The One-Time Shopper – How to Keep Them Coming Back
Understanding your customer is an important part of e-Commerce success. In tailoring your sales approach, however, there has to be a balance. We need to be flexible enough to accommodate the variety of shoppers that will come across our webshop; we want to attract as many customers as possible. We should also be strict enough in coming up with our content design and messaging. A surefire way to fail is to try and please everybody. Take an honest look at what who the audience is, both existing and potential, and create a compelling content and sales strategy accordingly.
As an e-Commerce solution provider for Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV, we look not only to our clients for inspiration but their end customers. We want to build solutions that work for both. In this article, we’re going to focus on the One Time Shoppers.
What drives the one-time shopper?
They could be shopping on impulse and your site struck their fancy. This is why it’s important to make a good impression, be it your compelling site design or impeccable product descriptions and photographs. Paying attention to your SEO also means that your webshop gets found more easily.
One Time Shoppers also usually have an incentive, such as a coupon code, the holiday rush, or a promotional sale. After the peak of sales, we want to find ways to continue that momentum and retain those customers.
What can we do?
Sales are exciting and these customers are usually waiting for that perfect opportunity. Instead of waiting for them to come to you on their own volition, suggest to shoppers that they may want to sign up for newsletters for similar offers and the inside news on the latest products so they can start planning their next purchase. Include exclusive coupon codes as well in your email marketing campaigns. The feeling of being in a VIP club can influence shoppers to shop again and again.
If the one time purchase was intended as a gift, entice the customer to try it out for themselves. When shopping, sometimes customers can be tempted with the thought of “One for you and one for me”. If it’s possible to offer savings when bundling items or offering free shipping, for example, you can have another happy customer on your hands.
We can also leverage the social aspect of e-Commerce to encourage one time shoppers to come back. With features like Tell a Friend and ratings and reviews, your customers can assess how the product is being received and if others recommend it.
How to Build Strong Connections
It can be frustrating to constantly have to attract new customers. Ideally, you want to build relationships with the customers you already have and obtain steady revenue from them. Here are some important touch points that can make their one time experience memorable:
Easy to Use and Explore. These are one-time shoppers. They are not familiar with your store. Make sure they are able to find what they are looking for with multiple search options and clear navigation. Consistently test this aspect of your site because as you become comfortable with your own product catalogs and navigation, you may be missing what newcomers are experiencing.
Fast and Painless Checkouts. Guest checkouts (instead of requiring customers to register for a new account) make the checkout process even easier. It can be irritating to have to create an account just to make the one purchase. If you make it painless, customers are more inclined to come back (and perhaps set up an account the next time.) OneStep checkout is also an option to consider because less time is spent on clicking through multiple steps and confirmations.
Build Trust. Provide all the necessary information about the product, returns and exchanges, ways to get in touch with customer service, and payment and security. When all the information is up front and easy to access, customers will feel more comfortable about giving you their business.
Optimal Experience Anywhere. There is only one opportunity to make a good impression. Responsive Design will allow your customers to access your site on any device and interact with it just like they do on a desktop. Ultimate usability and mobile-friendliness mean they can browse and place orders wherever they are. Added bonus: you rank higher on mobile search because of responsive design.
Positive experiences can create loyal customers out of one-time shoppers. Nav-to-Net™ is an integrated and comprehensive e-Commerce solution for B2B, B2C, and B2E. Features like Ratings and Reviews and Parametric Search, with our signature NAV integration at the core, can elevate your e-Commerce business and satisfy your customers. Talk to us about our e-Commerce suite and what we can do for you!
Capitalize on your Microsoft Dynamics NAV investment for B2B e-Commerce: Watch a quick 4-min demo video
You may also want to read these Whitepapers:
E-Commerce Integration Is Not Always Built Equally
5 Reasons Dynamics NAV Should be the Master Copy of Your eCommerce
10 Point Checklist for B2B NAV E-Commerce
Request a demo on Nav-to-Net™ today to see what an integrated e-Commerce solution can do for you.
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