5 benefits of a post-purchase strategy (and how to build one)

86% of customers say that their post-purchase experience is critical in their decision to repurchase. If you are serious about scaling your eCommerce business, it’s time to optimise your post-purchase strategy!

Your post-purchase strategy is anything you do to improve your customer experience once they have purchased. From fast, affordable delivery, to automatic updates to branded packaging, you should be doing everything you can to elevate their experience with your brand.

If you’re ready to increase revenue, build customer loyalty and nail your post-purchase strategy, you’re in the right place.

What is post-purchase and why is it necessary for customer experience?

This whole article could be condensed into one sentence:

“An effective post-purchase experience leads to more sales”.

While some eCommerce businesses stop their strategy at the sale, successful eCommerce stores know that the customer experience isn’t complete until they have the product in their hand.

81% of customers say that a positive customer service experience increases their chances of making a repeat purchase. 65% of your business comes from those existing customers, and a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25-95%.

Your post-purchase strategy (AKA serving customers who are already convinced by your brand and marketing) is anything you do to elevate their purchasing experience. This includes everything from confirming their order, to keeping them up to date on their delivery, to rewarding them for being loyal customers.

Optimising your post-purchase strategy is the easiest way to increase your revenue without increasing your number of sales.

5 benefits of implementing a post-purchase strategy

Improving your post-purchase strategy benefits both you and your customer. Let’s go through some of the main benefits you will see once you optimise your post-purchase marketing.

Increases your customer retention

On average, your loyal customers spend 67% more than new ones. Improving your customer service and customer experience builds trust and loyalty that maintains customers. Including steps like a simple returns process and open communication about their delivery to your post purchase strategy all contribute to trust in your brand. Using an eCommerce shipping integration will do most of this for you automatically without increasing your work load!

Builds a relationship with your customer

77% of customers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalised customer experience. The experience you provide matters! A post-purchase strategy gives you an opportunity to invite customers into your community, set yourself apart from your competitors, and share what makes your brand amazing besides the products themselves.

Helps increase sales and revenue

Implementing an effective post-purchase strategy will increase revenue exponentially over time. The more you improve your customer experience, the more their loyalty and average order price will increase.

Another way to increase sales with your post-purchase strategy is to increase how much customers spend in each transaction. You can do this by cross-selling or upselling.

Cross selling is offering customers a product that will enhance their existing purchase. If you have ever bought anything on amazon you will have seen their “People also bought” section.

The difference for a post purchase is that you give people the opportunity to buy something that complements their product after they have purchased it. In other words, you are offering it to someone who has already converted. Remember, it is easier to sell to someone who has already purchased!

Upselling is very similar. However, instead of offering similar products, you offer an upgrade to the product they want.

Leads to customer advocacy

Customer advocacy, AKA customers telling their friends and family about your business, is every marketer’s dream.

92% of customers say that they trust the product purchase recommendations made by their family and friends. Improving your post-purchase experience improves your chances of them marketing your brand for you.

Reduces tracking enquiries from customers

83% of online shoppers expect regular shipping notifications on their order. Besides providing great customer service, a post-purchase strategy can benefit you and your task list. Automatic tracking updates give customers peace of mind and reduce the number of delivery inquiries you respond to every week.

Using Starshipit to automatically track your parcels makes it easy and affordable to keep customers happy!

Tips to build an effective post-purchase strategy

Now it’s time to start building your own post-purchase strategy. From content marketing to gathering customer feedback, keeping your customer at the center of your strategy is the most important post-purchase marketing!

Providing unique content

You are probably not completely unique in your market. However, you can still stand out by sharing unique content and brand building stories.

Content marketing is one of the best ways to keep customers engaged in between sales. For your post-purchase strategy, this could mean either including useful content in your post-purchase emails or feeding them back into your social media community.

Starshipit customer Luxe Fitness is a great example of dominating the social media space.

Their social media presence keeps customers engaged with recipes, athleisure outfits and upcoming sales announcements. They have built a positive community of women that customers can be a part of even when they aren’t purchasing.

Matched with a seamless delivery system with Starshipit, their eCommerce post-purchase strategy keeps customers engaged and coming back for more.

Investing in a custom packaging experience

“Unboxing” is a popular way for customers to share their purchases with followers on social media. Custom, branded packaging can leave an impression on your customers when their parcel arrives and elevate your brand. It is all about creating an experience for your customers!

However, pretty packaging won’t save you if you have slow delivery. Using a shipping integration platform like Starshipit will speed up order fulfilment and reduce errors.

Adding tracking page details

Do you answer a hundred emails a week asking where parcels are? Then you need to offer automatic parcel tracking. Dealing effectively with parcel tracking queries will improve your customer service and save you time.

Health brand Flora & Fauna saved time, money and stress when they integrated Starshipit with their eCommerce store.

For example, If customers enter their shipping details incorrectly, Starshipit picks up the error and auto-corrects it, saving time, minimising delivery errors, and reducing subsequent customer enquiries and complaints. Customers can also track their parcel in real time on the branded tracking page.

As a result of using the Starshipit app, Flora & Fauna can process orders in seconds, not minutes, saving the team more than $80k annually and improving order and delivery accuracy, allowing their team to send out thousands of orders every week with less admin.

Hassle-free return and refund

92% of customers would repurchase if the returns process is simple. Making this process as simple as possible should be an integral part of your post-purchase strategy.

You should add your returns policy whenever you have communication with a customer. This includes adding it

• On the product page
• In order confirmation emails
• In your tracking emails/branded tracking page
• On invoices
• On your website

Starshipit makes this easy for customers. On the branded tracking page, the customer simply emails their reason for their return to an address on the notification. A reply email is sent with an attached shipping label they can print and use to return the parcel.

Gather customer feedback on the post-purchase experience

To keep Optimising your post-purchase marketing over time, you should be getting feedback from customers! Once they have received their order, you can add a link to a customer survey or link directly to customer reviews.

It is worth your time to address any concerns they might have with your delivery process!

Maintain postpurchase communication

You can Optimise your post-purchase emails depending on what you want to achieve. Do you want to:

• Cross-Sell?
• Grow your community?
• Share upcoming sales?

Australian eCommerce brand Urban Plant Growers uses communication to their advantage.

Once a customer makes a purchase, they can access their branded tracking page through Starshipit. As well as giving delivery updates, they have CTAs to join their community while you wait for your delivery. Once a customer is in their community, Urban Plant Growers can use their content marketing strategy to keep customers in their space. Post-purchase optimisation at its finest!

To help you make your own email or branded tracking page or post-purchase email, we have added an example below.

These ideas can be spread out over several emails (e.g. order out for delivery vs order received), but some things to include in your email are:

• Eye-catching, Branded visual assets (you need to be high quality and recognisable)
• Simple CTAs (like follow or share on social media)
• Updates on their loyalty points in you run a program
• Personalised similar product recommendations
• A connection point with your brand story/why they are right in choosing you
• Special discount codes based on their purchase
• Order confirmation
• How to track their order (this is automatic with a shipping integration)
• What to do if there is a problem with their order
• Ask for a review once the package arrives

Optimise your eCommerce post-purchase strategy with Starshipit

Your post-purchase marketing strategy is one of the most important things you can invest in to build your eCommerce brand. With Starshipit, you can Optimise your delivery process and impress your customers every single time. Build your reputation and customer loyalty with Starshipit! Start a Starshipit 30 free trial and see how easy post-purchase marketing can be.