How to Build Customer Loyalty and Increase Retention- A Guide for Shopify Merchants

Selling your products and services online can be a challenging task, as today’s digital shoppers are smart and demanding. You need a customer-focused approach right from the beginning. The customer being the most significant pillar of modern eCommerce businesses, one needs to create a genuine product along with them if they want their online store to survive. Customer loyalty is the one thing that most business entities lag in.

Do you know how 5% of customer retention can increase your profitability by 25-95%? Starting a business might be easy, but what takes more effort is to keep it on the upward graph. And, in this horse race, a perfect brand is the one that stays on the market for the longest.

Customer loyalty comes with customer trust i.e. when customers go beyond repeated purchase to advocacy. Often the term customer loyalty is mistaken. Loyalty is not customer satisfaction; rather it is an emotion. Many would wonder why customer loyalty even matters? Here’s the answer to your question:

• Customer loyalty brings customer repurchase. The chances of a loyal customer leaving with an empty bag are considerably low.
• You might not make a purchase just after the brand advertisement on Television, but a friend recommendation can make you do that. That’s how a loyal customer can bring you new customers, acting as your unpaid promotor.
• Customer loyalty is a key to a brand’s success over the years.
• Statistics show the chances of a new customer buying a product remain as low as 5-20%. Whereas, selling the same product to an old loyal customer can be much easier.

By now you would have known how customer loyalty can be a crucial aspect of growth for any business. But the question is how to make your customers loyal? We’ve got your back. We’re listing down some of the customer retention strategies being used by leading brands on Shopify that will help you ‌ grow as a customer-loyal brand.

Giving them a personalized customer experience

With the rise in expectations for sales, we considerably find the rise in expectations of ‌customers too. Giving your customers a personalized experience is one of the apt customer-centric solutions for increasing customer loyalty.

Just imagine, why would you miss a chance of revisiting a store that provides you a personalized treatment in every purchase? Moreover, 91% of customers are willing to purchase from a store that provides personalized recommendations. The article shares some methods that will help you to enhance customers’ experience

Customer engagement

The products on your website and store must be designed in a way that engages the most customers. The more time a customer spends in your store, the higher are the chances of increasing conversion rates and eventually the higher chances of customer retention. A customer would come back to your store if he never goes disappointed.

Specialized, personalized, and customized services

Sell Experience over money! The tagline of Pepsi, “That’s What I Like” and “For the love of it” add to the customer’s shopping experience. This creates a recall value for the brand and aids in retention.

Along with that, there are days when you feel like losing an old customer. Personalized messages like, “Thanks for all these years” can open a door for future repurchase.

All that customers want to feel is being “seen”, and you can easily make this happen by segmenting your customer base and personalizing their experiences. Most businesses opt to drive loyalty through mass discounts and incentives. Jeremy Ullrich, the co-founder of Shopify store Lash Fridays, approached it differently. They used Segments Analytics by Tresl, to analyze which products drive greater purchase frequency and which customer segments drive purchase frequency. Customer demographic helped to funnel them into a greater number of purchases. "Focus your energy and efforts on attracting the right sort of customer and the loyalty and retention will flow from there," opines Jeremy.

Subscription models can also help create personalized customer experiences. Shopify customer like Hiya Health promote customer loyalty through its subscription service.

Try sending more personalized messages

More personalized notes with more frequency. 70% of millennials feel frustrated will irrelevant emails that are not personalized. Using and remembering customer data like sending wishes for one’s birthday with an invitation for celebrating the event in your cafe or restaurant can multiply customer retention and loyalty by many folds.

Multichannel Marketing

Multichannel marketing works in accordance with using various channels for customer interaction. The channels could be direct mailing, a WhatsApp or Telegram group, social media handles and profiles, websites, or applications. Your presence in various channels increases your reach. Also, it helps to add a recall value to customers who notice and get involved in your multi channel presence.

Increase Customer Interaction and Involvement

Customer interaction is the soul of any business. The way you interact, deal with and listen to your customers reflects the future scope of your business. You would wonder how an extra sweet hello can bring an extra purchase for your store. Additionally, the retailer’s behavior is what brings customers back to the store again. Remembering a customer’s name can be one of the most delightful and attractive gestures that can help you gain customer loyalty.

PR Newswire, a press release distributor, shows a 92% hike in customer loyalty and an 84% increase in revenue due to more personalized and in-depth customer interaction.

Involving the customers in the process of product production and launch can multiply customer loyalty in your business.

Data analytics

The entire world is a big collection of data. Utilizing relevant customer data to your benefit can act as an essential aid. This is what Google Adsense does. It collects data from your past purchases and visits to shopping sites. Further, it analyses your interest and shows you Google Ads accordingly. This not only increases customer experience but also helps in customer involvement leading to customer loyalty.

Be Responsive

Customer interaction can turn out productive if the system of response is fast. Also, listening to customer feedback and taking practical measures for their implementation is essential. Loyalty comes with interaction and understanding of customer requirements.

Customer care services

Good customer care services ensure the customers that the company they trust cares for them and is willing to listen to them. It increases their trust in your services, thus making them loyal to your company. Also, communicate with your customers and try to figure out the drawbacks they find in your system of providing services.

Social media and SuperBots

In the growing world of technology, social media can be a great way of staying connected with people. Many websites and applications use AI SuperBots for connecting and communicating with their customers.

Today, 90% of businesses mark social media as responsible for the exposure in their business. Why should you stay behind? Use this tool of social media to grow customer loyalty and retention.

Pre, mid, and post-purchase emails

Many customers need the motivation to keep going on shopping. You can solve their problem with a personalized pre-purchase email describing the products they need and the discount offers and deals you have. A mid-purchase email will help them to complete their purchase. And a personalized post-purchase email will connect and bind them for a repurchase. Thus, will ultimately increase your retention rate.

Share more with your customers

Sharing more about new products and your future schemes will help in customer engagement. Also, if you have a physical store then interacting with customers and sharing the personal happenings of your life can work wonders.

Customer involvement

Involving users in the product-making process can be a great idea. Just like Subway, a food chain company involves its customers in their meal preparation. Moreover, sharing the product idea, experience idea, and even the involvement idea with your customers can bring a more personalized experience, leading to customer loyalty.

Add to customer attraction

An attractive company, its products, and policies can draw a major chunk of customers. After all, such a company can catch many eyes.

When it comes to customer loyalty, you must always offer something that your customers are attracted to. If you are loyal to your customers in terms of manufacturing, quality of products, and your company values, then the customers are bound to be loyal on their own. With decreasing quality and experience, even a loyal customer might not remain loyal for a long. Shopify understands that loyalty comes from both ends. That’s the reason why every Shopify customer leaves in awe.

Read more to know how you can attract your customers to draw their attention.

Repeated wows and a delightful surprise

Make your customers say wow! Your customers don't need a big financial wow; rather they need frequent wows. Amazon Prime reaches 151.9 Million users in 2021. Reason being, frequent wows for different sections of audiences:

• The shopaholics by giving them free shipping.
• The people who want discounts on products.
• Prime-exclusive: With pre-launch products availability.
• Prime videos for film aholics.

Freebies and Discounts

Why should some avoid spending $5 to make $1,000? Gifts are excellent follow-up tools.

A gift card from their favorite restaurant or a discount on an extra purchase can make an entire day for your customers.

Coupons, scratch cards, and discounts for old customers can make them even more loyal to your company.

Create a purposeful emotional story

People may forget data, facts, and figures, but a story can last in their hearts for the longest. A good and strong message with no story might not work, but a barely average message with a good story can. You should try revolving the vision of your company around a purposeful emotional story that has the potential to create an impact.

Customer as your promoter

A loyal customer can be your unpaid promoter. Many companies use their customers for free promotions, additionally, adding up to their attraction. For instance, several restaurants and picnic spots have a selfie point, and many of them offer a free meal or free coffee by downloading a picture and sharing it on their social media pages. In this way, you can add your business to the recall memory of your customers.

Bang on to their expectations

The more a company lives up to the expectations of its customers, the more recognition and sales it gets. Why would a customer leave your store if he gets more than what he expects? The article shares the easiest techniques to bang on to customer expectations.

Gift cards, cashback, redeem prices, and discount

What does a customer expect standing at the checkpoint? Something extra! In terms of gifts cards, cashback, or discounts. For instance: Google Pay. A scratch card offering Google referrals or cashback after every transfer of money helps grow its customers. 90% of customers say free gifts and vouchers increase brand loyalty.

As per Shopify, loyalty programs bestow powerful motivation to buyers for creating accounts, coming back, and spending more. Indeed, they create meaningful connections. The top 3 reasons loyalty programs succeed are:

• Easy to use: 53%
• Gives me great discounts: 39%
• Easy to understand: 37%

Kid attention

It's often said that attracting kids and teens is enough for attracting parents. A food pipe that serves mints for adults with the bill can add up to their experience but a food pipe that serves mints for adults and candies for kids has the capability of adding up to their expectations. For instance: The Happy meals of Mcdonald's

Pride in the product purchase

Why do you think people purchase Apple products? What makes Apple generate revenue of 365,82 Billion US dollars in 2021? It’s the pride in the product purchase. And that’s what makes Apple the #1 Customer Loyal Brand.

Under commit, over deliver

When delivering products or services, try to figure out ways in which you can over-deliver them. Over delivery can be concerning time by a faster delivery than expected, products by giving an extra free product, or cost by giving little extra discount at the checkpoint. The technique of under commitment and over-delivery adds up to the feel-good hormones of the consumers. And when a customer leaves happy, there are increased chances of his coming back.

The Bottom Line

Having a few strategies in place for creating customer loyalty and retention is vital to your store’s bottom line. The eCommerce business owner must look into opting for multifaceted strategies to get repeat customers. As a Shopify merchant, you can opt for a wide range and variety of apps that offer different strategies to establish a connection and create a rapport with your customers. Be sure to choose the right strategies that work best for you and your businesses by hitting and trying on the various above-mentioned strategies.