Jewelry ECOMM Tech

Understanding ECommerce Data #9: Percentage Of Returning Customers March 02, 2020 (0 comments)

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"Understanding Jewelry ECommerce Data" Series Chapters: Part 1: Customer Lifetime Value Part 2: Sales Conversion Rate Part 3: Average Order Value Part 4: Cart Abandonment Rate Part 5: Email Conversion Rate Part 6: Social Media Conversion Rate Part 7: Revenue By Traffic Source Part 8: Customer Acquisition Cost Part 9: Percentage Of Returning Customers (you are here)

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As we've mentioned previously in this series, it costs much more to attract new customers than it does to keep an existing one - in fact, five times more! If you want to run a successful ecommerce business, you have to ensure you’re keeping your existing customers happy enough to buy from you again and again.

Naturally, then, Percentage Of Returning Customers is another important metric to track. Here’s the equation to calculate this:

Calculating Your Percentage Of Returning Customers

PRC = Number Of Return Customers / Total Number Of Customers

Improving Your Percentage Of Returning Customers

The easiest way to make sure your customers are returning for more business over the years is to offer them an incredible experience and make their shopping experience as smooth as possible. However, that's no longer enough. You should be using social media and email to nurture past clients over time. Even if they have an amazing shopping experience with your jewelry store, there's always a chance they'll simply go to a different store offering a better deal, or that was recently recommended by a friend. Using Digital Tools To Stay In Touch Email and Social Media are the two best ways to stay in touch long-term with your customers. In fact, I would recommend that your sales team gets in the habit of encouraging visitors to "like" your page and supply their email address while still in your store. I'd even incentivize them somehow - because getting them to follow you on social media and agree to stay in touch with you via email is a great way to stay in touch over the years. In my opinion, social media is more of a branding and customer retention tool than a sales tool. Use this to your advantage over the years and post regularly. Your customer lists should be uploaded to Facebook as custom audiences so you can segment your audience based on the types of purchases they've made. Email marketing is always fantastic and every store should have a thriving email list. Don't be annoying and email too often - even if a customer loves you, emails can get annoying if done too often. However, you need to send the occasional well-crafted email campaign to keep the relationship with your customer. Beware Of Discounting

Jewelers often use to drive a repeat purchase is discounting. If you have a robust discounting strategy where you target a specific group of shoppers at a certain point in the lifecycle, then great. However, don't use discounting as a first option when trying to incentivize customers to shop with you again. Discount shoppers are unlikely to boost your percentage of returning customers and can instead devalue your brand.