Small business owners are faced with a huge dilemma in an age when seemingly endless options are at their fingertips via the Internet. How can you distinguish yourself enough to win over customers on the initial purchase and keep them coming back to your eCommerce site?

Your customer retention rate can be improved by fostering three key factors in your audience: trust, a sense of belonging and exceptional customer service. This is not an easy task when your business operates online. It can be more difficult to build trust when you are having a conversation online rather than face-to–face.

However, it doesn’t have to be difficult! It is important to remember that loyal customers are made up of happy customers. We’ll use that principle as a basis to present five strategies to increase customer retention and build customer loyalty.

01. Engage Your Customers

Your customers shouldn’t be treated as strangers. Talking to your customers is a sure-fire way to make them feel at home when they interact with your brand. Talking is how we spend our time at work and form the closest relationships. It tends to bring people closer across the board. This principle isn’t affected by the internet. It’s actually more important than ever because you need to make your business personality shine. How do you achieve this?

Chat live with customers of your store. Talking to them is a crucial step. A live chat function on your website is the best way to accomplish this. Wix Chat allows you to send a notification to every online shopper who visits your site. This lets you personally greet them, get to know their needs, and then make recommendations based on those answers. This level of attention will leave a lasting impression on visitors, making them feel valued and happy about their experience.

You don’t have to be a social media wiz. A website is not the only way you can engage in conversation. A social media presence is essential these days. Not only for the purpose of marketing to the social media Kingdom of almost 3 billion people, but also because it opens up new avenues for conversation. You can find the most popular social media channels here: Facebook Instagram and HTML3_ Twitter. It functions a little like a local hangout spot or living room. It is where people gather to exchange opinions, ideas and connect with others. Engage with your followers by answering their questions, creating creative ideas for campaigns and posts and being responsive to customers who reach out. Your audience is already there, browsing their feeds looking for stories or memes to make them smile. Potential customers will notice that you are approachable and friendly by joining the conversation. This will make it easier for them to remember your brand in future purchases.

02. The Best Online Shopping Experience

Rolling out the red carpet for customers is another way to win them over. You can prevent any potential pitfalls that could hinder a customer from purchasing their package. It’s easy to create a seamless buying funnel by creating a login-required section on your website. This allows you to make it easier for customers to register and opens the door towards a faster checkout process. It’s actually the new M.O. It’s a common practice for online retailers to have sign-in areas. Members area allows you to do the same.

Your customers will enjoy many benefits from a login page. Their satisfaction will keep them coming back for more. The horror! A lengthy checkout process is one of the biggest problems. A longer checkout process can lead to frustration and boredom.

All of this is possible with the Members Area. Your customers will now be able to securely save their information, including billing and shipping addresses, and credit card details through their account. This makes checkout easy. After completing a purchase, customers can view past orders and track delivery status. They can also download digital files such as posters, fonts and music files immediately after they have been downloaded. These examples show what it takes to impress clients by staying on the forefront of industry standards. It’s about anticipating what kind of smooth-sailing experience customers want and then putting in place features to meet that expectation.

How do you add Members area to your site:

1. Go to Wix.com.
2. Open the Editor on your eCom website.
3. Click the “+” button to the left of the Editor.
4. Select “Members.”
5. Click “Add to Site.”

How do you update your Members Area on your site?

You can easily open a previously added version of the Members Area in the Wix editor and press ‘Publish’ to have your Members Area updated automatically.

03. As a brand, stay consistent

Keep your promises. Delivering on your business’s promises is key to building trust with your customers. Simply put, be clear and true to your word. Your brand will be trusted by customers if you keep your promises to quality and service. This is what every business owner strives for.

Prioritize visual consistency. Consistency is not just about your actions. Your brand’s visual consistency is another way to show your customers that you are reliable. This includes everything from your website to your social media channels, to your packaging, to even your members-only pages. This is visual language that says “No surprises here.” Your audience will be able to immediately recognize your brand’s color palette and emblem design from the moment they see it. You can use colors to create very specific emotions. This is a fascinating field of psychology and it’s worth looking into to help you choose the right colors for your business. After you’ve compiled these colors and created a brand identity for your business, ensure that this aesthetic is used across all aspects of your online and offline presences. This familiarity will help customers feel secure and establish your brand as their go-to source for all their shopping needs.

04. Perfect Your Reputation

Trust is key to building trust with your customers. Customers should feel confident buying from your store. This is difficult when online shopping makes it more difficult to establish trust. We are here to help you overcome this challenge and make sure that you succeed!

Be mindful of your content: Although you may be primarily an online seller of garden mulch or ceramic vases, we think you have much to share about these topics. This doesn’t mean that you have to change your career from potter to blogger. These blogs are stunning examples. videos, if you don’t like writing, are popping up everywhere on business websites. Another way to share your expertise is to film a product demo or a video blog (video blog). It’s not bragging. If you are confident in your abilities, potential customers will be more likely to buy from you.

Find some influencers. With 70% of millennials now favoring a peer blogger’s endorsement over one from a celebrity, your job just got easier. It doesn’t matter if you have an A-list celebrity to hold your product. Instead, social influencers have been rapidly replacing them. Because they are more genuine than Hollywood stars due to their “just like you” ambiance, and because they have a smaller fan base than average Hollywood stars, they can converse with their followers.

If your brand is committed to socially responsible practices, these influencers are a great resource. It’s good business practice to stand for the same values as your target audience. But, it’s better if you don’t have to be the one praising the great work your brand supports. This makes sense when you stop and think about it. The same principle applies online as in real life. We might be suspicious of someone who constantly talks about how many times they give to charities and how much they have donated. Self-promotion can be seen as a marketing tactic and can lead to potential customers being kept at arm’s length. Instead, work with these influencers to discuss what aspects of your social-good campaigns they would like to highlight. Your brand will be more credible if your praises are heard from an outsider. This will also help you score some ‘warm fuzzy feelings’ points with current and future customers.

These examples show how to build eCommerce websites that are successful!

05. Reward loyal customers

In 1990, a joint study by a Harvard Business School professor with Bain & Company revealed something remarkable. Businesses could see huge positive effects on their profits by investing just a little in keeping customers. As the Internet grew, they updated their study ten years later. What did they find? Although it can be expensive to attract new customers, the profits graph line of returning clients increases very quickly and makes the investment worthwhile. This proven consumer behavior can be tapped by dedicating time and thought to getting shoppers back for more.

Personalize Promotions: Sales are a universally beloved. Feeling special is equally important. Combining the two will result in a winning formula for retaining loyal customers of your brand. You can send email newsletters through Wix email Marketing to your subscribers and past customers. You can give them special discounts, exclusive news, and previews of the incredible content that they can find on you website. You want to improve your customer service? Keep track of any conversations you have with customers in your Contact List. If a customer was searching for a specific item but it was out of stock, you can send an email to inform them. This will increase the customer’s positive association with your brand and make them feel valued.

Treat customers like royalty. Make your members’ area feel like a VIP airport lounge with exclusive collections and offers. You can also create pages that only registered users can see. This exclusivity is enough to convince people to sign up. Next, you need to provide these pages with the right incentives to keep customers returning and checking back for more. This is your opportunity to be creative about the sales campaign that you launch on your eCommerce website. You can offer members free shipping on major holidays or display a new collection for members for a week before the public. This feature can be taken in any direction, but they all have the same goal of limiting who can access these promotions. This is eCommerce talk. It’s like saying to your family that they are part of your family.

Be sure to double-check your customers’ ability sign up for a Members Area before you announce it to them. Ask family and friends to help you create an account and guide you through the checkout process. To ensure that everything goes smoothly, they will have a checklist of all the steps they’ll encounter. This list could include everything from logging into their account to adding items to their cart, to finding their pre-set shipping information. You can even ask them to make a purchase (and you will refund them). Just to be sure that all systems work properly.

It’s not what you want. This will make it easier to avoid any problems later. Instead, you can focus on your charm and perfect online shopping experience and win customers.

source https://www.wix.com/blog/ecommerce/2018/12/ways-to-build-customer-loyalty