How do you reward loyal customers and ensure loyalty over time?

Customer loyalty is a central axis in ecommerce, and consumers are very loyal. According to Statista, in a February 2020 survey of shoppers in countries around the world, the country with the highest level of loyalty to brands was the US, with 85% of respondents stating that they felt loyal to their favorite brands. This was followed by France and Brazil, with the percentages of loyal consumers at 81.8% and 79% respectively.

The majority of consumers want to benefit from personalized offers from online sales companies. In order to make the user experience as unique as your customers, your first action in ecommerce will be to collect as much customer information as possible to adapt to your buyers' requirements.

Once your customers are well known and recognized, it's time to reward them. In this article, discover all the effective levers and actions to repay your loyal customers and build long-lasting links with your buyers.

How do you find and reward your best customers?

Recruit qualified leads and boost your conversions

In order to retain your best customers, you need to have the opportunity to do so! With the right tools and a good data collection and acquisition strategy, you can easily collect information from your customers and give them rewards later.

The most important thing, at the beginning, will be to be able to collect at least a first name and an email address before the customer's purchase, at the time of their registration on your site.

Once the purchase is made, you’ll certainly be in possession of key information that’ll allow you to identify this customer afterwards and offer them special deals as soon as possible.

Determine the customer segments to target first

Once your customer base is well filled, you’ll have to determine the conditions to value your best customers. You’ll need to identify the number of orders placed by these customers and the recurrence of their purchases.

This way, you can determine when you want to trigger a promotional offer for these loyal customers.

Analyze your competitors' loyalty programs

Do you know what your competitors are doing in terms of customer loyalty campaigns? Do they use a loyalty card? Do they have systems for customers to become privileged members? Is there a loyalty points system to get access to great deals?

To get inspiration from successful techniques and services, don't hesitate to look at your competitors to understand what their methods and techniques are.

Beyond your competitors, you yourself are likely a loyal customer of an ecommerce site: consider your best experiences and apply them to your own ecommerce business.

Set up the right levers and choose the right rewards

What are the levers that’ll allow you to say “thank you” to your loyal customers? Do you want to offer a gift, a promo code, free shipping? How do you want to contact your customer database?

You’ll have to make choices: the contact with your customers as well as the reward will have to be determined in advance. But don't panic: your special offers can evolve over time, based on your creativity and especially based on your customers’ reactions to their reward. Don’t hesitate to ask for customer feedback on your reward program(s) and adjust your strategy as needed!

Which customer loyalty strategies work?

Determine the most profitable reward for your company

In order to choose the reward you want to implement for your loyal customer segments, you’ll certainly want to offer a very nice gift to boost your satisfaction rate, your ecommerce customer retention, and, later, your conversion rate. But gifts will cost you money...

It’ll be quite normal to determine the type of gift you can offer to your loyal customers depending on the size of your business. Rewards can evolve as your ecommerce business grows. But don't forget: even the little things count!

Set up a loyalty program on your ecommerce site

To create a feeling of belonging to the brand in the heart of your buyers, you can create a tailor-made loyalty program.

This is going to involve a configured scenario: email marketing, SMS marketing, newsletter registration, etc.

This loyalty program will be able to inspire your loyal customers but also your future prospects, because the term "program" defines a complete strategy staging several rewards over time.

Thus, you’ll be able to attract new audiences in order to improve your conversion and loyalty rate.

Offer customer loyalty gifts

Of course, when we talk about rewards, we’re talking about gifts. It could be an item from your catalog or a limited time promotional code, or free shipping for example.

Put yourself in the shoes of your loyal customers and imagine what would be the gift that would please them the most. However, be careful to offer gifts that are as qualitative as the products you offer in your catalog: it would be a shame to disappoint your loyal customers after a bad choice of reward.

Social networks: optimize your presence to reward your customers

Rewards can also be done through social networks. Customers who are loyal to your brand are probably going to subscribe to your social media profiles.

Use these digital channels to offer exclusive rewards: temporary promotional offers in Stories, contests with prizes, participation in a survey so that your customers choose the pieces of your next collection with a small gift as a reward, etc.

You can also get in touch with your loyal customers directly through direct messages on the platforms, create discussion groups with only certain VIP customers to offer them private shopping events, etc.

Use social media as an extension of your ecommerce site for more and more promotional offers and privileges.

Play on emotion and get closer to your customers

One thing is for sure: when building your loyalty strategy and your reward scenario, never forget to play on emotion, urgency, joy, and surprise to offer an ecommerce customer experience as a real gift!

Only by creating a special bond with your customers can you awaken all these emotions. That's why all your work will be to create a friendly atmosphere around your digital brand, but also to maintain strong links, even at a distance, with your most loyal buyers.

And to do this, online tools can come to your rescue!

How do you thank your loyal customers easily?

When you choose the WiziShop ecommerce solution, all the most efficient levers to build customer loyalty are already available in your administration area!

In the "Marketing" > "Offers & loyalty programs" section, you can set up all your customized actions in a few clicks.

Three sections are available to you to configure your actions: "Loyalty programs," "New customers," "Customer offers."

Within each section, you will have access to all possible rewards: loyalty points, discounts, free shipping, advantages for your new customers, etc.

The success of your campaign will depend on the segmentation of your customers and, to do this, you can create the best segments for your ecommerce business, from your physical customer base if you want to digitalize your point of sale or through effective opt-in levers.

To try out these features and more than 400 others, enjoy free training, and start your adventure without waiting, test WiziShop for 3 days at no charge, and then get your first month for just $1!