How to Build Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce

Once upon a time, we all had to spend hours and nerves while searching for the product or service we needed.

However, with the appearance of ecommerce, many things changed.

With the rapid technological progress and new business boom, more opportunities appeared, as well as more business threats. Most of the threats are associated with competitors. The only way to avoid competition is to develop a set of advantages. And one of the strongest benefits of any business is known as the customer loyalty.

Based on Forbes report, online shoppers perform significantly higher customer loyalty than in-store buyers. The cost of attracting new customers on the web may seem a bit higher than in traditional commerce, but the results are usually worth of it.

It’s rather complicated to get such an asset as customer loyalty, but once you do, you can expect an amazing growth of your business and enormous ROI.

Loyalty possesses a huge threat to the market when interpreted in a wrong way. Have you ever wondered why giants like the Apple iPhone dominates the market with its 87% loyalty? For some reasons, its customers feel confident enough when purchasing its product.

It’s not only about a design or functionality – loyalty consists of more than just a series of necessary features. What Apple’s example can prove for sure is that any business owner should try de-emphasizing traditional marketing and focusing on loyalty more to catch up with time and trends.

The concept of loyalty is meeting customer requirements and values in the most contemporary and quality ways. There should be something personal to appeal to the heart of each customer.

The trick is targeting various audiences with respect to their differences and desires. People feel it when a brand cares about them.

The most efficient way to develop loyalty is to increase credibility and improve service/product quality. There are five dimensions of quality that play a central role in creating brand awareness and expanding the customer base. They are:

• Tangibles – physical features of the premises, equipment, staff, and communication channels
• Reliability – a competence to deliver the offered service or product dependably and accurately
• Responsiveness – the desire to help customers and provide corresponding support
• Assurance – the awareness and courtesy of workers and their ability to establish trust, respect, and confidence
• Empathy – personalized attention to customer details and expectations

Many of these can be achieved through these 6 easy steps for building a strong customer loyalty once and forever.

Step One: Strengthen Your Brand Awareness

It is crucial that you develop brand awareness. It means that the likelihood that your target audience recognizes your product or service is rather high. You can reach it by providing better quality, delivering the heart-felt message of your business story, running your company’s blog, sending regular newsletters, informing prospects of new offers, etc.

Any ecommerce website should give a sense of what you do from the first sight (within first few seconds). It is relevant for all online platforms where your business is present (i.e. social media). Make sure your brand strategy sticks to the following features:

1. Colors applied should be consistent and reflect the essence of your brand. Know more by getting in touch with color psychology and your customer needs.
2. Logos and artwork must be used the same way everywhere. Don’t change them because the customers will get confused whether there are several different companies or one with poor awareness.
3. The tone of messaging is also significant. Try to come up with a user-friendly tone, something between formal and informal speech. Avoid patronizing voice. All customers wish to be heard; they hate reading complex instructions full of weird terminology. So leave it to your workers.
4. Brand personas are always useful. Pretend your brand is a separate personality. People will connect better with a living creature.
5. Buyer personas must be involved to adjust tone, suit the target demographics, age, gender, and more.

Step Two: Mind the Importance of Social Media

There is nowhere to run from the increasing impact of the social media on e-commerce. Modern social media requires that e-tailers communicate with their customers on a more personal level than ever. But boosting your customer loyalty through social media is possible only after learning how to use social media properly.

First and for most, it is highly recommended to avoid such a typical mistake as social media reps parroting the same line over and over again. Your SMM’s post shouldn’t look like he or she has no idea of the business and simply offers contacting the customer support.

Despite its content and goals, every post should give your target audience the concept of your service or product. Word of mouth marketing today is done preferably through social media, especially when speaking about e-commerce. So you or your SMM should be proficient enough in this field.

Never do things like:

• Deleting a customer’s comments/feedback
• Arguing with customers and trying to persuade in your truth
• Engaging with trolls, spam or abusive commenters
• Simply ignoring comments and questions of others

Step Three: Personalization

Make every client feel special and welcomed by involving personalization. You have probably noticed that when you visit Amazon or similar large-scale online stores, an email follows a couple of days later that includes the list of products similar to those on your wish list or in the cart. This is personalization at work.

Most online users are well aware of why first name and e-mail fields are required. Still, the majority of them appreciate personal messages that correspond to their interests and goals. Just as it is mentioned in this article:

“CUSTOMERS WILL REMEMBER YOU IF YOU CAN REMEMBER THEIR NAME.”

Try to treat your online visitors as though you are an owner of the physical shop, chatting with local customers.

Step Four: Insert Live Chat

A small live chat in the left or right corner of your site occupies a little space, but may solve a plenty of different issues. More and more e-commerce websites use this feature in order to provide and support their customers 24/7.

With live chat, any user can get advice, reply to the relevant question or technical help. The biggest advantage of having this chat function is that once you have the customer in front of you making a query, the chance of making a final deal goes up. Share product/service details, offer similar goods, persuade them in your quality – and you’ll hit it.

Sure, there is no 100% guarantee of success, but at least live chat gives shoppers the chance to engage at, perhaps, the most critical stage of the buying cycle.

Step Five: It’s All in Your Content

The content you place on your social page or distribute through e-mails is sometimes even more important than the content you prepare for the website. Informative, entertaining, and unique content with hidden calls to action is one of the top instruments for increasing customer loyalty. It helps to achieve a high level of engagement and brand awareness.

Selling content should include a brand position and short message that delivers the main idea of your product or service. Don’t ignore the significance of a blog – you may post more articles with interactive content in case you dislike writing too much, but you have to provide customers with a special space with quality content. As practice shows, pictures and video work unfailingly.

Step Six: Be Socially Responsible

Promote social responsibility and take part in the entire process. Many of the world’s well known corporations have invested in social responsibility to raise brand awareness and customer loyalty. For example, Pepsi launched a Refresh Project that funded 238 ideas for improving communities. Corporate social responsibility reflects its performance and definitely has an impact on the customer loyalty.

So, if you are not already in, perhaps it’s the best time to think about joining such activities as community support (charity foundations), environmental investments, selling local products, and treating your own staff fairly.

There are just so many ways to build your customer loyalty, so don’t miss this opportunity. Start acting now!

Tagged customer loyalty, Loyalty