Ecommerce is a multiple-faceted field that is becoming more complicated day by day. As more options show up now and then, customers have a lot of places to shop and choose from. In this time of strong competition, you can deliver better than others and retain your customers by introducing loyalty cards.
To demonstrate the value of loyalty programs, we will take you through 7 ways loyalty cards and programs help you retain your old customers and get more customers with time.
What Are Loyalty Cards and Customer Loyalty Programs?
Loyalty cards are offered to customers under loyalty programs to improve sales, customer experience, and customer retention. The program provides discounts, incentives, and special offers to attract a new audience and to keep present customers for a long time.
In exchange for repeated purchases or loyalty, customers get rewards that is why the program is named as such.
7 Ways Loyalty Cards Improve Customer Loyalty
Below are 7 ways your customer loyalty program can boost eCommerce through improved client loyalty.
1. Repeated Purchases
Different loyalty programs offer a different extent of rewards. Some offer points for each purchase or each dollar spent. Some even offer rewards if you follow them on social media or leave a product review. That way, you encourage people to make repeated purchases to get more rewards and boost sales.
With a loyalty card, customers get huge discounts on bigger purchases, free products, or free shipping and you can improve your sales. A win-win!
Through loyalty programs, you can improve customer loyalty as customers feel acknowledged and valued for repeatedly buying from you.
If you are new to the idea, you can consult with a payment solutions company Middle East Africa. They will provide you with reasonable software solutions to apply discounts to your products as customers make payments on your website.
2. Improved engagement
We live in the age of social media where connecting to an audience is much easier than before. In today’s age, multiple brands offer incentives if you follow them on their social media networks and leave positive reviews. That improves engagement and other customers are attracted to your brand as well.
If you don’t stress on customer engagement, you can lose them as they will no longer find you relevant. You will also have a hard time maintaining a good brand reputation and will have a low brand recall value. Through loyalty programs, customers will respond more to emails and promotions and will stay connected to your brand for a long time.
3. More customers through word of mouth
According to Forbes magazine, 92% of customers trust the opinion of their friends and family before making a purchase. If someone close to them recommends a brand, they are more likely to trust it than an ad or a campaign.
Thus, when you satisfy customers with a great loyalty program, you get more customers through word of mouth that become loyal clients in the future. Another advantage of loyalty programs is that word of mouth marketing is an organic way to promote your brand. So you can save money on costly marketing campaigns which are becoming more expensive with the time.
4. You stand out
Through loyalty programs, you can deliver more than your competitors. While your competition must be coming up with great ideas, you can stand out with an excellent loyalty program. Stressing upon your products, services, and customer service is great but if you work on your loyalty program and make it different from other brands, it can be a great way to attract more traffic to your e-store.
The online world is evolving very fast and with new brands emerging faster than before, you must keep an eye on what others are doing and how you can deliver better.
5. Better customer retention and experience
Customer experience is extremely important for customer retention. If your e-store offers valuable discounts to customers and they see great deals after repeated purchases, they will feel more inclined to your brand. If you offer some value to them, they will value you more in return. This will also keep your customer base more loyal.
The excitement and anticipation of a great deal or freebies will keep customers satisfied and waiting to hear more from you. According to ANNEX CLOUD, 84% of customers stated that they are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that has a loyalty program to offer.
6. Ethical control over customer data
In today’s internet age, data is a highly valued asset for many organizations. Through customer data, brands can design their campaigns, implement better policies and revert traffic to their websites. Yet, using data without consent is also becoming common.
More and more people are using VPNs and are taking steps to maintain data privacy. Considering the situation, you can use customer data, ethically for the betterment of your brand, through a loyalty program. Through this data, you will know where you stand and what you need to do, to move forward. Allertaprivacy can find the latest privacy news, offers and discounts of all kinds on security software and tools. Choosing a VPN for our needs is not easy. That is why you should have to be prepared my VPN review by mejoresvpn.
Another thing to know is that customers willingly agree to share their data with you as a part of the loyalty program which you can use for mutual benefits.
7. AOV (average order value) increase
As the name indicates, the average order value is the average amount spent when a customer makes a purchase. When a customer buys a product from your online store they pay a certain amount which lies around an average value. Based on your brand performance that average can be high or low.
To raise that average and to keep customers spending more, you can offer discounts or free delivery. That way, customers will pay a little bit more to avail the offer from the loyalty program. Based on the data you have in hand, you can offer customers freebies, coupons, or discounts they can’t resist.
Conclusion
In this article, we went through 7 ways loyalty programs positively impact e-commerce stores. Customers feel more engaged, connected, and satisfied if you offer them a loyalty program. To avail great offers, customers willingly offer data to you that you can use to improve the program further.
Furthermore, you can improve your sales, expand your customer group and the average order value. Through happy customers, you get more clients that further make you a dominant name in the market.
Read also: How is Automation Improving the Customer Experience?
