It’s a competitive business world out there. And the arrival of the internet made it even more competitive than ever before

So, faced with so much choice, arguably there’s never been a better time to be a consumer. As well as having more options than ever before, businesses are working harder than ever to attract and retain your custom.

This is particularly challenging for online businesses. Why? Because they’re only ever a click or two away from losing you to another competitor.

That means that they need to work hard to hold on to existing customers. After all, research has discovered that it can cost up to five times more to win a new customer than to recruit a new one.

Luckily there are many tools and techniques that businesses have at their disposal, including some that are unique to the online environment.

Incentives and offers

Let’s start with the most obvious. Incentives and offers have always been a weapon in the armoury of any business. But the automation of online transactions makes them especially easy to apply. One type of business that has taken particular advantage of this fact is the online casino sector. This is an exceptionally competitive field with many operators vying for new players. Due to the high competition of providers offering poker games, operators need to stand out and attract players to their site which they typically do through bonuses and promotions such as welcome bonuses. These welcome bonuses typically reward players by matching the players initial stake, so they get 100% of their funds on top of what they have added.

Opening a dialogue

All customers, whatever the sector, like to feel that their views and opinions are being taken into account. By offering channels for honest feedback a business can show that it is sensitive to this fact. This can be achieved in a number of ways including via social media channels or simply emailing customer satisfaction questionnaires, perhaps with a prize draw incentive to encourage completion. One company that has benefited from this approach in the past is IKEA. Ever since 2018, it has been asking customers for suggestions about the products they would like to see added to the range and introduced a number of them.

Produce blogs and newsletters

If a customer buys from a business, it suggests that they are interested in the field in which it operates. For example, people who buy paint are probably also curious to know what the latest home décor trends might be. By producing blogs and emailing newsletters with relevant information a business can position itself as a valuable source of insight. This, in turn, builds trust that can then transform itself into loyalty.

Offer multiple delivery options

Shopping online’s great. But one drawback is that you often need to wait for things to arrive. Sometimes this is fine if whatever you’ve ordered isn’t needed straight away. At other times the wait can be holding things up. By offering a range of delivery options, priced accordingly, a business can show that it’s catering fairly precisely for customers’ needs. It also offers the opportunity to tie in with incentives by making deliveries of orders over a certain value free of charge or at a discounted rate.

Make returns free and simple too

This is something that online clothes retailers like ASOS and Boohoo have discovered a long time ago. In a sector like fashion where customers are buying unseen there are always going to be situations where they want to return items. They might not fit perfectly; they may not be quite the same colour as they looked online. Both things that would have been discovered in-store if that had been the chosen shopping method. So, offering simple and free returns is a great way to show good customer service and instil confidence at the same time that, if it doesn’t fit, it’s easy to send back.

Great customer service

To expand on this theme, providing superlative customer service is another surefire way to ensure customer retention. While AI is revolutionising customer service there is always going to be room for a human to actually respond to questions, requests and issues. By investing in the sort of service that gets talked about and shared on social media it not only retains customers, it acts as an active recruitment tool to attract new ones.

Build a brand that customers can believe in

The world’s biggest and best brands, from Apple to Nike and Microsoft to Coca Cola all have one thing in common. They have built up a brand identity that strikes a chord with their customers.

But it doesn’t need to be a megabrand with a marketing budget of millions to achieve this. Simply presenting y in a predictable and consistent way that shares many of the values of target customers will help to retain them – especially when this is in conjunction with all the other aspects we’ve listed here.