Building Better Customer Relationships with eCommerce Personalisation

• Customer Retention
• Personalised Homepages
• Continuous Shopping
• Personalised Best Seller Lists
• On-Site Retargeting
• Personalised Emails
• Loyalty Programme

It costs significantly less to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones—up to five times more is the consensus for eCommerce businesses. And that's a reality that no business can afford to ignore. Customer acquisition and customer retention are two sides of the same coin, both vital for business growth and long-term success.

But as important as that is, cost of acquisition verses cost of customer retention is not the only reason to actively nurture customer relationships—there are other important advantages to be gained.

Loyal customers offer benefits that newly acquired customers do not, such as often being more profitable, acting as brand ambassadors, and giving your business valuable feedback based on multiple transactions rather than a single purchase and a one-time customer experience.

In this article we'll explore customer retention, looking at how personalising individual customer experiences with your brand and business can inspire loyalty and lead ultimately to brand advocacy.?

Customer Retention

With more people than ever shopping online, and more businesses embracing an omnichannel approach, consumer expectations are shifting in terms of low friction UX, multiple touchpoint shopping journeys, and consistently outstanding CX.

The shift in customer attitudes, for B2C and B2B eCommerce, means that outstanding CX is surpassing price as a key brand differentiator.1

Today customers increasingly want, and expect, to be treated like individuals, with personalised experiences and relationships with brands that go beyond the mere transactional.

So, an exciting deal or discount may engage customers initially, but it's certainly not going to be enough to hang on to them in the medium or longer term—products or services that are always 'discounted', unless costs are lower than competitors, offer an unsustainable business model. Adding value for customers in terms of consistently outstanding and personalised shopping experiences will help keep them coming back time after time.?

80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalised experiences, while 44% of customers are more likely to repeat buy after receiving a personalised experience.2

Personalised Homepages

A homepage is the doorway into your online store and as customers arrive they should be presented with personalised content that is based on their purchase and browsing history, browsing behaviour and preferences.?

Tailored homepage content such as using a customer’s name in a short 'welcome back' message, or banner images based on purchase and browsing history, and enabling customers to choose how they see homepage content in terms of colours scheme, dark mode, and accessibility options, will all help increase engagement. ?

For example, including homepage content that shows products a customer has viewed multiple times, and then offering them a limited time special offer on those items will help get customers moving along the path to purchase.

Continuous Shopping

When a customer returns to your online store, showing items that they have recently viewed, and reminding them of items still left in their cart, will help them pick up where they left off, so they don't need to begin all over again—unless of course they are looking for new products. But even then, a gentle prompt can help jog memory and stimulate reengagement.

Continuous shopping reminders can be in the form of popups or content showing images of previously viewed or selected products.

Personalised Best Seller Lists

Getting creative with personalised bestseller lists can offer returning customers more engaging experiences. Popular products are often more desirable, especially if customers are browsing rather than arriving in your store with high buying intent for a particular item or items.?

Showing personalised bestsellers by overall popularity is the obvious way to present them. But using other criteria to rank bestselling products can be more engaging, such as over a specific time, 'bestsellers in the past 24 hours', or even in the last hour.

Best sellers at different price points can be more relevant for customers, showing them items that more closely match their average historic spend. Segmenting bestsellers by location can be effective too, for local environment, culture, preferences, and tastes—looking at your analytics data will help you identify these types of subsets.

91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them.3

On-Site Retargeting

Retargeting customers based on their browsing behaviour can be an effective way to engage them. Retargeting on-site can provide a similar outcome to off-site retargeting for customers who are still in-session.

Using non-intrusive popups that are intuitive, meaning that they appear at a relevant time with relevant content, are the key to nudging customers towards conversion. The best way to achieve this is with automatically triggered on-site retargeting based on data such as recently viewed products, cart value, purchase history—the list goes on.

On-site retargeting can also include messages that offer customers personalised deals based on their behaviour and personal information. For example, offering first time visitors to your store a small discount on their next purchase in exchange for their email address or offering relevant items based on what's in their cart, to help bump up average order values. ??

Creating more personalised shopping journeys while customers are in-session can give them more satisfying experiences and help to build stronger customer relationships.?

Personalised Emails

Communicating with customer soon after they have visited your store can help build and nurture long term relationships. Using personalised automated emails helps your products and brand remain front of mind with customers and gives you a second chance to convert.?

Cart Recovery Email

A massive issue for online retailers is cart abandonment. There are many things that can be done to optimise cart and checkout UX to help lower friction and increase conversions. But there will inevitably still be customers who, for many different reasons, abandon their shopping.

A way to help re-engage customers who have wandered off is the automated cart recovery email. Recovery emails should be sent soon after the abandonment takes place, and then again later:

• First email - send immediately, purely informational—no selling
• Second email - within 24 hours, create a sense of urgency
• Last email - within 48 hours, incentivise to re-engage

It's important that the tone of cart recovery emails is friendly, never pushy or too salesy, and simply reminds the customer that they have items in their cart, shows the customer the items, and offers a direct link back to their cart.

Personalising cart recovery emails is important too. Just using the customer's name will help to engage them. And offering an 'save cart to email' option to continue shopping later helps keep the pending transaction in the customer's mind.??

A Barclaycard survey revealed that British shoppers abandon carts worth almost ï¿¡30 a month, potentially resulting in more than ï¿¡18bn?in lost sales every year.?

Post Order Follow-Up Email

To build stronger and longer customer relationships it's vital to contact them after they have made a purchase with you. There are several approaches to the follow-up email. Which one you choose will depend largely on your business goals:

• Offer customers related products such as accessories or consumables
• Ask them about their experience shopping with you via a short survey
• Invite them to review your products and your customer service on review platforms or on social media

Whatever action you want customers to take post purchase, communicating with them, keeping the conversation going, in an authentic, personalised and valuable way will help to strengthen their relationship with your brand.??

We're Missing You Email

If a customer has not shopped with you or visited your store for a while, then it can pay to give them a nudge to let them know how much you value them and to remind them about your brand and products.

Automated emails can offer customers a personalised 'missing you' message and show them things that they have missed, such as relevant new products, services, insights or brand news.

By segmenting these types of emails by lifetime value you could offer customers who have spent more with you personalised deals to help entice them back to your store— customers who have made multiple purchases from you are more likely to buy from you again.??

Loyalty Programme

One of the best ways to reward customers for their business and build ongoing customer relationships is by offering a loyalty programme.

Loyalty programmes not only provide benefits such as points for money off and exclusive offers to encourage customers to buy from you, they also act as a catalyst for growth in other areas of your business:

• Boosting customer acquisition
• Increasing sales, average order values and customer lifetime value
• Giving you an edge on competitors who don't have a loyalty programme
• Fostering a community of loyal customers

A loyalty programme is another opportunity to personalise CX, with exclusive offers for programme members and a more engaged, loyal audience on which to focus your marketing efforts.

Many eCommerce platforms feature loyalty programme functionality. There are WooCommerce plugins, Shopify apps and the Magento Rewards and Loyalty system, so it's easy to setup a loyalty programme and begin seeing the benefits.

64% of retailers say their loyalty scheme is the best way to connect with customers.?

Final Thought

Stronger and longer customer relationships are vital to meet and exceed rising customer expectations, and to take a lead in an increasingly competitive omnichannel landscape.

?Ensuring that your online store offers outstanding UX and is optimised for conversion, offering personalised shopping experiences and more valuable customer communications, will help your business achieve ongoing eCommerce success.??

Does your brand and business inspire customer loyalty? If you'd like to know more about building eCommerce customer relationships, then get in touch today for a chat with one of our expert team.

Sources

1 https://cxm.co.uk/close-personal-customers-increasingly-demanding-personalised-service/

2 https://instapage.com/blog/personalization-statistics#:~:text=Ecommerce%20personalization%20statistics&text=On%20average%2071%25%20of%20consumers,their%20shopping%20experience%20is%20impersonal.&text=Marketers%20see%20an%20average%20increase,personalization%20influences%20their%20shopping%20decision.

3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/02/18/50-stats-showing-the-power-of-personalization/?sh=4ea636ac2a94

? https://home.barclaycard/press-releases/2018/04/Retailers-losing-out-on-18bn-each-year-through-Surf-and-Turf-online-shopping-trend/

? https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-loyalty-programs/