8 creative ways to increase the lifetime value of a customer

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For any e-commerce brand, engaging customers throughout their shopping journey with the same momentum is no easy feat. While many brands hit a wall in their ability to wow customers and increase their lifetime value, some brands have nailed their customer engagement and retention strategy.

For example, take Vintage Boho Bags, a luxury fashion brand. They had clear goals when they teamed up with Vajro to build their mobile app - make loyal customers feel the love and increase repeat purchases. Fast forward, they acquired customers who’ll stay with them for life. 

Enhancing customer lifetime value is as simple as following good business practices, such as responding to customer feedback. If you’re looking to build a base of loyal and happy customers who keep coming back to your store, follow these 8 easy, creative tactics:

1. Push notifications: Less is more 

Stand out from bombarding, generic marketing by making your push notifications conversational and personalized. These high-converting notifications give the best returns when used in moderation.

Segment your customers based on their purchase history or shopping behavior, and tailor your promotions to suit them. This level of personalization improves the overall shopping experience and makes your customers feel valued. 

Satisfied customers keep coming back to your store.

With Vajro, you can send push messages relevant to specific audiences through integration with Shopify customer segments. In addition to that, you can get insights into the campaign performance with metrics like CTR and Sales and optimize them for best results.

2. There’s always an opportunity to cross-sell

Using customer purchase history to sell similar products is a great way to increase their lifetime value.

For example, picture your customer (let’s call her Amber) purchasing a bright summer dress from you. When Amber’s on the product page, you could recommend another dress to her that suits the summer season. Going beyond generic suggestions showcases a deep understanding of your customer needs.

Carols Boutique has nailed this strategy by recommending similar products on the product display pages. Check it out!

Cross-selling with analytics does more than increase revenue. Customizing recommendations shows a dedication to improving the entire customer experience. Customers will be more likely to make later purchases, recommend to friends and family, and stay loyal because of this personalized touch. 

Vajro’s integration with Firebase app analytics gives you detailed information on customer actions on all the pages within your app, enabling you to refine your personalization strategy as you own this data.

3. Adopt creative and powerful ways to upsell

An effective upsell emphasizes the value of an upgraded or complementary product. Bundling is a great way to make an upsell all the more enticing. 

Vajro enables brands to upsell on the checkout page, where the conversion is more likely to happen. You can set up automatic discounts for certain products or specific collections to entice customers right when they proceed to checkout.  

As an added benefit, you can even track their behavior here, like:

  • What collections do they view? 
  • Which products do they click?
  • Did they add a bundle to the cart but delete it later?
  • And many other similar actions.

As the next step, you could retarget them through push notifications, email, or SMS using this behavior data. 

For example, consider the example from the previous section. While it’s still summer and not too long after Amber bought the bright summer dress, you could send her a push notification to promote summer footwear or other accessories that go well with their dress. Sounds powerful, doesn’t it?

The best way to upsell without coming across as pushy is to be aware of their needs and preferences, and align your promotions with them. Customers value a business that exposes them to new products they can relate to. An upsell that screams sales over satisfaction will drive away loyal customers. 

4. Automation is your friend

Automation plays a pivotal role in ensuring consistency and relevance in your communication. Many email and SMS marketing software uses automation to target specific customer segments with personalized promotions. 

Demographics, purchase and behavior history, and engagement with past emails are all a good place to start.

Vajro integrates with CRM and marketing automation software like Klaviyo and WebEngage, enabling you to track customer behavior and (not limited to):

  • Create marketing campaigns to cater to specific customer segments
  • Automate push notifications, email, and SMS based on customer behavior
  • View event logs for every customer within your app and web
5. Retarget with a goal to engage and convert

If an almost-customer got away, sometimes a simple recalibration is all it takes to get them to purchase. It's important to target lost customers with relevant promotions across various platforms.

The promotions should be relevant to what they almost bought. Your message must remind them of their initial interest while adding value to their experience. Limited-time offers, new features, or other selling points are some of the ways to do this.

More than a reminder, retargeting establishes brand presence. The more potential customers see your brand and resonate with your recommendations and messages, the more likely they are to buy. You can reverse lost sales and increase brand awareness by retargeting often.

Vajro enables brands to retarget customers using automated push notifications. You can send automated push notifications to customers when they abandon their carts or when they have not used the app in a while. This tactic simplifies your retargeting process as it’s fully automated.

6. Reserve your best products for a live sale

You already know that live selling provides both you and your customers a dynamic and real-time interactive experience. They add a layer of personalization to your promotions. 

To increase conversions on your live sale, host a time-limited session. An ideal period would be 20 minutes. Not more. And show off your best or favorite products in this limited period. Such sessions create urgency, compelling customers to make on-the-spot purchases.

When you go on a live session to sell limited-time offers or new products, your customers engage with you better. You can also create hype and launch a new product right during the live session. Exclusive to your live audience. When you fuse entertainment with genuine interaction, it sets you apart.

Look at how Opal & Olive introduces their product - a Chunky Wood Bunny - during a live session on their app.

Vajro enables brands to go live from their mobile app and Facebook at the same time, with rich features like:

  • Automatic invoicing to customers: You don’t have to worry about the process while you’re busy showing off your best products.
  • Adding more products during live: Selling fast? Sold out? Don’t worry, Vajro enables you to add new products to your live session with quick barcode scanning.
  • Reservation of products: This feature allows your viewers to reserve their favorite products for a limited time so they can decide on their purchase without the products running out of stock.
  • A replay of past sessions: 30% of the revenue generated through live selling comes from replaying past sessions. How cool is that? Vajro enables you to showcase all your past sessions on the app homepage so your customers can always revisit them.

In addition to using these features, brands that go live with Vajro display countdown timers on their homepage banners a few hours or days before they go live. Planning to reveal a new product during your live sale? Show your customers there are only 24 hours left for the BIG launch to create FOMO!

7. Reward your loyal customers to drive repeat sales 

Reward programs are an easy way to encourage repeat purchases. These programs are also crucial as they influence the decision-making process when customers are choosing between brands. 

When you give early access and exclusive discounts to your customers, you make them feel privileged. This keeps them loyal because they feel valued and special. Rewards programs also offer future benefits in the form of loyalty points. Customers justify a purchase they make today with the rewards they earn, as they can use the points for tomorrow's purchase.

Perks give customers a sense of familiarity with a brand. If they know there's a reward in every sale, they are far more likely to spend their money. Vajro integrates with a lot of leading players in the loyalty space like Okendo, Smile, and LoyaltyLion, enabling you to incorporate loyalty programs into your mobile app to offer a wholesome experience.

8. Personalize. Personalize. Personalize.

Personalization has already come up as a strategy several times in this article. That's because making a customer feel valued goes far beyond knowing their name. In the wake of algorithms and new forms of AI, hyper-personalized experiences stand out. 

Harnessing the power of machine learning and AI algorithms is pivotal in achieving dynamic personalization. There's no guesswork involved when you test customer data. This process ensures that businesses stay attuned to evolving customer preferences.

Vajro enables brands to use AI with their push notification campaigns to improve conversion rates. Vajro AI, a game-changer for many brands, takes the hassle out of manually crafting push messages in different tones. It lets you craft personalized, attention-grabbing messages in your preferred tone to engage customers.

‍Refer to this document to start using Vajro AI in your push campaigns.

Anticipating and then fulfilling customer needs is the best way to implement personalization. Refinement through machine learning makes going above and beyond customer expectations a breeze. When customers feel seen and understood, they will purchase from a brand again. And again.

One of the simplest yet powerful ways to do this is to enable the Recently Viewed section on your app’s product pages. These reminders or recommendations personalize the shopping experience for every customer.

Look how Carols Boutique from our earlier example implemented this feature on their product display page in addition to Related Products.

Increase your customer lifetime value with Vajro

Enhancing the lifetime value of a customer requires a holistic and customer-centric approach. Unconventional and creative strategies help you drive sales, stand out from your competitors, and foster lasting relationships with your customers. 

Vajro empowers more than 5,000 Shopify and Shopify Plus brands with loyalty-focused features and personalized shopping experiences. If you want to learn more about how you can retain your customers for life while reducing your expenses, schedule a demo today. To get hands-on experience with Vajro, you can also start your free trial now. 

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