Easy ways to increases your returning customer rate

Did you know that acquiring a new customer can be 5 times more expensive than retaining an existing one?

That’s because your current customers know you and trust your brand.

So how can you focus on getting your existing customers to buy more?

In this tutorial, you’ll learn a few tips:

Recreate in-person experiences and person connections by adding hand-written thank-you notes to orders.
Bring surprise and delight to your customers by including free gifts with orders.
Tailor your email marketing to specific groups, and offer them bonuses and exclusive promos.

Hey there, I'm Lucy Martin. I'm a digital marketer photographer and co-owner of The Wardrobe Clothing Store. Now the store started out as a brick and mortar shop and now we're online as well, thanks to Shopify. Now, anyone who's been in business for a while knows that acquiring a new customer is really hard. And it can actually be five times more expensive than retaining an existing one. In fact, some studies have shown the success rate of selling to an existing customer is upward of 60 to 70%, but only five to 20% for new customers.

That's because your current customers know you, they like you, they trust your brand. So how can you focus on getting those customers to buy more? We've discovered there are a few easy ways to boost that customer engagement and flip them from returning customers. First, recreate in-person experiences. It's critical to bring a personal touch to shopping online for your customers. In a physical store they'd get to walk around, chat with a retail associate and you would thank them on their way out.

And this is something that people really, really appreciate. A great way to replicate this essential human connection is with a simple handwritten thank you note along with every order. I know this is simple but people really, really love it and it makes them feel special. This was such a little thing that we added in earlier this year but I honestly can't tell you how many times we ourselves have been called and emailed and thanked by our customers who really, really appreciated that card.

So, it's like a thank you for a thank you but it went really, really well. Next, offer a surprise and delight. You know when you're shopping and an associate comes up and shows you the perfect product. A scarf to complete an outfit or a fun set of pens to match a notebook. It always is a pleasure when a store expresses that they actually understand you as a customer and it keeps the customer thinking about additional purchases.

Now everyone loves to feel special and an easy way to do this is by throwing in a small surprise gift with orders. We found that adding a surprise gift for the orders really made our customers feel really special. This definitely isn't something that you have to do and the thank you note is more than enough but if you have the budget and you can find something with a good margin, that doesn't cost too much but that you can throw in as a gift with your orders, it really makes your customers feel great.

If done effectively, this can also turn into a bonus marketing. We've had many customers post their gift on social media pages and tag us, which boosts our online brand. Finally, capitalize on email marketing with insider promos, loyal customers love to feel valued and an easy way to do this is by keeping a mailing list for your customers and letting them know about sales deals and new products before anyone else.

It's kind of like an insider's club but hey, who doesn't want that exclusive scoop. By letting your best customers in on new items early, you avoid running the risk of selling out of a product before some of your most loyal customers get the chance to see it but it also makes them feel really special. This also works well for sales and discounts, giving returning customers a heads up that a sale is about to happen on certain items, creates a sense of urgency that can be really powerful as a selling tool.

To take things to the next level, you can also tailor these emails to specific customer groups based on what they purchased in the past. So there you go. Implementing these three tips are a helpful way to boost sales among your existing customers. Thanks for watching.

Consider adding a hand-written thank you note to your orders.

A tool like Shopify Email lets you seamlessly set up personalized emails, straight from your Shopify admin. With this you can tailor your email marketing efforts to specific groups and offer returning customers exclusive promos.