The more visits your online shop receives, the greater the chance of selling your products. It's as simple as that. If those visits visits are from returning customers the chances are even higher because they already know what to expect. So today I want to focus on how to keep bringing customers back to your online shop. The goal is to turn each new customer into a loyal customer, so we're going to focus on tactics you can easily implement to achieve this goal.

It's safe to assume that the success of the best online shops is due to multiple factors. These successful e-commerce businesses often implement a mix of actions with one common element that encourages repeat customers: a good purchasing experience. We've talked a lot about the user experience, and the purchasing experience is not much different. It focuses on the steps the potential customer takes from the moment they decide to purchase until the moment they have the product in their hands.

An online shop that guarantees a good purchasing experience is more likely to boost their chances of encouraging repeated visits from the same customer. It's so important to understand how to keep bringing customers back to your online shop. The reason is simple. The cost of acquiring new customers is always much higher than the cost of achieving a sale from an existing customer. That's why we're going to give you a few tactics to easily implement in your overall strategy.

How to keep bringing customers back to your online shop

The following actions I'm going to propose can be used alone or together with other actions for a more dynamic strategy to keep bringing customers back to your online shop.

E-commerce blog

If you haven't already read the articles I wrote on the risks and benefits of including a blog in your e-commerce, I suggest you have a look. It's a big decision to make as a blog does require extra time and resources in order to be useful and effective. If you prefer something more simple and low-maintenance you can include a news section where you share relevant updates with your customers. It's important to consider including a blog, because if you can make it work you could open yourself to great opportunities to attract repeat customers. New blog content is a great tool that helps you create a connection with your customers, boost your online shop's visibility and even boost your online shop's positioning in Google.

Shuffled product listings

Each time your customers visit your online shop they should see something new. You can activate a feature in your online shop that shows different product listings each time a customer visit your online shop. When the products on the page are in random order the user is enticed with something new each time. This generates a sensation that there is always something new to discover. That's the feeling you want all your customers to have.

Surprise discounts

Everyone loves a good surprise. Give your customers a reason to come back. Send them seasonal discounts without prior warning to boost your return visits. Your customers will be constantly anticipating a new discount to buy from your online shop.

Limited time coupons

When a customer finalises a purchase from your shop, offer then a discount coupon with an expiration date. It could also be valid only on a certain special day, such as Christmas. Limited time coupons like this creates a positive reaction. It makes the user feel as though they've won something and in return you get more frequent repeat purchases, so it's a win-win all around. This is a great tool to boost impulse purchases.

Email marketing

It's important to create an email marketing strategy to ensure that you aren't contacting your users too little or too much and that what you send them is useful to them. If you aren't careful, you'll end up in the spam box. The most effective email marketing strategy focuses on sending periodical newsletters that share relevant information about new products, discounts, offers or special dates (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Valentine's Day, etc).

Raise expectations

Creating a sense of mystery and hype when getting ready to launch a new product is a powerful way to generate hype. Get the word out with your blog, social networks and carefully planned email marketing. Stick to the most relevant information without giving too much away. The goal is to essentially sell the product before it's available in your online shop. This way, once you add it to your online shop, your customers will have been waiting for its arrival and are more likely to hit the purchase button more quickly.

Gamification

Gamification is a tool that connects to your visitors and gets them to willingly participate in a proposed activity or by taking a particular action. A real example that was implemented at diligent recently was the creation of a digital Advent Calendar for a hotel chain. And it was a success; the users got engaged. Their users visited the site every day during the proposed 24-day game period.

Spark a dialogue

Create a community around your product or service. Straight from your online shop you can encourage a conversation among your users by providing them the space to exchange ideas among themselves. A forum in your site or a comment section divided by topics or products stimulates the conversations and discussions. This is a great tactic for boosting your return customers.

Guarantee a good purchasing experience with each purchase

This is the most important point of all. It's the key to turning a one-time visitor into a loyal customer. The tactics I've mentioned here are only effective if the visitor has a positive purchasing experience. Provide visitors with user-friendly, intuitive navigation, clean design, take care of the mobile-optimised version of your shop, ensure high loading speed, communicate clearly and openly about your return policy and shipping costs. Check out our tips to develop the best shipping cost strategy for your e-commerce. And finally, listen to your customers and respond to them quickly and efficiently. Good customer service is key. Remember that attracting a new customer costs you roughly 10x more than gaining their loyalty.

As you can see, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and gaining their loyalty isn't just one day's work. It takes time and a solid strategy that incentivises return purchases. And once you've achieved your goal you will have taken a huge step toward the future success of your online shop.