As an e-commerce brand, do you seek out repeat customers? If not, it might be time for you to consider adding customer retention into your business strategy.
Have you ever considered why you continue shopping at your favorite stores? Whether it’s the look of the brand, the service it offers, the community it provides, or if it offers a great product that perfectly matches what you’re looking for, there’s a reason that you go back to your favorite brand for more.
As an e-commerce business owner, considering the things that make you a repeat shopper is the first step in figuring out how to offer the same experience to your consumers. One way you can do this is by creating a loyalty program to reward your customers. In this post, we’re talking about customer loyalty programs, the benefits of loyalty programs, their role in increasing your customer retention rate, and more.
Why Customer Retention Should Be Important to You
Customer retention is a strategy used to increase the number of loyal customers (repeat shoppers) your store has. When you implement tactics to try and keep your current customers coming back for their lifetime, you’re investing in a customer retention strategy. It’s about focusing on keeping your current customers loyal to your brand rather than only trying to recruit new ones.
As traditional acquisition strategies like paid ads and deep discounting become more expensive, it’s important to focus your time and resources on retention methods as well. In fact, customer retention is a great way to minimize your customer acquisition cost because regular customers are an acquisition tool in themselves. Although it’s great to drive new customers to visit your store and make a purchase, finding out how you can retain those customers for future purchases is a key component to driving your e-commerce store toward success.
Research has shown that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. You may be wondering: “How does retention fit into my strategy?” Well, retention is part of a three-step process. The first step, as you know, is to acquire customers. Afterward, the pathway to retention is continued by getting those customers to engage with your brand. There are a few ways you can get newly-acquired customers to engage with your brand, and one of the best solutions is by offering a great loyalty program to get them excited to shop at your store.
Why Loyalty Programs Are Part of This Process
There are new e-commerce stores being launched every day—all of them selling similar or identical products. Having something distinct about your brand can help set you apart from the competition, and this is where loyalty comes into play. By offering a rewards program for customers, you’re showing them that you appreciate their business. In return, this appreciation will be invested back into your store when they become loyal brand advocates.
Loyalty begins in the engagement stage, and it helps guide your customers back down the funnel to make repeated purchases and become brand advocates! When you offer points, tiered loyalty programs, and valuable rewards just for shopping at your store, customers will be interested in being a part of your community.
Other Benefits of Loyalty Programs
The main goal of a customer loyalty program is to retain customers by rewarding them for their repeat purchases. In other words, a loyalty program is a method to retain customers by providing them with a strong incentive to make additional purchases from the business and create habits. But although customer retention is the main benefit of customer loyalty programs, it is not the only one. Here are several additional benefits of customer loyalty programs to keep in mind:
Better Customer Communication
A loyalty program provides a direct line to customers, which greatly simplifies communication. It should also be noted that customer loyalty programs facilitate recalls when necessary in addition to promoting specials and announcing new products and services. They help you build an emotional connection and stronger relationships with your customers that result in a more engaging customer experience, which in turn leads to repeat purchases.
Access to Relevant Customer Data
As soon as a customer signs up for a reward program, the company’s database is updated with their information. Companies can profile their best customers using this information and target their offerings to particular consumer demographics through online, offline, and omnichannel segmentation. Given that zero-party data from loyalty programs provide a comprehensive picture of consumer behavior, purchasing patterns, and preferences, the business can utilize this knowledge to improve the pricing, promotional strategy, and inventory management.
Learn more about how to collect valuable zero and first-party data from your loyalty program (and beyond) in our recent ebook, ‘Zero and First-Party Data for Dummies.’ The chapter by LoyaltyLion is perfect for brands just starting their loyalty programs or those looking to optimize existing ones.
Encouraging Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Customer rewards for recommending your brand to others (also kn is one way that customer reward programs can promote word-of-mouth advertising. For instance, you could provide discounts to shoppers in exchange for their Yelp reviews. This approach is also effective when it comes to refer-a-friend loyalty programs. For instance, if a consumer refers a friend who buys anything, you may give the customer a free month of service.
Helps Your Brand Stand Out
Introducing a loyalty program is a great way to differentiate your company from others that might not have one. In addition to giving customers another reason to interact with your business, a loyalty program can offer benefits that let them buy your items for less than those of your rivals.
Shows Customers That You Care About Them
One of the best methods to thank customers is through a customer loyalty program. These initiatives offer discounts, gift cards, and other cool benefits to loyal customers as a way to show appreciation to customers and thank them for their continued business.
Improved Revenue
Customer loyalty programs can increase sales for your company. If a customer likes your brand, they will be more inclined to spend more and remain loyal to you. A loyalty membership program encourages this by urging customers to make more purchases in order to advance in your loyalty program or get a discount.
Outlining Your Customer Retention Strategy, Tactics, and Tools
To help you kick-start your customer retention process, it’s important to outline your strategy, tactics, and tools. Using this three-tiered model will help you plan how you’ll achieve your goal. We’ve broken it down below using loyalty programs as the main retention tactic:
- Strategy: Your plan to achieve the overall goal (retaining customers).
- Tactic: The actions you’ll take to achieve this goal (offering a loyalty program).
- Tools: the system you’ll use to carry out your tactic (downloading a loyalty app, like Smile.io, LoyaltyLion, Stamped.io, etc.).
By planning your customer retention process this way, you’ll have a clear understanding of the steps you need to take as a merchant to turn customers into brand advocates! It’s important to note that customer retention is a long-term benefit. This is something Shopify has extensively explored before: it pays off more when you spend a longer period of time using a strong retention strategy.
Tips for Designing an Effective Customer Loyalty Program
If you’re interested in improving customer retention levels, you should be interested in offering the right kind of loyalty program to your customers. There are several types of customer loyalty programs, including tier-based programs, subscription-based loyalty programs, value-based loyalty programs, and points-based loyalty programs.
Regardless of the type of loyalty program you decide to build, there’s a lot to take into consideration when building a successful loyalty program, so we’ve provided you with a few tips and best practices. These will help you start creating the right kind of customer loyalty that leads to retention.
1. Customize Your Program To Your Target Audience & Brand
To start engaging customers with your rewards program, it should be personalized to your brand and audience. 56% of shoppers prefer brands that show they care about them, and this can be done by giving your loyalty rewards program a unique name and offering positive customer experiences. Match your name and points to whatever it is you’re selling, and run tests on your customers’ habits to find the kind of rewards that will speak to them. These actions will make your loyalty program more personalized and show customers you care.
2. Leverage Social Media To Amplify Your Loyalty Program’s Reach & Impact
Social media is a powerful tool to promote your loyalty program, encourage customer participation, and generate word-of-mouth referrals. Social media can increase customer awareness, trust, and loyalty by making your loyalty program visible, accessible, and shareable. Some e-commerce brands who have leveraged social media in their loyalty programs with great success include Airbnb, Glossier, and Warby Parker.
Provide points/rewards for following your brand account on different platforms, uploading content, posting UGC, etc.
3. Gamify Your Rewards To Get People Excited
Adding a VIP or tier feature to your program can be a massive benefit, and it’s a different way to reward your customers. Using gamification techniques in your loyalty program will get new customers excited to engage with your brand because they’ll be motivated to make it to the top tier. Plus, making it to a new tier makes members feel like they’re part of an exclusive club, which is another reason for them to engage!
4. Offer Rewards For Referrals
A great thing about referral programs is they increase acquisition and retention rates simultaneously. As your loyal customers send referrals to their friends and family online, your store is more likely to get an increase in shoppers. Ultimately, you will increase the number of happy customers by rewarding them with perks for referring you, plus, you’ll increase your chances of acquiring and retaining customers that trust their peer’s referral. It’s a win-win for both you and the customer!
5. Make Your Rewards Attainable
One of the most important things you can offer is rewards that your customers can actually achieve. If points are too difficult to earn, it will deter members from continuing to engage with your program. Offer points for every dollar spent, celebrating a birthday, social shares and page likes, and writing product reviews. These are easy to earn, so customers will choose to engage just as easily. Also, don’t make redeeming too high of a cost. If the points cost is out of sync with the amount being earned, then you may lose customers who feel that the next reward is too far out of reach. Make your customers feel special by providing an easy way to earn and a fair cost to redeem points.
6. Creating A Simple Program Is Key To Success
You may not have thought about it before, but how often have you stopped using a tool or program because it was too difficult? This is the same with a loyalty program—if it’s too difficult to understand, customers won’t use it. Make it easy for your shoppers to navigate through your program and ensure they understand exactly how they can earn and redeem points. Complexity creates confusion. Besides, you’ll be able to launch your program more quickly if it’s simple (meaning you start increasing retention right away)!
How to Effectively Use These Tips
These five tips can be combined into one program easily! To give you an idea of how, check out the loyalty program for Barney Cools.
Barney Cools personalized their program by calling their points system “Cools Coins.” When customers open the panel, they get told it’s their “all-access pass to exclusive Cools rewards.” Right away, this feels personal to each person visiting the rewards panel. Aside from matching their rewards to their brand, they’ve also incorporated many ways to earn and redeem points, offering the right kind of rewards to each type of customer.
By offering a referral and VIP program, Barney Cools has gamified their loyalty and offered a second way to earn. This will keep shoppers invested in their brand because they’ll want the exclusive top-tier treatment while offering referrals for even more points. Bonus!
Finally, the rewards are attainable and the program is simple. The store offers a variety of ways to earn points, and the lowest redemption cost is 250 Cools Points for a $25 voucher. Since you get 50 points just for signing up, the 200 points until the first reward isn’t too far off. Plus, the panel is easy to navigate and understand. Overall, Barney Cools nails their strategic approach and offers a great loyalty experience for customers.
Combine Your Rewards Tactic with Others to Achieve Your Goal
As we said above, loyalty programs are one tactic and tool you can use to achieve your goal of increased customer retention. Using customer loyalty with other tactics, like value-add marketing, re-engagement marketing, an effective brand community, or emotional marketing, to boost retention numbers and provide positive customer experiences.
These tactics are beneficial to use together. When you have an effective brand community where your customers feel engaged and find value, along with a great loyalty program to offer fun rewards and/or exclusive benefits, you’ll be on the right path toward a successful e-commerce store that your audience can’t help but fall in love with.
Key Takeaways
- Customer retention is about keeping customers loyal to your brand so they continue shopping with you over their lifetime.
- Offering a loyalty program is an effective method for increasing customer retention.
- Outlining your strategy, tactics, and tools will help you get started working toward your goal of increased customer retention.
- Ensure your program is personalized, offers great (attainable) rewards, and is easy to use all while being fun and engaging.
