As an eCommerce store owner, you'll know that your customers are everything. They represent the lifeblood that keeps your doors open. That said, the difference in cost between acquiring new customers dwarfs what's needed to retain existing clientele. In fact, focus your eCommerce growth marketing strategy on customer acquisition alone, and it can cost as much as 5x more!
So, while you still need to do what you can to attract new customers, there's a great deal of value to be had in looking beyond that first purchase. If you want to enjoy real growth, a customer-first experience needs to be delivered in order for loyalty to be encouraged.
Here we look at how to do that by building a great relationship with each customer, as well as the measures needed to enrich the post-purchase journey.
Reinforcing Your Brand Usability & Identity
If you're looking to create a standout shopping experience, the eCommerce site you operate needs to focus on enhancing your brand usability and identity. Sadly, many brands employ an eCommerce growth marketing approach that focuses too much on scaling rather than the experience provided.
It's imperative to make your website visitors want to stay with you longer and, ultimately, buy from you. This objective can be achieved in a number of ways.
- Awesome Website Design - When looking at the very best eCommerce websites, they're typically super-engaging and beautifully designed. Not only that, but they're also simple to use, intuitive, and provide a frictionless journey for buyers.
This needs to be delivered both on desktop and mobile versions of your website, as around 60% of internet users do so via their smartphones. To encourage repeat visits, the customer UX should be easy to navigate, as well as eye-catching and memorable.
- Clear Product Details - Ask any good eCommerce marketing experts, and they'll tell you that another vital part of a smooth buying experience is having a clear understanding of what your products do and how they benefit them.
Displaying all relevant product details in clear, easily-read fonts and colors will serve to highlight this important information front and center. Whether viewed via mobile or desktop, shoppers need as much useful information as they can so they feel confident about their purchase. - One-Page Checkout - Again hugely relevant to the mobile UX, a one-page checkout should be a big focus of your growth marketing efforts. Mitigating friction from the buying process, this kind of layout allows conversions to be enjoyed with fewer clicks.
Simplicity is key here, with most modern customers seeing the easy purchase they'd get on sites like Amazon as the benchmark. Creating an easy buying process and adding features like auto-fill will reduce your abandoned cart rates and result in happier customers.
These are a few options a growth marketing agency would suggest you implement to improve the buying journey. Next, we look at what comes after, examining how to enhance the experience buyers get post-purchase.
Enriching the Post-Purchase Journey Your Customers Get
Of course, the customer journey doesn't simply end after they placed their order - or after it's arrived at their door. Neither does it end after the product has been unboxed and used, which can be way after interaction with the customer has occurred.
Building relationships and driving return website visits is an ongoing process, and when it's done right, there are a ton of post-purchase opportunities to be had. If you can create a journey that keeps a customer engaged in your brand ecosystem, you'll go a long way to developing loyalty.
Post-purchase measures you can take to achieve this include:
- Customer Reviews & Testimonials
- The Shipping & Product Protection Add-on
- Self-Service Returns
- Loyalty Programs
- Live Chat Integration
Let's take a closer look at each of these measures and what's involved to create the kind of great UX that will keep your brand and what you offer front of mind.
Customer Testimonials & Reviews
Reviews are essential for pretty much any business, however, they're even more important when you're still trying to build trust in your brand. By integrating a customer feedback process, you help those visiting your site to feel happier about making a purchase with you, driving conversions and revenue.
An eCommerce marketing company could create a killer advertising campaign for your products, but its impact is still not likely to have the same impact as a great review from an unbiased customer. These reviews help site visitors to make smarter choices, and it's you who benefits the most.
Shipping Protection
Above, you'll see a mock-up of a typical checkout, and it shows one of the most popular add-ons for modern customers. Products do get lost in the mail, and when they do, it's your business that typically absorbs the cost of replacing and shipping the new item to your customers.
If you choose not to replace the item, your brand reputation will likely take a hit - especially if shipping protection wasn't offered at the point of sale. By offering it as an automatic part of the buying process, you'll cover yourself and provide reassurance to your customer.
The same goes for product protection, as even the best products go wrong from time to time. Making customers aware of your desire to protect them against this eventuality further builds trust.
A Website Live Chat Facility
Another useful addition to your website that will enhance both the pre & post-sale UX is a live chat facility that allows customers to enjoy real-time conversations with support. Live support agents are great for delivering a more personal human experience online.
This kind of feature can work well as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy, as it circumvents the common challenge of delivering an online experience with a human touch.
Loyalty Programs
Once you've integrated your first value-added services into your customer journey to encourage repeat buying, it's the moment to provide an incentive to reinforce loyalty further. And while a loyalty program will take you time and money to create, the benefits to your business can be meaningful. They can take the form of:
- Points programs (Customers accumulate points & redeem them for products/services/rewards)
- Tiered programs that allow customers to work up to VIP status
- Value-based programs (offering non-monetary benefits such as a charity donation)
- Omnichannel Loyalty Programs
- Paid Programs (e.g. Amazon Prime Membership)
Loyalty Programs like these offer an element of exclusivity to your customers, but you also benefit from increased customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, and improved conversion rates. Not to mention all that first-party data you'll get about your best customers.
Self-Service Returns
Receiving the wrong product or one that doesn't meet their expectations is undoubtedly frustrating for customers. It's part of online retail, but you can ensure that mistakes like these don't impact your reputation by offering an easy, cost-free way to send products back to you.
As such, a quick and easy self-service return feature on your website that allows customers to create and print off their own shipping labels will work well. Do this part of the post-sales process right, and you'll reduce the costs of your returns, as well as encourage repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
Delivering a Great Post-Sales Customer Experience
Creating a fantastic customer experience before, during, and after purchase takes a considered and well-thought-out approach. However, by keeping everything we've spoken about in mind, you'll inject some necessary structure into your eCommerce growth marketing strategy.
Walk a mile in the shoes of your customers, and it becomes obvious where your friction points reside. As such, everything you can do to make life easier for people post-purchase will serve to reinforce the wisdom of buying from you - and drive repeat trade - something all businesses need to survive.
