In this blog post, we’ve carefully selected four practical strategies to inspire repeat purchases from your existing members. These strategies will enable you to capitalize on the membership economy and enhance the sales and profitability of your online store.
Regardless of the scale of your retail business, the question “How can I boost sales?” invariably crosses your mind. From the perspective of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), retaining existing customers is an absolute cornerstone for retail success.
The well-known “1:5 Rule” in marketing posits that acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one. During economic downturns, consumers become more frugal, making it far more challenging to attract new clientele. This further emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer retention. In this blog post, we’ve carefully selected four practical strategies to inspire repeat purchases from your existing members. These strategies will enable you to capitalize on the membership economy and enhance the sales and profitability of your online store.
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A recent Ipsos study, involving over 1,000 customer experience experts from 50 countries, revealed that nearly 60% of respondents consider personalization to be the most crucial aspect of the customer experience. Delivering a personalized shopping experience to returning customers depends on a robust membership system. This system can gather and integrate various customer data, including age, gender, and purchase history. By analyzing this data, you can gain insights into customer preferences and expectations, allowing you to offer products and services that precisely meet their needs.
However, setting up a membership system is merely the initial step in establishing a membership-based economy. Even if you successfully invite returning customers to join as members, the system’s effectiveness in driving sales will be severely undermined if they perceive little value in the membership. To make your membership program more attractive, you need to offer incentives. A points-based rewards program is an excellent way to encourage customers to continue shopping with your brand.
For merchants on designated Boutir plans, you can activate the “Membership Points Program.” This allows members to earn points, whether they shop online or in-store. These points can be redeemed for valuable rewards, such as shopping credits, as a token of gratitude for their loyalty.
As previously mentioned, personalized shopping experiences are highly valued by customers today. To align with this consumer trend, in addition to using customer data to offer relevant products and services, you can introduce personalized exclusive offers.
Discount codes are a popular promotional tool. Segment your members based on customer characteristics and provide time-limited exclusive discount codes. For example, when customers register for a membership account on your online store, ask them to provide their birth date, email address, and WhatsApp phone number. Then, during their birthday month, send them a personalized birthday greeting along with a special discount code via their preferred communication channel to prompt a purchase.
To further encourage members to shop again, you can set exclusive member prices for certain products or launch member-only promotional campaigns. With the “Promotional Discount Campaign” feature in mPOS, you can roll out member-exclusive offers during your online store’s anniversary sale or peak shopping seasons. These can include site-wide discounts, free shipping promotions, free gift campaigns, product discounts, and bundle purchase deals to heighten their purchasing motivation.
When examining consumer trends, in addition to the demand for personalization, it’s clear that most consumers today don’t rely on a single channel for shopping. A Harvard Business Review article, based on a study of the shopping behavior of over 46,000 customers, found that 73% of respondents use multiple channels throughout their shopping journey. As a result, many merchants have adopted an omnichannel sales strategy (Online Merge Offline, or OMO), operating both physical stores and online shops while integrating online and offline customer data to create a seamless shopping experience.
To offer customers an even smoother shopping experience, some merchants have launched their own branded mobile apps. While many online stores have responsive designs, these are often optimized for desktops first and then adapted for mobile screens. In contrast, a branded app provides a more customized and optimized interface for mobile users, enhancing their browsing and purchasing experience.
From a marketing perspective, the push notification feature of a branded app allows you to send exclusive promotions and updates to existing members. This effectively drives them back to your online store through the app, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases and maximizing remarketing efforts.
For merchants on designated Boutir plans, creating your own branded app is now straightforward, requiring no additional IT expertise. This empowers you to boost customer retention and repeat sales.
Effective word-of-mouth marketing not only helps attract new customers but also builds brand trust. Boutir now supports the “Custom Page” feature, enabling you to create a dedicated customer testimonial page on your online store, just like Boutir merchant “舜之源 Beginning Skincare.” This allows potential customers to read product reviews and experiences, enhancing their confidence in your brand and encouraging them to make a purchase.
Word-of-mouth marketing isn’t just for attracting new customers; it’s also crucial for retaining existing ones. To earn the support and loyalty of your members, you must first create a positive brand perception. By actively engaging with them, considering their feedback for business improvement, and offering exclusive perks that make them feel valued, you strengthen their brand loyalty. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of repeat purchases and encourages them to advocate for your brand.
In conclusion, to encourage repeat purchases from existing members, you can implement a points system, offer exclusive discounts, launch a dedicated brand app, and leverage word-of-mouth marketing. While there are numerous ways to drive repeat purchases, these are some beginner-friendly strategies. To help you strengthen customer relationship management and grow your membership economy, here are three key universal concepts:
To implement these concepts effectively, having a reliable retail business management system is essential. If you need assistance in setting up an online store, you can book a free 30 - minute consultation with our professional online store advisor. We also offer a 14-day free trial, allowing you to start experiencing the benefits right away.
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