How to Use Online Community to Increase Re-purchase Rate?

When people first launch an e-commerce business, they usually look for ways to get new customers to their store. And while that’s a great thing to aim for, it shouldn’t be your only focus. That’s because there’s a finite number of people out there.

So instead of solely focusing on getting new customers, it’s best to prepare your store to increase your re-purchase rate! But why is it so important, and how can you implement it in your Shopify or Shoplazza store? Stay tuned to find out!

Why Should You Focus On Getting Repeat Customers?

Now you might wonder why you should focus on getting repeat customers. Isn’t it vital to get new buyers first?

While that’s the right way to do business, you shouldn’t avoid increasing your re-purchase rate because you’re in the early stages of your eCommerce business. That’s for a couple of reasons:

• Easier to sell: Since they’ve already gone through your funnel and experienced your product, it’s easier to sell to them again. You’ve already built trust, so your customers know that you won’t scam them out of their money!
• Easier to Get New Clients: Believe it or not, it makes getting new clients simpler! If more people repeatedly buy from you, the higher your average lifetime value gets. And since it’s higher, acquiring clients at a loss won’t be a problem, as you’ll get the money back with repeat sales.

3-Step Guide to Building a Community

So as you can see, increasing the re-purchase rate is very beneficial in the long term. So what is the best way to get customers to buy again from your online store?

Easy! It’s by building an engaged community. However, creating one isn’t a walk in the park. It requires a lot of time and effort. But once you get the community, you’ll reap the rewards! So here’s the three-step guide:

Step #1 – What’s in it for them?

Building a community is like building relationships; the benefits need to be mutual. If they aren’t and the only thing you do is spam them to buy again, they will feel used and won’t do what you say.

So when trying to build a community, ask yourself: “What’s in it for them?” Why should people join your community, and what benefits will they get? Here are just two examples of what you could do:

• Free Content: This could be anything from pictures to videos to informational blog posts. But whatever you choose, make sure you are as valuable as possible.
• Involve Your Community With Product Launches: Nothing works better for product launches than involving your community. If you do, they’ll feel like they’re part of the team, making them more interested in buying your product.

Once you’ve got the answer, you can go to the next step!

Step #2 – Pick Your Platform

Once you understand what your audience will get for joining your community, it’s time to find a place where your community stays. That can be anything from a social media site to an email list.

The only thing you need to think about is which benefits work best for your audience. For example, if you create informative blog posts, it is best to use email.

Step #3 – Promote your Community

Now all that is left is to promote your community. You can do it in many ways. For example, you could create ads, ask first-time buyers to join your community once they have completed the order, etc.

Pick something that suits your business the most, and continuously promote it.

Strategies to Get More Repeat Purchases

Congratulations! You now have a healthy community. Now that this part is complete, it’s time to learn how to do the second part and convert them into repeat customers. For this, we’ve outlined the following strategies:

• Personal Recommendation: When your customer buys something, all you might need to do is send them a personal recommendation email. That works exceptionally well if you’ve got complimentary products. For example, if you sell dresses, you might recommend that your buyer match shoes with them.
• Create a Loyalty Program: Creating a loyalty program is another way to motivate your repeat purchases. That way, you can reward your best customers with points so they can get discount coupons, free shipping, or anything else beneficial.
• Create Subscription Boxes: If you’ve got consumable products, one of the best ways to get repeat purchases is through subscription boxes. With it, you’ll get new orders every month.
• Promote Through Free Content: When making your free content, it’s beneficial to make your products part of the solutions. This way, the people will be more willing to buy, seeing the benefit of using your products.

Conclusion

And that’s how you increase your re-purchase rate for your e-commerce store. So to recap, if you want to increase repeat purchase rates, you must give as much free value to your community to keep them engaged and only then ask for the sale.

That way, your customers won’t feel like they’re wallets for your business and will be more willing to purchase from you!

(Contributed by Andreas Ojala & Hermes Fang)