Written by CK Changr, Founder of Oxwhite
Online retailing is more than just setting up an online store, having good visuals and implementing sound digital marketing strategy.
While it is not impossible for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands to receive tens of thousands of orders per month with a bullet-proof online marketing strategy and sufficient marketing budget, returning customers are vital to keep the business going.
This is so as, depending on the industry, acquiring a new customer is between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
New customer acquisition cost for a lifestyle brand like Oxwhite for instance is about RM19.59 per customer. With 50 percent of its customers being existing customers, the average cost of acquisition per customer is reduced by 18.27 percent.
In order to reduce the customer acquisition costs by increasing repurchase rate among existing customers, an online brand needs to invest in great customer experience.
Building Consumer Trust Through Reviews
The lack of physical touch towards a product and face to face interactions with a seller creates uncertainty to shop online from a consumer point of view.
As consumers browse through a website for the first time, prominently displayed product reviews helps to build trust toward a brand.
Oxwhite, for instance gained the trust of new customers through recommendations from existing customers by way of their review section. The brand’s website boasts 41,388 total reviews whilst their marketplace platforms such as Lazada and Shopee hold a steady total of 4,677 and 50,000 reviews respectively.
These reviews serve as a great influence for when a consumer decides whether a product or the brand itself is trustworthy and will ultimately help them come to a purchase decision.
Make Customers Feel Good by Simplifying Return Processes
Besides having a seamless browsing experience and efficient check out process for consumers, online retail brands must also take care and put emphasis on the importance of having a smooth and easy return process.
If the product received is unsuitable, the thought of having to go through the return process itself can already be tiresome for most customers. Imagine having to go through the process of contacting customer service, packing, going to a courier centre for drop off and waiting for the new product to arrive.
In order to make the post sales experience as pleasant and seamless as the buying experience, Oxwhite invested in making the return process intuitive and simple through the use of technology in which customers only need to inform its customer service their intention to return a product through Whatsapp.
The customer service will then be able to retrieve data pertaining to the purchase history and process the return immediately and keep customers updated of the progress of the return through email right after the customer drops off the product at a courier centre. These updates include receipt of returned items, redelivery of new items and confirmation of delivery from customers.
However, reducing the rate of returned items is always the better choice. That's why it is crucial for online retail brands to implement an accurate sizing guide.
With an ideal product size chart that carries enough information for the user, a brand keep its customers well informed about the product’s fit and size.
Besides providing accurate size charts to customers, Oxwhite went a step further to by giving out measurement tapes to their selected customers. This effort gives users ample guidance on how to measure their body, refer to the size chart provided on the product page and finally select the right size.
Collect Meaningful Data and Offer Customers What They Want
Gone are the days where businesses collect email addresses and phone numbers from customers and then spam the customers with emails and SMSes to promote additional products that the customer may or may not be interested in.
Doing away with spam and offering what customers want when they are looking for the product is a good way to retain an existing customer.
Such knowledge of a customer is not impossible to gather with numerous e-commerce analytics tools available to date.
For instance, when a customer makes a purchase online, they leave their phone number and email address. With the right e-commerce analytics tool, a brand would be able to know other items the customers -- identified through the phone number and email address -- are looking for online based on the customers' searches, advertisements that they pay more attention to.
Such knowledge will enable the brand to understand other types of products the customers want and need, the price the customer is willing to pay and when the customer is likely to make the purchase and offer the right products at the right price and time.
Brands like Oxwhite have fully delved into this technology by identifying groups such as new or returning customers or even user spending behaviour and employ recommendation engines with various algorithms to suggest products users might be interested in based on their browsing behaviour.
By doing so, the brand is able to provide their customers exactly what they are looking for and altogether giving them a seamless browsing experience online.
