7 Strategic Ways to Build Customer Loyalty in eCommerce

Acquiring and retaining customers is inevitable for any successful eCommerce business. Even though acquiring a new customer significantly costs more than keeping an existing one, many eCommerce business owners still like to throw good money into ads particularly on social media. Many while doing so completely ignore the customers already in their database. This is not a good strategy for many reasons. Marketers have learned that customer loyalty isn't built through discount codes or points programs alone even though they don't hurt. Fact is, lasting customer loyalty comes from deliberately creating experiences that make people feel understood, valued, and genuinely excited to be part of a brand's story. Because of this, eCommerce businesses that manage to build good customer loyalty aren't necessarily the ones that spend biggest on ads. They're the ones who've managed to figure out how to turn every customer interaction into an opportunity to strengthen a mutually beneficial relationship. Building customer loyalty trumps all the strategies. Here are some 7 tips on how it can be done:

1. Make Everything Feel Seamless

When things are really seamless in your eCommerce website, your customers shouldn't have to think about how to interact with your brand. Irrespective of whether your customers are shopping on mobile, calling customer service, or engaging on social media, their experiences should feel consistent and effortless. Your website should be so optimized as to make the customer experience feel cohesive and smooth. For instance, if someone emails your support team about an order they placed on your website, that rep should have their full purchase history and preferences at their fingertips if your services are fully integrated. You can render faster and better services to your customers because of this. On this core, integration matters much more than innovation.

2. Build a Responsive Community

You can deliberately build a responsive community and not just a customer base. This will enable your best customers feel like they're part of something bigger than a transaction. By creating real opportunities for them to connect with each other and with your brand beyond merely buying things, it helps with customer loyalty. Such opportunities can be as simple as a Facebook group where customers share tips, or as elaborate as exclusive special events and workshops if you are so inclined. The key is to create the ideal spaces where your brand can effectively facilitate beneficial connections rather than merely selling products/services.

3. Use Analytics Data to Show You Care

You can effectively use analytics data to render personalized services to customers through segmentation. Personalization on this score isn't about stuffing someone's first name into an email subject line. It's about demonstrating that you've been paying attention to how they interact with your brand.  You can build customer loyalty faster this way because customers will feel seen and cared about instead of just being marketed to. For good results, you can for instance segment your audience by purchase behavior, engagement level, or product preferences. After this, you can then carefully craft marketing messages that acknowledge exactly where your customers are in their relationship with your brand.

4. Turn Your Brand into a Great Story
 
You can by deliberate efforts turn your brand into a great story worth being part of. Technically, most people don't just buy products. Many always buy into identities and stories. So, most brands that really inspire fierce loyalty are almost always those brands that have figured out how to make their customers the heroes of their brand story. You can try to figure out exactly what story does being your customer tell about anyone. Exactly what identity does it reinforce? With such vital info, you can then weave this narrative through every piece of marketing communication you put out in your business. It helps build customer loyalty.

5. Give Your Team Ample Room to Act

Customer service is one hugely important service business rely on to build customer loyalty. Significantly, it is exactly where most businesses make very costly mistakes. Instead of training their customer service people to operate with human touch, they tie their hands with scripts and policies that make it virtually impossible for them to actually solve problems and create an amazing customer experience. Well trained, polite and freely operating customer service teams are really helpful to build customer loyalty.

6. Be Proactive About Customer Concerns

A brand that is proactive about customer concerns can build customer loyalty faster. Such brands don't just respond to issues, they anticipate them. They rely on real time analytics data to predict customer behavior. If for instance you notice customers typically have questions about sizing after ordering, you can send a proactive email with fit guides. If on the other hand your shipping typically takes longer during peak season, you can communicate this expectation upfront and offer updates along the way. Such proactive customer concerns help a great deal to build customer loyalty.

7. Carefully Map Every Single Touchpoint
 
You must carefully identify the right touchpoints in the customer journey. That’s where your focus should be since loyalty lives mostly in the mundane moments that happen after a sale is made. If you miss these points, your business will continue to hemorrhage customers nonstop. Never fail to maintain contact with your customers immediately after purchase trying to find out how the touchpoints you’ve identified can help the customer journey better. Endeavor to map everything—from the thank you page to the packaging experience to the support ticket process. This is really important because every touchpoint is either building customer loyalty, or significantly eroding it.