Encourage customers to sign up to your mailing list

A mailing list is a great tool for staying in touch with customers, allowing you to send them news on new products and deals. This in turn can encourage customers to return. In order to get customers to sign up to your mailing address, you need to first encourage them to create an account and then opt-in to receiving promotions. Not all customers will want to create an account or opt-in to your mailing list – make sure that you give them the choice not to. As for those that do sign up, don’t bombard them with daily emails – two emails per week may be all that’s necessary for a small business.

Offer discounts to return customers

A great way of getting customers to return is to promise them a discount. You could offer all new customers a voucher, or you could introduce a loyalty point scheme that allows customers to gain access to discounts over time by consistently buying from your company. In order to gain loyalty points, customers will have to create an account. Make sure that customers don’t have to accumulate too many loyalty points before they can start buying products with them.

Treat customers on their birthday

Another trick that many ecommerce businesses use to get customers returning is to treat customers on their birthday – usually with some kind of voucher code. This encourages customers to return and make use of the voucher. You can find out each of your customers’ birthdays by getting them to enter their date of birth during the account creation process. Birthday voucher messages can then be automated (you don’t have to remember all of your customers’ birthdays).

Throw in small freebies with each delivery

You could consider throwing in free promotions & gifts with each purchase. These could be small items such as vouchers, business cards, branded pens or branded air fresheners that can be packed and delivered alongside the product. A branded pen or branded air freshener could serve as a particularly effective physical reminder – these products are likely to be used in the future, at which point the customer will see your logo and be reminded of your business. This could spur them to then visit your store for a second time.

Send out a delayed feedback request

It’s good practice to ask all customers for feedback so that you can accumulate reviews. However, don’t send out a feedback request right away – by leaving it a week or two, you can remind the customer of the product they purchased and possibly encourage them to take another look at your site. When it comes to building reviews, this also gives customers time to use the product so that they can give a more thorough review.