A high-quality post-purchase experience is one of the crucial differentiators for SME brands operating in a crowded ecommerce market, says Rory O’Connor, founder and CEO of Scurri. Here’s how to do it.
The importance of the post-purchase experience is well understood by large enterprises but much less so by SMEs. This is perhaps understandable given that sales completed will always sit at the top of the balance sheet well above often so-called soft benefits, such as repeat purchase or loyalty. However, boosting loyalty and protecting customer acquisition is critical for profitability.
Part of the problem is that post-purchase is a relatively unknown product category, and it will be defined differently from company to company, partly since such a large section of the experience is managed by the third-party courier, not the original brand.
The truth is that if a company puts a break in communications with its customers between the initial sale and the subsequent marketing outreach, to try and win the next sale, then the chances of a relationship have already been lost, particularly as the post-purchase phase is the period during which customers show highest engagement.
However, retailers can no longer pass on responsibility after shoppers have completed a purchase, especially in an environment of higher interest rates and increased cost of living as a result of inflation. Both consumer confidence and demand are down which is making it more difficult and therefore more expensive to acquire new customers. Costs have also risen because customers that are browsing and buying across so many channels and devices expect a good experience. The challenge is how to serve them in ways that meet their expectations as well as raise sales.
While this sounds like an invitation to pile on more costs, actually the benefits of continuous communications are many times greater than the cost of investing in the post-purchase experience and the tools to enable it. Specifically, these benefits are higher customer lifetime value, fewer ‘where is my order’ (WISMO) enquiries which eat up resources, and less need to invest in customer acquisition and additional retention strategies.
The key word for post-purchase experience is control; it is only through control and therefore ownership of the whole ecommerce journey that retailers have the chance to make sure their customers do not go looking elsewhere. Day to day this is about providing consumers with timely notifications of their purchases process.
Control is also about being able to design the journey based on the type of customer based on their worth, how they shop and their status at any given stage. This is only achievable with the correct data and connected systems so that SMEs can balance human intervention with automation.
As an example, because shipping updates have been found to have a 117% higher open rate than other forms of email communication, SMEs should engage their customers with own-branded tracking emails, using drag and drop or HTML design and a library of templates. Ecommerce tracking emails can get open rates of up to 50%-80% in comparison to the 10%-20% open rate of typical marketing emails.
This approach then enables SMEs to boost brand loyalty with personalised and high-engagement communications where they can upsell products and offers, promote discounts or gifts and encourage reviews. This high level of engagement has been found to reduce WISMO queries, confusion and churn.
Using an integrated, data-driven delivery management platform with tracking and post-purchase communications, SMEs also get control of their third-party delivery partners but without restricting their activities in any way. The event data can also highlight issues with individual delivery partners and can show if a certain carrier is experiencing delays. The software tools enable them easily to integrate with carriers and tech stack, so shipments can be imported flexibly via API or CSV.
Once this this approach has been adopted for the home market, it can be used to support overseas growth. A recent study found almost half (48%) of British consumers shopping online are looking outside their domestic market, because they see it as cheaper than shopping locally. Technology is critical to enabling SMEs to exploit these opportunities provided they plan ahead.
