Personalized communication with the existing customer base, automatic programs, and timely relevant messaging helps firms to address different behaviors across the entire customer life cycle successfully. Using automation will give power to retailers to retain customers pushing sales.
The Online Consumer Trends 2019, reports that 25% of successful eCommerce companies focusing on customer loyalty can retain up to 70% of their buyers. The retailers at the other end struggle, because only 20% of their customers make two purchases, and merely 10% is willing to go beyond three. Marketing automation is the critical technology that can help e-commerce brands to make it to the top 25%.
The Online Consumer Trends 2019 report by SALESmanago Marketing Automation, surveyed 500 large and midsize eCommerce businesses, over 1.5 billion online events, and 120 million transactions worth 500$ million of revenues. The report revealed that over 70% of customers refuse to return to eCommerce brands that do not excel in customer loyalty. Companies that efficiently use marketing automation software lose only 30%. The returning customers keep spending in these online brands because 48.5% of people purchase after visiting the store from external ads and sites.
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Companies can generate 25% of their revenue merely by conducting campaigns leveraging the marketing automation tools. Retailers should focus on the goal of creating a 360-degree behavioral profile for each buyer using automation tools. Marketing automation systems allow retailers to collect behavioral data regarding online as well as offline transactions. These insights can be used to monitor customer activity and create loyalty programs accordingly to be launched on Social Media and in the Mobile App, as well as using the data gathered from external systems such as ERPs, CRMs, and Data Warehouses.
Based on the client’s profile, retailers can use marketing automation technology to generate perfectly tailored offers to retain them. AI and Machine Learning engines generate data-driven and predictive product recommendations, which will grab the interest of the consumer pushing the purchasing decision. Furthermore, automation based campaigns enable real-time response to customer activities promising a seamless omnichannel experience.
As McKinsey & Company rightly confirmed, the targeted communications having relevant content create lasting customer loyalty and drive revenue growth up to 30%. Personalization is definitely the key to customer loyalty. Another research confirmed that nearly 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and personalized research. Retailers must segment their customer database based on transactional data, such as frequency of purchases, the time of the last purchase, or the amounts they spent. With Marketing Automation, retailers can deliver 1-to-1 product recommendations in different communication channels, most suitable for specific customers.
Automation tools arouse interest with dynamic emails, featuring Machine Learning and AI product recommendations. Most importantly, automation resolves the cart abandonment problem – which approximately sums up to 68% of visitor response for the average eCommerce brand. Sending dynamic emails to remind people of the items left in the cart using automation, enhances the chances of them completing the purchase. Using personalized banners to display tailored content tailored as per customer interest at every stage in the customer life cycle, enhances customer retention to a great extent. Marketing automation can be used in multiple novel ways as well by retailers to supercharge customer loyalty. Marketing automation software also allows retailers to create an intelligent bot on Facebook Messenger with an exciting quiz to engage customers. Marketing automation enables retailers to automatically adjust their page and communication to meet customer expectations, thus increasing the brand’s conversion and revenue.
All such examples of marketing automation build a sense of familiarity with the brand, simplifying the buying process, and making it more relevant. It’s essential to be careful about not losing customer interest by delivering too many unwanted offers. Retailers need to have an automation platform running personalized omnichannel communication. They can also design robust loyalty programs using automation based on customer behavior and preferences.
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