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You have your designer selected and you are ready to kick off your eCommerce website project- now what? Preparation is the key to getting the project completed efficiently and successfully.

Web design is an art- and there are proven UI/UX concepts that enable you to “wow” your customers with your brand and make your eCommerce website successful. Here are some helpful design considerations from eCommerce experts.

While your online retail business isn’t a “person”, it does benefit from long-term relationships, AKA customer retention. In today’s super-competitive digital market, acquiring new customers is costly. According to a recent study, attracting new customers costs five times more than nurturing existing ones. That’s why customer retention rate has a significant impact on your bottom line.

In addition to being more cost-efficient, existing customers are more likely to buy from you again. Your product and your customer service is a known entity, why not continue with something that works? In fact, the conversion rate for existing customers is 60-70%, compared to 5-20% for new customers.

Of course, people won’t become repeat customers unless you give them good reason to. The following are four effective eCommerce customer retention strategies that’ll help create brand loyalty and keep your customers coming back.  

1. Understand Your Customers

Most businesses think they know their customers. You have assumptions about the people who are buying your products, and you base your entire eCommerce marketing strategy on those assumptions. If you don’t really know them, that could be a recipe for failure. 

While all customer-related insights are beneficial, some information is more important. You need to understand how often your customers buy your products, what motivates them to buy, and what is a good deal for them. The RFM (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary) model can help you do just that while building a customer retention strategy. 

So, what is the RFM model? In short, the RFM model is a method that businesses use for measuring customer value. It allows you to turn your customer acquisition data into actionable insights. Here’s the retention rate data that you need to make the most out of the RFM model:

Recency-when was the last time an existing customer bought something from your online store? When you analyze this for your entire customer base, you’ll start to see patterns. 

Monetary Value-how much does a customer spend when they shop at your online store? Some customers tend to spend more, which is always a good thing. Customer lifetime value is an extremely critical piece of data. 

Frequency-how often do customers buy something from your online store? Do you have a loyalty program in place? What can you do to make them buy more frequently and enhance their customer experience?

This, and other online shopping behavior data, is valuable and can be collected using a tool like Google Analytics. Retention metrics, that’s one of the things that an eCommerce agency can help you with.

2. Educate Your Customers

Once you understand how your customers think, educating them should be your next priority. And by educating them, we don’t mean lecturing people about the awesomeness of your products. That’s the fluffy content that nobody has the time to read and won't get you the customer loyalty you’re after. 

What you want to do is give your customers valuable information that’ll help them solve their problems, enticing them to make a repeat purchase. You want your product and service to be the solution for their problems and your brand to be an authoritative voice in your industry. The way to do that is by continually producing high-quality content. 

This content could be blog posts, educational videos, a newsletter, or anything else considered valuable in your particular industry. What really matters is educating and adding value without being overly “salesy”. 

Adobe is a good example of a  company that educates its customers to build loyalty and increase retention. Everything Adobe offers, from their blog posts to their design newsletter and events, adds value for their customers. They’ve established themselves as having stellar customer service and as a leading voice in the design industry, and that’s a key reason for Adobe’s 80% customer retention rate.

3. Engage Your Customers

Retaining customers means keeping your eCommerce brand at the top of your customers’ minds. You want people to remember and think about your brand even after they make a purchase. Social is way is the way to make that happen. According to a recent study, 90% of people buy from businesses they follow on social media. That’s why building a real presence on social media is a must. And by a real social media presence, we mean one with which you can engage your customers. Based on a study conducted by Sprout Social and shared with Mobile Marketer, the portion of consumers who said they increased their spending with a brand they follow on social platforms rose from 12% in 2019 to 75% in 2020.

In addition to getting that top-of-mind awareness, opening a two-way communications channel with your customers will help you improve your retention rates. By getting direct feedback from your current customers on different offers, customer service, and products, you can improve your product and service offerings all around. When your products are constantly improving in the way your customers want and need, you’ll notice the difference in your retention rates and unique customers that visit your site. 

4. Optimize Your eCommerce User Experience

Good user experience is the foundation of any successful online store. You’d never go back to a physical store with rude staff, a weird floor plan, and a point of sale system that never works; the same applies to your eCommerce website. Customer churn is expensive, and if the overall user experience of your website is poor, you can bet a customer won’t go through the same ordeal twice. Many potential customers would abandon their first purchase, let alone become repeat customers. If you want to improve the customer retention of your online business, the following UX (User Experience) components of your website need to be on point:

Product Search and Filtering-your customers should be able to find what they’re looking for on your website as quickly and conveniently as possible. Effective search not only helps your high-intent shoppers zero in on what they are looking for quickly, it also allows you to collect important data points on what your customers want, how they go about finding your products and services, and how you can personalize your offers and content for them.

Site Hierarchy-your website should be structured in a way that makes sense to visitors resulting in an intuitive and easy-to-use customer experience. 

Load Speed-with the advent of high-speed internet, people simply aren’t patient anymore and, if your website loads slowly, that results in a poor user experience. 47% of customers expect an eCommerce website to load in 2 seconds or less, any slower and you’re likely to see a 103% increase in bounce rate. A slow site means potential customers will likely exit immediately.

Checkout Process-checking out from your website should be a convenient and well-thought-out process. You’ve worked hard to create a great online presence so make sure the last impression on your eCommerce website is just as good as the first. Don’t lose customers in the last mile with a terrible checkout experience that causes a disconnect and makes a shopper abandon their purchase. Create the best checkout process possible, and you’ll be sure to see those customers coming back.

TL;DR

Retaining customers is essential for any eCommerce business that wants to succeed. At 20% of the cost of marketing to new customers, retaining more of your existing customers can have a significant impact on your overall business profitability. While customer retention strategies vary, empathy is one thing they all have in common- the customers' expectations. When you understand your customers and care about offering them the best service, they’re more likely to become repeat customers.