Enhancing the Post-Purchase Experience for Higher Conversions and Better Retention

Do you feel excited when you buy those sneakers you’ve been waiting for a long time? Or that video game that thrilled you so much? Or maybe just that cookie box you’ve been drooling for? Each purchase is associated with so many emotions. Most customers undergo many emotions before and after a purchase. They might be sceptical before buying and be super excited once they receive their product.

Brands that make the post-purchase experience seamless for their customers are seen to have higher conversion rates because they know the brand, they are buying from will always be there to listen to them and fix their issues. poor post-purchase experiences can leave your customers sour and even if you have a good product, they might not come back to you.

The customer’s journey doesn’t end once he has paid for the product. Getting a feeling of insecurity can anytime make him cancel. If there is no communication between you and the customer after he has paid for the product, he might feel duped.

A great post-purchase experience is important

You do not want to sell your products to the customers just once. You want them coming back to you of course! Isn’t that how a business survives? Post-purchase experience for customers is of great importance as it ensures you are catering to your customer’s needs, listening to what they have to say and valuing them. Every customer wants to feel important to be buying from you. If new customers have a great experience buying from you, they’ll come back while the old ones would feel you still care for them and that’s what the post-purchase experience should be all about.

• A thank-you does wonders

Thanking someone when they buy your product is one of the kindest gestures you can exhibit. This also makes customers feel a connection with your brand making your relationship with them better and leaving them with a happy experience.

• Reward their loyalty

Make them feel exclusive to be a part of your brand. Send customers exclusive offers or deals when they buy frequently from you. Invite them to join your loyalty programme for exclusive benefits, VIP access or bonus points.

• Remind them they need a replenishment

If you offer products that need replenishment, reminding your customers about replenishing makes them feel they are well taken care of. Set up automatic emails considering the products’ usability period and give your customers a better experience. It makes it convenient for the customers and helps retain them as they can rely on you and feel you give them enough attention even after the transaction has been done.

• Their opinion matters

One of the most important parts of post-purchase is asking customers for feedback. Your products are for them and hence their voice should matter. Learn from them the strengths and weaknesses of your products and fix what’s needed. Convey to them how valuable their feedbacks are because you want to enhance their experience with your brand. Make them feel value their opinions are ready to imply the right suggestions from them without being adamant. 

• Omnichannel experience

For a seamless experience for your customers, it’s imperative for you to have omnichannel support. Your customers might buy from a physical store and try to reach out to you from a different channel. You should be available for them on all channels you are selling from.

Businesses now use tools like PIM or PXM to achieve it. All the customer journey history is stored in one place and whatever channel they use to reach out to you, you already know their history. Knowing your customers well makes a significant impact on customer satisfaction and keeps them coming back to you.

• Refund and return policies

Unlike physical stores, customers cannot touch and see the product before purchasing from you online. They look for policies to be assured of security and might feel suspicious if your online store doesn’t have one. Refund and return policies reinforce the authenticity of the brand and give them a feeling of security that they are buying from the right place.

• Communicate and keep them posted

You need to keep your customers posted on every step of their journey. Tell them where their order is, when was it dispatched, when will it be delivered and more. Customers are always excited to receive their deliveries; give them that chance to get happy with their order updates. Communicate to them on every step of their journey whether through emails or messages even after they have bought your product. You can send thank you emails, and replenishment reminders, and tell them about your upcoming products or sale days in newsletters.

Pre-purchase and post-purchase experiences go hand in hand

Taking care of only the post-purchase experience is not enough, the pre-purchase experience matters equally. One of the most important pre-purchase experiences to reduce cancellations is providing all the details about the product that a consumer would want to know and more in-depth details too to enhance the experience. Show them how the product looks from all angles with high-resolution pictures. You can also provide tutorials or demo videos of how to use the product. When the consumer takes a buying decision without being sceptic how the product looks like, chances for cancellations become less as he would receive what he has seen online.

Conclusion

Customer expectations have increased manifold in the past years due to high competition while every brand is trying its utmost efforts and leaving no stone unturned to woo them. The customer journey certainly doesn’t stop at getting the product delivered, it technically never does till the time a customer keeps coming back to you. Hence, a seamless post-purchase experience is as important as wooing customers to purchase an item because there are still chances that the order might get cancelled. Customer acquisition costs are higher than customer retention costs so providing the existing customers with the best you have makes more sense than just getting new customers to buy from you and never return.