10 Powerful Ways to Increase Repeat Purchases

Businesses who know the importance of repeat purchases do their best to retain customers. They go to great lengths and even spend large sums of money on activities that would help increase repeat customers and strengthen customer loyalty.

At first, it may seem absurd that companies spend money on people who are already customers. “They already bought. Why spend more for them?” is what some people think. “It’s all just a waste of money. Better spend more on ads to attract new customers.”

Here’s what they don’t know:

A finding from Adobe Digital Index revealed that repeat purchasers bring in a disproportionately large share of the revenue for businesses. To be exact, 40% of revenue only came from 8% of all customers — the loyal ones. Repeat customers seem to convert at much higher rates than potential customers.

Source: Smile.io

So how can you gain those repeat customers? What can you do to increase repeat purchases from your existing customers?

1. Give out incentives like freebies and perks

If you think about it, offering incentives is the most logical way to bring customers, old and new, to your store. It’s one of the oldest marketing methods in the book.

Some though are wary of incentives especially discounts and coupons. Without proper planning and firm objectives, discount pricing and other perks could end up hurting businesses instead of the intended purpose of driving revenue.

But when done right, freebies and perks are effective ways of bringing back customers to repurchase. A 2017 research from Hawk Incentives revealed that 92% of shoppers are always looking for deals. Of course, that figure includes your loyal customers as well.

Source: Black Hawk Network

If you have no idea what kind of incentive to give, here are some ideas:

• Cash or percentage discounts
• Value-added offers
• Content freebies (Guides, Videos, Audios, etc.)
• Free shipping
• Bundles
• Exclusive rewards
• Credits

Feel free to get creative. It’s understandable to get worried about the costs. Think of it as an investment. As Marketwired found out, 54% of customers who purchased the second time will come back to your store and repurchase.

2. Customer accounts and subscription service

With an account, a customer is able to repurchase easier and faster. Usually, a customer is required to enter a piece of contact information like an email address to confirm the newly created account. With that, you’re able to send marketing messages to customers and encourage them to repurchase.

Not all of your customers will opt for a customer account and subscribe to you. Before, there was one main reason why some customers wouldn’t create an account on an ecommerce store — the time it takes to create a user account. 

Now, it’s possible to create an account in less than 10 seconds — thanks to Google and Facebook’s API. Fortunately, if your store is on an e-commerce platform like Shopify, customers aren’t required to create an account before purchasing. And to not pressure customers, you can invite them to create an account after placing their order.  

You can also make user accounts into a subscription service. Of course, it’s up to you if you want it to be paid or not. A good example of a paid subscription service is Amazon Prime.

Source: Amazon Prime

How does Amazon Prime link to more repeat purchases? Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released an analysis in 2017 about Amazon Prime and found out that Amazon Prime members spend more per year compared to non-members.

If you’re thinking about starting a subscription service, make sure that you can provide exclusive content, freebies, deals, and events to leverage this method. You should have a good understanding of your customers and what they want so you would be able to encourage repeat purchases.

3. Make use of loyalty and referral programs

Using loyalty programs can drive great revenue by encouraging customers to buy and then share their experiences with others. Loyalty programs are also called customer retention programs since they effectively increase the purchase frequency of customers to earn rewards.

You can say that loyalty programs are designed for repeat customers. They get more out of your business every time they shop because of deals and rewards.

You can manually start your own loyalty program. However, it may cost a great deal of time. If you would like a user interface customers can use, you would have to shell out the cash to hire a developer.

Or you can make use of digital solutions like Lootly, an incentive marketing platform, to help you grow your revenue as well as your customers’ satisfaction. Through Lootly, you’ll be able to set up programs like points and rewards, VIP programs, referrals, and even receive insights about your business.

Source: Lootly

How loyalty programs work is simple: you set up points and rewards. You specify points or rewards a customer gets once he or she does a specific action like making a purchase, bringing a  referral, sharing on social media, and others.

When done right, using loyalty and referral software could be an effective tool for customer retention which leads to repeat purchases. Of course, you still have to focus and get to know your customers so you would be able to offer more encouraging rewards.

4. Make it easy for customers to repurchase

You may have the greatest products and services on the planet. Shopping at your store may seem fun for your potential customers. But if ordering isn’t seamless, if it’s full of friction and downtime, expect your business to fail.

Let’s consider the experience of a typical first-time customer in Amazon or in Shopify stores. Browsing is fun for a customer — looking at the pictures, reading the description, checking out the reviews, visiting the recommended products. That is until the customer gets to the part where he or she has to enter personal details and credit card information.

How do these stores remedy this and make the customer’s repurchase experience more convenient? Notice the option a customer can check after ordering an item on a Shopify store. It’s asking if the customer would like the store to remember his or her personal information.

Source: Master and Dynamic

The reason why these stores offer customers to either create an account or remember their details is to make the repurchase experience seamless and increase the average repeat purchase rate.

How you do this depends on the type of business. The point is you have to make your products and services as accessible to customers as possible.

5. Careful use of retargeting ads

If you must spend for an ad, go for retargeted ads. Data from Criteo, a retargeting company, showed that 70% of website visitors are more likely to purchase. This fact alone is a great driving force to use retargeting ads rather than other types of ads.

If this is your first time hearing this, retargeting is a type of online advertising who serves people who made contact with your website or customers who are already in your database like repeating customers.

Source: AdRoll

You must be wondering how retargeting ads can be used to encourage repeat purchases when the customer has already made a purchased. The key is time. Adjust your retargeting to a data-driven time frame. Partition your customers based on the last time they purchased. Then, adjust your copy depending on how much time has passed since they last purchased.

This method is a bit dangerous as the ads might annoy some of your customers. You’ll have to optimize your ad’s frequency. Observe how this affects your customer behavior. If you feel that it's giving you the opposite result, you can stop running the ads. 

6. Offer free education to your customers

There are more than 4 billion internet users and 1.95 billion websites on the internet. According to information compiled by Digital Commerce in 2014, there were 12-24 million online stores in the world — and this figure is likely much higher now. 

Chances are, you aren’t the only business in your niche. Your customers have so many options that it’s so easy for you to lose them if you have less to offer than your competitors. But still, that’s no reason to give up, right?

One of the most important things you can offer them is education. You can set up online courses, training, blogs, events, and even certifications. This covers anything that could help your customers enhance their skills.

For example, HubSpot Academy is a very popular free resource. This company is known to be a worldwide leader in marketing, sales, and customer service.

Source: HubSpot Academy

The magic happens when you tie up your education resources with a community. In that community, you would be able to push exclusive offerings and deals that would surely catch the attention of existing customers.

7. Build an email list for your business

Email is one of the most personal modes of communication. When you send an email, you are directly communicating with the customer. There are no walls in between.

Building an email list for your business should be a no-brainer. If you haven’t started yet, you’re missing out so much in terms of potential revenue. According to a 2018 survey report by Emma, 59% of marketers say their biggest source of ROI is email marketing.

The people who are in your email list are customers who showed interest in your product or service. A lot of them may have already bought from you. Email is a perfect vehicle to recommend products and services that complement their first purchase.

If you’ve tried buying e-books from Amazon Kindle and you opted for promotional emails, you probably received an email like this:

Source: Amazon Kindle Email

However, when it comes to email, you have to be thoughtful about what you send to your customers. If they don’t like what you send, they might distance themselves from your brand and ultimately unsubscribe from your list. 

Make sure you’re adding value in every email you send. Optimize the frequency of emails you send especially those who show declining engagement. You don’t want to sound clingy and pushy.

8. Engage with your customers

If you want to have repeat purchases from your customers, you’ve got to elevate your engagement with them and show them attention. What you would benefit from this is a positive rapport which always leads to repurchase.

Even if your customers expressed negative emotions, don’t be afraid to respond. Negative reviews can be helpful for your company and might even become a success story in the future.

To properly engage with customers, you might think about using review tools like TrustSpot. Review tools aren’t only there to help you collect and display reviews. They help you see potential problems by being able to track, read, and respond to reviews as soon as a customer posts one.

Source: TrustSpot

Capitalizing on your customers' experiences would help attract new customers and encourage past customers to re-engage with your business and upgrade the products or services they purchased.

9. Inspire with a cause

Sometimes, people stick with a company or business not because of marketing and systems, but because of what the company fights and stands for. You can say that your company’s mission could inspire loyalty from your customers.

There are lots of companies that give in big ways. One of those is Starbucks. They have a so-called “Starbucks Foundation” which supports lots of environmental and responsible activities all over the world.

With a cause, you’re appealing to your customers’ altruism and morality. If you don’t have a cause or a mission yet, try finding one that you know your customers care about. Then, position your business around it.

Note: Don’t make marketing materials around your mission or cause. It wouldn’t sit right with most people since it looks like you’re just taking advantage and you’re not really serious about your mission.

10. Improve and personalize your customer support

Outstanding and personalized customer support increases customer loyalty. 

Customer service is such a powerful force that it could make 73% of customers to fall in love with a brand and be loyal simply because of friendly customer service representatives, according to Oracle (previously RightNow Technologies).

Having support tools could go a long way. Dedicated support could lead a customer’s question to a sale and a negative experience to repeat purchase. American Express 2017 Customer Service Barometer study revealed that 17% of consumers are willing to spend more on businesses with outstanding customer support.

Here are some ideas on how you improve your customer support:

• Be empathetic
• Use positive language
• Apologize when there’s a mistake
• Look for a common ground
• Respond immediately and clearly
• Learn to listen more
• Thank your customers

Polishing your company’s customer service skills would surely make you dependable and reliable in your customers’ perspective. You’ll be able to earn their trust and confidence, which leads to future sales and upgrades.

Make the process a cycle

Always remember that the first purchase is only the beginning. Your customer’s journey is only starting. That’s why you shouldn’t think of your customer’s journey as a funnel. Think of it more as a cycle.