Customer Acquisition efforts are ineffective if not paired with a Customer Loyalty strategy
With CACs increased by 222% compared to 10 years ago and with the consumers saturated by advertisements shared in every social network, brands are facing higher costs on paid campaigns which are not reflected in growing results.
If Acquisition is not anymore the only solution for online growth, Loyalty can be the solution. And it’s time to pay closer attention to it.
Setting a double strategy made of acquiring new customers and at the same time encouraging repurchase through loyalty actions is crucial to keep the online brands growing
Post - Sales Experience is as important as the Shopping one
User-friendliness of the website, product description, product images, checkout experience, different payment methods at the checkout etc… These are all important factors to invest in in order to facilitate the consumers to make their first purchase.
However, how can a brand ensure that their brand-new customers will purchase from them again? After interviewing different eCommerce companies, there are 2 key elements that prevent the customers to make a repurchase:
- Poor communication about status of the order
- Delay in reimbursement
Returns: a problem or an opportunity?
No matter how much a brand invests in the quality of their products, returns are inevitable. Some brands have adopted the strategy to make their returns processes unclear and complicated with the aim to lower down the number of returns. The question is: is this really an effective growth strategy?
All the investments made to offer a shopping experience as smooth as possible listed in the paragraph above should be replicated also after the sale has been made.
In the same way a brand offers different payment methods to give greater flexibility at the time of the purchase, that brand should also consider offering flexible returns options that suit better the customer’s needs such as instant refunds and instant exchanges. This will influence a huge improvement in the post-purchase experience of that brand.
How to leverage returns and exchanges to boost your online growth
As stated above, offering different returns options will lead to a satisfied and loyal customer. When a brand adopts this wise strategy, it needs to make it visible since 67% of customers won’t make a purchase if there is no information about returns:
- Updated and clear Return Policy specifying costs, deadline and refund period
- In the same way fast shipping is highlighted among the benefits offered, returns policy and options should be visible and clear to anticipate the customer’s possible concerns and also to attract their first purchase