How to Turn Your One-Time Shoppers Into Lifelong Customers

You have a business. And as a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to make more money. Obviously one of the best ways to increase your revenue is to attract more customers, right?

So you spend thousands of dollars on promotions and marketing campaigns to acquire new customers. And you do start making slightly more money. But what if you could increase your revenue even more by spending much less?

Instead of focusing on getting new customers, you need to prioritize retaining your existing customers. Improving your customer retention can reduce costs, and increase your revenue much more than acquiring new customers.

According to Adobe, repeat purchasers generate revenue that’s 3-7 times higher than first-time shoppers. That doesn’t mean you should stop trying to drive new customers to your website. Instead, you need to make sure that those new shoppers become lifelong customers.

Here are three ways to keep them coming back for more:

#1: Make A Good First Impression

First impressions matter, especially for ecommerce retailers. The more pleasant a customer’s first-time shopping experience is, the more likely they are to become returning customers.

Here are some crucial steps to ensure that you make a good first impression:

Optimize Your Landing Pages To Improve Shopping Experience

If you’re promoting a new line of products through an ad, make sure you have a special landing page for what you’re promoting. Similarly, if you’re promoting a specific item, make sure people land on the product page. Or if your ad is promoting a holiday deal on select products, the landing page should be relevant to that deal.
Take a look at the following Facebook ad from Nykaa, for example. It advertises a range of nude matte nail polishes.

When you click on the ad, you land on a page which includes the advertised range of nail polishes. The landing page also contains several other related products, as shown below.

Simplify Your Checkout Process

Make sure people can easily complete their purchases with just a few clicks. Give them the option to checkout using their social media accounts instead of requiring them to sign up using an email address and password.

Keep Customers Updated

After a customer completes their purchase, send them an email to thank them for their order. The email should also contain essential information such as the order number, contact info, etc. Additionally, make sure you keep them posted on the progress of their order. Send them regular updates about which stage their order is in – whether it’s being packed, dispatched, or in transit.

#2: Re-engage Shoppers Within 30 Days

If you plan on re-engaging your first-time shoppers, the best time to do so is within 30 days of their first purchase. According to RJMetrics, 69% of an ecommerce customer’s first year spend occurs within the first 30 days.

If you can successfully re-engage first-time shoppers within this timeframe, you’ll have a better chance of driving repeat purchases from them.

To re-engage new customers, you can send them an email to promote items that you think they might like. If you happen to have a new line of products, or an exciting offer during their first 30 days as a customer, send them a re-engagement email to tell them about it. You can also email new customers to ask for their feedback about their recent purchase, and include some product recommendations in the email.

Take a look at the following re-engagement email from The Wishing Chair. It’s short, and straight to the point. It tells the customer, “we miss you,” and “hope you come back soon.” It also invites customers to check out their newest products using the, “What’s New” button.

Emails aren’t the only way to re-engage your first-time shoppers. You can also retarget them with social media ads displaying items they might like. Or if there are items they’ve viewed, abandoned in their carts, or added to their wish list, you can promote them in the ads.

#3: Invite Them To Become Part Of Your Community

Establish a strong relationship with first-time shoppers by making them feel like part of a community. The goal is to ensure that they develop a strong affinity to your community, which can prompt them to make another purchase.

There are two main ways to do this:

Feature Your Customers On Your Website Or Social Media

Encourage first-time shoppers to join your customer community by sharing their experiences through social media. You can assign a unique hashtag, which they can use to submit their photos.

Give them the opportunity to be featured on your website or social media profiles. Not only can you engage new shoppers this way, you can also spread awareness among potential customers.
Black Milk Clothing does a great job of this. They assign a unique hashtag for each product, and encourage shoppers to share their photos using the hashtag. Then they feature some of the customer submissions on the relevant product pages.

Introduce A Loyalty Program To Reward Repeat Customers

A loyalty program is an excellent way to make customers feel special and improve customer retention. For each purchase, you can give shoppers reward points, which they can later redeem for discounts or free merchandise. The Starbucks reward program is an excellent example of this.
Alternatively, you could introduce an exclusive premium membership program like Amazon Prime, which offers members added perks. Business Insider reports that Amazon Prime customers spend twice as much after becoming members. So this type of loyalty program could help you drive conversions and increase revenue significantly, while retaining your customers.

Conclusion

These are three of the most effective ways to turn first-time shoppers into lifelong customers. As you can see, all of these tips focus on the customers, and their experiences. It’s crucial to prioritize your shoppers before your profits. It takes a customer-first strategy to turn one-time shoppers into loyal customers.

Do you have any questions about these tips, or anything to add? Please leave a comment below.

^{* Adapted lead image:  Public Domain, pixabay.com via getstencil.com}