Finding new customers and getting them to come back and buy more are two key priorities of all successful eCommerce businesses.

Every stable business needs a strong and loyal customer base that is always there to provide support whenever it is needed. In order to cover individuals that drift off and stop pumping money into your business, it is essential to acquire new customers.

To see how many new ones you bring in and how many of them stay with your business regularly, you have to monitor important metrics.

Getting a good idea of what steps you need to take to acquire, monitor, and retain your customers is, without a doubt, very important. These three crucial segments shall be further examined in the article below.

Using email for acquisition

To acquire new customers, there has to be a lead generating strategy. Pulling in leads is the first step towards new customers. Generating leads consists of collecting information from potential customers with the intention to nurture or retarget them with ads and eventually convert them into customers. However, the majority of first-time visitors will not buy your products immediately on the spot.

Gathering email addresses is considered to be one of the best lead generation efforts for customer acquisition, given the revenue that email marketing generates for businesses. According to a study conducted by Campaign Monitor, almost 60% of marketers see the most ROI exactly from email efforts.

Ways to collect email addresses are numerous. You can drive paid traffic to a page with an email form included on your website, you can offer a welcome discount, and you can even pay a marketing agency to find leads for your business.

After an email list is built, your business can run campaigns and send targeted messages to list members through email. There are even tools that automate sending messages.

However, it is best to send out personalized messages that are based on an individual’s preferences. Personalized messages work wonders when it comes to engagement.

The best bit about having an email list and using email marketing to get new customers is that it gives you the ability to market to customers over a long time. This extends the lifetime value of each customer acquired.

Once the email is collected, you can set up email automation to continue further engaging the customer and recommending new services and products.

Cold emails aren’t dead

It is also worth trying a cold emailing method. This may be an old method and it should only be done with consent. Cold emails reach users where they spend most of their time and these strategies are based on persistence.

Additionally, cold emails are scalable, since these messages can reach thousands with the click of a button. Consider checking out some cold email tips if you want to include this method to your email marketing arsenal and achieve success.

Monitoring metrics that matter

Finding out more about your customers and monitoring every action they take on your website is an important part of running an eCommerce business.

To do this, you need to closely monitor the people who engage with your online business. The only way to know instead of guessing is to follow certain eCommerce metrics.

Monitoring eCommerce visitors is the best way to get to know your customers, to understand their needs and preferences, and even discover customer trends. All of that can improve your brand’s competitiveness.

Let’s take a look at the most important metrics that provide useful insights.

Number of visitors

The first metric revolves around the number of people visiting your online business. To be precise, you need to take account of the daily number of visitors to your eCommerce website.

Some marketing experts see this metric as too flattering since a huge number of visitors does not imply that more sales shall be made. However, it is always useful to know how many people are showing an interest in your website.

Conversion rate

This metric is one of the most important ones for any eCommerce business. The conversion rate represents the percentage of visitors that took a certain action on your website or made a purchase.

Bounce rate

The bounce rate shows the number of visitors that came to your online business but left without taking any action (clicks, sign-up, purchase, etc.). Higher bounce rates indicate that you are most likely attracting the wrong kind of people to your online store.

If your bounce rates are high, it is important to call for a reassessment of your target market. You should also streamline your marketing campaigns if you see negative results.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Every purchase that is made on an online shop comes at a price. Knowing this cost is essential for establishing a consistent pricing policy and thus avoiding losses.

To determine the CAC, you need to take into account all the investments into the product before you sell it.

Metric tools

You may pull the data easily, but you also need to understand it. Here are some tools that have a proven record of being widely used for data monitoring:

  • Google Analytics
  • E-GOI eCommerce tracking
  • SEMrush

Retaining your customers

This is the third segment of every successful business – good customer retention. Running a business means finding new customers but it also means convincing them to buy from you repeatedly.

So, what can a business do to keep its customers?

Customer service

The customer service team that you have hired is on the front line of your business. Doing your best to make their work easier should be a priority. On the other hand, you also need to insist on high-quality customer care. To make their lives easier, consider buying a VoIP phone system. This tool can add value to every customer interaction.

With a good VoIP system, all your calls will be answered. VoIP systems can be set up to forward calls to external agencies allowing you to spread out the work across all agents.

Additionally, the clarity of VoIP phone calls is excellent, having improved significantly over the years. All of it is due to a broader frequency range than is available to analog phones.

Seriously consider VoIP if you want to have impeccable customer service. Before you buy, make sure to examine this VoIP phone service buyers guide. If you want to find a reliable provider at a fair price, you will definitely find some good tips in it.

Loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are used by many businesses for re-engaging the best customers. The concept is simple — customers that interact with your business the most need to be rewarded.

In return for their activity, a business should reward them and further motivate them to buy again. Many loyalty programs revolve around points that can be used for discounts, early releases, and even free products.

Summary

Your eCommerce journey consists of several stages, just like your customers’ buyer’s journey. There is no time to rest, especially if you’re a new business entering the industry of giants. By following all the tips listed in this post, you will be at least one step closer to succeeding in this competitive industry.

Infographic created by Fiserv, an omnichannel commerce company.