7 Key Programs Online Retailers Must Launch to Drive Customer Engagement

The goal is to engage a prospective buyer who dropped by your online store — someone who searched for and browsed some tops and dresses, for example — but left without buying anything. Using collaborative filtering, you should email her within a day to show her similar tops and dresses that other customers liked. This will encourage her to go back to your online store to browse some more and, hopefully, make a purchase.

Never stop engaging a new customer. Encourage her to buy again. Collaborative filtering allows you to make recommendations based on an item she already purchased. Within three days of her receiving her shipment, show her similar or related products that she might be interested in based on product choices of other purchasers of the same item.

Offer your shoppers choices from a category of products or services that interest them. For example, you might have noticed that a shopper keeps searching for nursing wear and related items. You can take advantage of this affinity by recommending popular content from this category. Send her weekly updates to keep her engaged.

Another proven strategy to engage customers is to notify them of newly added items and items that are converting the best in their areas of interest. Send them weekly “what’s hot” emails to showcase new and trending products that they might want to purchase. This strategy can also be effective for welcoming and engaging new buyers.

What if your buyers recently searched and added some items to their cart but did not complete their purchase? Within three days of their activity, send them push notifications or emails to encourage them to complete their purchase. Show them again the items they wished to buy and similar items from the same category that might interest them.

For products that get re-purchased regularly, such as staples and grocery items, remind customers to “buy it again.” Employ purchase frequency analysis to determine when to best send buyers replenishment reminders. Amazon does this very effectively for a range of items from groceries to batteries

Your buyers, particularly those who subscribe to “back in stock” alerts, would love to know about any changes in price and availability of their “favorite” items. Are they back in stock? Is their favorite item on sale? How many items are left? Alert them in real time as content updates happen.

These seven key programs will help you do more than just sell your products — they will help you grow your customer base and build loyalty. However, you need to leverage the right technology platform to be able to implement these programs effectively. Learn more about using Blueshift’s solution for retail and e-commerce and how other companies have benefitted from this.