Returning Users - The Real Game Changer Of Ecommerce Business - Orvador

 When we talk about the “traffic” in a particular website, it can be categorised into – 

  • New users – those who are visiting the website for the first time.
  • Returning users – those who have already visited the website once or more, within a fixed timeframe. It is imperative that the user has opened another session in the same web browser on the same device.

Understanding “Returning users” and its Importance 

Anyone can see that amidst the Covid-19 situation, there has been an immense growth in e-commerce and online business; as a matter of fact, many e-commerce ventures started up during the last 6 months only, making the most of the situation. Many e-commerce companies such as Big Basket, Amazon, Flipkart and even food delivery apps such as Zomato and Swiggy have seen a steep rise in their online traffic. But the most crucial part of the success for any e-commerce company is the rate of conversions – how many customers are coming back to the same website to make more purchases. 

Irrespective of the period for which your online store has been in existence, conversions or returning customers is always a challenge. According to the industry standard, the average cart abandonment rate is approximately 68%, which includes both the new as well as the existing customers. The biggest challenge that an online store owner faces is getting hold of these customers and converting the “cart” into actual purchase. This would mean that they are getting used to your online store, and would return to spend more money.

There are several ways to get the customers to come back to your online store again and again. Some of the great growth marketing tips include offering them special discounts, making them a part of your social media groups, retargeted advertisements, to name a few. 

Average Industry Standard of Returning Users in an Ecommerce Store

We have already mentioned that the average cart abandonment rate in the industry is somewhere around 68%. The data is backed by confirmation by the companies, which report that approximately 30% of users are repeat visitors.

Let’s have a look at some very exciting facts regarding returning visitors-

  • In the US, around 22% of men purchased online on their smartphones in the year 2019, as opposed to 18% women. The data stands at 20% and 17 % respectively, when it came to shopping on the tablets.
  • 40% of men, belonging to the age group of 18 to 34, in America, preferred to completely shift to online shopping, as against 33% of American women belonging to the same age group.
  • In the year 2010, women in the US made up 60% of the total amount spent online. Supporting this data, another survey done in 2012 by a different marketing research agency suggested that women comprise nearly 58% of online shopping done in the U.S. Data suggests that almost 86% of teenaged boys purchase online, whereas the numbers for the teen girls stands at 76%.

Importance of Returning Users for an E-commerce Store

While new customers are important, the returning ones are more essential! Irrespective of the type of business – online or offline – there is always an emphasis on brand loyalty. In the case of online stores, brand loyalty is measured by the percentage of repeat customers. It is all about making the customer habitual of your store!

There are several researches done to understand the dimensions of returning users or visitors in an e-commerce store. In a nutshell, the percentage of returning customers is different across different product groups. Here are some more numbers –

  • Returning visitor businesses accounted for nearly 48% of the entire e-commerce transactions done by the end of the financial year 2015, amounting to approximately 2.7 billion USD. This is nearly twice the amount spent by new users during that period.
  • New users are less likely to make a purchase decision as compared to returning visitors.
  • New visitors tend to leave the website after visiting the homepage, which gives us an average bounce rate of 35% (approximately); whereas, the number stands at an average of 25% for repeat shoppers.
  • Talking about the most important factor – conversion rate – it has been researched that the returning visitors have a conversion rate of nearly 5%, which is almost double of that of the new users (2.5% approximately).

The aforesaid data are not just random numbers – we can easily conclude that returning customers are very important. However, prolonged online existence is also equally critical. The longer the customer stays with you, stronger is the loyalty. Online stores, for that reason, need to hold on to their patrons, which is the only way to gain longevity and better bonding. We are at Orvador have found out that these are some of the most effective ways to do so:

Most Effective Ways to Get Returning Customers to a Website

  • Generate Inquisitiveness of “What’s new”

This is one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic to your website. All you need to do is keep publishing new content on a regular basis to make the customers keep wanting for more. Blogging is a great way to engage your new users. Make sure that your store Ecommerce SEO is also right! Triggering their inquisitiveness and interests is the key to increasing your repeat visitor rate. 

We also help you to decide on the correct content creation timeline and capability. On an average, ecommerce companies that announce more than 15 posts per month get nearly thrice more online traffic when compared to those which post less than 4 contents per month.  We strongly believe that content marketing is a great approach and ecommerce companies should adopt the same. 

  • You’ve got Mail!

Sending newsletters and Emails are an excellent way of connecting with your customers (both new as well as existing), and bringing them back to your online store. Newsletters are a very effective way of engaging the users, and reiterating your existence and excellence. Almost everyone with an account in an online store goes through the mailers sent to them. There are several tools available that help you start and publish a newsletter on a regular basis. Now the next question is how to get them to subscribe to the newsletter – and the answer is pretty simple! A free gift such as a discount coupon or free delivery works wonders.

  • Social Media Marketing

Trivia time!! Did you know that social media marketing pushes nearly 31.3% of traffic onto the websites? Time and again people have been emphasizing on the importance of social media marketing. The key is to get your visitors to follow your online store on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. By doing so, you can constantly keep in touch with your customers and pull them back to your online store.

Now the answer to the question as to how to get your website traffic to follow you onto your social media platforms and convert them into returning visitors is here – you could create a Facebook or LinkedIn group and invite your visitors to be a part of it. However, this might be a little time consuming. Another easier and faster way would be to run an exclusive introductory offer campaign.

  • You have a Notification

Push notifications are yet another excellent way of generating and increasing web traffic. Push notifications or messages are those that appear on the users’ computers and phones. Once a visitor clicks on “allow”, the website can send the user messages through push notifications. Once they click on the message, they are navigated to the website. The best thing about a push notification is that it implies that the user has already shown interest in your website, hence there are more chances of effective customer engagement. 

  • “What is in it for me”

Well, isn’t it human to analyse the benefits first and then invest the time? Same is applicable here also. In order to keep the visitors coming back to your website, the best way is to start something like a “Customer Loyalty Program”, thereby offering exclusive offers, discounts, special coupons and rewards to dedicated customers – thus answering the question “what is in it for me”. Such loyalty programs are also a very good way of thanking your existing customers for their constant support, showing them how important they are to the company. 

  • Retargeting Users

Retargeting is a great way to remind your visitors about your products after they leave your online store without making a purchase. It enables the store owner to display relevant ads when they visit other websites. Retargeting is proving to be an effective way of getting back the “window shoppers” and increasing sales in an online store. Every time a visitor sees a retargeting ad, the brand gains more grip and recognition. The higher the click-on rate, the better the conversions!

Well, the aforesaid were some of the tried and tested ways of increasing the returning customer rate on your ecommerce store. Personally, I feel that once we let the users understand the added benefits of being a “regular user” in any website, we can convert them to becoming a loyal and long-lasting user. Activities such as referrals, loyalty programs, and additional discounts almost never fail.

 

 

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