How to keep customers coming back

Repeat customers are vital for ecommerce websites that want to succeed. Here are seven ways to keep your customers coming back again and again.

Have a nice website (with good pictures!)

Having a well-designed website that showcases your products with beautiful images is essential. Particularly in ecommerce, offering good-quality images of your product lines is needed to give customers the confidence to buy from you. It is best practice to show products from different angles and to provide a zoom-in feature.

Gain their trust

Customers need to feel comfortable buying from you using their credit cards. They want to feel safe that their personal information will be used correctly and not sold on to anyone else. Gain your users’ trust by having visible security measures in place, such as digital certificates and SSL.

Connect with customers on social media

There is no harm in reminding customers why they should buy from you again. By using social media, you can engage with customers to update them on new product lines, promotional offers and more. This will gently push them into visiting your site and buying from you again.

Give rewards

This tried-and-tested technique is guaranteed to keep customers coming back. Set up a rewards or loyalty programme that encourages people to repeat buy from you. For example, offer a 10 per cent discount for every purchase a customer makes after they buy four products from your site.

Offer alternative payment methods

Rather than only accepting credit cards, customers appreciate when they can pay via alternative payment methods, such as PayPal. On average, 21 per cent of PayPal shoppers at established merchants would not have completed their purchase if PayPal was not offered. This is because of the ease of use – no need to type in credit card details every time is easier, faster and safer.

Follow up

Data from Forrester Research shows that by combining two follow-up emails to users that have abandoned a shopping cart, an organisation can capture up to 46 per cent of the consumers back. While this isn’t always easy to do – as it involves customer setting up a profile, usually – it can be very effective at improving your bottom line.

Keeping shipping costs low

A key bugbear for many online shoppers is shipping costs. In addition to not being able to handle products before you buy them, no one likes to pay for delivery from ecommerce websites. By keeping your shipping costs low – or, even better, free – you are more likely to keep your customers happy and keep them coming back.