💬 Increasing your repeat purchase rates through refining, optimising and testing new campaigns and initiatives should be the aim for any eCommerce brand.
It can be dependent on the nature of your product/what you sell, but as a principle, the more repeat purchases you can achieve within a give period (i.e. typically over 12 months), the greater the chance for seeing faster scale and compound growth.
So, what do eCommerce brand owners/marketers need to focus on for more repeats?
Well, I'm going to share some areas that I've seen work pretty with this objective.
💬 You'll see below various checklist points on things to test/experiment, across areas like upsells, cross-sells, specific programs, etc. :)
I've mentioned a few times across these checklists that loyalty and rewards programs for eCommerce brands come with numerous benefits - from LTV and AOV, as well as increasing repeat purchasing rates (i.e. retention).
Additionally, when these types of programs kick-off and scale, they really can serve as a competitive advantage.
There are many ways to also encourage more uptake for loyalty/rewards, and better strategies to promote/engage.
Subscriptions in eCommerce when they take off can really catapult a brand - plus, it's the ultimate business model that investors love (if that's a route you're considering).
Numerous benefits include the likes of predictable revenue (as it's recurring - you can better forecast, invest in growth, etc), helps with LTV, and even the likes of AOV through upselling/cross-selling.
There are numerous ways to optimise subscription programs for more uptake and retention.
A big opportunity for upselling and cross-selling, and increasing the chances that first-time customers come back and purchase again, is by setting up post-purchase emails series.
Now, to really make them work, you want to dynamically setup flows based on the items, where you can share certain tips, content, social proof, and even the likes of offers, related to the items purchased by customers.
A great 'first-touch' experience for a first-time customer after they've made a purchase (which is where great email marketing comes into play), can go a long way.
Related to the above with post-purchase email flows - after the initial automation flows being triggered after a certain period, post that period it's now about sending emails related to purchase/behaviour data, that makes contextual sense to those customers.
For instance, winback campaign offers (which I touch on next), campaign offers, and more - all focused on attributes based on past data.
Targeted winback email campaigns can work really well to get customers back - especially with offers based on attributes and behaviours, such as past purchase data.
I've even put a checklist together of winback email marketing strategies worth testing/experimenting.
On the theme of targeted incentives, it's worth A/B testing different offer types for customers who haven't purchased for a while (similar to winback campaigns).
Test offers such as 'surprise' gifts, free samples, BOGO, bundled discounts, and numerous others.
Where it really counts comes down to the segment targeting and making the messaging feel personalised to them.
I often say with clients/companies I advise with growth marketing to share social proof elements across marketing channels and campaigns essentially everywhere (where it makes sense of course).
Social proof helps with numerous objectives, with a key focus on trust/credibility, for various customer journey stages - both for new customers, as well as existing where you want to upsell, cross-sell, and ultimately, retain for LTV (repeat purchasing).
I've done a couple of checklists with social proof tactics with testing/experimenting.
A great initiative for existing customers bases (as well as new customer segments) is by running AMAs and events - or any content format that involves people to turn up and engage somewhere.
Events/AMAs I quite like as initiatives and are good as part of the marketing promotion mix, as you don't want to as a brand to be on an endless loop of promotion-heavy marketing.
Communities can be a serious competitive advantage for brands, particularly in really competitive verticals (like beauty and fashion).
Numerous benefits include brand advocacy, engagement, support - and ultimately, help with getting customers to come back and purchase again (and again).
When it's really humming, can serve as a massive advocacy engine, which helps with TOF/MOF acquisition - the amount of marketing ideas/content you can get from communities is amazing too.
I actually put a community building checklists for eCommerce brands together worth checking out.
Social UGC and viral competitions can serve as a good way to re-engage customer segments that may have gone quiet - and not to mention, can be amazing for driving up referrals.
A key thing when it comes to competitive categories and offers is getting the attention of customer bases - especially during key seasonal sales campaign periods.
An initiative to really brainstorm/think about is doing offers that aren't your usual 'flash sales' discounts (or similar incentives) - you have to remember, other competing brands are probably doing the same thing.
So, that's where thinking about complementary brand partnerships, or influencer collabs, or limited-edition product items (as examples), can be a great way to re-engage customer segments to come back and purchase.
On the flip side though to the above, "48-hour"/weekend flash do prove to be effective still to do this (you just don't want it to be one of the few offers/incentives in your wheelhouse).
Test/experiment across offer types - and remember to think about segmenting based on past purchase behaviour, and other customer attributes.
A good 'winback' initiative to get the attention of segments that have gone quiet is by simply sending a plain-text (or minimal design) email directly from the founder (or even someone or people from the senior team).
It's a good tactic which feels a bit more personable, especially when you want to hear feedback.
As a good way to help with reply rates, say you're willing to share a special offer (like a discount or little gift).
This is a key foundational strategy initiative that's worth the setup time - make sure to setup dynamic remarketing ads for visitors and customers who view certain products.
These type of ads work quite well in carousel formats.
