How to Build Customer Loyalty in eCommerce

Building a business relying just on one-time sales is high-risk, low reward. Finding new customers is significantly more time-consuming and less cost-effective than nurturing an audience that wants to buy all of your new products. Moreover, it’s a sign that you don’t offer a particularly great service if you have a low retention rate.

Creating customer loyalty in eCommerce is about more than just offering fancy VIP programs. While this definitely can help, you’ll need to build a better-rounded strategy. Thinking about your customers' satisfaction from the first point of interaction to beyond their first purchase is essential. However, knowing where to start can be challenging if you have no prior experience.

Fear not, though, because we’re going to help you today. Keep reading to discover how you can build stronger customer loyalty and increase the customer lifetime value (CLV) of each one. Over enough time, you should generate more revenue as a result.

Loyal customers are the backbone of almost every successful brand. Apple, Adidas, and Nike are three of many examples. When you build loyalty with your customers, you have a reliable stream of revenue – meaning that you can focus on thriving and not just surviving.

Building a successful eCommerce brand requires standing out in a crowded space, and having loyal customers means that you won’t have to do as much marketing. If people are particularly happy with the service you’ve provided, they will recommend you to others. They might do this through word of mouth in real life, but it could also come in the form of reviews on Google, Trustpilot, and similar websites.

Besides ensuring that you have constant money coming into your business, customer loyalty can also reduce your costs. When you have a loyal customer base, you can focus more of your energy on continuing to make them happy and organically acquire new ones. If you relied solely on one-time purchases, you would have to spend a lot more time and money on advertising and outreach.

While other factors will also play a role in customer loyalty, you must not overlook the importance of your website. eCommerce often means that the person cannot try your product or service beforehand, which means that a good first impression is essential.

If your website is poorly designed, doesn’t load quickly, or isn’t secure, customers will automatically see red flags and take their business elsewhere. Even if you’re legitimate, all of these are the same traits that scam websites have. These problems are easy to fix and should form a key part of your initial strategy before even launching.

Tying in with the above, you also need to optimize your eCommerce site for mobile.

You can create an eCommerce website that sets you up for loyalty and success by partnering with the right hosting provider. Key things to look out for include:

• Free SSL certificates
• Fast loading speeds and diverse server locations
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Free migrations

Verpex offers all of the above (plus much more). You also get a free domain registration/transfer, allowing you to keep your costs low in the early stages. What’s more, you can sign up from $2.99 per month – meaning that you can allocate more money toward other customer loyalty initiatives and improving your product.

Now that you know about the basics of customer loyalty, you’re in a good starting position to get the basics sorted. Once you’ve got that, you can move on to some of the more advanced customer retention strategies. Below, you’ll discover the best places to start.

Create the Best Products in Your Niche

The best way to build customer loyalty is to focus on creating the best products in your niche. While easier said than done, this is where you should allocate almost all of your energy in the early days of business. No customer will want to buy from you again if they have a bad experience, and you’ll also ruin your industry reputation.

Apple is a great example of focusing on quality. The company creates devices with excellent software and beautiful design, while iPhones, iPads, and Macs are generally of very high quality. As a result, the company has built arguably the most loyal brand fanbase on the planet.

Launch your product when you have something viable. Then, take on customer feedback and iterate over time. After doing this for a while, you’ll have something that’s really strong. You should also consider refining your product descriptions so that you can appeal to potential buyers.

Adopt a “First-Class” Mindset With Customer Service

Customer service should never be an afterthought. Right from the first day that you launch your eCommerce brand, you should act like you’re already a multi-million dollar company. As part of this, you should ensure that every customer gets the best possible experience.

A well-designed and easy-to-navigate website is part of this, but you should go deeper. Consider implementing chatbots that can help with product recommendations and other important bits of information, such as sizing.

Where possible, you should also use the customer’s name. Recommending products that they might be interested in is a good idea, too. If you have the budget, consider hiring a customer support team member.

Understand Your Audience

You cannot build strong customer loyalty if you don’t know your audience. Without effective market research, it’s hard to understand people’s needs and desires. So, before you do anything, it’s important that you build enough knowledge about your audience.

Creating a buyer persona is a vital part of this. When doing this, it’s worth gathering as much information as you can about your ideal buyer. Ask yourself:

• What is their age, location, relationship status, and gender?

• How much disposable income do they have?

• What are they looking for when they buy your product?

Once you have this information, it’s much easier to finetune your website and customer service. It’s worth revisiting this process multiple times to ensure that this information is always up to date.

Have Clear Values

These days, customers care a lot about brand values. And in a world that keeps becoming more divided, it appears that a lot of people want an alternative approach. For example, according to Sprout Social, 78% of consumers want brands to use social media to bring people together.

The best way for you to bring people together is to have clear values. You don’t need to go political, but having a cause that you care about – and that people can get behind – will help build customer loyalty. For example, you could focus on sustainability and being environmentally conscious if you sell clothing made from recycled materials.

Demonstrating your values in everything that you do is a great way to ensure that like-minded people find you. You can also ensure that the products you sell have a golden compass by which you can follow relentlessly.

Personalize Your Marketing

One way that you can ensure that you aren’t seen as “just another eCommerce brand” is through personalization. This is becoming even more important; according to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect businesses to personalize their interactions. Importantly, 76% of people get frustrated when they don’t receive this.

You can personalize your marketing by understanding your customers. Even using their name in email and SMS correspondences can have a huge impact on their loyalty to your brand. Understanding their struggles can make it easier to build strong messaging, too.

Consider using interactivity in your digital marketing where possible, too. For example, you can start conversations and create dedicated hashtags on social media. Allowing users to generate their own content can have a huge impact on loyalty as they feel like they’re part of the journey.

Create Strong Initiatives

While loyalty programs won’t save your brand without the other aspects in place, they can be a useful way to encourage shoppers to keep buying with you. Any loyalty schemes should be relevant to your brand, and you need a clear way to measure them.

One example could be that each time a shopper makes 10 separate purchases from you, you offer them free shipping. Similarly, you could offer discounts for loyal customers and other personalized deals.

Creating loyalty schemes can be quite technical, so you should ensure that the basics are in place before moving on and doing this.

Don’t Disappear After the Customer Buys From You

When making a website for selling items, you shouldn’t ignore your customer after they’ve made a purchase. This is one of the biggest mistakes that many brands make, and it’s the exact reason why those customers don’t shop with them again.

Your job is only half done when you’ve sold a product. You need to follow up and ensure that your product delivers on its promises and that your customer is satisfied. You can do this by sending follow-up emails and using customer feedback forms.

If a customer isn’t happy for whatever reason, look at what you can do to fix the problem. It’s also a good idea to use this information to finetune your products and services. That way, you’ll build a stronger base of customers over the long run.

Customer loyalty is complex, but it’s a fundamental part of running a successful eCommerce business. Making the best products in your niche is a good starting point; by doing this, you’ll automatically set yourself apart from everyone else. Once you’ve built great products, you can then focus on other initiatives.