The E-Commerce market is expanding continuously, even after the Covid-19 impact worldwide. The brick and mortar business has been affected badly, some of the shops had to close temporarily. Instead of visiting brick-and-mortar stores, people often prefer shopping on online stores.
Utilizing this time, E-Commerce business needs to be more focused on online visitors, demographics, products, sales, discounts, and promotions. A smart e-commerce business owner knows that to succeed in building a profitable business, you must understand that the relationship you establish with customers doesn’t end with a purchase. After a customer has bought from you and you’ve successfully fulfilled your promise by delivering their goods promptly, your job is still not done. At this point in the buyer journey, a huge opportunity presents itself — the chance to turn customers into repeated buyers.
To working intentionally to maintain long-term relationships with customers over time in e-commerce, two things should be done in the business:
· It will increase the lifetime value of the customers purchasing and engaging with your products or website.
· It will drive those same customers to encourage their friends and family members to try your products (referring the word-of-mouth marketing).
So, you are maintaining a good relationship with your existing customers and the second point is very important as it is a very powerful tool for marketing and it’s real. A reference from a buyer will always carry more weightage than any paid advertising leads. This is how you can build your empire of customers. If you treat your customers well and make them feel special via emails, rewards, special promotions, they will recommend your business to more people and it will be completely free! You just need to maintain a good relationship and think how may you make it happen?
As the future of the e-commerce is bright post COVID-19. The following are the keys you may implement at your e-commerce business to increase customers and their lifetime value and turn them into promoting the brand.
After each purchase, ask customers to share it on the social media page
Talk to your customers about your website and the product they have purchased. When consumers purchases a shirt, top, etc. they want to share it and tell someone about it. That’s the time you need to talk to your customers.
Include a thank you page in the order confirmation email, and provide the opportunity to share the product on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. Ask them to tag you and you may put any contest on it so customers will share it on social media.
You may simply add it into the E-mailer, you don’t need any special app or tool for it.
Ask for product review and feedback to improve the service quality
Your job is not done with only the thank you page and sharing the page on social media. Post the thank you page, you need to ask for the customer feedback on the product they purchased or downloaded.
Other than feedback, you only have the option of guessing the customer opinion, and business won’t run on guessing. Without feedback/review/testimonials, you can’t expect success. Most of the consumers look for feedback/reviews before purchasing the product online.
To gain the responses, you may create a quick survey for the customers. You may ask for the website experience, products they like, what extra they are looking for, review the product they have purchased, the checkout process, payment options, etc.
You may also do it via the marketing automation process, which will help to send the email to your customers in a proper manner.
Apart, you may also need to check on:
· Your competition
· Understanding your core audience
· Discover the ideas, which make people buy the products etc.
Shatter them with exceeding the Expectations!
In business, everybody has heard the saying “ under-promise and over-deliver,” but the question is, how you will do that? While purchasing online, customers expect sales, discounts, or promotions before purchasing the product. They don’t expect anything back post purchasing but, if you exceed expectations by just a bit, you are not only making people happy and encourage to buy more products. If you want to increase your business sales 10X, then you need to delight and surprise your customers with extraordinary services, so that this will make them talk more about your business. Have a look on the strategies to boost your E-Commerce Business.
Here are a few examples:
· Ensure that they should arrive sooner than they expect.
· Send a thank-you note along with the packages.
· Greet them on their birthday, anniversary, and other occasions.
· Include a free sample along with the purchased product
· Offer a discount on their next purchase.
· Share the printed card of return or exchange policy with contact no. and timeline.
All the above depends upon what you sell, your margins, etc. Try to find out the optimal ways exceeding the expectations, and undoubtedly you will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.