SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH | 5 minute read
You spend a lot of time acquiring new customers. Once you've got them, what about making sure they stick around? Today, we have a guest blog post from Alexa Lemzy of TextMagic, letting us know her list of top tools for eCommerce customer retention.
A staggering 40% of the world’s population has shopped online and eCommerce accounts for $349.06 billion of purchases in the United States and $93.89 billion in the United Kingdom. And a full 9 million Americans have purchased something on a mobile device at least once.
All companies want to be able to retain their customers. Selling to a new customer costs more in advertising and promotions than selling to an existing customer. The higher a company’s customer retention rate, the higher their ROI for marketing campaigns.
So, how can you make sure that your eCommerce customers are satisfied? Here are some top tips and tools.
Mobile device conversion rates for eCommerce businesses are increasing every quarter in 2015, and mobile commerce made up 30% of all eCommerce in the US. That means if your site isn’t mobile-ready, you’ll likely start losing business to your competitors whose sites are prepared to cater to mobile shoppers.
Use tools like Google’s Mobile Friendly Test and W3C mobileOK Checker to get a free analysis of your site’s mobile readiness.
Some important tips to convert your website for mobile use:
Photo Credit Gavin Whitner: musicoomph.com
Texting is a very popular form of communication with consumers. It’s more convenient than phone calls that can come at a bad time and voice mails are rarely listened to. Emails don’t have the same immediacy as texts and if your message doesn’t end up in the spam box, it’s still unlikely a customer will open it.
Capitalize on SMS in the following ways:
Social media is an easy and accessible way to provide customer service as well as share images and videos about new products. Customers can also read comments left by other customers on social media, making it a natural place for people to look for product reviews.
Here are some top ways to use social media for customer relations:
Record your key metrics, marketing channels and performance data in one place whilst pre-populating key reports so you can easily see how you’re tracking.
This is perhaps the singlemost important service you can offer to your eCommerce customers. Choose an efficient, cost-effective and reliable courier service to reduce complaints, returns and damaged products.
Here are some important delivery factors:
Use these tools to deliver high-quality customer service, product information, delivery services and purchase experiences to your customers for improved customer satisfaction and retention rates.
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Alexa Lemzy is the customer support person and blog editor at TextMagic. She is interested in the newest mobile tools, customer service best practices and business growth hacks. If you want to ask her a question or show something exciting, just reach out to @Alexa_Lemzy.
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See Also:
10 ways to fight shopping cart abandonement on your eCommerce site
8 common marketing mistakes people make with their eCommerce store
Top 5 eCommerce fears and how to ease online shopping anxieties