9 eCommerce Segmentation Hacks to Boost Customer Loyalty

9 eCommerce Segmentation Hacks to Boost Customer Loyalty

What is eCommerce segmentation?

Imagine walking into your regular boutique, and one of the staff addresses you by name and shows you the new dresses since your last visit. 

The staff knows your taste in dresses (your favorite colors, size, and style) and suggests some for you.

How would you rate such an experience? Mind blowing, right?

These experiences are nothing short of what we come across in our favorite restaurants, boutiques, local malls, etc.

Now, the question is, how do we replicate this experience in an eCommerce store where there is little to no physical touch?

This is where eCommerce segmentation comes in. 

eCommerce segmentation means grouping your customers based on specific criteria to understand and serve them better.

You can improve the shopping experience and customer loyalty by segmenting your customers. Campaign management platforms are helpful tools to track progress and stay organized as you segment.

This article will cover nine eCommerce segmentation hacks to improve customer loyalty and provide a tailored experience.

Let’s get into it.

1. Upgrade Shipping for High-Frequency Buyers

Do you have regular customers who shop at your store? If so, how do you compensate them for their frequent purchases?

You simply cannot afford to lose such customers because you will lose brand evangelists as well as orders.

To avoid this, reward frequent buyers by upgrading their shipping, offering lower shipping rates specifically for them, and so on. 

This improves their shopping experience and gives them more reason to stay loyal.

How to Segment Them

Determine the number of orders and revenue required to qualify a customer as a high frequent buyer. It could be customers who buy 10 products per month or products worth $2000 per month. Once you’ve decided, sort customers who fall within the range.

2. Offer High-end Support for High-Revenue Customers

Source – Zendesk

57% of consumers report that good customer service is vital for feeling loyalty toward a brand.

In other words, three of five customers will feel loyalty to your brand if you provide good customer service.

If your customer service is terrible, people will leave and give you bad reviews. And you cannot risk losing customers who bring in a lot of money because of bad service.

So, prioritize your top customers when it comes to customer support. You can do this by offering quick product delivery, extended return policy, fast response, etc.

How to Segment them

Sort customers based on lifetime revenue (total spend) and create support tiers based on total spend.

4. Cross-sell customers based on their purchase history

Cross-selling is the act of promoting additional products to your customers. The recommended product must be related to the products the customer buys or bought.

For instance, it makes sense to cross-sell a shaving cream to a customer that buys a shaving blade. But cross-selling a baby toy to the same customer has a slim chance of success.

According to McKinsey, cross-selling can boost profit by 30% if executed properly.

You can cross-sell using an email marketing platform. That is, you can send and automate cross-selling emails to your customers.

You can also add sections like “People also buy” and “best selections for you” in your thank-you emails.

Amazon does this well:

Source

How to Segment them

Sort customers based on product categories and purchase history.

Cross-sell products in the same product category to them.

You can also sort customers based on specific products and create campaigns to cross-sell them.

5. Incentivize Brand Promoters 

Congratulations if you have customers singing your praises to friends online and offline. It shows that you provide quality service to them.

But don’t stop there. Reach out to your brand promoters and incentivize them. Set up a referral program where customers earn incentives anytime they refer someone to your business.

You can also incentivize them with gift cards, coupons, discounts, gifts, etc.

How to Segment them

Sort brand promoters using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS lets you survey customers to determine how likely they are to tell others about your brand.

It employs a pointer scale of 1 – 10. Customers with a score of 5 or higher are likely brand promoters.

6. Provide Discounts to Customers that Abandoned the Cart

According to research, the global abandoned cart rate is around 76%. That is, 3 out of 4 customers leave an online store without completing their order.

This could be caused by high fees, poor checkouts, a slow website, having to re-enter contact information, etc. Find and fix these problems to lower the number of carts that are left empty.

Follow up with customers who left their carts behind to get them back to the store. Entice them to finish their purchases by offering discounts, coupons, and freebies.

Tip – Make the checkout process easier for customers to complete their purchases. You can make it possible for customers to checkout from the follow-up email. 

Here is a good example from Konga:

eCommerce segmentation hacks and tips

How to Segment

Several eCommerce platforms and email automation software allow you to track abandoned carts and follow up on them. 

eCommerce segmentation hacks and tips reduce cart abandonment
Source – Cloudways

7. Reach out to customers for reviews and testimonials

Testimonials and reviews are effective ways to build social proof for your eCommerce store. They signal trust and authority to potential buyers. 

Research carried out by Brighton Local showed that 84% of customers trust online reviews, and these reviews influence 74%.

As an eCommerce brand, there are several ways you can source reviews and testimonials for your brand.

You can ask your customers for reviews about your products and service (whether good or bad). Good reviews will signal trust, while bad reviews will help you improve your service.

Also, you can incentivize product experts (people who have records of buying a product frequently) to do an explainer video review of your products.

Place these video testimonials and reviews on your website, use them as ad copy, share them on your social media channels, add them to the product page, etc.

How to Segment them

Add a star rating widget on your thank-you page to let customers rate your store at the end of their purchase. You can further prompt customers to leave a comment on the rating.

You can also use a dynamic QR code generator to create unique trackable QR codes and attach them to the product packaging. Upon delivery, customers can scan the QR code to get product information and direct them to a review page to rate the product and delivery experience. Using dynamic QR codes you can change the destination without changing the QR code and track the user experience to segment the customers.

Sort for product experts by analyzing customer data who have bought the most items in each product category.

8. Get “Long time No See” Customers to Buy Again

“Long time no see” in this case refers to customers that have not purchased in a long time. This can be a one-time customer who only purchased once or a repeat customer who no longer buys from you again. 

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not providing a stellar shopping experience. It could be a result of price differences or something else, as stated in a subreddit post:

eCommerce segmentation hacks and tips
Source – Reddit

It could also be a result of the type of product you sell. For example, if you run a niche store selling pressing irons, you can’t expect a shopper to buy pressing irons repeatedly every month.

Regardless, the goal is to get these long-time and one-time shoppers to purchase from you again. 

If the average time between orders is three months, you can segment customers that last purchased at least six months ago.

Then create campaigns and mouth-watering offers, particularly for these customers, to win them back. These offers could be massive discounts, coupons, free shipping, gifts, etc.

How to Segment

Sort customers based on the date of their last purchase.

9. Remind Last-Minute Buyers to Buy Again

Last-minute buyers refer to customers that wait until die minute before grabbing an offer. This is very common during the seasonal shopping periods like November and December. 

Some customers wait till the last day of the shopping holiday season to place an order. A Google research shows that 18% of buyers combine all their shopping and wait till the Black Friday and Cyber-Monday period.

Good read: How to Use Premio Plugins for Your Black Friday Deals

Another stat shows that 60% of shoppers are open to buying from new retailers during these holiday seasons.

So as an eCommerce store owner:

  • Make special offers and holiday popup campaigns early on to remind and attract last-minute buyers during the holiday season. Because you can’t afford to lose them to other retailers.
  • Improve your check-out process and overall shopping experience to attract new last-minute buyers during the holiday season. These customers have a long list of products to tick off during the holiday season.
  • Retarget your customers during the shopping holiday season.

Google recommends that you give last-minute shoppers shopping assistance and convenience.

eCommerce segmentation hacks and tips
Source – ThinkWithGoogle

So now, let’s talk about how to segment these shoppers.

How to Segment them

Sort orders made during the holiday seasons (Black-Friday, Cyber-Monday) and other keynote dates and seasons.

Look for customers that have a history of purchasing more products during those keynote dates and seasons.

Bonus Point – Celebrate with your customers 

Celebrating with customers on their special days (birthdays) never goes out of fashion. Brands like IKEA, Sephora, Torrid, Sugarfina, and Jamba Juice all use it. 

On your birthday, IKEA rewards you with a discount and other freebies. Torrid gives you a $15 coupon. You get a free beauty item from Sephora.  And Jamba Juice provides you with a smoothie.

The best part is that you don’t have to break the bank to surprise customers.

The little things like a special discount, coupon codes, a birthday wish message, and freebies all go a long way in the heart of many people.

How to Segment them

Collect information on customers’ birthdays through a form. Set up a reminder and automation that emails customers the freebies and coupons on their birthday. You can also set up SMS automation to send them a birthday wish message. 

NOTE: Not everyone will be cool with sharing their date of birth. 

Wrapping Up: eCommerce Segmentation

eCommerce segmentation of customers is a swiss knife that every eCommerce business should have in its purse. It helps you build customer loyalty, increase conversion, and boost sales.

With the right segments and campaigns, you can create an excellent shopping experience for customers.

Go ahead and employ these eCommerce segmentation hacks to turn your customers into brand evangelists.