By
Have you ever heard about the 80/20 rule, sometimes called the Pareto principle?
The 80/20 rule implies that 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. Well, we are not here to talk about human development (if this is what you are now thinking about). We are here to tell you that the 80/20 applies to your customers as well.
It has been shown that 80% of your revenue emerges from 20% of your clients ( Investopedia,2022).
In addition, your current customers are 50% more likely to purchase new products, and even 31% are more likely to spend more (Finances online,2023).
Also, acquiring new customers is 6 to 7 times more expensive than retaining existing ones ( Hubspot,2022).
Therefore, all the signs tell you to focus on retaining your current customers. Customer retention is measured through an important metric: the repeat purchase rate (RPR).
The repeat purchase rate is a metric that calculates the number of customers who purchased your product multiple times to your overall number of customers.
The equation for calculating your e-commerce repeat purchase rate is:
The Number of repeated customers ÷ total number of customers ✖ 100.
At this point, we have grabbed your attention. So, keep reading for the best tips and tactics to increase your repeat purchase rate.
Table Of Content:
Tips and tactics to increase repeat purchase rate
- Create a pleasant customer experience
- Use personalization
- Create loyalty programs
- Communicate with your customers
- Collect customer feedback
- Show your reviews
- Incentivize second purchases
Tips And Tactics To Increase Repeat Purchase Rate
Increasing your e-commerce repeat purchase rate should be addressed. Thus, we will provide you with the best tips and tactics for an accelerating repeat purchase rate.
1- Create A Pleasant Customer Experience
The first thing you need to do to improve your repeat purchase rate (RPR) is to create a pleasant customer experience.
Yes, it’s that simple.
If you want customers to return to you for another purchase, you have to offer them something worth returning.
Creating a pleasant customer experience is done through several tactics. For instance, you must ensure that your customers’ ordering journey is seamless. Therefore, customers can have a hassle-free ordering experiment and even payment.
Needless to say, you need to offer your customers fantastic, superior-quality products. This is the key to a repeated purchase. It keeps your product on top of your customer’s minds in their upcoming purchases.
An important tip that improves your repeat purchase rate is your packaging. This is usually neglected when e-commerce businesses think of creating a pleasant customer experience.
However, the consequences of nice packaging go far more than you imagine. An elegant package with a lovely message to your customer can maximize your RPR.
Happy socks understand well the importance of nice packaging. Therefore, their socks are packed in eye-catching boxes that can be later used for storage.
In addition, their product description is written on the box so customers can remember it in the next purchase. Hence, their packages act as a reminder for their customers.
A brilliant idea, isn’t it!!.
2- Use Personalization
There are several ways to use personalization for your e-commerce store to improve your repeat purchase rate.
Personalization is not only about mentioning your customer’s name in emails. It goes beyond this. Offering customers personalized product recommendations is a winning tactic. You need to gather data on the products your customers are interested in and then provide customized recommendations. This leads to customers repeating their purchases.
In addition, you can send customized emails as a re-engagement way with your customers that have not been purchasing for a while. You can offer them product recommendations similar to the ones they bought.
Amazon makes good use of personalization by sending its customers emails with product recommendations similar to their previous purchases. This indeed leads them to repeat purchases.
An extra tip for handling the personalization thing; you might need a marketing automating tool to handle it. So, Convertedin comes to the rescue. Convertedin is a powerful product recommendation engine that will offer customers relevant recommendations based on their purchase history.
3- Create Loyalty Programs
One of the most important tactics for an increased repeat purchase rate is creating loyalty programs. You need to provide your customers with a little boost to return back to you. This can be achieved by creating loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs are simply a Thank you for your loyal customers. You can offer your loyal customers discounts and offers for their continuous purchases. In addition, you can create exclusivity vibes by providing your loyal customers with early access to your new products. This will definitely do the job.
Your e-commerce loyalty program might be a points-based program.
For example, Sephora Business Insider is one of the most known loyalty programs. It is a points-based one in which each dollar spent reflects one point. Accordingly, customers collecting a certain number of points can choose the reward they desire.
In fact, Sephora’s loyalty program has 25 million users and accounts for 80% of its annual sales (Shopify,2022).
4- Communicate With Your Customers
This may sound weird, but communication is always the key. We bet you have heard this several times before, but we are here to tell you that communicating with your customers can accelerate your repeat purchase rate.
You can send your customers an email reminding them of the launching of your new products and why they shouldn’t miss them.
In addition, you might need to re-engage with your previous customers who have not been active for a while. This might give your business a chance for a repeated purchase.
Also, post-purchase engagement is essential. Send your customers a thank you email for purchasing your product. You can share tutorials and tips on how to use your products and services.
A smart tactic might include estimating the time when your customers finish your product, and then you can send them a reminder for re-purchase. This applies to cosmetics and beauty products, for example, or any other similar products.
The point is that you need to be a communicative brand to stay on top of your customer’s minds for their upcoming purchase.
Therefore, you will have to use email marketing to communicate with your customers. We know that automating emails might be tough to manage. Hence, we recommend checking Convertedin. It will effortlessly build and customize personalized SMS and email marketing campaigns to increase your ROI.
5- Collect Customer Feedback
To increase your e-commerce repeat purchase rate, you need to know what your customers think about your products. So, you will have to gather your customer’s feedback about their purchase.
Therefore, any errors or deficiencies in their previous orders will be detected and dealt with to ensure repeat purchases. Hence, your customer feedback will mean nothing if you don’t act on them. You need to take it from this point and solve their issues to rebuild their trust.
Collecting your customers' feedback can be done through surveys in which you ask them to evaluate their previous experience. So, you will have to formulate a survey that will enable you to ask the right questions.
Always keep in mind that a satisfied customer is the one who will get back to you for further purchases.
6- Show Your Reviews
Word-of-mouth marketing never fails in encouraging purchases. In our case, it won’t fail to maximize your e-commerce repeat purchase rate.
When you show positive reviews of your products, it will create a psychological phenomenon known as social proof.
Social proof can be simply explained as people find safety in imitating others. Hence, showing your reviews will encourage your previous customers to re-purchase your products and accelerate your repeat purchase rate.
88% of people trust online reviews from previous customers, which affects their purchase decisions (Bright local,2022). This is a large number that tells you: you need to show your product reviews.
7- Incentivize Second Purchases
Who does not like some incentives? Either at work or during a shopping experience.
Well, customers would appreciate some incentives to encourage them to repeat purchases. Incentives can include discounts, coupons, free shipping, and other offers.
In fact, these incentives encourage your not-so-active customers to re-purchase from your e-commerce store.
It is certainly a tactic that will improve your repeat purchase rate.
Final Thoughts:
Increasing your repeat purchase rate will contribute to more revenues and better performance for your e-commerce store. We have filled you in with the best tactics and strategies to improve your e-commerce repeat purchase rate.
So, it's time to start working on implementing these tactics.
