As an eCommerce store owner, you will have to constantly ensure that your website is running smoothly and that your customers are satisfied. While you will have to put efforts into bringing more visitors and customers to your website, you will also have to try and boost the lifetime value of your existing customers.
Here are some of the top strategies that you can deploy to boost the lifetime value of your eCommerce store:
6 Strategies to Improve Customer Lifetime Value For Your Online Store
1. Create an Effective Referral Program
For eCommerce companies, attracting new customers can be quite challenging, considering the competition. The switching costs are virtually non-existent, people rely heavily on reviews and social proof for selecting a specific online store for their purchase. All of this makes it better for you to create referral programs that will encourage your current customers to recommend your brand to potential new ones.
By offering an effective referral program that is mutually beneficial, you will be able to increase the customer lifetime value, as well as attract new ones.
2. Leverage Personalized/Targeted Email Marketing Campaigns
When it comes to retaining your existing customers, generic marketing campaigns do not quite hit the mark. You will instead want to focus your resources on building more personalized marketing campaigns that are guaranteed to engage your customers and generate returns.
While you can use email marketing strategies to send highly targeted and personalized communication to your customers, it is also a great way to retain them. Instead of creating automated campaigns without any valuable content to stay active, you should prefer campaigns that are tailored to be appealing to your customers.
For instance, you can have an email list consisting of customers who have not shopped from your online store in a while. Sending emails with tailored promotional offers, and discounts on the products they have on their wish lists may prompt them to make purchases from your store.
3. Engage Customers With Stellar Content
High-quality content will always help you capture new customers and please the existing ones to remain associated with you. The first time that a customer buys from your online store may be to fulfill their requirement, but your content is crucial in deciding whether they will buy from you again.
You can use targeted emails and social media advertisements to showcase other popular products that you sell in your store, so that your customers are motivated to purchase from you again. You should also focus on creating content addressing their pain points, or educating them with the aim of moving them further along the sales funnel.
Customers who are already loyal to your brand will not only appreciate all the useful content you post but also be able to utilize it to convince others to choose your brand. Ensure that you have the right CMS platform to support your content strategy, or you can also consider eCommerce replatforming for your website.
4. Level Up Your Customer Service
The products you sell in your store may be one of a kind and of high quality, but once you have fulfilled a customer’s requirement, your customer service is what will have them coming back. Right from the point your customer is finishing a purchase, till they are ready to make another purchase from your store, your customer service can reassure them of your credibility and quality.
As an eCommerce store, you want to be active on various social media channels and utilize a combination of other communication channels so that you can cater to customers effectively. You can check the channels that you deem as most effective, and allocate resources accordingly. What’s more, you should also consider providing your customers with 24×7 chat support to truly level up your customer service.
5. Consider Creating a Loyalty Program
While referral programs will encourage your customers to promote your brand to their acquaintances, loyalty programs can help you lock down your existing customers. With a good loyalty program, you will be able to build and nurture stronger relationships with your customers.
Your loyalty program can also include special discounts and offers or even early access to items or sales. You can also give your customers access to exclusive items or limited stock. Rewarding your loyal customers this way will go a long way in ensuring their satisfaction and retaining them.
6. Utilize Cross-Selling and Upselling Opportunities
As an eCommerce store, you can maximize the average order value of your customer with the help of cross-selling and upselling opportunities. You can also leverage them to increase the customer’s lifetime value, as a customer who might not want to buy any extra products might still want to wishlist them.
You can also increase your revenue by encouraging customers to buy products similar to what they are buying and the ones that will complement the ones they are buying. These are the kinds of strategies that can also boost your purchase frequency.
Concluding Remarks
With the help of the aforementioned strategies, you can truly increase the customer lifetime value in your eCommerce store. Ensure to have the necessary resources and budget for the strategy you choose, and go for the one that will help you achieve your business goals successfully.
