.png)
Last update:
Customers can leave for a variety of reasons. They were either not satisfied with the purchase. Or they found a better value in the competitor’s offering. Or they didn’t find the pricing suitable.
And that’s why, along with your customer acquisition campaigns, you need to refocus on winning back lost customers too.
Why? Is it even worth it?
Definitely. If you ask any eCommerce marketer if it is difficult to retain a customer or acquire new customers, they would often say the latter.
The benefits are many. With repeat customers, you don’t have to start your campaigns from scratch and they’re comparatively cheaper than customer acquisition campaigns. But retaining customers — that’s a challenge in itself.
Customer churn is a sad story for many eCommerce companies. And while winning them back is a crucial strategy as a part of your marketing strategy, you need to target only those who are likely to return. Trying to win back every lapsed customer can turn into a waste of your time and budget. So how can investing in a lost customer renewal provide you with a good return?
A specific group of customers are naturally more willing to return than others. These include customers who referred your product to others, have never had issues with their buying experience, or had complaints that were quickly resolved, etc.
Customers who had bigger issues like the pricing needed to be in their range and it was most likely just a one-time purchase or customers who had an unsatisfactory experience are least likely to return to your business. Check for ratings and reviews and also check the customer lifetime value of lost customers to segment customers based on their likeliness to return.
One of the best ways to win back lost customers is to offer an incentive to purchase to create a win-win situation. For customers, they’re getting an exclusive discount and for the brand, it’s winning back customers.
You can also have product recommendations and remind customers of their abandoned carts, offer an exclusive discount to them, or a discount code that will make the purchase even more enticing. However, ensure that you create a sense of urgency and remind customers that this is a one-time offer. You can get them to act faster that way.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to eCommerce brands that checkouts are where the majority of the customers change their minds. Or they’re not able to go through with the purchase because of a technical glitch. If a customer ends up having a poor experience at checkout, they are less likely to come back again. If that’s what it roots down to, you need to pay extra attention to the checkout page.
Find out the primary issues that are plaguing your checkout page. Optimize the page for speed and free of technical issues. You can use an eCommerce monitoring platform to ensure smooth checkouts on your eCommerce store. Also, use eCommerce analytics and feedback to see what user experience problems customers are facing and what encourages them to come back to your store.
If you feel that your visitors are converting from your marketing campaigns, chances are you got your audience all wrong. Maybe the content is not resonating with them, maybe you’ve got the wrong platform, or maybe you’ve highlighted the wrong product features.
It can even happen that the personas you curated before feel that the product or marketing isn’t relevant to them anymore. And a brand can be so busy by the realities of daily operations that they can lose sight of who they’re targeting. Basically, your customer persona is not up to the mark and you need to revisit your target audience to improve your conversions. You can revisit your core demographics and create new ideal customer personas in that case.
One of the ways to re-engage old customers and retain them is by offering upgraded and new products. Not only does this entice them to stay and explore new opportunities but it showcases your brand as one that emphasizes innovation and continuous improvement.
For example, if you’re a sports shoe brand and see your business getting stagnant, you can work on business innovation to start a new line of sportswear. You’re offering a new range of products to your customers and even targeting new ones. Before you launch new products, ensure that you do the due business research and address previous customer pain points so that they can reconsider their decision to leave.
One of the most straightforward ways of knowing why the customers are leaving is to ask them through reviews and feedback. One in 26 customers has at least one issue with the company and is likely not going to shop with you again. Invite customers to fill out surveys or give reviews. You can even reach out to customers via emails and SMS to encourage them to complete reviews and offer them incentives for doing so.
The feedback you get can provide you valuable insights into the major customer pain points and customer dissatisfaction, prompting you to take action before it is too late. Check where the brand is falling short. If it is customer service, train your support team better, if it is the product, work on product innovation and iterations.
You will also get a better idea of any bugs that plague your online store and disrupt the shopping experience you are trying to deliver for your customers. It is highly recommended that you implement bug management measures on your eCommerce store, to prevent these kinds of issues from ruining your overall customer experience.
A lot of brands still consider personalization as an option. However, with the advent of advanced marketing analytics and behavior data, eCommerce companies have reached new heights with their marketing campaigns and personalization. And if you’re not doing that, you are likely losing customers to competitors. Leverage tools to provide a personalized user experience and win customers back.
You can use behavioral targeting software to make personalized recommendations and use the same data to generate unique offers and discount codes for customers based on their purchase history. Successful eCommerce merchants like Amazon are also using behavioral analytics to cross-sell and increase value propositions with unique deals based on customer preferences.
Pricing can make or break a buyer’s decision. While it is not always practical or possible to meet consumer expectations in terms of pricing, you can surely provide alternative means of payment to win back customers who abandon the cart or never return to your brand because of the pricing.
You can consider alternative payment methods like cash on delivery, or buy now, pay later and even embrace third-party payment and wallet systems where payments are considerably easier than credit cards and customers can pay without additional interest on the purchase.
With behavior data and personalized insights into customer journeys, you can use that data to create retargeting campaigns to retarget previous customers. It is an effective way to connect with prospects who have interacted with your brand but haven’t made a purchase. Retargeting ads are those that display products or services that the individuals have viewed previously but haven’t purchased.
For example, say a customer interacted with your online store’s website by clicking the link on Instagram. They surfed the site but didn’t make the purchase. Retargeting ads display your products to the same user on other platforms like Google ads, Facebook, Instagram, and so on. It works great for brand recall and helps you tap on missed opportunities by converting potential customers into customers.
Acting soon before a customer decides to churn can make a whole lot of difference when you don’t have to extensively run retargeting campaigns because of lost customers. Identify the at-risk customers who are about to churn and start retargeting them proactively with email and popup campaigns.
You can identify these customers by tracking how long it has been since they opened your emails or logged into their accounts. Once you segment these customers, craft a series of retargeting emails and remind them of a special discount or the value they have experienced with your product. Additionally, using NotFoundBot can help ensure customers are guided to the right pages even if they encounter errors, preventing frustration and encouraging retention and engagement.
Loyalty programs are crucial for customer retention but they can also be impactful for winning back lost customers. In fact, 68% of customers value shopping with companies with loyalty rewards and prioritized discounts. Promote your loyalty programs to customers who you know are going to lose.
Offer them incentives and value after completing a purchase and improve your loyalty program if you feel it is not working up to your expectations. A loyalty program can include free shipping, early access, special offers, or gift cards that encourage customers to make purchases. Some may find the cost of free shipping too high. In this case, you can utilize the shipping discount platform like ShipSaving, which offers up to 89% off on shipping labels.
Winning customers once is already a challenging task. To win them again after they’ve already experienced a buying journey once with your company can seem almost impossible. But with the right tactics and marketing strategies, you can turn the tables and win them back. Ultimately, no one strategy can work for every company and for every customer.
But one thing that you religiously have to follow is to understand the gaps in your buying journey and understand why customers are leaving in the first place. If you are able to decode that, your winning back strategy can hold more weight and actually provide you with positive results.
Written on:
