Many well established retailers both online and off use customer incentives to generate more sales for their business. They go by the name customer loyalty programs or customer reward programs. These are powerful tools that can be integrated into any marketing campaign. The main purpose of having this kind of program is to reward customers for making repeat purchases, it encourages loyal buying behavior.
The way that customer incentives work is a visitor to your e-commerce site makes purchases and in turn earns reward points for either the total amount spent, the number of products or specific type of products purchased. They will then accumulate those points and use it towards future purchases. You, the e-commerce business owner, can determine how the customer reward program functions. Set your own threshold for amount of points necessary in order for customers to redeem their rewards. You can also designate what kind of reward to provide, which can be in the form of discount towards future purchases, free gifts or gift cards.
Simply having a customer reward program is not enough, you have to guarantee that it's both simple to find and easy for your customers to use. It is important to display text or image links throughout your e-commerce site allowing customers to get the information they are looking for. Links such as these are normally placed in areas such as headers, footers and sidebars. This way it does not matter which page the visitor is on, they will be able to reach the customer incentives page. The information you provide your customers is critical as well, be detailed when giving them directions on how to redeem their points. The worst thing for a customer is not having any idea on how to redeem their reward or getting unexplained errors when completing a purchase. Go over all the small details and think like a new visitor, then make the necessary modifications to your web site.An e-commerce solution that provides a customer reward feature should have the ability to do the following:
There are many advantages for offering customer incentives on your ecommerce website. It's a powerful tool that not only helps acquire new customers but also retain existing customers. Studies indicate that it's a lot easier to market to existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. As a matter of fact, it is 7 to 10 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to get an existing customer to purchase from you again. On average repeat customers will spend 33% more than a new customer and if they are a part of a customer loyalty program, they spend 4 times as much money. All of this should be enough reason to create your own customer reward program.
Since you are primarily targeting existing customers, you need to first let them know about this new program. Make sure you add image and text links throughout your web site and if you have an email list, send an email out to everyone on that list. Remember to include details of the program in the checkout area. It can also be used as a promotional tool to gain new customers. Useful tactics include rewarding current customers for recommending their friends, starting contests where participants can earn rewards and giving away points to customers with positive feedback that will help improve your web site. Customer reward programs can easily become viral, especially if you use contests to entice people to join. Announce it to well known bloggers, post to related forums or get more people to follow you using a social media campaign. All of these tactics are used to market your business, the customer incentives are used to get them to come back for more.
The way that customer incentives work is a visitor to your e-commerce site makes purchases and in turn earns reward points for either the total amount spent, the number of products or specific type of products purchased. They will then accumulate those points and use it towards future purchases. You, the e-commerce business owner, can determine how the customer reward program functions. Set your own threshold for amount of points necessary in order for customers to redeem their rewards. You can also designate what kind of reward to provide, which can be in the form of discount towards future purchases, free gifts or gift cards.
Simply having a customer reward program is not enough, you have to guarantee that it's both simple to find and easy for your customers to use. It is important to display text or image links throughout your e-commerce site allowing customers to get the information they are looking for. Links such as these are normally placed in areas such as headers, footers and sidebars. This way it does not matter which page the visitor is on, they will be able to reach the customer incentives page. The information you provide your customers is critical as well, be detailed when giving them directions on how to redeem their points. The worst thing for a customer is not having any idea on how to redeem their reward or getting unexplained errors when completing a purchase. Go over all the small details and think like a new visitor, then make the necessary modifications to your web site.An e-commerce solution that provides a customer reward feature should have the ability to do the following:
- reward points system built into the store admin
- be able to select the type of reward to offer
- be able to redeem points for gift certificates or gift cards
- be able to create your own rules for calculating reward points
- be able to specify certain criteria for reward redemption
There are many advantages for offering customer incentives on your ecommerce website. It's a powerful tool that not only helps acquire new customers but also retain existing customers. Studies indicate that it's a lot easier to market to existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. As a matter of fact, it is 7 to 10 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to get an existing customer to purchase from you again. On average repeat customers will spend 33% more than a new customer and if they are a part of a customer loyalty program, they spend 4 times as much money. All of this should be enough reason to create your own customer reward program.
Since you are primarily targeting existing customers, you need to first let them know about this new program. Make sure you add image and text links throughout your web site and if you have an email list, send an email out to everyone on that list. Remember to include details of the program in the checkout area. It can also be used as a promotional tool to gain new customers. Useful tactics include rewarding current customers for recommending their friends, starting contests where participants can earn rewards and giving away points to customers with positive feedback that will help improve your web site. Customer reward programs can easily become viral, especially if you use contests to entice people to join. Announce it to well known bloggers, post to related forums or get more people to follow you using a social media campaign. All of these tactics are used to market your business, the customer incentives are used to get them to come back for more.
Now that you know all the reasons why you need to have a customer reward program, you must first select a reliable ecommerce solution that can easily set up a reward points program within your ecommerce website. It needs to be effortlessly set up and extremely simple to maintain. Most importantly, customers cannot have any trouble using it.
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provide powerful tools to help with not only creating customer incentives, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provide powerful tools to help with not only creating customer incentives, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!