5 Ways for Retail Marketers to Delight Customers Post-Purchase

If you want to achieve long-term marketing success in ecommerce, you need to focus on the post-purchase phase of the customer journey. Here we outline the key ways for retailers to delight their customers after the conversion:

Go beyond a thank you

Thank you messages shouldn't just be a confirmation of purchase. Whether it's taking customers through to thank you pages or sending out automated email marketing thank you messages, you should be optimise communication opportunities to begin the nurturing process.

Why not alert customers to similar products/services or relevant content? How about encouraging them to share content with their friends? Or why not reward them for choosing to shop with you and offer them discounts off their next purchase? The possibilities for delighting customers and nurturing relationships to build customer lifetime value (CLV) is endless. At the very least, consumers want to know that their favourite brands care about customer service.

Enthuse about your products and excite customers

If the tone of your post-purchase interactions is enthusiastic and engaging, this can get customers excited about their purchases and your brand. Here are some example ideas to lift the tone of your post-purchase messaging:

• "Hope you enjoy [insert product name]. Congratulations on ordering our [insert product name]. We can't wait for you to try it."
• "Thanks for choosing to shop with us. Tell us all about about your experience!"
• "Congratulations on being one of the lucky [or first] people to get their hands on a [insert product name]!"

Also, here's a good email marketing example of this type of messaging, from Cineworld:

The following example from Final Draft is the start of a series of emails sent out by the screenwriting software company. This initial thank you email starts the ball rolling for a series of interactions aimed at delighting, educating, inspiring and nurturing customers towards a further conversions – in this case upgrading a subscription trial to a the full version.

Encourage social shares and engagement

It goes without saying that you should include social sharing buttons on any correspondence with customers post-purchase. When acquiring new customers, it's an opportunity to reach out to a whole new network of contacts, whilst delighting existing customers will help turn them into advocates for your brand. Give them opportunities to spread the word and promote content for you via social media through social sharing.

See this example thank you page from web design agency, Vital...

Here's a simple but effective example from RoboForm, which shows how you can encourage referrals and social media engagement through post-purchase interactions with customers.

Post-purchase subscription and customer accounts

Some retailers use high-performance ecommerce platforms, such as Magento 2 to streamline their customer checkout process. Magento 2 sets guest checkout as default to remove a barrier in the route to purchase. If someone is making a purchase for the first time, you can use you thank you emails and to give them the chance to create a customer account and to opt-in for your marketing emails or content via their preferred channels. See this example from Quandoo:

With existing customers, trigger-based targeting should deliver post-purchase content aimed at driving further purchases of relevant products, encouraging social sharing or asking for product/customer service feedback.

Once customers have opted-in to receive regular communications from your brand, the options are endless for sending them further news and ongoing recommendations, loyalty rewards and exclusive offers, plus you can encourage them to engage with customer accounts to tailor preferences or sign up to product/service subscriptions.

Recognise and reward customer loyalty

Returning customers logging into to customer accounts to make purchases on your websites gives you more opportunities to delight them with loyalty rewards, discounts and offers. Email recognition or alternative recognition methods on ecommerce stores can help you send targeted post-purchase messages to returning customers (using guest checkout) that reward customer loyalty, according to different conversion criteria.

It’s great for customer experience to feel the love from brands. Personalisation and recognition of returning custom and long-term relationships gives customers a buzz – as well as tangible rewards and incentives to continue shopping with the brand. Check out this following example from Shutterfly:

Wrap Up

Hopefully this will have helped you to understand the importance of post-purchase communications. Remember, achieving a conversion is just one part of customer lifecycle and delighting your customers after the conversion is the key to keeping them engaged and building lasting customer relationships.

Was this helpful? Post-purchase marketing is all part of the nurturing process, focusing on the key touchpoints within the customer lifecycle. Download our free guide, How to Revolutionise Your Customer Lifecycle with Email Marketing, and start improving performance fast! 

Enchant Agency is a leading UK email marketing agency, specialising in helping brands to reach their full potential with customer lifecycle strategies. Why not get in touch with our email marketing consultants now and see how we can supercharge your performance!