How to Expand Your E-Commerce Customer Base
No matter the scale of operations, or current rates of sales, every online business wants to expand its customer base. Expanding your customer base differs from increasing the number of first-time customers purchasing your products. Effective expansion of your customer base should yield long-term benefits, rather than producing one-off sales spikes. Instead, customer base expansion focuses on increasing the volume of valuable, loyal customers. The list below provides some of the most effective ways of expanding your e-commerce customer base.
- Use International SEO
Search engine optimization is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your website by increasing your search engine ranking. As an expert agency for global SEO explains, on-site international SEO is one of the most effective ways of expanding your online customer base. International SEO helps you to access a base of relevant customers across the world. To ensure you are gaining the most benefit from your international SEO practice, you will need to support international deliveries from your site.
- Improve Customer Service
The level of customer service you offer has the potential to dictate the type of relationship you have with your customers. Namely, customer service has the power to create a loyal customer, or send a lead right into the hands of your competitors. Research has found that 96% of global customers say that customer service is an important factor when it comes to brand loyalty. The influence of your customer service goes beyond the one-to-one interaction. Studies show that a customer who experiences high-level customer service is five times more likely to recommend the brand to friends or family.
So, what is the best way to improve the level of customer service you offer? One of the most effective ways of improving your customer service is improving your average response time. One study found that 90% of customers want an immediate response time, which is under 10 minutes. Adding a chat feature to your site is a simple way of increasing the accessibility of your customers service teams.
- Follow Up After Purchases
As previously mentioned, effectively expanding your customer base does not mean increasing the number of first-time purchases, rather growing the volume of loyal, returning customers. One of the optimal ways to ensure that first-time shoppers convert into loyal customers is to follow up after first-time purchases have been made. Email marketing offers a free and easy way for you to follow up with customers once a purchase is completed. Email customers once their product has been delivered, to thank them for shopping. You can also offer these customers an incentive for returning to your brand, such as a discount or free shipping code. This will encourage a customer to make future purchases and help them to feel more valued by your brand. Personalizing emails will further increase the effectiveness of these follow-up emails.
- Ask for Reviews
Online reviews are a very valuable motivator for online shoppers. Research has found that 90% of customers read reviews before shopping online. A further 88% of people trust customer reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. Prompting your customers to leave a review after purchase will help motivate consumers who are new to your brand to make a purchase.
Author: Carol Trehearn