Customer Retention
Repeat buyers are the key to long-term success for most ecommerce businesses. Our library of customer retention articles includes tactics for subscription ideas, loyalty programs, A/B testing, enhanced customer service, soliciting feedback, and much more.
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Customer Retention
Site Search: A Navigation and Conversion Tool
May 9, 2017 • Pamela Hazelton
Online shoppers who find what they want tend to spend more money. And site search helps them locate what they’re looking for. According to a study by WebLinc, an ecommerce platform and consulting firm,
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Customer Retention
5 Reasons to Offer Ecommerce Subscriptions
January 26, 2017 • Armando Roggio
The ecommerce subscription model offers retailers several operational benefits, including relatively better marketing results, higher customer retention rates, improved margins, easy inventory management, and less expensive shipping. Subscription ecommerce businesses take ...
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Customer Retention
Using Supporting Content to Build Loyal Customers, Authority
September 22, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton
The ideal customer — one who makes regular purchases over time — wants more than just good prices and an attractive return policy. The ideal customer wants a positive experience ...
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Customer Retention
Customer Accounts Can Boost Conversions
September 6, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton
Merchants often argue that customer accounts should be optional. And they should be. But there are good reasons for encouraging shoppers to create accounts and, done right, this practice can ...
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Customer Retention
Using Referral Marketing to Fuel Ecommerce Subscriptions
August 17, 2016 • Armando Roggio
When your subscribers refer your ecommerce subscription service, they are helping your business grow. Both the customers who refer your products and the referred customers they bring in are likely ...
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Customer Retention
Focus on Existing Customers for Better Profitability
June 9, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan
Should ecommerce merchants direct their resources to finding new customers or marketing to existing ones? The answer, according to most experts, is that companies achieve better return on investment by nurturing their ...
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Customer Retention
5 Ways to Draw Shoppers In, and Keep Them
May 21, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton
The percentage of people navigating sites via mobile devices continues to climb — some sites are as high as 75 percent. That means fast-loading images and descriptive video, among other ...
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Customer Retention
Use a Blog to Build Loyalty, Increase Conversions
April 21, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton
If you’re relying solely on category and product pages to convert visitors into customers, you’re missing a good opportunity to build a loyal following. Today, more than ever, consumers rely ...
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Customer Retention
6 Benefits of Using Predictive Marketing Tools, for Ecommerce
January 13, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan
Big data can be a big headache. Collecting consumer data is only useful if the information can be leveraged for revenue and profit. Predictive-marketing analytics tools help companies manipulate data ...
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Customer Retention
Keep the Buying Momentum Going in January
December 22, 2015 • Pamela Hazelton
For most online retailers, the holiday shopping season accounts for up to 40 percent of annual sales. While we await final numbers for the 2015 Christmas season, the following 2010-2014
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Customer Retention
Use Shopping Surveys to Increase Conversions
October 21, 2015 • Pamela Hazelton
If you ever want to know what online shoppers are thinking, ask them. Shopping surveys tell you what’s working and what isn’t. They can also tell you things you never ...
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Customer Retention
To Grow Conversions, Cater to Target Audience
May 21, 2015 • Pamela Hazelton
Can you define your target audience? I’m not talking about who you want to buy your product — i.e., everyone — but rather who is likely to give you their business. Many small ...
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Customer Retention
How to Lessen the Post-holiday Sales Lull
December 22, 2014 • Pamela Hazelton
Now that the rush of online holiday shopping is coming to a halt, it’s time to consider how to lessen the blow of the January lull. It happens every year.
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Customer Retention
Customize the Search Page to Increase Ecommerce Sales
November 30, 2014 • Pamela Hazelton
One of the most ignored features of the online store is the search page. It typically provides too many irrelevant results, or worse, none at all. Even the biggest online ...
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Customer Retention
Seek Repeat Customers to Drive Ecommerce Profits
January 22, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Growing a successful ecommerce business may depend on earning repeat business from a relatively small number of loyal shoppers, according to a new report. The top 1 percent of a typical ...
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Customer Retention
Understanding Consumer Search Behaviors
October 2, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Shoppers have many reasons to look for products online. They may want a particular item, seek a bargain price, or even compare similar choices. Understanding these basic consumer search behaviors ...
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Customer Retention
6 Ways to Market Gift Cards Online
September 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Gift cards can be an effective way to increase online sales, acquire new customers, and encourage return visits. Marketing gift cards can be easy during holidays, like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s ...
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Customer Retention
Marketing to Affluent Customers, for High Margins
September 18, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Many online retailers compete on price. But selling luxury products to relatively affluent shoppers with annual incomes above $100,000 per year is an exercise in brand building and content marketing. Shoppers ...
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Customer Retention
How to Earn Loyal, Repeat Ecommerce Customers
March 7, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Loyal, repeat shoppers convert easily, spend more, cost less to service, and help spread the word about good online shopping experiences. Earning long-term customers can significantly improve an ecommerce business. Loyal shoppers demonstrate conversion rates 5-to-9 times greater than f...
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Customer Retention
5 Social CRM Tools for Small Business
February 25, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Customer relationship management tools have existed for years. Businesses use them to manage customer interactions across channels and departments, including marketing, sales, customer service, and technical support. One area where traditional CRM systems fall short is their inability...
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Customer Retention
5 Ways to Attract New Customers
October 10, 2012 • Armando Roggio
For ecommerce merchants, new customers mean new business. There are many customer-acquisition tools available to online retail marketers. Five of the best can be pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, marketplaces, and contest marketing. 1. Buy Pay-Per-Cli...
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Customer Retention
Supercharge Your Search Results Page
September 17, 2012 • Armando Roggio
An effective on-site search experience will likely help Internet merchants sell more products. About 43 percent of online shoppers will use a site's own search to find products and make buying decisions, according to a study from Marketing Sherpa. Separately, a Jupiter Research study s...
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Customer Retention
QR Code Mobile App Encourages Repeat Ecommerce Orders
August 15, 2012 • PEC Staff
Ecommerce merchants strive for repeat business from existing customers. We recently spoke with Dr. Alex Heiphetz, owner of AHG, a company that has produced a mobile app, based on QR codes, to encourage repeat orders. The mobile app is QRwave. Practical Ecommerce: What exactly is a QR...
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Customer Retention
3 Ecommerce Personalization Strategies
February 20, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Personalized product recommendations may help shoppers discover products or services more quickly and boost ecommerce sales conversions. There are, perhaps, a few possible definitions of personalization. For some, “personalization is about engaging customers using technology in ways th...
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Customer Retention
4 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Conversions with Better Landing Pages
February 14, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Better landing page content and design may boost ecommerce conversions. A small difference in an online merchant's conversion rate can make a huge difference in that merchant's profit. Consider an online retailer with about 20,000 monthly visits and an average order value — sometimes c...
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Customer Retention
3 Tips for Getting Started with Subscriptions
February 13, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Product and service subscriptions give ecommerce businesses a reliable flow of revenue, predictable inventory requirements, and the opportunity to cut costs. Transitioning from a traditional retail model to a subscription service can be done in small measured steps. What follows are th...
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Customer Retention
Fake Reviews, a Despicable Practice?
January 31, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Online retailers have an ethical and legal responsibility to customers to advertise and market in an honest and legitimate fashion. But sometimes the line separating an excellent marketing idea from a despicable or even illegal business practice is not perfectly clear. Ecommerce market...
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Customer Retention
7 Post-Holiday Revenue Generators
December 29, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton
For many online retailers, the month of January is a slow one. Between consumers paying off Christmas purchases and those taking time to relax, the remaining online shoppers are seeking good deals on accessories and hoping to take advantage of clearance sales. There are ways, however, ...
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Customer Retention
‘Auto Ship’ Programs Generate Repeat Sales; 2 Examples
December 28, 2011 • Louis Camassa
Many successful ecommerce businesses focus their marketing efforts on search engine optimization, shopping feeds, email, affiliates, and pay-per-click advertising. However, websites that sell consumable products — such as supplements, batteries, food, snacks, vitamins, beverages, and c...
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Customer Retention
3 Remarketing Email Campaigns to Grow Repeat Customers
December 15, 2011 • Charles Nicholls
Getting a first purchase from a customer is always satisfying. New data shows, however, just how hard it is to build repeat customers, those that buy over and over again. I’ve just completed one of the most extensive studies ever conducted into the purchasing behavior of website visito...