A lot of well established retailers both online and off use customer rewards to increase sales for their business. They go by the name customer retention programs or customer reward programs. These effective tools can be used in any marketing campaign. The primary purpose of having this kind of program is to reward customers who make repeat purchases, it promotes loyal buying behavior.
The way that customer incentives work is a visitor to your ecommerce website buys something and as a result earns reward points based on either the total amount spent, the number of products or specific type of items purchased. They will then accumulate those points and use it towards future purchases. You, the e-commerce business owner, can determine how the customer reward program works. Set your own threshold for the number of points necessary in order for customers to redeem their rewards. You can also specify what type of reward to provide, it can be discount towards future purchases, free gifts or gift certificates.
Simply having a customer reward program is not sufficient, you must make sure that it's both simple to find and easy for your customers to use. It is necessary to display text or image links throughout your online store so customers are able to get the information they need. Links such as these are normally located in different areas such as headers, footers and sidebars. This way no matter which page the visitor is on, they can still reach the customer incentives page. The information you provide your customers is also crucial, be detailed when giving them directions on how to redeem their reward. The most frustrating thing for a customer is not having any idea on how to redeem their points or getting unexplained errors when completing a purchase. Go over all the small details and think in terms of a new customer, then make relevant modifications to your site.
An e-commerce solution that provides a customer reward feature should have the ability to do the following:
- Built-in reward points systems in the store admin
- be able to choose the type of reward to offer
- be able to convert points into gift certificates or gift cards
- be able to develop you own rules for calculating reward points
- be able to specify predefined criteria for redeeming rewards
Since you are primarily targeting current customers, the first thing you must do is announce this new program to them. Be sure to include image and text links all over your site and if you have a mailing list, send an email out to everyone on that list. Don't forget to add details of the program in the checkout area. It can also be used as a promotional tool to acquire new customers. Useful tactics include rewarding current customers for introducing their friends, starting contests where participants can earn rewards and giving away points to people that provide positive feedback that can be used to help improve your web site. Customer reward programs have the ability to become viral, especially if you use contests to entice people to join. Promote it to well known bloggers, write about it in related forums or encourage more people to follow you through your social media campaign. All of these tactics are used to promote your business, the customer incentives are used to get them to return.
Now that you know all the reasons why you need to have a customer reward program, it's time to choose a reliable ecommerce solution that has a built-in reward points program within your ecommerce website. It needs to be really easy to set up and very simple to manage. Most importantly, customers cannot have any trouble using it.
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provide powerful tools to help with not only creating customer incentives, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!