviews. It help to sweeten the pot wit ha small incentive too. Like free shipping on your next order. Or a small discount.

Discounts

Offer customers discounts to encourage them back to your store. If they haven’t made a purchase for a while, send them an email with a discount coupon. Likewise, if you have their birthdate, send them a birthday treat.

Points & Rewards

The WooCommerce Points & Rewards plugin https://woocommerce.com/products/woocommerce-points-and-rewards/ is a great way to build customer loyalty. Customers build up points with repeat purchases and then  get a reward.

How many of us go back to the same cafe just so we can fill up our loyalty card and get that free cup of coffee?

Easy repeat purchases

Make it easy for customers to order the same product again. This works well for consumable products. https://wordpress.org/plugins/repeat-order-for-woocommerce/

Email campaigns

It’s important to keep it touch with high value customers. But it’s just as important to re-engage those who have only purchased once or haven’t bought anything for a long time.
This is where services like Metorik & Klaviyo come into their own. You can send up triggers to send personalised emails to customers who haven’t visited your store for a while.

Now you know the value of repeat customers I encourage you to try some of this techniques to boost profit in your WooCommerce store.

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FREE VIDEO TRAINING How to increase sales and profit for your WooCommerce store

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