5 techniques to foster loyalty in your online shop

Abigail Bosze

Content Writer

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Do you know who is most likely to make a purchase from your online shop? The person who has already bought before. When someone finds your shop, buys a product and is satisfied with it, it is more probable that he or she will buy again compared to a totally unknown person. This is the reason why you have probably noticed that in the last few years more and more customer loyalty programs have appeared . Why would I spend so much money to get new customers if I can earn more profits from the customers I already have? There are several ways to foster customer loyalty and depending on what field your shop covers, the options may be infinite. We at Doofinder will give you 5 ideas that you can start applying today, whatever kind of shop you have. Let’s foster customer loyalty!

1. Hypersegmented email marketing

Email marketing must be the cornerstone of your loyalty program. There is no easier way to sell and keep in contact with your clients than email. Now, of course it must be done intelligently. It would be useless to send an email to all of your customers without any differentiation, without thinking about who’s who and why they are on your list. That translates into a waste of your time and your money. You must use hypersegmented email marketing . If you have a sports online shop, divide your list by sport, by brands, or even by teams. If someone bought a Boston Celtics t-shirt, why wouldn’t he buy a hat if we offer him a small discount? The trick is to offer them what they are looking for. The more you divide up the list, the more sales you will get through your database.

2. Give something else

You buy something online, you receive the package at home and when you open the box, surprise! You find out that, apart from the product you bought, there is a small gift, discount tickets for other shops, or any other addition that gives your product a higher value. It may seem silly, but by including a small card, stickers, a booklet with discounts or any other added detail will make the client feel more special. If they feel special buying from your shop, they will buy again.

3. Remarketing

Imagine that you buy a mobile phone online. After the purchase, when you are surfing the web or on Facebook or Twitter, you see different banners and sponsored ads for phone cases and accessories. What happens next? What happens next is that you start wanting those products. When you click on those ads and you realize that the advertiser is the same shop that you got your phone from, you start feeling more comfortable with this shop, so long as the phone is working properly. Cross-selling is really important for an online shop and if you mix it with remarketing and an online customer loyalty program you will multiply your sales with just a small investment.

4. Post-sales support

There are a lot of shops that sell products for a higher price simply because of their post-sales service. This service is one of the best ways of fostering lifelong customer loyalty. We just need to ask Apple about it, don’t we? When someone buys a product and knows that whatever happens, the online shop or company where he or she got it will be there to help, he will value the product more. Good technical assistance service and post-sales support help to build customer confidence and create a relationship between the customer and the shop that could lead to more sales.

5. Complementary services

An online shop has products that could almost always be complemented by other companies’ services or even by other products. For example, let’s imagine that we have a video game shop. What if we invite our customers to a video games event with an exclusive discount? What if we offer them the opportunity to participate in a webinar with a famous developer, youtuber or well-known player? It is a big gesture for a small cost. In the end, you’ll let the client know that you care about them, that you know what he or she likes and their perception of your shop will be much more positive. In this way, you may encourage them to buy your products even if they are more expensive than in other shops, because of all the extra services you offer them.

And you? Are you going to keep losing sales?

Sometimes we become obsessed with getting new clients and we do not realize that those “new clients” are our very own previous customers. We must take care of those who have already bought and give them all the possible perks and benefits because getting them to buy again is cheaper than making an unknown person to buy. Are you going to foster loyalty or are you going to keep losing sales?