Customer Retention Strategies for Retail: 8 Ways To Retain Shoppers

The importance of having a customer retention plan

As mentioned in the beginning, retaining customers is not as expensive as finding new ones. Meaning you won’t have to spend as much money on marketing yourself to an existing customer as to a new one. It costs approximately seven times more to acquire than to retain a customer!

Customers who keep buying from you can also become brand ambassadors since they are so satisfied with your brand. And with brand ambassadors comes the priceless marketing we all know and love – word of mouth. Nothing beats a recommendation from a friend or family member!

8 effective customer retention strategies for your retail business

It’s actually pretty easy to start implementing strategies to reach higher customer retention. Here are 8 different strategies you can copy-paste into your way of working:

1. Create an onboarding program

Or first impression extension? Whatever you choose to call it, the first piece of advice is to give some serious love to the customers you just got. The sooner they make a second purchase, the better the odds of you keeping them! Set up an onboarding program that fits your model. And make sure to personalize the communication! Examples of what you can do are to send new customers a welcome offer, follow up on their purchase, and offer product recommendations nicely to motivate the customer to make a purchase.

2. Use personalization to create tailored shopping experiences

Are you feeling a bit wary when you hear this? We know for a fact that many retailers are struggling and don’t know where to start with real personalization. But that doesn’t take away the fact that this is a customer retention strategy you can’t turn your head from. Your customers expect personalized content from you! So, you need to start segmenting into specific objections to tailor your messaging to your customers.

• Collect all necessary data you can get on your customer in a CDP
• Create segmentations based on things like last purchase, age, gender, location, interests and amount of kids, etcetera.
• Set up emails and texts via automation that targets the specific audience and keeps the customer in a flow based on what actions they take
• A/B test different variations to see what your customers like better
• Evaluate and look into insights on how your customers behave after a specific type of communication or campaign

Watch the video to learn all about customer retention in retail

3. Measure customer experience

Customers can and will not become loyal and recurring if they have a bad experience with your brand. Offering a flawless experience includes, for example, a user-friendly website, directions to your store, e-commerce, payment options, return policy, contact options, opening hours, and shipping.

• Set up a test group of friends or family to try out your experience! Then prioritize what to optimize depending on their feedback.

Read more: How customer satisfaction affects customer retention

4. Communicate company mission, vision, and values

This goes for both attracting and retaining customers. Communicate what you stand for as a company! Why do you exist and what will the customer contribute to when they continue shopping from you? It could be things like social responsibility, environmental work, or talking about your factories’ employees and their working conditions. Give your customers something deeper. Something they can connect to and support! 

5. Collect and act on customer feedback

A piece of advice you will see a lot when it comes to retention is getting to know your customer, to know what they want from you. Asking for feedback is a great way of doing this! Create a short survey with questions about their experience and points of improvement. Make sure to reward the customer for filling out the form to motivate them. It will be worth it because customer feedback is a gold mine for you!

• You can also work with NPS scores. Add the module to your emails where customers can rate your company on a scale from 1-10 and you’ll get a feel for where you are on the scale. It’s a great way to find out which customers that you need to show some extra love to.

Read more: Working with NPS scores in Voyado

6. Create engagement on social media platforms

Still going strong and only growing bigger. Social media is the perfect way to show your creative side! Customers who like your brand and get reminded of it by inspiring content will likely buy from you again! Involve your followers by for example asking them to tag you in their own social media channels. And when they do, respond to them personally! Show that you appreciate them and make them feel special. That is the foundation of getting recurring customers.

• The person who is handling your social media can use their first name when responding to comments and tags. That shows the real person behind your brand and makes the customer feel extra connected to you.

Read more: Work with Facebook audiences in Voyado

7. Provide fast, proactive and excellent customer service

How you treat your customers when they have questions or concerns will determine your retention rate. Customers who receive great support are surely the ones who will come back and recommend you to others! Aim to give the highest grade of customer support – always!

• Invest in a CDP where you get all the data on each customer in one view. That way, you can easily find the customer who is emailing or calling to see their history with your brand.

8. Go above and beyond

Ask yourself what you want your customers to say about your brand when they are riding the bus with a friend. Do you want to be the brand that always provides the latest trends with quality? Or the one that always responds within minutes with thoughtful support? Maybe you want to be talked about for giving the customer a personal note in every package. The sky is the limit here. Turn these thoughts into ways you can set them in motion. Go above and beyond your competition to reach your goal!

Build and implement strategies to retain your retail customers with Voyado

When you choose Voyado as your complete customer loyalty platform, there are many ways you can work to increase customer retention. You’ll get the segmentable CDP, marketing automation, churn score, NPS score, your email design, ability to A/B test, and get rapports on the results. All in one.

Read about all of Voyado’s features