E-commerce Tips - How to Create Customer Value and Increase Customer Loyalty

The idea of value is subjective and based around customer interpretation of marketing messages, value placed on the brand communicating and the options available to source this product.

This inevitably impacts the value the customer will place on price which is a key driver of perceived value.

Tip - UNDERSTAND PERCEIVED VALUE

What are customer perceptions of your online retail store and products? Some may perceive your store to be the cheapest in a speciﬁc product category and extend this perception to other product categories on your website which could have a positive effect on customer loyalty, sales and proﬁts if you are targeting this buyer persona. This positioning may alienate other customers whose perceived value may not be solely driven by price but also by brand, and quality. This buyer may consider your overall website prices as ‘cheap’ and associate this to a lack of quality which is where they place value.

Tip - BE MORE SOCIAL

This all goes back to “Knowing your Customer” and using data that provides actionable intelligence around their website activity and purchase history. Social media should be an integral element of any customer insight and engagement initiative where retailers build more personal relationships with customers. Use historical data from past customer purchases to better understand trends and cycles to identify customers you need to focus on, when you need to intensify this focus and how you need to engage them.

ASK YOURSELF

How do you currently offer value to your customers?
How does your value proposition stand out from the competition?
What key messages are you communicating to your customers?
How do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing messages?

TAKE ACTION

Make no assumptions – Just because a strategy or tactic worked in the past doesn’t always mean it will work again. Be proactive, and most importantly, take action.

Explore customer life triggers – Understand and take action on life triggers that impact customer spend. This could be occasions from birthday and anniversary celebrations to becoming a ﬁrst time homeowner or parent.

Think big business – Research what big retailers do to deliver customer value and try to implement some ideas at a smaller level. Test, monitor, adjust, re-test.