8 tried and tested e-commerce strategies for creating brand loyalty
So, you’ve just launched your e-commerce website and you’re pretty pleased with the result. Better still, you’ve just processed your first online sale. Congratulations! What’s your next step? Ensuring your customers return for more purchases and avoid them buying from a marketplace or competitor website. Give these 8 e-commerce brand loyalty strategies a try!
8 effective strategies for creating brand loyalty in 2022
Just like in a physical store, there are certain things you can do to attract your customers coming back repeatedly. For instance, Hollister dresses its sales staff in skimpy outfits, Lush leaves the doors open to release the smell of its soaps, how about you, what will you do to create brand loyalty online?
1. Aim for exceptional customer service
During you stay at a hotel, you probably like having access to helpful, smiling receptionists 24/7…
Well, your customers also have expectations when it comes to e-commerce sales. In addition to unfailing availability, you also need patience, empathy and clarity when it comes to communication.
Every interaction is a new opportunity to sell a product or a service
So here are few examples of good etiquette practices for exceptional e-commerce customer services:
- Give your customer advisors the material means and processes to follow;
- Save, store and analyse feedback to keep moving forward;
- Make your E-commerce Me-commerce;
- Offer quick solutions (FAQs, full website, stories on social media);
- Personalise your customer relations (one customer per member of staff).
60% of consumers don’t like having to deal with several different people while making a purchase.
2. Use customised e-marketing
Customised marketing is one of the most important e-commerce brand loyalty strategies. Customers love to feel unique when they read a newsletter, browse a website or see an ad on Facebook. In fact, they’ll even pay 25% more for a custom product.
So, offer product recommendations according to what you know about your customers: their most recent searches, their previous purchases, their preferences and so on. Additionally, you can use this information to recommend free content to them – such as blog articles, e-books and videos that showcase what they are potentially looking for.
3. Reward loyal customers with exclusive benefits
What could be better than exclusive benefits to reward loyal customers?
This tactic helps encourage repeat purchases and to increase the average basket value on your e-commerce website.
These benefits can range from:
- A discount for signing up to your newsletter;
- Free delivery for a certain purchase amount;
- A loyalty card after a certain number of purchases;
- A pre-launch offer;
- By recommending a friend;
- A discount on the first purchase;
- X% discount to renew a subscription in advance etc.
However, you need to be cautious and not offer these exclusive benefits too regularly. The aim is for your customers to be (super) excited when they receive them.
4. Show what goes on behind the scenes at your company
For example, towards the end of each job offer on Welcome To The Jungle (a French recruiting website) you’ll find a video that showcases different employees within the company. In addition to being a bit of fun, this practice also allows potential talent to imagine themselves working for the company (or not).
When it comes to selling products online, the same applies. The more you talk about your aims, values (innovation, excellence, transparency, etc.) and your staff, the closer your customers will feel to you.
That said, show different sides of your company to prove to your customers you aren’t simply there to sell. Lastly, share these values at professional events, on your social media channels or in marketing materials.
5. Develop an e-commerce loyalty programme
Loyalty programmes are one of the most important e-commerce brand loyalty tools. They encourage new customers to come back to your online store.
Many brands have a points system in place to strengthen their e-commerce strategy. A customer gets points for each purchase. They can then utilise them as a credit towards future purchases. Example: £1 spent = 1 point earned = 10p off.
6. Create customer loyalty with retargeting
Retargeting is an online marketing technique where you can target people who visit your website.
Imagine Jim visits your e-commerce website, in particular your “fishing kit” page. He doesn’t buy anything and life continues as it was. That same evening, Jim looks at a classified ads website and notices an ad for your famous fishing kit.
He immediately clicks on the ad in question and is automatically redirected to your website to potentially buy the kit.
This brand loyalty strategy is widely used in e-commerce as it helps to increase brand awareness. In addition, retargeting ads are always sent to qualified prospects.
7. Send reminder emails each time a basket is abandoned
According to a study by the Baymard Institute, the abandoned basket rate is 68.53%! A disappointing statistic for e-sellers…
One e-commerce customer loyalty strategy to combat this is to send reminder emails every time a basket is abandoned. After all, your customer was about to make a purchase, so they may well decide to do so later. A little reminder email won’t hurt and might just push them in the right direction.
8. Adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy
An omnichannel marketing strategy tends to multiply a company’s distribution channels (both physical and virtual) and contact points.
Offering customers different ways of making contact with you encourages them to add comments and ask questions, so you can considerably improve user experience and make your customers want to be in contact with you.
There you have it, today’s e-commerce brand loyalty strategies!
To succeed in creating brand loyalty, combine several of these brand loyalty strategies! And if you need inspiration, check out France’s top 10 e-commerce websites in 2022.
At Textmaster, we can help you translate your shop window and e-commerce websites to increase your international sales significantly!
