This is a guest post from Yotpo, a BHN Rewards partner whose e-commerce marketing platform offers solutions for customer loyalty and referrals.
Retention is the biggest buzzword in e-commerce right now, and with good reason: Customer acquisition costs are at an all-time high, and consumers are being more deliberate about where they spend their money. In fact, a recent Yotpo survey shows that more than half of shoppers are spending less overall, and most are cutting their spending on electronics, home decor, clothing, and accessories.
We all know that getting a current customer to shop with you again has historically been easier and cheaper than acquiring a new one, and that’s even more true now. But retention is complex, and many brands struggle with finding the right strategies. Our research shows that, for over 47% of e-commerce brands, one of their biggest challenges when it comes to retention is not knowing how to engage customers between purchases.
If you’re looking for an effective way to move the needle on customer retention, look no further than your loyalty and referrals program — and if you don’t have one, now’s the time to set one up. Loyalty programs are the MVPs of retention, but you have to think beyond points for purchases and create a unique experience that gives your customers a reason to come back.
READ MORE: How Rewarding Customer Loyalty Supports Your Lead Generation Efforts
Here are three ways that loyalty rewards drive retention.
Customers don’t just give their loyalty away — brands need to earn it. And how they do that is by providing value in the form of rewards. Points for purchases are standard, but if you want to provide something that gets members excited, consider a tier-based system, where members can level up for more perks and benefits, like free shipping, double points, or even experiential rewards like exclusive events.
That value goes both ways — customers get rewards, but brands get the opportunity to incentivize the actions they want a customer to take. Whether it’s following your brand on social, opting in for product subscriptions, opting in for SMS marketing, or leaving reviews, you can leverage your loyalty program to create more touchpoints for engagement. And when you combine loyalty with a referral program, you can drive even more value and help sidestep some of your customer acquisition costs.
Loyalty programs provide brands with an opportunity to collect zero- and first-party data, which is so important with the death of third-party cookies. Not only will you be able to collect data on how often customers make purchases and when they use rewards, but you can even use rewards to incentivize surveys and quizzes to collect information about their needs and interests.
You can then use the data you collect to create even more personalized experiences across your channels, driving more engagement, better retention, and higher customer lifetime value.
The silver lining to our consumer survey is that, even though the economy has them spending less, more than 82% of them say they still buy from their favorite brand. And how do you become their favorite? By shifting your goal toward acquiring new relationships rather than just new customers.
Unique, personalized reward experiences make your customers feel valued and seen, and that helps foster retention. And you can even take that a step further by weaving your brand values into your loyalty program. For example, Tentree — a sustainable clothing brand that plants 10 trees for each item purchased — offers rewards to loyalty members who register a tree. It’s a great way to make your customer feel like they’re part of something bigger than a purchase and you’re in it together.
Your loyalty program is itself an effective retention driver, but when it’s connected to your other retention solutions, you’re able to drive engagement throughout the entire buyer journey and build unique, tailored post-purchase experiences that keep customers coming back.
For example, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals integrates with BHN Rewards, giving brands the ability to expand their reward offerings to provide more value to their loyal customers.
With solid retention strategies and the right solutions, you can build better experiences and stronger relationships, and turn every first-time shopper into a customer for life.
Want to hear more about the integration of BHN Rewards and Yotpo? Request a demo today!
BHN Rewards integrates with leading marketing, survey, research, and community platforms to streamline rewards management and delivery. We like to share our partners' expertise and best practices to help you get better results.
BHN Rewards integrates with leading marketing, survey, research, and community platforms to streamline rewards management and delivery. We like to share our partners' expertise and best practices to help you get better results.
