7 effective strategies to increase your repeat purchase rate

Every eCommerce store has two types of customers: new customers and repeat customers.

It goes without saying that you want to grow your sales. But to achieve this, you shouldn’t focus solely on acquiring new customers. You also need to ensure that your existing customers are making repeat purchases.

Generally, keeping hold of an existing customer is much cheaper than gaining a new one. Existing and loyal customers have a 67 percent higher average order value than first-time buyers.

This is why it’s essential to monitor your customer retention by tracking your repeat purchase rate.

If most of your customers have only bought from your store once, then you might need to look at ways you can improve your repeat purchase rate.

Let’s take a look at what repeat purchase rate is, how to calculate it, and what you can do to increase it.

What is your repeat purchase rate and why is it important?

Your repeat purchase rate is the percentage of your customers who have made more than once purchase.

The higher the number, the better. A rate of 0% would mean that none of your customers have returned to make a second purchase. A rate of 100% would mean that every single customer has made more than one purchase.

It’s simple, really. The more often your customers buy from you, the more money you’ll make over time.

Your repeat purchase rate is an important metric for measuring your customer retention efforts as well as your customers’ loyalty towards your brand.

How to calculate your repeat purchase rate

A simple way to work out your repeat purchase rate is to divide the number of customers who made more than one purchase (in a given date range) by your total number of customers (in a given date range).

You might be wondering what a healthy repeat purchase rate looks like, but unfortunately, there isn’t a universal answer. It will largely depend on your industry and what type of products or services you offer.

If you sell high-cost, long-lasting products, your repeat purchase rate is likely to be lower than a company that sells low-cost consumables.

Whatever products you sell, increasing your repeat purchase rate is all about building stronger relationships with your customers, and that’s something that every business can benefit from.

7 effective ways to increase your repeat purchase rate

Here are 7 things you can do to make your customers want to buy from you again, and again, and again…

1. Segment your audience

When marketing your product or service, a surefire way of boosting your sales is by delivering targeted content that’s relevant to the recipient’s interests. But how do you do that when every customer is unique?

The answer is customer segmentation.

Customer segmentation basically means dividing your audience into different groups. Each segment will be based on different criteria such as age, gender, job title, location, interests, purchase history, and more.

You can then target the different segments with tailored messaging that speaks directly to them and addresses their unique needs and wants.

Segmentation empowers you to make your marketing campaigns more effective and drive more sales by showing your customers what they want to see.

2. Send re-engagement emails

A re-engagement email is an email that you send to customers who haven’t bought from you in a while. The goal of the email (or series of emails) is to win the customers back. Remind them of why they bought from you in the first place and show them what they’re missing out on.

These emails have the best results when you personalise the messages based on the customer’s previous purchases. You can then show them recommended products based on what they like.

To drive more conversions, you might also want to include an incentive in your re-engagement emails. This might be a discount code, free delivery, a free item, or something else to draw the customer back in.

3. Send personalised product recommendations

Putting the right products in front of the right people at the right time is a great way of boosting sales and increasing your repeat purchase rate.

Product recommendations work best when they’re based on previous sales data. Include them on your product pages and in your emails.

The more personalised the recommendations are, the better. By knowing what products the customer is more likely to buy, you can make repeat purchases easy for them and help them fill their cart up more quickly, without having to spend too much time browsing on your store.

The smoother you can make the customer’s experience, the more likely they’ll be to shop again.

4. Show off your reviews

Leveraging other people’s opinions about your products and services will help to improve your repeat purchase rate.

Why?

Because consumers will trust a brand more if there’s evidence of other shoppers loving the brand. According to a recent study, 93 percent of people state that reviews will impact their purchasing decision and a further 60 percent browse reviews weekly. So why do reviews matter? Well, that’s a little concept called social proof.

In a nutshell, social proof, or user-generated content, is any positive comments that people have said about your company.

Ratings and reviews are probably the most effective way to integrate social proof into your marketing campaigns. You can display customer reviews on your landing pages, add them to product pages, or include them in your email campaigns. Even include real pictures of happy customers if you can.

5. Send cart abandonment emails

Research shows that almost 70% of people add items to their online shopping cart only to leave without completing their purchase.

That means 7 out of every 10 people who add your products to their cart leave without paying you. That’s a lot of potential revenue gone down the drain.

But that doesn’t mean you have to admit defeat just yet. You can bring some of those lost shoppers back.

How? By sending cart abandonment emails.

An abandoned cart email is an automated email campaign that gets triggered when someone leaves their cart behind. It’s one of the most effective emails that you can send.

To discover what components make up a high-converting cart abandonment email, check out this post.

6. Start a rewards program

A strong relationship with your customers is the true driver of brand loyalty. But a strong relationship can never be a one-way thing.

Show your customers that you value them with an incentive-based loyalty program. The simple act of thanking customers for their business and loyalty is an effective way of improving your repeat purchase rate.

When you offer points and valuable rewards just for shopping at your store, customers will be much more likely to buy from you more frequently.

7. Improve customer satisfaction through surveys

Customer feedback can improve customer retention. It’s crucial to find out what your existing customers think about your company.

If your customer is unhappy with their experience for any reason, you can listen to them and rebuild their trust, while improving your product or service. If you quickly solve any issues that arise for a customer, then they’re much more likely to stay loyal to your brand.

So, how do you measure customer satisfaction and get that all-important feedback? The answer is through customer experience surveys. By asking the right questions, you’ll be able to determine customers’ likes and dislikes, and where you need to make improvements. Customer surveys are also a great way of collecting customer reviews for your social proof marketing, too!

Over to you

As marketers, we can’t afford to ignore the post-purchase experience. This is what holds the key to improving customer retention.

By keeping an eye on your customer retention metrics while following the strategies in this post, you should feel ready to grow your sales and increase your repeat purchase rate higher than ever.

It all comes down to listening to your customers and providing them with valuable, genuine experiences. The more you work towards improving the entire customer journey, the higher your repeat purchase rate will be.

To start creating experiences your customers will love, get in touch. We’ll show you what amazing things our marketing platform can do for your business.