Strategies to improve post-purchase loyalty of customers.
If you’re like most businesses, you’ve got a pretty good handle on how to make a sale. You know how to get people interested in your products and services and how to close the deal.
But what happens after that? How do you make sure that new customer comes back for more?
We all know that the post-purchase experience is important. But how many of us actually take it seriously?
It’s easy to get swept up in the busyness of running a business and let your attention drift away from what really matters: your existing customers. Many businesses are missing out on one of the most important things they can do to boost repeat sales: the post-purchase experience.
In today’s world, it is more important than ever to retain customers and turn them into brand advocates. But how do you get your customers to come back for more? The answer: post-purchase loyalty programs!
Why do brands need to embrace post-purchase loyalty programs?
Post-purchase isn’t just about selling more products or services; it’s also about making sure that people feel like they’re being taken care of by your company after they’ve already made a purchase from you.
On average, loyal customers are worth up to ten times as much as their first purchase, and repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers!
The post-purchase experience is a huge driver of loyalty, but it’s something that many businesses overlook. It’s easy to see why: there are so many other things you have to focus on—like figuring out how to get new customers in the door. But if you’re not paying attention to your current customers, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to drive repeat business.
The good news is that you can do many things to improve your post-purchase experience and drive repeat sales! In this article, we will share the top tried and tested post-purchase loyalty strategies you need to start implementing today to boost your customer’s post-purchase experience.
9 Post-Purchase Loyalty Strategies to Boost Repeat Sales
After you’ve made the sale, it’s time to focus on strengthening your relationship with your customer base. There are a number of ways to build post-purchase loyalty, but we’ll go over nine of the most effective ones:
1. Offer store credits after every order
This is one of the most effective ways to turn your customers into loyal buyers. It’s a good idea to offer your customers a small discount on their next purchase after making their first order, but you can also go one step further by giving them a store credit they can use when they return to buy again. This will give your customers an incentive to buy more from you and will help strengthen their loyalty.
Giving them credits right after placing an order sends a subtle message that you’re already confident they are coming back for more! You can also give store credits for signing up, subscribing to your newsletter, and recommending you to a friend.
Wondering how to manage the whole store credit system on your eCommerce store? You can increase repeat purchases and turn customers into brand advocates with the next-gen rewards program using Flits, a platform that provides industry-leading e-commerce solutions for Shopify merchants. It is one of the best Shopify customer loyalty apps that’s your one-stop solution to improving the post-purchase experience.
2. Send regular automated shipping updates across all channels
A key part of the after-sale experience is tracking one’s order. Many customers get frustrated when they don’t see their order details updated in time. Reaching out to customer care for repeated questions on order tracking can lead to an extra and unnecessary burden on your teams.
By automating shipping updates and pushing them out proactively on channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and e-mail, you can add to the post-purchase delight factor.
You can also display this information on the Flits customer account page instead of pushing consumers to go to the delivery partner’s website. The ease of keeping up with their orders can boost post-purchase loyalty dramatically.
3. Gift them surprise store credits on special occasions
Yes, we know that the whole idea of giving someone a gift card or store credit makes you cringe. But we have good news: when it comes to post-purchase loyalty programs, these are actually great!
Why? Because they’re unexpected—and because they’re easy to redeem. Once your customer has an account with you, all they have to do is log in and claim their reward. You don’t have to worry about shipping costs or returns!
Gifting is an excellent way to boost customer loyalty and get them to make repeat purchases. You can give surprise store credits on special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, upon successful referral, on festivals, and even a monthly credit so they can keep coming back regularly.
And even if they don’t spend the full amount at once, they can still enjoy the benefits of having a small amount of money available on hand at all times. So if you want to make sure your customers fall in love with your brand and keep coming back for more, consider offering surprise store credits on special occasions instead of traditional discounts or freebies.
4. Seek feedback and reward its comprehensiveness
One of the most effective ways to turn a customer into a repeat customer is by seeking feedback from them. In fact, a study by e-commerce giant Amazon found that customers who leave reviews are 40% more likely to purchase from your store again.
Not only does this make sense from a business perspective—customers like to feel valued and important, and leaving feedback is an excellent way to do so.
Offer store credits to customers once they successfully submit feedback for product quality, shopping experience, and customer service experience. The amount, albeit small, goes a long way in making customers feel valued after completing a purchase.
Offering store credits upon submitting feedback can not only come off as personal but also improves your customer’s post-purchase experience and your product offerings, leading to better word-of-mouth publicity and growth as a business.
5. Offer customer support proactively for post-purchase loyalty
One of the best ways to keep customers coming back for more is to offer them post-purchase customer support.
It’s so important to be proactive with your customers. Instead of waiting for them to come to you, go out and find them! Offer your customers a way to get in touch with you if they have any questions or concerns about their orders.
You can even use this as an opportunity to cross-sell and upsell them by offering recommendations or discussing ongoing deals. And don’t just think of it as a post-purchase grievance addressing mechanism—use it to talk about ongoing deals, etc.
At Flits, we have a ‘contact us’ button along with a ‘reorder’ button against each order on the customer account page. This makes the process easier and more streamlined for our customers, so they know exactly where they need to go when they want more information about their order or need help with anything else related to it.
6. Launch a gamified experience to complement the store
Gamification is the future of retail apps!
According to Forbes, gamifying your eCommerce site can hugely impact sales, thanks to how it taps into our natural competitiveness and curiosity. If you’re not using this strategy yet, you’re missing out on an opportunity to boost your sales by encouraging repeat purchases.
Many eCommerce websites today have simple yet engaging games that make shopping all the more addictive. Many users come back daily to check out the games and claim store credits, thereby ultimately making a repeat purchase.
For example, you could have a simple ‘spin the wheel’ construct where users can keep coming back to try their luck and win something, even if it is as small as very few store credits. They will want to make a repeat purchase after coming back to such a gamified construct for some days and collecting store credits.
This isn’t just a good idea because it makes people spend more money—it also helps them feel like they’re getting something out of their experience with your brand. If you can give your customers something fun in exchange for their loyalty, they’ll be more likely to turn into advocates for your brand!
Also read: The best gamification post-purchase loyalty program examples
7. Launch a referral program to build post-purchase loyalty
Make your customers ardent advocates of your brand by rewarding them for bringing in more buyers. You can make it super effective by rewarding them for every successful referral (i.e., once a person referred by an existing customer makes their purchase, the customer gets store credits after the return and cancellation period is over).
8. Knowledge portals and manuals that are easy-to-consume
Educate your customers by sharing up-to-date information about the products, industry trends, safety and security callouts, best practices, etc. Many beauty companies, for example, have dedicated spaces to discuss trends, different ingredients in focus, clean beauty trends worldwide, how to use products, find dupes, etc. Such a space will ensure your customers keep coming back to consume content, know about the product backstories and understand how to upkeep the products once purchased. Simple CTAs can be interspersed throughout this space to nudge users to go to product catalogs and make a purchase.
9. Build a community
And lastly, build a community that sparks and keeps meaningful conversations going around your products, their usage, discounts, deals, new collections, etc. This community can have conversations on your website (as a dedicated and partially moderated social space) or simply on WhatsApp or Telegram.
You will get some insightful social sentiment data from these conversations that you can use to better the offerings to suit your customer pools’ needs and asks. Building a community of customers is one rock-solid way of making sure they remember and recall your brand very often and are thoroughly engaged. As a bonus, it can also eventually reduce customer service costs since customers can ask each other simple questions and get instant solutions!
Studies have also shown that consumers tend to stick longer with a brand that has built a community around it. With their need to communicate with like-minded people getting addressed, the community becomes another reason to stick with the same business. Take IKEA for example!
Boost your post-purchase loyalty with Flits
The post-purchase moments are a goldmine of opportunities to build loyalty and boost repeat sales. They are untapped and, if used right, can give you an edge over your competitors.
In this article, we have explained how to use post purchase moments as a tool to increase customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value. We have also discussed how to identify these opportunities and how to make them work for you.
With Flits, you get access to all the tools you need to take full advantage of this untapped opportunity in order to boost your post-purchase loyalty and increase customer lifetime value!
So go ahead, take advantage of these untapped opportunities and make your business more profitable!
Install the Flits app today to boost your post-purchase loyalty!
