Why is Customer retention important after the end of the holiday season? Have you wondered how would eCommerce flourish if everyday life could be like the holidays? Which business owners wouldn’t love the increased sales throughout the year and not just seasonal/Christmas holidays? We all know that the holidays are great for all brands and retailers for acquiring new customers, creating a sense of urgency, increasing order value, exhibiting sales and offers, and enjoying overwhelming revenue, but retaining them is a totally questionable deal. It’s no doubt that in the long-term customer retention is much more important than customer acquisition. Simply because Acquiring a new customer can cost 5 to 25 times more than retaining one. For 64% of businesses, shoppers acquired during the holiday sales time have a lower lifetime value than shoppers acquired throughout the year. On average, returning customer spends 3x more than one-time customers. If you want to make the most out of the 2022 holiday season and regain a lot of missed revenue, then it’s time to think beyond the holiday calendar. In this guide, know everything it takes to turn holiday/ seasonal shoppers into repeat customers and retain the customers who visit your online stores just during the holiday shopping seasons. If you want to make the most out of the 2022 holiday season and regain a lot of missed revenue, then it’s time to think beyond the holiday calendar. So, basically converting holiday shoppers into repeat business is a game played in January and beyond that time of the year. 4 guidelines for Retaining existing Customers 1. Work on your branding. It’s easy for the customer who purchases from you during the holiday season and to forget you after it’s over. So good branding is very vital here to reduce this customer tendency and make repeat purchases. During the holiday season, pay attention to the elements of branding – your logo, colours, fonts, and especially packaging to create a good impression on both the buyer and the recipient of the gift, and try hard to leave your impression even after the peak time of 2022 Holiday Gifting trends. 2. Understand the customer’s buying habits. A normal customer goes through a series of steps during his relationship with your business. From initial reach when he hears about your brand to acquisition–his first sale. Then the Development and Nurturing stage where your business starts forming a relationship with him to the retention stage where you convince the customer to buy once more. The holiday season is a wonderful opportunity to add customers to the initial reach and Acquisition stages. Your goal after the holidays is to push customers into the Development and Nurturing part of their lifecycle. 3. Create incentives to purchase post-holidays. People often buy items if they are prompted to do so. Give your potential customers – especially one-time holiday shoppers – a reason to make another purchase, like a coupon or a limited-time offer, or a sale discount. 4. Build a good customer experience. Customer experience is really important if you want to retain them. Uncertainties like slow shipping, bad product quality, or rude customer service reps, will restrict people from buying from you again. Make sure that everything from the website to the product is pleasant to both the buyer and the gift recipients and their family and friends too. 9 Tips to Turn Holiday Shoppers into Repeat Customers Now that you know how you can acquire new holiday shoppers, it’s time to learn specific tips on how to turn holiday shoppers into loyal repeat customers. 1. Design wonderful packaging. First impressions and premium packaging always matter. Make sure your product packaging looks great and is memorable so that people remember your business’s name. 90% of people will reuse a branded box if they find it attractive and as many as 40% of customers will share pictures of their online orders if the packaging is attractive. This is yet another reason to pay attention to packaging. Make the unboxing feel memorable and enjoyable, especially if people are unwrapping gifts around their friends and family! 2. Collect email addresses. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market. As per some reports, email marketing can make $36 for every $1 spent. The most important thing than any other tip on this post is to just collect the email addresses at checkout time. You can use the buying history of the customers to predict their future purchases. Tracking alone won’t make sales, you need to create personalised sales programs and reach shoppers in creative ways. Don’t stop testing. 3. Track the new customers and their buying habits. You can use the buying history of the customers to predict their future purchases. Tracking alone won’t make sales, you need to create personalised sales programs and reach shoppers in creative ways. Don’t stop testing. 4. Send freebies and discount coupons at spiking times. People don’t often buy items unless prompted. Your email offering freebies or sale could be just that reason. For example, send out an email on December 21 and incite them to do last the minute Christmas shopping. And once the new year begins, you can always promote sales for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, others during rest of the year. 5. Cross-sell and upsell during the spiking times. Combine a customer’s shopping history with right incentives, and do some really effective cross-selling. Complementary and supplementary products are best for January and February lost revenues. 6. Wow them with excellent customer service Customer retention is possible with good impressions on both the buyer and the recipient of holiday gifts. So, make sure you provide top-tier customer service. 7. Be kind with returns. People are less likely to purchase or come back if you offer stingy return policies. The best practice right now is to providing a higher number of days return policies with no questions asked. 8. Use social proof to bring shoppers back The average conversion rate of visitors who see user-generated content on site is 161% higher. So, requesting content from your customers is a win-win. When visitors see fellow shopper’s shopping experiences were with similar products, they are more likely to come back. Positive site reviews, images and video card improve your Google Seller Ratings and establish trust in your brand, so try to incentivize your customers to leave reviews and photos by offering coupons, discount codes, prizes, or rewards program points in exchange for content. Leverage UGC to retarget holiday shoppers. 9. Other effective ways to keep them coming back: Create a customer loyalty program Retarget them on social media Providing One-time offers Retargeting with paid Facebook and Google ads, Facebook Ad campaign. Final Thoughts Even though holidays are a great time to grow your business for a long time to come, if you play your cards right, your business can be in a permanently better position even in other months because you have retained customers to keep coming back. Convinced it’s time you start converting your holiday shoppers into your most loyal, lifelong customers. Rollins, B., & Fulfillrite. (2022, August 9). How to turn holiday shoppers into repeat customers: 9 tips. Fulfillrite. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.fulfillrite.com/blog/turn-holiday-shoppers-into-repeat-customers/ OptiMonk. (2022, October 5). Creating return customers out of your holiday shoppers in Q1 – Optimonk Blog. OptiMonk. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.optimonk.com/how-to-turn-your-holiday-shoppers-into-return-customers-in-q1/ Person. (2022, September 13). Customer retention: Turn holiday shoppers into return customers. Wix eCommerce Blog. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https://www.wix.com/blog/ecommerce/2019/12/5-ways-to-turn-one-time-holiday-shoppers-into-returning-customers GET IN TOUCH: Name * Company * Phone Email * Subject Message *
