Any successful eCommerce business relies on its loyal customers. You worked hard to get new customers, and now you want to focus on keeping them. You realize the importance of customer experience and value; you just don't know how to capitalize on it.

One of the most effective ways to convert new customers into repeat customers is through ecommerce customer retention strategies.

You can increase the value of each person who purchases from your ecommerce store by providing new opportunities for them. According to studies, increasing ecommerce customer retention by 5% can result in a 25% increase in profits. Omniconvert also reports that the average ecommerce customer retention rate is around 30%.

Customer Retention Rate

Customer retention rate is the proportion of current customers who stay on after a specific amount of time. Your ecommerce customer retention rate can offer you more insight into the factors that keep customers coming back to your business and can also highlight areas where customer service could be enhanced.

You can work to raise your customer retention rate once you understand how well or poorly your company retains customers. Customer retention in ecommerce is quickly becoming one of the most important issues for businesses to address.

Acquisition costs are rising, and as competition grows, they will only rise further. If your ecommerce brand is retaining customers, you will notice a lot of positive results.

How To Calculate Customer Retention Rate in E-commerce

Customer retention starts with the first interaction. Customers can "like" your Facebook page or join your email list. Unless the customer takes specific actions, such as unfollowing your page or unsubscribing from your email list, the relationship will continue.

To calculate your overall customer retention rate for ecommerce you first need to attain the following values:

● Number of customers at the beginning of a given period

● Number of customers at the end of that time frame

● During the time period above, how many new customers were acquired.

Consider you start with 150 customers, lose 15, gain 30, and end up with 165 customers at the close of the period. Use the formula to calculate the customer retention rate based on these numbers.

(Customers you end up with - new customers)/customers you begin with Simply multiply your answer by 100 to express it as a percentage.)

A customer retention rate of 100% indicates that you did not lose a single customer. A retention rate of zero indicates that you lost them all. Whatever number you start with, customer-centric best practices can help you improve it.

Average Customer Retention Rate For Ecommerce Brands.

According to many surveys, the average customer retention rate for Ecommerce. stores are between 25 and 30 percent overall however the retention rate averages do change overtime. The average retention rate for ecommerce is 42 percent after 30 days and 25 percent after 90 days.

For various other industries, the retention rate ranges from 27 to 43 percent and it can even be between 32 and 66 percent for higher-performing companies.

Why Acquisition Directly Affects Retention

Here's a little-known fact about customer retention: it all begins with customer acquisition.

Success is determined by the promise you make at the top of the funnel, as well as the products, price, and offer you win with.

The 5 Most Effective Customer Retention Strategies For Ecommerce Businesses

1. Customer Satisfaction

As an ecommerce business, you must invest in providing excellent customer service because your customers bring you more business by increasing the number of orders they make.

As part of your customer retention strategies, having well-defined customer service communications aids in increased profitability and business growth. Always be proactive with your customers and listen to what they have to say. It will not only keep your customers happy, but it will also inform you of areas to improve your products and services.

2. Launch a Loyalty Programme

Customers love having freebies, and guess what? When you reward them, they stay much longer. Creating a loyalty programme is an excellent way to keep customers interested.

In order to retain customers, the majority of ecommerce merchants design customer loyalty and reward programmes. These programmes offer customers benefits like points, discounts, cashback, and more, but it also has reward tiers that tempt them to spend more.

You can use exclusive discounts, subscription services, gift vouchers, a point-based system, or hold an exclusive contest to not only increase existing customer engagement but also attract a large number of new customers.

3.Providing Personalised Experience

Companies that are well known for providing personalised product and content recommendations to their customers, do well because customers believe the brand cares about their lives and goals.

Adopting this strategy can eventually cause your customers to be willing to pay a premium for both your excellent customer service and your products. You should focus on making product recommendations based on their previous purchases and search history.

Alternatively, you can send them free resources such as blog posts, product videos, testimonials, and so on to learn more about your brand.

4.Boost Digital Marketing Campaigns

Customer retention strategies are an essential component of an ecommerce companies' digital marketing campaign. To achieve the best results, your digital marketing campaigns should be properly optimised so that they reach the right customer.

Creating mobile-friendly digital campaigns, sending appropriate campaigns to customers via their preferred communication channel, and posting the campaign at the right time to get the most traffic are all part of the optimization process.

5. Create an Innovative Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media platforms are the best way for any ecommerce business to connect with customers. Online retailers should implement a creative social media marketing strategy as part of their customer retention plans so that they can target a particular group of customers or a wide variety of customers and boost customer engagement and loyalty.

If you are successful in enticing and retaining your social media followers through your posts and contests, they will eventually visit your website.

How to Build an Ecommerce Customer Retention Strategy

The most effective customer retention strategies are based on business objectives and insights. For example, one of your business goals could be to increase customer loyalty, in which case you should select strategies that focus on this.

You might want to demonstrate that your service is consistent and dependable, with strong brand awareness. You might want to prioritise developing a more personal relationship with your current customers.

Alternatively, if your customers come to you because you have the best prices, then your customer retention strategy should revolve around reminding them of this and getting right to the costs! Whatever niche your company falls into should be reflected in your customer retention strategy and knowing your goals will help you choose the best strategy for your company.

Surprise Gifts and Discounts

Customers are people who want to be appreciated. Surprise gifts and discounts are one way to show your customers how much you appreciate them. You can give them a discount on products they frequently buy, along with a short message from the customer service team explaining why they are being surprised.

The exact wording of the message will depend on your company's brand and style, but it should be clear that they are receiving this discount because they are loyal customers.

Conduct Surveys

Send your customers a brief online survey to complete in order to gain a better understanding of what is and isn't working. Although you won't be able to satisfy every client on every matter, surveys can reveal trends that you might have missed.

A good survey should include both multiple-choice questions and free text answer fields to allow customers to express themselves more thoroughly where necessary. Create a plan for when you'll send out a survey - will it be every six months or once a year?

Engage with Your Community

Customers are becoming more socially conscious, which means you should be as well. Customers are interested in whether your company donates to charity, whether employees participate in community improvement projects, and who you engage and partner with.

There are simpler ways to demonstrate your concern for the community than having an elaborate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan or donating to charity. For example, if you work in technology, you could offer to visit a local school and give advice to the next generation of technologists.

Even easier, you could write blogs about how to break into the industry or record a short podcast about it. The key is to use your brand creatively.

On-boarding of Customers

Depending on your company's niche, on-boarding will differ, but the goal is to educate a customer about your products and brand. A wall of text outlining your company's guiding principles is not what you want to do, but remaining too silent may cause the client to feel ignored.

When a customer purchases your products, you can send them an email with a brief guide on how to use it and the contact information for the customer service team so they will know whom to contact in any problems.

By all the ecommerce customer retention strategies you can improve customer retention in ecommerce. Increase your ecommerce customer retention rate to increase your sales.

Why is Customer Retention Important?

Customer retention in ecommerce measures a company's success not only in acquiring new customers, but also in satisfying existing customers. It also increases ROI, increases loyalty, and attracts new customers.

It is simpler and less expensive to keep existing customers than to find new ones, and loyal customers spend more and purchase more often as well as recommend businesses to others. A 5% increase in customer retention can boost company revenue by 25-95 percent.

The numbers don't lie: Retaining customers generates significant ROI for businesses.

Customer retention is critical to a company's growth and success for several reasons:

● Affordability:

Acquiring a new customer is 6 to 7 times more expensive than retaining an existing customer

● ROI:

A 5% increase in customer retention can increase company revenue by 25% to 95%

● Loyalty:

Repeat customers buy more frequently and spend more money than new customers. They recognise the worth of a product or service and return again and again

● Referrals:

Happy, loyal customers are more likely to sing a company's praises and refer their friends and family, bringing in free new customers.

It may seem obvious — of course, businesses should want to keep their customers — but when businesses begin to grow quickly and struggle to implement a solid customer support programme, proactive customer support for existing customers can fall through the cracks.

Conclusion

Customer retention in ecommerce is one of the most efficient ways to boost profitability, raise brand awareness, and create brand advocates. By using the tactics outlined in this guide, you will be able to significantly improve your customer retention rate.

Remember that focusing solely on one of these strategies will not produce the best results. When you start working on multiple techniques at the same time, you'll notice a significant improvement in all of your metrics.

Why not try Level Up Pipeline by today and start taking advantage of our proactive retention features, such as dynamic email advertisements and automated dunning management.

Dakota Routh

I'm Dakota Routh, an American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and internet personality. I'm the founder of Level Up Pipeline, a company that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their sales. I'm also the author of three books, "Secrets of Social Media Marketing," "The Social Game," and "Grow Your Influence(rs)."