In the bustling world of retail, fostering customer loyalty has never been more important.
In an age where choices are more abundant than ever, and competitors are popping up everywhere, retail brands must be on the cutting edge of marketing to ensure their customer base remains engaged and loyal.
This is where marketing automation steps in, an essential tool that equips retailers with the ability to boost customer connection and enhance loyalty, without the additional cost, time, and resource of doing so manually.
In this blog post, we’ll delve into how marketing automation can transform retailers’ customer retention efforts, with 5 of our favourite examples.
Welcome campaigns
When it comes to customer retention, it’s never too early to start.
With this in mind, automated welcome campaigns are the perfect way to make a positive first impression, laying the foundations for a lasting relationship with new customers
By utilising marketing automation tools, retailers can create personalised and timely welcome campaigns that introduce new customers to the brand, its products, processes, and values. They can even include a discount or incentive to encourage their next purchase.
By delivering relevant content at a time when the customer is highly engaged with the brand, welcome campaigns not only make new customers feel valued and engaged from the outset but also set the stage for continued interactions and loyalty-building efforts.
Personalised product recommendations
With so many retailers for customers to choose from, it’s commonplace that potential purchasers will spend time researching different brands to find the best item, at the best price.
Retailers can make this process smoother for customers, whilst also becoming a brand of preference, by sending out highly personalised product recommendations.
With the use of marketing automation data platforms, retailers can analyse individual consumers’ browsing and buying behaviour to recommend the perfect products. And with the use of dynamic content, marketers can easily populate their emails with products, images, pricing, and descriptions specific to each recipient.
In turn, this enhances the shopping experience for consumers, gets the perfect product in front of them before they look elsewhere, and of course, secures repeat purchases for the retailer.
Abandoned cart recovery
According to research by Baymard Institute, 70.19% of online shopping carts are abandoned. In real terms, that means for every 100 customers, 70 will leave without purchasing.
Furthermore, it’s reported that eCommerce stores are losing $260 billion every year in recoverable sales revenue due to cart abandonment
Retailers can utilise automated workflows to recover these lost customers with the use of abandoned cart emails, providing a targeted email reminder to customers who have left items in their online carts without finishing their purchase.
Not only does this help retailers claw back this significant lost revenue, but it also helps in bringing back customers who have disengaged with the brand or the purchasing process at a critical moment.
Replenishment reminders
For retailers who specialise in consumable goods, marketing automation can help encourage customers to purchase time and time again through automated replenishment reminders.
For those regular orders such as groceries, cosmetics, or medication, replenishment reminders utilise customer data alongside date-based automations to nudge the recipient to repurchase their regular order, just before it’s time to replenish.
This captures the customer at a time when they may forget to replenish, or they may even start looking elsewhere for their regular products. These email marketing campaigns place the brand in front of the customer at this crucial time, and make the research and purchasing journey even easier.
VIP and loyalty programs
One surefire way to retain customers is to treat them like royalty.
Brands can utilise data platforms offered by marketing automation solutions to identify those customers who spend regularly and/or spend significant amounts and to trigger email and SMS campaigns which reward them with personalised discounts, pre-launches, and loyalty points.
Even better, by offering a dedicated loyalty program, retail brands can use marketing automation to trigger loyalty points updates after every purchase, keeping their customers up to date with the points they have gained, and what they can be used for.
By providing a little VIP treatment and rewards to loyal customers, brands can make customers feel appreciated. And purchasers are more likely to choose the brand over competitors in order to build up their points.
Are you a retailer looking to boost your customer retention?
At Deployteq, we specialise in helping retail brands such as Wickes, The Original Factory Shop, and Pendragons to keep their customers happy, in the process improving retention rates, and streamlining operations to save valuable resources.
Our cutting-edge marketing automation platform empowers retail businesses like yours to automate consistent communications with customers across various channels, including email, SMS, WhatsApp, and mobile applications. Ensuring that you can engage with your customers wherever they are.
Backed by a dedicated team of marketing automation experts, we’re here to listen to your goals and help you overcome your challenges. So, why not reach out to us today to start your marketing automation journey?
