After a customer has made a purchase on your ecommerce site, it’s important to take advantage of the post-purchase funnel. This is where you will find your most engaged audience who have already interacted with your brand and made a purchase. It is a great opportunity to upsell and cross-sell products, as well as provide support and information to keep customers coming back.
So, what is the best way to take advantage of the post-purchase funnel? In this guide, we share our top tips and tricks for maximising sales at this stage of the funnel to improve customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. We will cover:
- What is a post-purchase funnel?
- The importance of customer support
- How to use content marketing in the post-purchase stage
- Influencing post-purchase behaviour with offers
What is a post-purchase funnel?
The post-purchase funnel takes place after a customer has already made a purchase. At this stage, they have already engaged with your brand and bought into your products or services. You are more likely to convert these customers to make another purchase compared to converting new customers. This is why it is important to take advantage of the post-purchase funnel.
The importance of customer support
The post-purchase stage begins after a customer has made a purchase. So, they have already had the experience of purchasing from your website, tracking their parcel and potentially submitting a return. During this stage, it’s important to provide a great customer experience so that buyers are encouraged to come back and make future purchases. That is why good customer service is essential post-purchase.
Post-purchase communication is key to engaging with your customers and supporting them in the post-purchase funnel. Here are a few key things you can do to nurture your customers in this phase:
1. Send a thank you email: A thank you email is a great way to show your appreciation for a customer’s business. In the email, you can include a coupon or discount code to encourage them to come back and shop with you again.
2. Follow up with customer service: If a customer has made a return or had any issues with their purchase, it’s important to follow up with them and offer assistance. By providing great customer service, you’ll show your commitment to customer satisfaction and build loyalty.
3. Get feedback from customers: Asking for feedback from customers is a great way to improve your business. You can use feedback to make changes that will improve the customer experience and encourage repeat business.
With excellent customer service, support and follow-up offers, you can help to alleviate any post-purchase dissonance. By taking advantage of the post-purchase funnel, you can turn one-time buyers into lifelong customers and by providing a great customer experience, you’ll build loyalty and keep customers coming back.
Using content marketing in the post-purchase stage
A combination of email marketing, paid advertising and blogs or articles are great ways to use content marketing in the ecommerce post-purchase experience. This involves creating relevant blog content related to the post-purchase journey including answering returns queries and your offering as a whole.
This can be supported by paid and email marketing where blog content can be promoted to customers who have engaged with certain products or related topics. It is also a good way to promote future offers that your email database or target audience on paid social may be interested in.
Transactional emails sent post-purchase have a high customer engagement rate. Therefore, aligning promotional content with the transactional emails you send is an effective way to upsell and enhance revenue.
With Sorted’s delivery tracking software, you can customise the product to ensure that it reflects your branding. This allows you to send branded communications that encompasses tracking updates, useful information and further promotions, via email, SMS and tracking pages. Branded post-purchase communication keeps your business front of mind and encourages existing customers to keep coming back to make repeat purchases.
Influencing post-purchase behaviour with offers
Use post-purchase emails or push notifications to upsell and offer discounts on related products or services. Promoting specific products or trends is a great way to encourage customers to come back and make additional purchases. So, what type of offers can you provide to take advantage and influence post-purchase behaviour?
Trigger offers
You can run a follow-up offer immediately after a purchase has taken place promoting complementary products or an upgrade of the product the customer has purchased.
Re-engagement offers
If a customer hasn’t purchased for a while, re-engagement offers are a great way to hook them back in. This can be done through a ‘we miss you’ style of email or by promoting seasonal offers and sales through email as well as organic and paid social media.
Hero offers
What are your best-selling products? These products will be best sellers for a reason so why not promote them to your existing customer base, supported by reviews and a discount for loyal customers.
Additional offers
Other offers you may want to consider include Buy One Get One Free, bundles, free gifts, samples of new products and discounted items for customers who have a higher-than-average basket spend.
By following these tips, you can make the post-purchase experience more enjoyable for your customers and encourage them to come back in the future. However, you should continue to test and optimise your post-purchase offers to see what works and what doesn’t. This will help to improve overall performance.