14 Customer Retention Strategies
To Increase E-Commerce ROI

1. Personalised customer experiences

When brands offer personalisation, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from them, according to Epsilon’s study. Moreover, 89 per cent of businesses see a positive ROI through personalised campaigns.

Here is how you can ensure personalisation in e-commerce.

• • Customer data platform : A customer data platform is for centralising customer data from different sources, eliminating the need for data and intelligence silos. Having built customer intelligence using an e-commerce CDP helps offer your customers a personalised experience.
• • Customer segmentation : A CDP combines all customer data to create a 360-degree view of customers and it helps you to segment your customers precisely.
• • RFM Analysis : An RFM segmentation classifies your high-value customers, customers who need attention and inactive customers so that you can approach each segment with a personalised experience that aligns with them.
• • Cohorts Analysis : Customer cohorts help you identify the purchasing patterns of your customers and the marketing channels that attract valuable customers. This enables you to offer better personalisation to your customers.

2. Conversational omnichannel retention campaigns

E-commerce businesses can include AI-powered campaigns to ensure that their customers always come back for repeat purchases. Here's how you can ensure that your retention campaigns bring exceptional results.

• • Customer segmentation : It is essential for e-commerce businesses to segment their customers and target the retention campaign to the right customers to drive results. This ensures that you can give all your customers personalised recommendations and discounts that align with their interests.
• • A/B Testing : You can test for performance and constantly update the email, SMS, and WhatsApp templates to optimise the campaign performance. This continuous optimisation of your campaigns empowers you to retain your customers efficiently.

3. Loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are not new in the e-commerce industry. E-commerce platforms these days have been coming up with stand-out loyalty programs that reward their customers with the right incentives for their participation.

Let us explore some customer loyalty program statistics.

4. Customer portal

Customer portals make the customer experience convenient by giving them access to information. It lets your customers log in to their accounts, access their account information, view past delivery track orders, and adjust delivery options. It would also include product catalogues and documentation. Moreover, portals let them interact with a customer support team.

A customer portal is, therefore, an important part of any e-commerce platform that customers look forward to. This lets them manage account information, submit support tickets and track order history. A survey conducted last year found that 66 per cent of manufacturers were planning to invest in customer portals in 2024.

5. Reviews

How important do you think reviews are in the e-commerce industry? Are the customers reading the reviews others leave before purchasing the products? Let us understand it with some critical statistics from Inc.

Here are some of the benefits that e-commerce businesses gain from customer reviews

• • Improve sales : Since customer feedback can influence customers' purchase decisions, it is an effective tool to improve sales.
• • Helps identify issues : The negative reviews that customers leave help e-commerce businesses identify areas for improvement. Acting on these areas of improvement enhances problem-solving and can help improve customer experiences.

6. Surveys

It is essential for e-commerce companies to build a customer survey that includes the right questions and collects customer opinions about your products. Here are some factors that you should consider before you create a survey.

• • Target customers : Before you build a survey, identify the customers who would be participating in it. For instance, a post-purchase survey should be directed towards the customers who recently purchased a product.
• • Ask the right questions : It is important to ask your customers the right questions during the survey. So, you have to know what information you need to gather before building surveys.
• • Keep it simple : Try to keep your surveys simple without any complex language so that you can gather the proper responses from your customers.

With the help of a tool like TechMonk, you can send the message to the right customer segments. Moreover, it lets you create simple surveys through drag-and-drop tools, making it easy to build surveys that customers find appealing.

7. AI-powered customer service

E-commerce businesses cannot afford not to give their customers impressive support. You can make customer support exceptional with the help of Gen AI bot and AI agents. You should provide your customers with 24/7 and uninterrupted support and reach them on whichever communication platform they use.

You can try a Gen AI powered Support Agent from TechMonk that can assist your customers on your website and WhatsApp, offering them personalised suggestions and discounts and guiding them throughout the purchase process.

8. Personalised discounts

Giving your customers personalised discounts encourages them to make repeat purchases. Therefore, it is one of the critical customer retention strategies for e-commerce businesses. It is essential that the discount you offer your customer stand out from others. How do you do that?

TechMonk helps you perform customer segmentation based on their behaviour to find price-sensitive customers from others. For these customers, you can give them a discount that aligns with their interests. At the same time, for different customer segments, you can come up with a percentage discount that they might find more attractive.

9. Referral programs

Referral programs are one of the important strategies of customer retention in e-commerce. It helps e-commerce businesses acquire more customers by encouraging their existing customers to introduce you to their friends and family. But how is that one of the critical customer retention strategies for e-commerce?

Only the most loyal customers of an e-commerce platform refer it to their friends and family. Customers who refer your platform with friends keep returning to make repeat purchases. Moreover, your newly acquired customers also refer your business to new customers, paving the way to customer acquisition and retention.

10. Discounts & incentives

Discounts and incentives in e-commerce bring repeat customer purchases and help retain them. Here are some discount ideas that work well with e-commerce customers.

11. Act on customer feedback

It is essential for e-commerce businesses to act on customer feedback. This makes the customers feel that their opinions are valued and builds customer loyalty. Loyal customers keep returning to your e-commerce platform to make repeat purchases. Moreover, they also recommend your business to their friends and family, attracting them to your customer base.

12. Customer accounts

The importance of customer accounts in e-commerce needs no explanation. Letting customers create accounts helps them to instantly access their previous orders and shipping information and even get personalised recommendations. This encourages the customers to make repeat purchases.

At the same time, new customers on your e-commerce platform would like to make purchases even without an account. In other words, they might look for check out as a guest option. Considering the importance of a user account, you can let customers make their initial purchase as a guests and then ask them to create an account on your platform.

13. Clear return policies

E-commerce businesses need a clear return policy explaining what products qualify for a return and when they do not. Most e-commerce customers check the return policy before placing an order. This will also help you manage the expectations of your customers and avoid creating unnecessary misunderstandings.

14. Buy now pay later option (BNPL)

Another essential feature e-commerce customers look for is the ‘buy now pay later’ option. It is also one of the critical customer retention strategies as it allows customers to purchase items frequently and pay for them over time without interest.

If you offer the BNPL option, highlight it on your product pages and during checkout. This encourages price-sensitive customers to complete a purchase and even return for more purchases.