Tips for Keeping Customers When Selling Online

In business, loyal customers matter enormously. This is even more true for e-commerce websites because competition in the market is fierce. In this article, MONA Media shares 9 tips for retaining customers when selling online, helping your business grow revenue sustainably.

1. Product quality and variety

Quality is the most important factor in retaining customers when selling online. Because they have already bought once, whether they buy again depends heavily on product quality.

Variety also matters, especially in fashion and accessories. Refreshing your range continually gives users a sense of novelty and keeps them interested.

You can schedule regular product launches, or at least launch often. Each time, you can notify customers and include a personal offer or a limited-time promotion to encourage purchases.

2. Improve the customer experience

“Hành trình khách hàng” (customer journey)

It is no coincidence that modern marketing funnels put so much emphasis on the customer experience (user experience) . In the 5-step marketing funnel, the last 2 stages both focus on improving the shopping experience and encouraging customers to advocate for and spread your brand.

So to retain customers, you need to design a sensible customer journey (customer journey) that focuses on improving the buying experience.

The customer journey is the whole process a user goes through when they come into contact with your brand or product. It does not end when they decide to buy; it includes how they feel after the purchase. A good customer journey leaves users satisfied even after they own the product, because the end goal is to bring them back to you.

Customer insights

To build a strong customer journey, you also need accurate customer insights. Customer insights is the process of researching and analyzing consumer behavior to find real motivations and psychology.

Many customers do not truly understand their own behavior or why they choose one product over another. Many factors drive each action they take when shopping, and without research and analysis you cannot identify them.

Customer insight find users' real pain points and problems. Once those problems are solved, users feel more comfortable and satisfied, and they are more likely to stay with your brand.

That is why customer insights are widely used by most businesses. Large brands may spend hundreds of millions of VND on customer insight research to understand their customers.

Fast page loading

1 in 3 people leaves a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Page speed has a big effect on user experience and on your success.

Online stores need to pay particular attention to page speed, because product pages contain many images, especially high-resolution ones. If images fail to load, users cannot see the product and will not buy. If the images take too long to load, they will leave too.

So you should hire an experienced, skilled website design team to handle website and page speed issues.

A smooth, convenient shopping experience is what keeps customers in today's competitive e-commerce environment. A properly set-up, professional Shopee store not only makes your products stand out, it also builds brand credibility and helps products rank at the top of search results. That is why MONA Media offers a solution for businesses: Shopee store design service and Shopee management service.

Work with MONA to improve your customer experience and grow revenue sustainably in online business. Call HOTLINE 1900 636 648 or contact the MONA team directly here.

3. Product recommendations

Product recommendations while shopping are a real way to keep customers on your website. They put users in front of a range of other products to choose from, which increases time on page and the rate of purchase decisions.

→ Read next: 7 factors that influence buying decisions

3. Staff

Most customer complaints about a shopping trip come down to 2 things: product quality and staff attitude. Your staff is one of the factors that decide whether users come back.

You need to recruit and train your staff, including sales and customer service staff. They should be friendly and attentive when dealing with users, and know how to greet and speak to different kinds of customers.

More importantly, your staff must know how to respond to complaints. They should never act disrespectfully, whatever the case. They should answer questions with thorough, detailed explanations in calm, polite language. Whoever is right or wrong, the business loses the most, because once an unprofessional response spreads (which happens often through social media), the brand takes on a reputation that is very hard to change.

4. Customer care

Respond to feedback quickly

User feedback should be resolved within 24 hours. People quickly lose patience and goodwill toward businesses that are slow to answer.

Note: Always let customers know you will not ignore any complaint, whether or not you can resolve it. After receiving their feedback, you can first send a small offer. This shows sincerity and soothes users while you work out how to fix the problem.

Livechat

Live chat is a small chat window that pops up automatically whenever a visitor lands on your website. With live chat you can reach customers proactively instead of waiting for them to hesitate and then speak up. It also streamlines support, since users no longer need to send an email or fill in a question form.

Being instant and direct has made live chat popular and an inevitable trend. Almost every online store now uses some kind of live chat software.

Good after-sales service

To retain customers, you need attractive after-sales policies. You can give vouchers or discount codes to encourage users to shop again. You can also include valuable gifts in an order, announced in advance or not. Everyone likes gifts, and getting what you wanted plus an extra item is even better. These small extras can win goodwill and a new loyal customer.

→ See also: The most effective after-sales customer care process

Good customer care is largely about speed. If customers ask and wait too long, they will not come back. If your shop cannot staff the chat all day, a 24/7 AI chatbot that answers customers can handle the basic questions, so your staff can save their energy for situations that need careful handling.

5. Stay engaged

Build a close relationship with customers

The ultimate goal in business is not just to sell goods but to build a community of loyal users. So your first priority is to stay engaged and build close relationships with your customers.

In the past, businesses kept in touch with users by email or phone. Newsletters were sent regularly to users' email addresses with information and even exclusive offers.

Today, most users have a social media account such as Facebook or Zalo, and brands try to be present on every platform. So you can talk to customers directly through a private chat window.

If a customer has no social media account, that is fine. The live chat window on your website can remember the session. As long as they use the same browser next time, the system keeps their information. You can also encourage users to register an account on your system so you can create a profile and manage and care for them more easily.

Address customers by name (their account name) to create a friendly feeling, as if you were talking in person. You can also note their characteristics, personality and needs to show you care and listen.

Besides answering questions, you can use the private chat window to introduce product information. You should also ask for their opinion after a successful purchase. A good way to retain customers in online business is to offer an occasional exclusive deal through this channel to encourage them to buy or buy again.

Account system

An account system is a gamification strategy that gives users the feeling of earning and receiving rewards. It is not only online stores: physical stores are also racing to build loyalty software for their shops.

The reason is simple: it is a very effective way to connect with users. Every customer who buys, or even just visits the website, can create an account. With it, they can start earning points on every transaction. When they reach a certain point level, they can enjoy various benefits such as VIP status, discounts or gifts.

In this way, users gain more benefits by buying repeatedly from the same place, and you build a closer bond with them and a community of loyal users.

Mobile responsiveness

To retain customers, online stores should make sure they can be accessed from phones and other mobile devices. If you are a large brand with the resources, you can build your own mobile app.

Mobile support lets users reach your website anytime, anywhere. Even when they are away from a computer or laptop, they can still shop on your site. Every barrier between you and them is removed, which improves the user experience and keeps the relationship close.

6. Listen

Listening and adapting flexiblyto feedback can turn a lost customer into a loyal one. If someone complains and is listened to and satisfied, they will feel very happy and well disposed toward you.

To show that you take in all user opinions, run plenty of surveys. You can survey after a purchase to gauge satisfaction with the service. You should also survey customers who leave items in their cart, and survey after a period of use.

Surveys can be on-page, by email or even by phone. You can combine methods: sometimes a detailed survey, sometimes just a quick rating on a scale (or stars).

7. Promotions

We would be remiss not to mention the most effective way to retain customers: promotions. To get the most out of it, though, issue discount codes and free-shipping codes exclusively for returning customers. They will feel the “privilege” of coming back to buy from you and become loyal customers.

Combined with an account system, you can set up exclusive offers for different users based on how much they have spent. Sometimes you can send customers a discount code through the private chat channel to encourage them to buy.

8. Attractive packaging

Product packaging is a seemingly small factor that has a big impact on customer experience. Among all the negative reviews of products on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, a large share complain about packaging quality.

Packaging is the customer's first impression and a way to keep them paying attention to your brand. Through it, you show your care and attention to detail: “Every item that reaches them was packed carefully and sent with sincere care.”

Packaging is also an effective way to position your brand, not just a wrapper. You can print your logo and slogan on the box, and use your brand's main or exclusive color. These details put your brand image in users' minds, so that one look at the package tells them where it came from.

Inside the box, you can also include a business card as a form of self-promotion. A thank-you note or even a discount voucher will surprise and delight customers.

9. Post product photos

When shopping online, users often worry about being cheated and pay close attention to product images. So besides illustrative photos with professional models, cameras and lighting, you also need authentic photos.

Highly authentic images with little retouching make customers trust you more. When their order arrives, they will not be surprised that the product is not 100% identical to the illustration. This is especially true in fashion categories such as clothing, shoes and jewelry.

Above is the 9 tips for retaining customers when selling online. Overall, the most important thing is to guarantee quality and keep your connection with users. Only then can you step by step building customer loyalty and help your brand grow sustainably.

Retaining customers is much easier when you keep their purchase history, so you know who bought what and when, and can follow up accurately. Marketplaces do not give that data to sellers, but your own website does. If you need a place to store your own customer data, then learn more here.