Purchase frequency and repetitive customers are both related to each other. Making an eCommerce customer repetitive is not an easy task, and boosting purchase frequency is also tough. But of course, there are some tactics to do so if you are running a business in eCommerce.
Primarily, when a business is successfully able to make a customer stay from every angle, then it makes the chances higher that the customer is going to be the repetitive one. According to Involve.ai, 87% of pleased customers are more likely to upgrade and buy new services for a particular business.
That means if you successfully make a customer repetitive in your business, then you can automatically boost the purchase frequency. To increase purchase frequency and grab the attention of existing customers, we have come up with some ways that might help you in your business in Shopify.
So, let’s Uncover the power of Purchase Frequency in Shopify. Before that, have a look what is purchase frequency.
What Is Purchase Frequency?
The purchase frequency measures how often a typical customer purchases a business. By measuring how often customers buy things during a given period, you can compare the effects of changes in customer behavior and get more accurate results.
A higher purchase frequency for a business indicates that your brand will grab a good number of loyal customers, which will make them repeatable. However, the purchase frequency rate can vary from product to product.
For instance, the purchase frequency of common products like food and groceries is predictable, but in the case of electric goods or high-end products, the purchase frequency is quite low.
Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that businesses usually keep track of what their customers usually purchase from them because tracking purchasing patterns allows businesses to reach customers easily.
Businesses usually do this observation task diligently because, according to ThinkImpact, repeat customers usually spend 67% more than new customers.
Customers who return repeatedly are more likely to buy new products you offer, and automatically they increase their spending in your business, so undoubtedly, repetitive loyal customers are an important source of income.
It has been calculated that a 25%–95% profit in an eCommerce business can be achieved simply by retaining 5% of repeat customers. If a business can track how often customers make repeat purchases, it will easily increase the purchase frequency of a particular customer.
Why Purchase Frequency is Important?- Reasons
As we already know, purchase frequency is important to make a customer repetitive, but this is not the only reason to improve purchase frequency. There are several reasons why a company should keep an eye on purchase frequency.
- Purchase Frequency Has a Positive Impact on Customer Retention
- Increases customer CLV
- Helps in the analysis of competitors
- Convert prospects into customers
Reason 1: Purchase Frequency Has a Positive Impact on Customer Retention
The concept of customer retention refers to the process of engaging existing customers in such a way that they buy products from a business again and again. It is an effective technique, especially for eCommerce businesses.
Now you may think that repurchase and customer retention rates are the same things. But in reality, there is a thin line between these two things.
The repeat purchase ratio indicates those customers who have purchased more than once in a certain period. On the other hand, customer retention indicates how many repeat customers buy products from your company in a particular period.
Customer retention is an effective indicator of future sales and success. But you can ask how purchase frequency is related to customer retention.
The purchase frequency of your consumers is the total number of purchases they make during a given time frame. You may learn a lot about your customer retention rate from your customers’ purchasing habits and satisfaction rates.
Here is the way how you can calculate customer retention-
The customer retention rate is the percentage of consumers still using your business after a given period as opposed to the total number of customers at the beginning of that time multiplied by 100.
When you access the customer retention data, then later on, you can work on those data to boost the purchase frequency.
Reason 2: Increases customer CLV
The total amount of money a customer is expected to spend with your company throughout a normal business relationship is their “lifetime value.”Customer value growth is an important statistic because it costs much less to keep an existing customer than to get a new one.
Understanding the CLV helps businesses come up with ways to bring in new customers and keep old ones without cutting into profits.
If you can figure out how often a customer buys from you, you can ask them to spend more money on your business.
Reason 3: Helps In The Analysis of Competitors
With the help of purchase frequency, you can guess which product is in demand on the market, in the same way, that analyzing a customer’s buying pattern makes it easy to predict purchase frequency.
It can be frustrating as an eCommerce business owner to see a customer’s purchasing pattern change or a new customer come to your store to buy something that you do not have. At that time, you can quickly guess that your competitors may be selling these products. In such a way, you can analyze your competitors without any hassle from your customers.
Reason 4: Convert Prospects into Customers
When you have successfully made some customers repeat customers, try to make them satisfied. According to the Tempkin Group, 77% of customers recommend a particular product to a friend after receiving good service.
When an existing customer recommends your business, it will create stable brand visibility throughout the whole industry. But to convert a prospect into a customer, do not just rely on existing customers. Perform other marketing strategies properly to enhance the possibility of getting more customers.
For example, a successful content strategy can grab the attention of prospects. Your sales department needs to work closely with your marketing department to ensure that they have all the resources necessary to grab prospects’ attention.
A quality content marketing strategy ultimately converts prospects into paying customers easily, which typically increases sales. Additionally, if smart advertising is added to content marketing, it will be a growth-hacking step.
Before applying any content marketing strategy, ask your marketing team to get to know all consumers very well and learn about how various customer demographics could be and how they could plan to give the best services to their upcoming customers.
And one more additional thing: before targeting any specific prospects, you must focus on personalized email and CTA.
Effective Ways to Increase Purchase Frequency in Shopify
- Identify your target customers
- Make the best use of email marketing
- Give offers on holidays
- Do not underestimate the use of Social-Media
- Use business-centric third-party software
- Try to make a long-term relationship with customers
- Promote upsell and cross-sell
Way 1- Identify Your Target Customers
To be successful in marketing and sales, it is crucial to first identify your target market. You can use this data to determine the most effective strategies for boosting client loyalty and repeat purchases. Targeting those who are more likely to convert will also be easier.
Collecting information about your potential customers with cutting-edge technologies is a great strategy, including demographics, purchase history, average order value, preferences, favorite communication channels, etc.
Using email marketing, social media, data analytics, and other solutions, modern customer relationship management systems automatically record priceless data on customers. They analyze this unprocessed information to deduce consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay.
Having this information will allow you to divide your clientele into groups with shared interests and habits. In this method, you can promote repeat business through targeted advertising.
Way 2- Make The Best Use of Email Marketing
A marketing plan aimed at boosting the number of repeat purchases made by customers should center around email marketing.
When it comes to informing clients about their orders, discounts, or other deals, email marketing is the most practical and widespread option. These communications serve to reacquaint consumers with your company in the hopes that they will make another purchase.
Yet, personalization of email marketing initiatives is a surefire way to increase their success. To improve your email’s open rate by 26%, simply use the recipient’s name in the subject line.
Customer activity, measured by the percentage of recipients who click on your message, rises, leading to more frequent purchases.
It is possible to personalize an email’s tone and message in addition to the sender’s name by using data about the recipient’s demographics, response history, and product purchases. For instance, you can customize a package of recommended products to a customer’s tastes and preferences based on their past purchases.
Way 3- Give Offers on Holidays
The effectiveness of a marketing campaign can be greatly enhanced by the use of time-sensitive offers. People act hastily when they learn that a discounted offer will expire at the end of a specified period.
Because the deal is too good to pass up, the buyer ends up buying something they hadn’t planned to. Most of the time, this kind of buying leads to more money in a business.
But, you should exercise caution and not abuse time-sensitive discounts. Customers will quit making purchases unless special discounts are offered periodically. It can end up being counterproductive for sales volume.
Way 4- Do Not Underestimate The Use of Social-Media
If you are someone who is still strict with traditional marketing, then it is time to change your marketing plan. Social media marketing is booming nowadays because of endless user engagement.
According to Sprout Social, it is predicted that there will be 4.89 billion people using social media all over the world in the year 2023. And people, on average, bounce between seven applications. That means marketing in several channels can be profitable for any particular eCommerce business.
It is needless to say, starting an eCommerce business is always beneficial. To expand your eCommerce business, you can take advantage of social media marketing by driving traffic to your website.
Having a link to your website on every social media platform is an essential part of social media marketing. You can use SMM to boost revenue by maintaining an active social media presence and publishing high-quality content across multiple channels.
The most valuable aspect of social media is the direct access it provides to consumers. The more personal and genuine your social media interactions are, the more likely users will be to remember and recommend your brand.
In social media, your interactions leave a lasting impression on the customer. Thus, you must engage with customers and maintain a presence across all social media channels to win their loyalty.
We know customer loyalty boosts purchase frequency, and social media boosts customer loyalty. Do not forget to take advantage of social media marketing.
Way 5- Use Business-Centric Third-Party Software
If you are doing business online, a business platform like Shopify and focusing on the B2B business model. Then you can plan to take advantage of third-party applications. There are numerous applications available at Shopify, and you must choose which is appropriate for your business.
For instance, you have a B2B wholesale business where you can target those merchants who want to buy in bulk. You can, of course, do business with a default store, but did you think about your competitors?
To do a sustainable business in eCommerce, beating your competitors is a vital step. After intensive market research, if you see your competitor’s business is using any third-party application in their B2B wholesale store.
They also should have a much better bulk order application for your Shopify Store. Find an application that has several business-centric features that meet your business goal.
Before choosing a B2B wholesale-centric application, make sure the application also focuses on inventory management, quick order, and bundle building. There are various types of applications available in the app store. Choose the best application from them.
Let’s have a look at an example-
Here is an example of a quick order application that allows its users to place different orders from one product page. Moreover, this application shows pricing togetherly, which is an ultimate time saver. Additionally, with this application, a merchant can set different bundles and MOQs. And there is no doubt that when your application will be able to save the time of your B2B customer, the purchase frequency will increase automatically.
These applications are not only applicable to B2B business applications but are useful for any type of business. For example – A custom business, digital gift card, home environment products, car, and bike accessories etc.
Way 6- Try to Make a Long-Term Relationship with Customers
When you are just about to run a business in eCommerce, do not think about short-term plans. Think about a long-term plan. According to Think Impact, about half of a business’s income, comes from about 8% of its most loyal customers. That means a good relationship with customers can make them loyal and repetitive.
To maintain a good relationship with the client, communication is no alternative. Keeping your customers in continuous communication is essential. In a sales process, it’s better to overcommunicate than under-communicate.
Though it varies from client to client, some client loves regular communication, whereas others prefer only simple email communication. But it is not something that you should bother about. When you communicate with a client for a long time, you will understand his criteria.
So, Communicate with them and keep them up-to-date about every situation of your business, for example- share with them about last-minute shopping updates, your BFCM preparation, or what new you are selling on Christmas.
Additionally, if you have a B2B wholesale business or a Web-to-print business and you have added any applications or perks, let them know.
Way 7- Promote upsell and cross-sell
According to Forbes, 91% of customers love to buy from brands that give them relevant offers.
Upsell and cross-sell are such types of offers. These two are the best ideas to boost purchase frequency. Upsell focuses on selling more expensive additional products and cross-sells focus on selling add-on services or products to the customer.
Many marketers use upselling and cross-selling to raise their AOV. Moreover, these two strategies can also influence the customer to buy more from you.
Because of this, clients will have a positive brand experience while buying from you, and they will begin to have more faith in your company.
According to a survey of over 500 sales professionals conducted by the HubSpot Blog in 2022, upselling and cross-selling are responsible for up to 30% of income.
So, if you want to strengthen your relationship and revenue growth in your business, focus on cross-selling and up-selling activities.
Furthermore, if you sell products that are usually expensive still, you can use the upsell and cross-sell process to boost sales volume and purchase frequency.
Bottom Line
Purchase Frequency in Shopify can be increased easily with some easy strategies that we have just mentioned in this article. Moreover, we have also added the reason why you should focus on purchase frequency in your Shopify store.
