Every single business owner I talk to – clients, students and others alike – wants a profitable business. But many don’t realise that the secret sauce is to increase customer loyalty.

This article discusses an oft-missed step in growing a profitable eCommerce business – increase customer loyalty.

This step can be the single most important factor to increase repeat purchases AND profitable sales growth online.

Read on for some actionable advice and a free implementation guide.

How to get repeat orders from happy customers

How it was before…

Back in the early days of of eCommerce, it was believed that customers were not loyal to any particular online retailer.

The World Wide Web seemed to make customer loyalty irrelevant; at the click of a mouse, shoppers could effortlessly cover the globe in search of the lowest price, with little to hold them at one site.

(I would argue that many business owners who sell online today still work off this assumption. And the result is that the only tactic they use to convert new sales is a discount or low-price strategy!)

The reality today…

Even though online shoppers can skip easily from one site to the next, the reality is that many online shoppers are actually highly loyal to their favourite online store. (Like me with my ever-favourite Birdsnest clothing retailer!)

Tools such as Internet bookmarks and highly engaging content (including email and social media) have led to online shopping patterns that are loyal, almost addictive.

Today, loyal shoppers visit their favourite sites far more frequently than they would any bricks-and-mortar store. And as a Productpreneur – you want to be that website, right?

And it gets even better: when you increase customer loyalty, it can have an enormous impact on the profitability of your website sales.

A study by Bain & Company, Inc, demonstrated that online customer loyalty is a crucial factor in profitability, even more so than for offline companies.

It also showed that small changes in loyalty alone, especially among the most profitable customers, can account for much higher profits in the longer term.

And by small changes – even a 5% increase in customer loyalty (repeat purchases from existing customers) can result in up to 95% growth in profits!

So, why does increase customer loyalty have such a large impact on a website’s profitability?

1. You won’t break even on one-time shoppers.

Customer acquisition costs in ecommerce are high (that is the cost of converting a website visitor into a paying customer, such as the cost of advertising). So to recoup your investment you need to convince customers to return to your site time and again.

For example, the online clothing store in this example didn’t make a profit from customers until he or she had shopped at the site four times. This implies that the retailer had to retain the customer for 12 months just to break even!

The lifetime value of a customer increases dramatically over time

2. Repeat purchasers spend more and generate larger transactions.

The longer their relationship with an online retailer, the more customers spent in a given period of time. In the example shown above, the average repeat customer spent 67% more in months 31-36 of his or her shopping relationship than in months zero-to-six.

Long term customers spend more with you per transaction

3. Repeat customers refer more people and bring in more business.

Word of mouth is the single most effective and economical way online retailers grow their business. Word of mouth referrals have the highest trust rating. And get this – new customers are likely to place their first order within 2 weeks of receiving that referral!

And increase customer loyalty, it turns out, can be a key driver for referrals. On average, a customer will refer three people after their first purchase. And after 10 purchases that same shopper had referred seven people to the site!

Loyal customers refer more friends

4. Referrals are powerful selling tools

It’s not surprising that 71% of online shoppers read reviews before they buy (Forrester Research).

Here’s a couple more impressive stats to wrap your brain around. According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust referrals from people they know, AND people are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.

If ever there was a reason to make sure your customers are happy, this would be it!

How to increase customer loyalty and increase repeat purchases

Now, let me show you how you can easily improve your customer loyalty and increase repeat purchases.

Because you REALLY want to make sure your customers are happy and coming back for more again and again, right?

Well, now you can actually AUTOMATE this process in your online store!

How to increase repeat purchases – on autopilot!

When a new customer places their first order with you, that purchase transaction should automatically trigger an email campaign as follows:

Example of a Post Purchase Email Campaign:

  1. Welcome to “Brand Name” family and thanks for the purchase (send immediately)
  2. Share a ‘before and after’ transformation or case study, to reinforce decision to buy (send 3 days later)
  3. Did your product arrive and is everything OK? (Send 2 days after your product should have arrived)
  4. Share ‘how to use’ tips and tricks to ensure your customer can successfully use your product (send 3 days later)
  5. Invitation to social media (for example, ‘show us what adventures your (insert product) has been up to! Tag us on Instagram)
  6. Request a product review (send 3 days later)
  7. Time-sensitive promotion – should be a cross sell or up-sell, related to the product they purchased (send 3 days later)
  8. Follow-up reminder #1 about time sensitive promotion (send 2 days later)
  9. Follow-up reminder #2 about time sensitive promotion (send 1 day later)

Now, in order to run automated campaigns triggered by a purchase, you will need to be using a marketing automation application. Something like or Klaviyo.

That way, you help improve customer satisfaction AND increase customer loyalty, and it’s all automated!

Book Your Free Coaching Session

Now, we’ve touched upon the ‘what’ you need to do in this blog post.

If you need some help with the ‘how’ part, then I’d love to invite you to book a free coaching session with us.

The right mix of activities to generate traffic to each individual website is never the same for each business, but we have a solid process for working out what the right mix is for you.

 

How to increase repeat purchases from happy customers