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Can you believe it? The biggest retail event of the year has almost been and gone already, just like that. Months of build-up and meticulously working your way through your Black Friday checklist should hopefully mean that you’ll see an influx of exciting new customers very soon. Go you! But here’s where the real work begins.
How can you keep these shoppers around once the main event is over? Every Shopify store’s worst nightmare is spending huge amounts of budget on customer acquisition over BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) only to realize it’s all gone on ‘one and done’ customers who they’ll never see again. It’s costly and it creates uncomfortable seasonal sales cycles that are hard to break out of. But don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. With the help of this post-BFCM checklist, you’ll be able to drive more repeat purchases from your brand-new customer base! So let’s dive in.
To state the obvious here, no one is going to keep coming back to you if they don’t know all the great reasons they should. This simple first step should never be overlooked, because more customers may be interested in your loyalty program than you realize. In fact, our own BFCM data showed that 66% of customers would be happy to sign up to a brand’s loyalty program if they had a positive Black Friday experience with them.
To start promoting your loyalty program, you could send an email to new customers including the benefits of signing up as well as what their points balance would be following on from their original Black Friday purchase. In this email, Lucy & Yak keep the details of their program really clear and simple, with key information about how the program works as well as offering £5 for new members who sign up.
Another tactic is to place notification pop-ups on your product pages to appeal to new customers and browsers, as you can see Inamorata doing in this video.
You can further entice your new customer segment by giving them bonus points for signing up or rewarding them with points for giving you additional data (e.g. filling out quizzes or giving you birthday information). This will help you to create an even better and more personalized communication strategy with them in future – which leads us nicely onto our second point…
People love personalization. According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect personalization and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive it! So unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot more than inserting a ‘name’ tag into your email subject line to keep your customers happy.
We’re talking personalized points balance emails, recommended products based on previous purchases from your Shopify store, surprise and delight emails with unexpected points allocations – the more special you can make your new BFCM customers feel, the better. A simple ‘points reminder’ email might be all it takes to bridge the gap between Black Friday and a Christmas purchase, as they will become aware of the points they have to spend and realize that they can save money on some of their gift ideas.
This loyalty email from Hillberg & Berk is an excellent example of how brands can use customer data to further personalize their communications, with reminders of how many points customers have earned and what they could spend them on.
Another interesting statistic we know from our own research is that shoppers rate early access to sales or new products just as much as discounts – with 76% of customers saying that both of those perks are incentivizing factors.
Give your new customers that VIP feeling straight away by offering them early access to any sales you’re running, new products you’ve launched, or limited edition items you’re showcasing before the year is out. Not only will these perks make customers feel like VIPs, but they’ll be more likely to tell others about the positive experience too! This can be communicated as simply and effectively as MoxieLash have in the example below.
There’s no denying that people love free shipping, so much so that 81% of consumers would be motivated to repeat purchase from a store if they offered it as a perk.
But don’t panic. We know what you’re thinking; this could get expensive! While you might not be able to offer this across the board, you can certainly implement this perk and use it to your advantage by offering it to specific customer segments – like your new Black Friday customers.
You could offer free shipping to your Black Friday customers as a time-limited offer, so that they can sign up to your loyalty program and then get the benefit of free shipping just in time for their Christmas shopping!
Alternatively, you can advertise free shipping to your new members as part of your tiered loyalty benefits, encouraging new customers to sign up and engage with the program so that they can unlock this exciting perk – as well as many others.
If you are considering the tiered option, take a leaf out of The Inkey List’s book. We really like this email that they send out to customers who have just hit the threshold for the VIP tier, with details of all the new benefits they get like free shipping and access to limited edition merch.
Keep your newest customers engaged without running big price-slashing events by holding double points events instead. Offering your customers the one-off opportunity to receive lots of points at once means they will very quickly see their points balance grow, and will soon come back to your Shopify store to redeem their rewards. If they were already considering doing some of their Christmas shopping with you – this might just turn that into a no-brainer!
This influx of points will accelerate their next purchase and make them feel good, creating a positive connection with your brand that will only strengthen with time. These positive connections then influence your customers to keep returning, leading to much higher spending from your program members. Don’t believe us? According to Antavo, the average lifetime spend of customers who redeem their points at least once is 6.3x higher than the lifetime spend of non-members.
We love how Ohh Deer use their double points promotion on specific product lines to entice customers who haven’t yet signed up for a loyalty account.
According to LoyaltyLion data, 78% of people who have a good BFCM experience with a brand would go on to refer a friend or family member. This proves that people are willing to spread the word if they like you – so make it worth their while. Not only will this strengthen the relationship you have with your new BFCM customers when you reward them for their advocacy, but it will also help to reduce your acquisition costs as you gain new customers through your existing ones!
A great way to reward both your existing shopper and your soon-to-be customer is in the example below.
When shoppers refer their friends with nuud’s Happy Plan, nuud gives the advocate 10% off their next order and the new customer who’s just been referred gets 20% off theirs. It’s a win-win all round and that’s hard to say no to!
According to Consumer Goods, 82% of shoppers want a consumer brand’s values to align with their own, so we’re seeing more and more brands act on this by releasing eco-friendly collections or setting up recycling schemes. With consumers today shopping more mindfully, use this opportunity to connect with them on a deeper level.
Show you’re aligned with your new customers by letting them contribute to initiatives linked with their own values. You could let them trade in loyalty points to plant trees, spend their points on charitable donations, or send in their old items in exchange for loyalty points like Astrid & Miyu do with their ‘Astrid & Renew’ initiative.
Customers will be more likely to spend with you again if they know their purchases aren’t only benefiting them, but the planet and others in need too. You can then create content that shows the impact you’ve made through these initiatives and use it across your marketing to get buy-in from new customers.
Here are some simple metrics that you can use to measure the success of your post-BFCM loyalty initiatives:
– Customer retention rate: this metric shows how many of your new BFCM customers continue to shop with you after the holiday season rather than churning
– Repeat purchase rate: this tells you how many of your new BFCM customers make a second purchase within a set period of time
– Average order value: this shows you how much money your new BFCM customers spend on average per order. You can implement strategies to increase basket size such as a minimum spend threshold that customers must meet to qualify for free shipping
– Loyalty points redemption rate: this metric shows the percentage of your new BFCM customers who redeem their loyalty points. It’s a great indicator of how engaged members are with your program, and if the redemption rate is low then you may need to rethink the communication strategy around your program.
In addition to tracking these metrics, you can also conduct customer surveys to get feedback on your post-BFCM loyalty initiatives to help you identify areas for improvement.
Get the most out of your newly acquired customers by making your way through this post-BFCM checklist and giving them lots of opportunities to earn rewards with you. By creating multiple touchpoints with your new customers before Christmas, your seasonal shoppers could become seasoned spenders within no time.
Want to learn more about how to create a post-BFCM loyalty program that will drive repeat purchases from your new customers? Sign up for our free academy.
