Straight to the point
Retaining old clients is cheaper than acquiring new ones. This is especially true for businesses operating in the online retail space and it highlights the importance of a good retention strategy.
A good retention strategy is essential in the online fashion retailer space since customers tend to buy repeatedly from the same brands, and big brands invest heavily to stand out in their segment.
With that in mind, we’ve got 6 tips for you to retain more customers!
HOW IMPORTANT IS A GOOD RETENTION STRATEGY IN FASHION E-COMMERCE?
In fashion e-commerce, retaining customers is all about making sure they have a great experience with your brand before, during, and after a purchase. Play your cards right, and happy shoppers will become organic brand ambassadors and promote your brand for you.
To successfully retain customers, you need to understand what drives consumers to abandon carts or purchase repeatedly from the same brand. With that in mind, let’s get into our tips to increase customer retention in your fashion e-commerce business.
CREATE A CONSISTENT BRAND IDENTITY AND BE PRESENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Nowadays, if your brand isn’t on social media, you’re practically invisible to consumers and potential consumers. To stay relevant online, it’s crucial your brand has a strong presence on social media..
Maintaining a presence online means not only posting content that’s aligned with your brand and relevant to your target audience, but also engaging with your customers online.
Make sure you respond to comments and messages. You can also encourage your customers to tag your brand in their posts wearing your clothing. This is a great way to build a community around your brand and get people excited to engage with it.
If you can develop and nurture these kinds of relationships with your community, admirers of your brand will be more likely to purchase regularly from you.
E-MAIL MARKETING
It may seem outdated, but email marketing is still alive and well, and it’s a great way to help you retain customers. Emails are a great way to stay in customers’ minds and get past customers to revisit your store.
The best way to drive repeat business from past customers is to keep them informed about all things relevant to your brand. You can email them to let them know about upcoming collections, offers, and sales.
Depending on the type of customer data and metrics you have, you can even create different mailing lists depending on customer behavior. For example, you may have customers who only buy during sales who could benefit from receiving an email whenever a sale is on.
SALES AND REWARD PROGRAMS
Creating special sales, coupons and reward programs for your customers can really help drive repeat business. Especially if they’re promoted well through email and social media (see our previous tips).
Some ideas you can implement are things like a first purchase discount coupon, a rewards program where customers earn points through purchases, or offering free shipping on high-ticket purchases.
But be careful! Make sure whatever strategy you implement makes sense financially for your e-commerce business.
DIVERSIFY YOUR PAYMENT AND DELIVERY OPTIONS
A big barrier to purchase online is a lack of payment or delivery options.
To reach the greatest number of potential customers and attract different audiences, make sure your online store offers several payment and delivery options to best meet the needs of your customers.
Low-cost and fast shipping are delivery options that can even be used as part of your marketing strategy.
MAINTAIN MULTIPLE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
You can have the best product in the world, but if you don’t offer good service and excellent after-sale support, your store will struggle to grow.
To retain customers, it’s essential that you maintain easily accessible communication channels for your customers to receive prompt support.
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to have at least one chatbot on your site to answer questions and guide shoppers during purchases. Also make sure to always keep an eye on customer complaints and resolve issues as quickly as possible.
OFFER A PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE
Offering a personalized experience is key to staying relevant and driving retention for fashion e-commerce businesses. Personalized experiences can be offered in different ways, across different channels.
The most accessible solutions are through email. For example, you can set different cadences and deliver different emails for different categories of purchased products. This can be done at a low cost and at scale with tools that your business probably already has available..
For small or even medium-sized e-commerce businesses, sending a personalized message thanking customers for their purchase is a great way to engage them..
Another way to personalize your shopping experience is to implement size and fit solutions, which, for example, give specific size recommendations based on information users input. Shoppers can also customize the fit they’re looking for, i.e, if they prefer clothing that fits looser or tighter.
Regardless of whether you choose simple or more complex solutions, the important thing is that you meet customers’ needs with as much personalization as possible.
OPTIMIZE YOUR FASHION E-COMMERCE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
We hope that we’ve been able to show you how beneficial it is to keep your customers engaged and the importance of leveraging your sales with a good retention strategy focused on e-commerce.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can retain customers and offer a personalized shopping experience, make sure to read about our virtual fitting room.
