Most retail businesses focus their marketing efforts on the goal of attracting new customers. But what about the customers that are already familiar with your store?
Customer retention is massively overlooked in most businesses, but it can help you beat your competition. Regardless of how much revenue you earn every year, by shifting your focus to customer retention, you can increase profit up to 25-95%.
Customer retention is easier and more cost-effective than acquiring new customers. It assists you in scaling your retail business revenue without spending thousands of dollars on marketing. According to the statistics, 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers. So, what’s stopping you from shifting your focus to customer retention in 2024?
This blog will help you learn what retail customer retention is and share unique customer retention ideas that can help you accelerate your business growth.
What Is Retail Customer Retention?
In simple terms, customer retention or retail customer retention is the act of keeping your first-time customers returning for more. This is a major concern of every business owner. You always want your existing customers to buy more products from you. The more customers repeatedly purchase the more you can drive revenue at your retail location.
Top Reasons Why You Need to Focus on Retention
Did you know that customers’ value expands beyond what they spend on your business today? They have future value depending on how you engage and retain them for the years to come. Their value depends on your successful retention.
Here are the top reasons why customer retention should be a priority for your business in 2024.
1. Cheaper Than Acquiring New Customers
Acquiring new customers not only takes time but has less ROI compared to retaining customers. This is because selling to a person who’s already familiar with your brand is easier than selling to a new customer. There is a 70% chance that an existing customer will buy from you again, as opposed to the new prospect.
2. Retaining Customers Powers Business Growth
Scaling your business gets easier when you have a high customer retention rate. As your customers become loyal to your brand it’s more likely that you will get free referrals through word of mouth. This not only grows your business but also turns it into a consumer-first brand.
3. Save More on Your Marketing
When you start getting customers through referrals and your customer base gets familiar with your product or brand, it’s smart to shift your focus to retaining them. Rather than using up your marketing budget on ads you can put some money and effort into retaining your existing customers. You can set up a loyalty program, and run email marketing, and promotional offers to keep customers coming back for more.
7 Unique Customer Retention Strategies to Help You Sell More
There is a saying, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, the other is gold.” This adage taught us that while making new friends is fun and exciting, fostering old friendships has its own value.
The same goes for customers. While acquiring new customers has its importance, existing customers can hold more value. But often store owners pay more attention to the new customers, which significantly drops their customer retention rate.
According to the 2020 roundup of Statistica’s industry retention rates, the retail industry retention rate is fairly low compared to any other industry. On average only 63% of the customers in the retail industry purchase from the same retail store. The reason for low retention is due to the high competition. Customers are bombarded with a variety of choices, getting more options to switch from one brand to another.
So, how to retain your customers?
Fortunately, there are many ways that can help you stand out from the competition and keep your customer base happy. In 2024, you can implement the following 7 ways to make your business thrive.
1. Create a Customer Relationship Marketing Strategy
Many small businesses in the retail industry lack focus on creating a customer relationship marketing strategy. The customer relationship marketing strategy is set to build the credibility of your company’s brand. It is all about centering your business and marketing efforts around customer relationships, needs, and loyalty.
By creating a customer relationship marketing strategy, you can build long-term relationships with customers to increase customer lifetime value.
2. Confront Customer Churn
No technology can help you read the minds of your customers. But what if you can become aware of the customer churn before it happens? Modisoft Insights can help you notice customer behavior and buying patterns.
By monitoring your customers’ purchasing trends, you can watch out for common churn signs such as spotty purchase patterns or a history of customer service complaints. This can help you reach out to your customers by offering special discounts, customer feedback, or follow-ups to keep your brand top-of-mind.
3. Start Customer Loyalty Program
Customer loyalty programs are one of the most common yet successful retention strategies. These strategies not only incentivize customers to share your product and services with their acquaintances but also keep your most loyal customers happy.
Before creating a program for your business, survey your top customers to know what makes them feel most appreciated. Once you are done with the survey, focus on creating a stellar loyalty program. Here, Modisoft Loyalty can help you create exciting loyalty and promotional campaigns that can increase customer engagement.
4. Focus on Improving Customer Experience
Customer experience is the key to retaining customers. By providing unforgettable customer service you stay in the customer’s mind. This is an opportunity to differentiate your brand from the competitors and attract repeat business.
But how can you deliver an unforgettable experience to your customers? At this stage, retail businesses can focus on speedy response time and error-free shopping and delivery experiences. You can use Modisoft All-Purpose POS to manage your orders more conveniently.
5. Send Personalize Offers
Step into your customer’s shoes and feel how difficult it is to make a choice when you’re bombarded with hundreds of advertisements and promotional emails every day. You’ll get irritated and ignore them unless they are not relevant to you.
So, how can you stand out? Target your promotions to feel like you’re specifically addressing that person. This will make them feel valued, and your offer will stand out from the competition.
6. Make Your Existing Customers Feel Valuable
Making your customers feel valuable is one of the best customer retention strategies that you can use in 2024. By making your customers feel appreciated and valued you can provide in-store pickups, special discounts on birthdays, and categorize loyalty cards.
For example, if your business is a bakery or café, you could target your most frequent customers and send free cakes on their birthday. This will help you to create a bond with your clients and keep them coming back for more delicious treats.
7. Utilize Technology
Make your customer’s shopping journey easy by utilizing technology. More retail stores are now shifting towards modern apps, and it’s passed the time for you to join the bandwagon. From getting a frictionless point-of-sale system to creating a customized app, you need to utilize modern technology to enhance your customer experience.
Cartzie gives you the flexibility to create customized apps and provide a seamless online experience to your customers.
FAQs
1.How to Calculate Customer Retention Rate?
The formula to calculate the customer retention rate is [(E-N)/S]x100. Where E represents the number of customers you have at the end of the period, N represents the new customers you gained during the period, and S represents the customers you have at the start of the period.
2.What Builds Customer Retention?
The key to building customer retention is to collect valuable feedback from your customers and keep addressing pain points by improving your customer service.
3.What Is the Best Customer Retention Strategy?
The best customer retention strategy is to focus on making your customers happy. Give them easy access to reach you and take feedback on every purchase they make. Don’t miss the opportunity to reward them with coupons and exclusive perks that you can easily create with Modisoft and Cartzie.
Altria Popup
About Altria
Altria Group, Inc. is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of tobacco and related products. They have been the undisputed market leaders in the U.S. tobacco industry for decades.
Altria Group is known for owning the most enduring names in American business including but not limited to Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.
Benefits
- Monitor and track all promotional efforts by directly integrating deals into insights
- Receive Altria rebates smoothly by sharing scan data reports
- Generate Altria scan data report program at a click
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Cartzie Popup
About Cartzie
Cartzie is a loyalty application designed by Modisoft, with you in mind. It is a one-stop loyalty and online ordering solution that is fully equipped with all the tools needed to make your business grow.
With Cartzie, you can do curbside pickups, delivery, and drive-thru ordering. Cartzie has revolutionized the way businesses interact with customers.
Benefits
- Add delivery options for your customers
- Boost your marketing efforts through targeted campaigns
- Take your business online in a few clicks
- Receive payments online for your orders
Pricing
+$49 per month with Retail Plans
This will close in 0 seconds
Comdata Popup
About Comdata
COMDATA has been serving businesses for over 45 years and is recognized as a leading provider of commercial payment solutions. They specialize in serving the trucking industry and are known as an issuer of fleet fuel cards, trucking permits, corporate spend cards, and paperless payroll cards.
Benefits
- Automatically transfer sales data from the Comdata POS into Modisoft back-office software
- Get an all-in-one solution to monitor and track your sales separately
- Easy accessibility to manage all your fuel sales
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Doordash Popup
About DoorDash
DoorDash, Inc. is a food ordering and delivery platform based in San Francisco. It is the largest food delivery company in the United States with more than 50% of the market share in the convenience delivery category. It provides an on-demand food delivery service to restaurants and stores. Their services help businesses innovate, grow, and reach more customers.
Benefits
- Receive order directly into your POS System
- Manage your online DoorDash menu
- Enable DoorDash orders for your customers
Pricing
+$69 per month for Third-Party Order Management
This will close in 0 seconds
Fintech Popup
About Fintech
Fintech has been dedicated to serving the beverage alcohol industry for the last 30+ years. Established in 1991, Fintech operates from its headquarters based in Tampa, Florida. Supported by TA Associates and General Atlantic, Fintech automates alcohol invoice payment, streamlines payment collections, and facilitates comprehensive data capture for 1 million B2B business relationships.
Benefits
- Import vendor invoices directly into your back office
- Optimize purchase order management
- Improve your alcohol vendor management
Pricing
+$5 per month
This will close in 0 seconds
Gilbarco Popup
About Gilbarco Veeder-Root
Gilbarco Inc. is a supplier of fueling equipment including fuel dispensers, payment systems, point-of-sales systems, and support services. The company operates from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Benefits
- Effortlessly connect your POS data from the Gilbarco system to Modisoft Insights
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Instacart Popup
About Instacart
Instacart is a delivery company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in Canada, and the United States. It is one of the largest grocery marketplaces in North America. Instacart makes the delivery process easy for store owners.
Benefits
- Monitor and manage your Instacart inventory levels from Modisoft Insights
- Updated Instacart inventory levels in real-time
- Avoid stockouts by ensuring accurate inventory levels
Pricing
+$19 per month
This will close in 0 seconds
Retalix Popup
About Retalix
Retalix Ltd was established in 1982 and is now owned by NCR Corporations. It develops licensed and supported software applications for retailers, wholesalers, and distributors of fast-moving consumer goods.
Benefits
- Easily Import sales data for reports and analytics from the Retalix POS system
- Monitor sales in real-time
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Paycue Popup
About Paycue
Paycue is Modisoft’s preferred payment processing provider. It helps businesses to streamline their setup process to be faster and more efficient. Paycue assists businesses with faster payments and smoother customer interaction.
Benefits
- Enjoy minimal fees on transactions
- Seamless integration
- Speedy transactions
- Secure payments
Pricing
No monthly fee. Only pay when you sell.
This will close in 0 seconds
Plaid Popup
About Plaid
Plaid Inc. is a financial service company that builds a data transfer network that powers digital finance and fintech products. Plaid assists businesses in connecting their financial accounts to fintech services. The company's product enables applications to seamlessly connect with the user's bank account.
Benefits
- Build a quick and secure connection to your bank account
- Easily manage your bank reconciliation to match your book records
- Experience an easier way to connect with your bank account
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
RJRT Popup
About RJ Reynolds
R.J. Reynolds is a leading tobacco manufacturing company in the United States. Founded by R.J. Reynolds in 1875, the company is a subsidiary of Reynolds American. RJR holds the largest brand portfolio including but not limited to Kent, Pall Mall, Camel, and Newport. The company is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Benefits
- Offer tobacco loyalty from the industry's leading brands
- Monitor all promotional efforts in just a few clicks
- Get your rebates easily
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Uber Eats Popup
About Uber Eats
Uber Eats is an online platform that focuses on food ordering and delivery. The company offers easy online delivery and logistics operations. It was launched in 2014 by Uber company. The company operates by allowing foodies to order the food they love. Uber Eat connects businesses to millions of customers while providing a hassle-free delivery solution to restaurateurs.
Benefits
- Manage the Uber Eats menu through a single dashboard
- Have online orders automatically sent to your POS system
- Increase the number of online orders you receive
Pricing
+$69 per month for Third-Party Order Management
This will close in 0 seconds
Verifone Popup
About Verifone
Verifone, Inc. Is an American multinational corporation based in Coral Springs, Florida. It sells merchant-operated, self-service, and consumer-facing payment systems to the different industries.
Benefits
- Import data easily from the Verifone POS system into Modisoft Insights
- Keep a record of your data in one software
- Manage sales data at a glance
Pricing
Included in Advanced Plan
This will close in 0 seconds
Vusion Group Popup
About VusionGroup
VusionGroup is the global leader in digitalization solutions for commerce. It provides IoT and Data solutions for physical commerce, serving over 350 large retailer groups around the world in North America, Asia, and Europe.
Benefits
- Get the flexibility to update prices across thousands of products from one central dashboard
- Implement digital price tags in your retail location
- Limit the need for traditional label printing
Pricing
Available upon request
This will close in 0 seconds
Join Our Team
This will close in 20 seconds