Attracting and converting new customers is no easy feat for new eCommerce business owners. Many retail brands spend unthinkable amounts of money on marketing strategies and campaigns designed to get to the heart of their customers deepest desires. But this is only half the battle….
Customer acquisition is essential for a business to thrive, but what good is a well thought out growth plan if it ignores customer defection and retention?
If you want to get more out of your advertising spend, and grow revenue through repeat business, you’ve come to the right place. Check out our customer retention facts for 2019, and see how you can take advantage of them below.
Customer Retention in a Nutshell
Customers hate bad delivery experiences
If your customers receive their shipment later than expected, then there is a 66% chance they won’t shop from you again. Shocking, isn’t it? Customer loyalty has well and truly gone down the drain in the age of eCommerce, as customers can easily open a new tab and get what they want from literally thousands of alternative sellers.
It’s not always your fault though. Uncontrollable weather, traffic, high demand for courier services are just a few reasons why customers might experience a delivery delay. Unfortunately though, our customers aren’t so forgiving. And we’ve got the data to prove it. One of the features of the Shippit platform allows you to seek feedback from your customers about their delivery experience, so you can keep track of how your customers feel about their experience and reduce customer defection.
Customers shop and tell
Customers purchase from you because they really want to own and use what you sell. The rush of positive emotion consumes them as they add your amazing products to their cart, your convenient checkout experience makes their heart beat a little faster, and then they eagerly await that confirmation email with the expected delivery time.
If a customer is excited to receive your delivery, they’re going to be just as disappointed if they don’t get it on time. And, you guessed it, over 78% of shoppers will complain to their friends about it.
Customers want to return things as easily as they purchased it
Product returns are both a blessing and curse for retailers. On one hand, customers will go out of their way to research retailers with hassle free returns, but on the downside, product returns increase shipping costs, cost of product dispositions and it takes time to authorise whether or not the return is legitimate.
Returns is an area where the benefit may outweigh the cost though:
- 33% of customers return online orders
- 92% of customers repurchase from retailers with an easy return process
- 53% seek out sellers with an easy return process
- Customers will spend 357% more if they’re offered free returns
Customers want free and fast shipping
There is a lot of hearsay floating around eCommerce circles when it comes to shipping, and that’s mainly because people often think free and fast shipping are synonymous. But that’s not the case!
- 74% of customers want free shipping
- 49% of customers want fast shipping
As a retailer, you should work to offer both of these shipping options, but not as one option. Customers are generally happy to wait a little longer if they get free shipping, but customers are also willing to pay more for shipping if they are in desperate need of their order. Remember, customer retention is about making your customers happy. So giving them the shipping options they want is one of the easiest steps you can take to do this.
Customers retention isn’t rocket science
One of the key takeaways from this infographic is that customer retention isn’t an unpredictable or elusive force; it’s really quite straight forward:
- Don’t expose your customers to bad / late deliveries
- Don’t give your customers a reason to ship and tell
- Don’t lose customers to a complicated returns process
- Give your customers both free and fast shipping options
If you want to learn more about how to achieve these retention goals for your store, get in touch with our team to see how Shippit can help. We live and breath to grow eCommerce and retail businesses, so hit us up!
