Customer retention is one of the biggest challenges faced by online businesses. An Exponea article on customer retention explains that regular customers spend an estimated 67 percent more than new customers. This ROI is also why 90 percent of businesses now see customer retention as hugely important.
However, putting together an effective customer retention strategy can be incredibly difficult. With so many rival brands all trying to do the same, it’s not easy to make customers look at you over them. Some digital companies have managed to do this, though, giving businesses in all other industries great ideas about how to keep customers coming back.
#1 Shopping Holidays
In the United States, many retailers take part in the shopping holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with each offering deals and discounts. However, in China, the ecommerce platform Alibaba created its own shopping holiday called Singles’ Day.
Singles’ Day, which takes place on November 11, was created to celebrate those who aren’t in relationships. The celebration has grown and people in China use it as a reason to spend money and get great deals. Alibaba makes billions from Singles’ Day and TechCrunch‘s article on Singles’ Day reveals that in 2018, it made $31 billion. While not every brand has the recognition to create a shopping holiday worth billions, an annual shopping celebration could be effective for getting customers back at that time of year.
#2 Regular Offers
If creating an annual shopping holiday isn’t possible, then you can at least provide regular offers. These will provide customers with a reason to visit your site often, to see what new deals and discounts you can offer them.
One site that does this well is the online casino Magical Vegas. While the casino does offer a welcome 100-percent bonus on a player’s first deposit, it also offers daily deals for new customers and those who have already signed up. The “What Happens in Vegas” slot game allows players to play daily for rewards. Because players have to have wagered £10 in the last week to take part, players may also play more when they aren’t taking part in the daily rewards program too.
#3 Discounts for Subscribers
This Datamotion article about SAAS companies confirms that service subscriptions are worth a lot of money. Companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Zendesk have all made millions of dollars by offering subscription programs. Subscriptions get recurring customers and recurring revenues, meaning that there are fewer dips in a company’s accounts.
One way that these companies have managed to get this recurring revenue is by offering discounts to subscribers. A monthly subscription to these services is often more expensive than an annual subscription, which means that to save money, people will have to subscribe for longer. It does mean that customers make a little less money, but it means that their customer retention is higher.
New customer retention ideas are being developed all of the time as it is such a big challenge for so many companies. However, we can expect more companies to be quick to use these ideas too.
