What do you do with your Black Friday and Cyber Monday customers after sales?
Black Friday/Cyber Monday is the most anticipated online shopping event globally.
Last year, in the US, Black Friday recorded the biggest day for in-store shopping reaching 72.9 million consumers and an online sales of $65.3 billion.
However, one major hurdle with BFCM customers is figuring out how to retain them and nurturing them into brand loyalists.
In this guide, we will discuss practical strategies and tactics to retain customers beyond BFCM.
Why Customer Retention Matters
Customer retention is crucial for your store’s growth. This is because the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than the cost of retaining customers. Likewise, returning customers are more likely to spend more in your store than new customers.
Customer retention affects the following:
1. Acquisition Cost
It costs as much as five times what it takes to retain an existing customer to acquire a new one. Since your BFCM customers have an interest in your product and brand, it is more cost-effective to retain them.
2. Increased Sales
According to repeat customer statistics, an average repeat customer spends 67% more than a new customer. During BFCM, existing customers spend about 20-25% more than first-time customers. Use these BFCM marketing tips to increase sales during this BFCM.
3. Increased Customer Lifetime Value
Long-term customer relationships result in higher lifetime value for your business. Increasing customer retention by just 5% can lead to a 25% to 95% per cent increase in profit.
4. Brand Loyalist/Advocates
When customers have confidence in your product, they become loyal customers and brand advocates. They refer friends and family, write positive reviews, engage your content on social media and create user-generated content that boosts brand trust.
Now that we know the importance of retaining BFCM customers, let’s quickly dive into the best strategies for customer retention on Shopify.
Strategies to Retain BFCM Customers
The BFCM customer retention journey requires implementing the right BFCM marketing strategies for increased traffic and high sales.
The process of retaining BFCM customers starts with having the right products and an optimized website to give your shoppers the best shopping experience. Here, we’ll explore some of the best tips for retaining your BFCM customers on Shopify.
1. Ensure Your Website is Optimized
Whether you sell products or run services, your website needs to be optimized before your big sales. Poor loading time will turn off a potential customer from exploring your store. To avoid this, ensure:
- Your website is optimized for all device types – Ensure your Shopify store is optimized for all device types with a focus on mobile devices as it accounts for 60% of the overall e-commerce sales.
- Your site has quick loading times – Test the loading speed and response time of your website before BFCM to avoid disappointment.
- You sell excellent products – you shouldn’t sell inferior products during these sales to avoid returns and distrust for your brand. Your product should be authentic and in good form before BFCM.
- Inventory Management – Since there is always an increased demand for products during BFCM, stock up on inventory. Running out of popular products can lead to missed sales opportunities and disappointed customers.
- Payment Options – Make sure your payment process is simplified and you have multiple payment options to cater to various customer preferences.
2. Provide Personalized Shopping Experiences
How you treat a first-time customer will determine how they perceive your brand. Customers who experience a seamless shopping experience are more likely to come back to your store.
To encourage returning customers, consider:
- Product Recommendations – Streamline your BFCM customers’ shopping journey by recommending products based on their previous purchases, browsing behavior or based on complementary products. See product recommendation strategies to boost sales on Shopify.
- Personalized Thank You Notes – Thank you Notes are ways of showing appreciation to your BFCM customers for choosing you over your competitors. Although this may appear insignificant, customers value those notes as they show that you value them as your customers.
3. Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Customer support is an indispensable part of your business and needs to provide outstanding services during and beyond BFCM. Statistics show that 81% of people claim that receiving good customer service makes them more likely to make another purchase. To deliver outstanding services your customer support needs to:
- Answer Customer Questions – During BFCM, there are a lot of activities going on, with customers demanding answers about products or inquiries about how a certain process works. The response needs to be swift and resolved afterwards.
- Offer Live Demo and Trainings – Offer online training or demo about how a product works or send how-to guides to customers who have difficulties understanding how a product works. This will make the customer trust your brand more.
- Personalized Live Chat – Create live chat with automated response to start the resolution process and act as a support system when support is unavailable.
- Receive Customer Complaints – Some customers are easy to please, others not so much. To win over customers, you need to receive customer complaints respectively and address any negative comments while being professional. Also, keep an eye on your social media channels and resolve pending issues to demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.
4. Create Reward Programs
Create programs that reward your customers for engaging with your BFCM sales. These programs can be in the form of discounts or offering incentives to your customers.
- Discounts – To retain BFCM customers, offer mouth-watery discounts that are irresistible. Encourage them to return by sending discount codes that can be used in their next purchase. Offering discounts can be a bit tricky so it is important to have an effective discount plan that does not affect your overall profit.
- Incentives – Offer incentives for every purchase. It can be subsidized shipping costs, free shipping, gift cards, free set-up and installation. Add value to your customer’s purchases to motivate them to make repeat purchases.
5. Create Successful Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are one of the best strategies for inspiring customer loyalty and increasing revenue. More than 90% of companies run some type of loyalty program to engage their customers.
Let’s look at the types of loyalty programs you can adopt for your retaining your BFCM customers:
- Point-based loyalty programs – This is the most common loyalty program. It allows customers to gather reward points from purchases that will be later redeemed for freebies, cashbacks etc. Also, you can extend the reward points to customers who leave reviews on social or engage with your channel.
- Tiered loyalty programs – In this program, customers get rewards based on their rank. These ranks are grouped based on the customer’s engagement on the channels or sales. The higher the rank, the more exclusive and better rewards you get.
- Paid loyalty program – Here, customers who engage in this program receive benefits for their participation. However, you need to show your proof of value before you sign up. These values are usually earned through interactions with the brand. In the end, it’s a win-win situation where the business gains higher customer value from members and members benefit from the program.
Promote your loyalty programs to your BFCM customers and encourage them to sign up. Use email, social media and websites to raise awareness.
6. Run Email Marketing Campaigns
Emails can be a great tool to drive one-time customers into becoming repeat customers. Sending personalized emails to them can significantly increase customer retention and improve your customer base.
Here are some of the tips to follow for a successful email campaign.
- Send confirmation email – these are sent after the first purchase, conforming to the order. This email also bears the order tracking details and other information about the order. To increase the value, you can add special offers and discount coupons to motivate them to come back to your store after the first purchase.
- Send post-purchase follow-up email – Follow up your BFCM customers with emails asking for feedback about the product and their shopping experience. Let them know you have kept your communication channel open for questions and enquiries. Also, offer additional product recommendations based on their recent purchase.
7. Analyzing data and gathering feedback
Feedback is a great way to know what your customers want or how they feel about a product or service rendered. It is necessary for a good customer experience for any business.
Gathering and analyzing feedback helps you make proactive plans for providing what the customers want from your store. Update your products when necessary and communicate it to them through any of your communication channels.
How Customer Feedback Can Build Loyalty and Retain BFCM Customers
Customer feedback is important to businesses as it provides valuable insights into the needs, preferences and expectations of the customers so that you can modify your products and experiences accordingly. Let’s look at some of the ways to retain customers using customer feedback.
1. Utilize Surveys to Get Feedback
Send surveys to your customers at the appropriate time after interactions with your BFCM to get their opinion about a product, feature or service. The timing of the survey should be right so as not to overwhelm your customers with questions or send a survey when they are still in the process of buying. Furthermore, the survey needs to ask the right questions to get tangible feedback. Segment your customers and create questions based on the type of customer you want to target.
2. Build Trust and Credibility
Feedback can be anything from negative to positive. Do not dwell on the positive ones while completely avoiding the negatives. Transparency is a fundamental aspect of building trust with your customers. Take credit for the positive feedback and show steps taken to address concerns and make improvements on the negative comments while demonstrating your commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Being transparent not only builds trust but also enhances your brand’s credibility, making customers more likely to stick to your products.
3. Implement Customers’ Ideas
Sometimes, customers are your best advisers since they are the end-users of the products and know what works and what doesn’t. Implementing customer ideas can be a great way to retain customers because they feel you trust their ideas.
You can create a feature request or suggestion form where customers can submit their ideas about what they want to see in your products.
3. Identifying Brand Advocates
Loyal customers who provide feedback and actively promote your brands can become powerful advocates. They not only continue to purchase your products but also influence others to do the same. Recognising and rewarding these brand advocates can further strengthen their loyalty and encourage them to continue spreading positive word-of-mouth.
Conclusion
Retaining BFCM customers in your Shopify store requires a strategic and customer-centric approach. By focusing on our listed strategies you can build solid relationships with your customers that extend beyond the BFCM weekend.
Start implementing these strategies today and watch your customer retention rates soar.
