How to Drive Repeat Sales

in Your Shopify Store?

Sales are the driving force of any Shopify store. Your store’s design, promotional activities, traffic will all be redundant if you can’t convert your customers and achieve your sales.

But let’s imagine you’ve just launched your Shopify store and the sales are coming in. Is that enough to achieve e-commerce success? No, if you are talking about long-term success. The initial sales from new customers are just not enough. What you need here is repeat sales.

Repeat sales are a result of loyalty and trust from the customers, which are crucial for long-term success. So, do you want to drive repeat sales in your store? Here are the best practical ways to do that and increase your revenue.

What Are Repeat Sales and Why Are They Important?

Repeat sales are when a customer purchases a product from a Shopify store and keeps returning back to the store again and again to drive more sales. Customers who drive repeat sales are referred to as returning customers and these customers are necessary for every Shopify store.

Why?

• Returning customers purchase 2x times than new customers
• Returning customers help stabilize your revenue
• It is easier to sell to Repeat customers
• Returning customers increase your word-of-mouth marketing (WOM)
• Acquire new customers easily through returning customers

So, now you know how important returning customers are to a Shopify store. The only way you can get returning customers is by persuading them to trust your store. And the best way to do that is by following these 6 simple strategies for driving repeat sales.

6 Proven Ways to Drive Repeat Sales in Your Shopify Store

Reports say that there is a 27% chance that a new customer will return to a store to make a second purchase. And the following tactics will help you take advantage of that chance.

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Offer Next order coupons

Once a customer visits your store and completes a purchase, how sure can you tell he’ll come back to your store again? It is hard, isn’t it? There is no way you can tell that unless the customer has a reason for it. So, give them a reason or a purpose to do that. How? By offering Next order coupons.

Yes, offering coupons for customers’ future purchases will motivate them to return to your store again to make use of those coupons. As we said earlier, returning customers purchase more, so this is a great way to increase your sales and retain your customers. Also, offering Next order coupons will increase your word-of-mouth marketing, thus bringing more customers to your store.

You can send these Next order coupons in the ‘Thank you email‘ after the customer has made their purchase. It is a simple, but efficient way to increase your post-purchase engagement and customer stickiness.

Run a Referral Program

Nowadays, almost every e-commerce customer is expecting a Refer a friend program from their favorite e-commerce store. Running a Referral program in your Shopify store will motivate your customers to bring in new customers to your store and earn rewards.

How will this influence repeat sales? Simple, it all lies in the rewards you offer. If you offer flat cash rewards, then there is no way to drive repeat sales but offering a fixed amount or percentage discount will bring the customer back to the checkout.

Here is a referral program example from Lulus Fashion. Notice how they are offering a $20 discount for the order above $50. So, if the customers want to earn the discount they must purchase more than $50. Tell me this isn’t a brilliant way to drive repeat sales.

The customers get to refer their friends, they earn a discount and you get your sales. Remember, you can use a referral program and turn your loyal customers into brand advocates. This is another way to increase WOM marketing and acquire new customers cost-effectively to boost your sales organically.

Upsell and Cross-sell

Reports say that 1\3rd of e-commerce sales were achieved through upselling and cross-selling. It can be a powerful tool to double your sales when it is used right. It is similar to Next order coupons but without coupons. If you want your customers to spend more in the store, then give them a reason to do that and start suggesting them products.

Have you seen Amazon’s ‘Frequently bought together’ section?

This is a great example of сross-selling that can persuade the customer to purchase a product that compliments a product they already have in the shopping bag. If your customer has purchased a shoe, start suggesting them complimentary products like laces, socks, etc to encourage them to spend more.

Upselling is quite similar. If a customer added a product to their cart, suggest a better product than that.

This can help you build a trust with your customer and then cross-sell products relative to the product that you previously upsell. This is how you drive repeated sales using these two tactics.

Personalize customer experience

Personalization is another way to increase your conversions and drive repeat sales. If you treat your returning customer like you don’t know them, then you cannot drive repeat sales. But when you give lots of attention to the customer from personalized emails, personalized recommendations to personalized discounts the chance of them returning to your store will be higher.

This clearly shows the benefits of personalizations, doesn’t it? Remember, personalization is not limited to just including the customer’s name in the emails and so. There are many ways to personalize their customer experience. You can suggest products based on their search and purchase history, personalize products based on their location and so on. Informing certain customers about a special sales season is also a kind of personalization.

You can offer them discounts or send gift cards on special occasions like birthdays, shopping anniversaries, etc This will motivate customers to return to the store again and again to drive repeat purchases.

Initiate a Loyalty program

Customers don’t offer their loyalty for free, they expect something back in return or else they move to another store where their loyalty is valued. So, it is your job as a Shopify store owner to acknowledge their loyalty and offer them rewards. The best way to do that is by running a loyalty program in the store that will motivate them to purchase again and again.

Through a loyalty program you can also turn your customers into brand advocates and increase your word-of-mouth which eventually boosts your sales. Always remember, if your store has a loyal customer base then it’s a blessing, but make sure to acknowledge their loyalty with rewards.

Offer exclusive discounts

We saved the easiest and most common instrument for the last.The key to drive repeat sales is customer satisfaction, and the best way to get your customers satisfied is by offering exclusive discounts.

Reports say that lack of discounts is one of the major reasons for cart abandonment. Don’t let that happen to your store. Nowadays many stores have resorted to the first order discount strategy.

When a customer visits your store for the first time, all that they need is a special deal better than other e-commerce stores. So, offering a discount on their first purchase will motivate them to come back to your store.

Not just discounts, you can also offer some freebies like a phone case if the customer has purchased a smartphone or a pouch if the customer has purchased a headphone. Speaking about freebies, how about Free shipping? Most customers also abandon their carts due to high shipping rates.

Offering free shipping or delivery for a customer’s current or future purchases will help you build trust with your customers. And they in turn will come back to drive repeat purchases in your store.

Final Thoughts

Driving repeat sales is a significant part of e-commerces’ revenue strategy development. The most efficient way to achieve that is working with customers to convert them into returning customers. They bring more value to the store than new ones. But motivating the customers to drive repeat sales is not an easy task. The proven ways shown in this article properly adapted to your particular business will definitely help you drive repeat sales in your Shopify store.