In business, both online and offline it is never a wise move to drift away from the old in order to attain the new. Sellers at E-marketplaces launch their business with the dream of making it big with their customers. Proven studies show that it takes seven times the effort, time and cost to obtain new customers than to try and retain existing ones. An optimum balance between new and existing customers is the key to opening the doors of new business opportunities and retail expansion. The truth is that if existing customers are taken care of by sellers, they in turn, take care of new business opportunities for sellers through self-promotions and recommendations to new customers.
Explore the reasons to sell at E-Marketplaces
Most businesses begin their success with a handful of customers and lose focus on them after acquiring new ones which create many pitfalls. A neglect of the current customer’s shopping aspirations and satisfaction is highlighted by this.
Ironically, it is worthwhile to convince your existing customers to continue patronage with the help of well-established selling site than to acquire new unknown customers and build a trust nexus. This is exactly why your customer’s lifetime value is important to measure your business success.
Growth for most eCommerce businesses depends on three key metrics:
- Increase in average order value (AOV)
- Increase in repeat purchase frequency
- Increase in the total number of customers
Here are the top 3 action points for retaining customers at selling alternatives:
- Personalised Retention Emails from Sellers
- Back up the Strong Customer Support of E-Marketplaces
- Delight Your Customers with Meaningful Surprises
Let us go inside more details with these action points in customer retention:
Personalised Retention Emails from Sellers
Inboxes are gateways to entering customer’s minds and hearts. Drafting strategic emails by addressing customers’ specific needs and providing solutions based on their interests can pave way for a trusted and long-term seller-buyer relationship with increased retention. However, the good news is that personalized emails can increase sales by 50%. Re-engaging with old customers. through emails or personal notes always works. It is always advisable to:
- Have a reliable contact list of your customer prospects based on their previous purchases history and queries
- Secondly, have them segmented based on their purchasing behaviours like purchase completion rate, product categories they usually buy from, spending patterns and price ranges they invest in, reviews, feedback and purchase abandonment history and rates.
What content should sellers use in emails to their customers?
On the selling platforms like eBay, Amazon, TrueGether and others, since the emails are automated most of the time, the limited content from sellers should be attractive, engaging and persuasive. Regular follow-up can be a key factor in reliving the wow moment with existing customers or past customers. The email content should include the following:
- Include promo codes or discount offers on consecutive purchases.
- Educate buyers about your products by including advantages of using your products or recommending additional purchases that will support or enhance their current purchase.
- Notify customers about the products that are waiting in their cart and about related deals and offers like discounts and free shipping.
- Portray attractive ways of sending thank you notes to all customers that add value to their purchase.
- Be a clear evidence of seller’s concern if customers have not logged in for a long time or made purchases from them. A concern note saying ‘hope all is well with you’ or ‘Haven’t seen you lately, We thought you may be interested in XYZ product which is limited-edition and only special customers are being informed about the current offer’ sort of notes will definitely help in getting them back.
Back up the Strong Customer Support of E-Marketplaces
Outstanding customer support creates an indelible impression in the minds of customers that helps to retain them in the long run. Any seller who does not pay heed to his customers will ultimately lose the big battle of retailing. Most selling platforms have an effective Customer support system in place that helps sellers in the long-run.
What sellers need to ensure is providing correct feedback and information to these centralized system administrators so that any customer appreciation or grievance is not overlooked. E-marketplaces follow:
- E-ticketing model to handle customer queries and grievances that are prompt but require seller’s prompt intervention in solving significant issues due to request and response model implemented.
- Automated structured email-based services of E-marketplaces need correct and reliable information that needs to be passed on to customers and also need to cover the essence of the sellers’ business motto and sales policies.
- Some E-marketplaces support live chats and social media response features that will need a representative from the seller’s side to provide real-time responses.
- Self-help or troubleshooting manuals or product questionnaires are also implemented by E-marketplaces which need sellers to respond promptly and accurately with product know-how, also product feedback and review pages may have several queries that need seller response.
Delight Your Customers with Meaningful Surprises
Who does not love surprises? Especially during the holiday season or special occasions such as Birthdays or Anniversaries, customers who get surprised by a certain seller have more chances of patronizing the seller again if they have not purchased from them since a long time.
Walk that extra mile to make your customers feel special. Here are a few things you can do to surprise and delight your customers without having to break the bank.
- Surprise giveaways like small gifts or accessories on the purchase of bigger products of higher value such as laptops, mobile phones etc.
- Customer’s favorite brand discount coupons based on their preferences for special occasions
- Free shipping offers for more than one consecutive purchase with the same seller.
- Goodies like chocolates with thank you notes (hand-written) from sellers for milestone customers who have patronized them add a personal touch and gives them the feeling of special attention being offered.
- Ensuring sellers’ gifts have their logo presence promotes brand value when customers share the gesture posts on social media giving sellers an edge over competitors.