Ultimate Checklist for E-commerce Stores to Navigate Post-BFCM Season
- Posted on November 17, 2023 by Robert
- Reading time about 5 minutes
The biggest retail event of the year is over, and it has left e-commerce businesses with a big challenge: customer retention. With lucrative offers, mind-boggling deals, and huge marketing spending, you must have onboarded a good number of new customers. With that surge, there are significant odds that these new customers will turn out to be one-time shoppers. Acquiring new customers wasn’t the hard part. Retaining them after a successful BFCM season is the difficult part.
This blog will divulge the top ways to navigate the post-BFCM season and what role BFCM loyalty programs play in it.
Loop New Customers into Your Loyalty Programs
People who secured your BGCM offers are likely to sign up for your loyalty program. Assuming it might be too early to offer a loyalty program might lead to customer attrition. If you have loyalty management software, it is easy to roll out attractive emails informing new customers about the reasons why they must subscribe to the post-BFCM loyalty program. Early sneak peeks into upcoming sales, exclusive deals, and big discounts are enough to keep them engaged until the next big sale.
Another way to loop your newly acquired customers into your loyalty program is by putting pop-ups on your product page. This will capture the attention of your customers and lure them toward the loyalty program. You can also offer reward points to those who sign up for your loyalty program.
Add a Personal Touch to Your Communications
Email templates are real-time savers, but they don’t serve the needs of modern-day customers. Merely changing the name on the template won’t do the work here. Your customers are in search of much more than that. Product suggestions based on their preferences, past purchases, personalized emails, and a customized loyalty program can retain a new customer. The exciting offers that held their attention during the BFCM drive can be extended further, keeping in mind their preferences, tastes, and lifestyles.
Let’s say you rewarded them with points after the BFCM sale. You can send out reminder emails to them between BFCM and Christmas. These emails can also include the latest offers and personalized deals.
Award them with Early Access
It’s important to keep your customers on their toes when it comes to the e-commerce space. Even if you don’t have exciting deals, you can have a plan. You can offer early access to the Christmas sales, giving ample time for your new customers to weigh their options. The exclusive experience will enhance new customer engagement greatly. Whether it’s a new product launch, limited edition offerings, or a sneak preview of upcoming deals, you can involve your new customers for long-term engagement.
Make the Shipping Free
Shipping costs are the least-liked expense for any online buyer. After a high-rush BFCM, e-commerce businesses can offer free shipping to ensure repeat purchases. It might not be feasible to offer free shipping universally. It requires smart implementation. For instance, consider extending free shipping as a limited-time offer for Black Friday customers, enticing them to sign up for your loyalty program. This not only encourages immediate engagement but also sets the stage for a seamless and cost-effective Christmas shopping experience.
Alternatively, incorporate free shipping into your tiered loyalty benefits, motivating new members to unlock this desirable benefit by actively taking part in the program.
Reward Your Brand Advocates
If your new customers have had a satisfactory experience shopping with you during BFCM sales, it is likely that they will recommend your products and services to their friends and family. It’s important to make the most of this opportunity. You can reward such customers with loyalty points to make them feel valued. It will serve two purposes. By rewarding brand advocacy, you can turn new BDCM acquirers into loyal customers. It will also reduce the cost of acquisition as your existing customers will bring more buyers to your business.
Align Your Rewards with their Value System
Today’s customers are conscious buyers with a deep commitment to sustainability and the planet. Connecting your new customers with some purpose they believe can work wonders for your business. By offering eco-friendly products or packaging or contributing a part of your pricing to a notable cause, you can onboard your new customers for repeat business. By allowing them to trade their loyalty points for planting trees or sponsoring education, you can engage them meaningfully.
A loyalty program platform provides you with data-driven insights that help you understand consumer behavior and roll out a relevant strategy to turn them into long-term business.
How does a loyalty Program Platform Fit into this Scenario?
Loyalty management software is an indispensable tool for e-commerce businesses to handle post-BFCM blues. Here are several ways in which the loyalty program platform helps with customer retention.
1. It keeps your brand fresh in customers’ minds through automated communications.
2. You can integrate it with your loyalty program and release timely offers to engage customers.
3. Businesses can run targeted campaigns based on their behaviors, preferences, and purchase history.
4. Businesses can use these tiers to offer early access to sales or exclusive post-BFCM deals to loyal customers.
The most effective way to handle the post-BFCM frenzy is to invest in loyalty management software like Novus. Novus Loyalty provides highly customized solutions to businesses to leverage automation, data-driven efficiency, and reduced costs. By strategizing your post-BFCM moves, Novus can free up valuable time for the business development part.