Have you ever wondered if it is easier to maintain a long-term relationship or to start over a new relationship? Relationships are not easy to build or maintain, but it would be harder to retain one. It is the same for branding, new customer acquisition is not easy, but building customer loyalty is far more effortful. However, it totally pays off because:

• 67% of loyal customers spend more than first-time customers. 
• 50% of existing customers are more likely to try new products than new ones.
• 60-70% probability of selling to a repeat customer
• 5-20% probability of selling to a brand new customer

The statistics above show why you should put more effort into retaining existing customers or building customer loyalty. Gearment reveals 4 tips to build customer loyalty for online stores that we gain along the way in building and developing Gearment. 

1. To go beyond and exceed customer satisfaction

77.84% and 62.96% of consumers responded that the quality of the product and customer service inspire their loyalty to a brand, respectively. Moreover, there are many external factors like delivery, and website attributes that adversely influence the quality of customer service and product. Plus, online shoppers cannot touch and see the product directly. It’s really important to go beyond and exceed your customers’ satisfaction by assuring them of product quality and service. Once you get customers’ satisfaction, it is not difficult to retain customers and build customer loyalty.

Take Hockerty as an example, an online menswear retailer successfully pulls this off. Hockerty ran a campaign with personalized handwritten notes for their top customers in their own language and based on their latest purchases.

source: @hockerty.men Instagram

Source: Gearment

What do you think now? Building customer loyalty is difficult, isn’t it? Try out 4 tips of Gearment and let us know the result in the comment below. Keep in mind that devoting attention and putting effort into satisfying your customers’ expectations, connecting with them, and providing them added value. Especially, building a long-term and consistent strategy plan for your store is the top priority.