With the entire world going virtual in 2020, ecommerce is on an all-time boom which will extend well into the years to come. Shoppers need an immediate, convenient, and simplified shopping experience. From waiting for days on end for a delivery, today’s users expect their deliveries immediately.
Many of the world’s largest retailers realized that a strong online presence is non-negotiable. Omnichannel is not the future, it is the present. Retail brands need to create a seamless experience across all channels for their brands to thrive in this day and age. This is crucial from a retention standpoint, especially when acquisition costs are higher than ever.
While competing with retail giants, brands need to invest in creating individualized experiences for their consumers. This also contributes immensely to retaining new customers and increasing customer lifetime value.
Here are 7 highly powerful ways for ecommerce brands to boost their customer lifetime value in 2021:
- Getting onboarding right
If having an ecommerce website was a differentiator earlier for consumers to make their choice, today it’s all about the onboarding experience. Brands need to remember that they only get a single chance to make a first impression.
The top 2 reasons why customers drop-off are because the product/service they chose failed to deliver value or they weren’t able to understand the value of the product/service. This can easily be resolved by focusing on your onboarding process.
By understanding your customers and their pain points, you can tailor your onboarding process accordingly. Inform your customers about what to expect and show them the value they can receive during the onboarding process itself.
- Keep them engaged
Now that you have acquired and onboarded your customers, it is important to keep them engaged. Otherwise, your app will be lost in the sea of shopping apps on a user’s phone. Keep them coming back to the app with campaigns across channels like push notifications, emails, and SMS.
While they are in the app, keep connecting with them in a contextual and personalized manner using in-app notifications, an app inbox, and native display.
- Reduce time to first transactions
By creating a sense of urgency, ecommerce brands can reduce the time to first transactions. TATA StarQuick does a good job in reducing time to first transactions with INR 100 in the app wallet for every new user. With periodic triggers to use this free amount, users are more likely to add more cash to the app and make a purchase.
- Leverage Marketing Automation
When the goal is to boost sales and maximize your budget, relying on marketing automation will help you to stay organized. Additionally, such a platform will help you to drill down into minute details about your customers.
While choosing tools that form a part of your marketing stack, it is important to evaluate the total cost of ownership (TCO), so that you get the biggest bang for your buck. Choose tools that do multiple things — rather than choosing separate analytics and engagement platforms, you can choose an integrated one.
- Encourage Repeat Transactions
Repeat transactions are a great way to boost customer lifetime value. By upselling or cross-selling, you will be able to solve your customer’s problems to a greater degree. Further, by offering subscriptions, bundled products, or upgrades, you can encourage repeat transactions.
- Reward Loyal Users
Honor customers who keep coming to your platform by making them feel special. Surprise and delight your loyal customers. Make them feel important by giving them exclusive access to special or newly-released products and services. Celebrate their special moments like birthdays and anniversaries.
Why do all of this? A loyal customer is satisfied with your product or service, so the cost of retaining them is low. Moreover, by making them feel special, you are making it easier for up-sells and cross-sells, in addition to an increase in order values and frequency. This all leads to an increase in customer lifetime value.
- Top-Notch Customer Care
The not-so-secret sauce for an ecommerce app’s success lies in a seamless customer experience, both on- and offline. Poor customer service is a deal-breaker, especially with today’s empowered customers. Some ways in which customers can be taken care of include providing omnichannel and 24/7 support, live-chat support, a ready access knowledge base, listening to customer feedback, and actively implementing it.
Having an integrated analytics and engagement platform like CleverTap can help you engage customers across each micro-moment starting from browsing through sharing a review post-purchase.
