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Building customer loyalty takes time — and effort.
According to the State of Customer Loyalty data, 37% of customers say it takes at least five purchases to pledge their loyalty to a brand. Bringing back a customer that many times is no small feat.
Customer loyalty is a two-way street. If you want customers to keep buying your products and services, why not give them a reason? And why not let the reason be shipping perks?
Shipping Perks as a Form of Customer Loyalty Reward
If you want to learn more about shipping perks and customer loyalty, read on!
What is a Customer Loyalty Reward?
Customer loyalty describes the positive relationship between your brand and your customers. Loyal customers have a high chance of doing repeat business with you; they will repeatedly buy products and services from you.
Offering a customer loyalty reward acknowledges your positive relationship with your customers. It also lets you incentivize customer actions — and entice them to continue these actions.
The other benefits of offering a customer loyalty reward include increased customer engagement, improved customer retention, and a more positive customer experience.
Loyalty programs are the same as customer loyalty rewards in that they reward loyal customers, but loyalty reward program types for small businesses differ widely.
Examples of the different types of loyalty reward programs are:
- Tiered – Helps build long-term engagement,
- Gamified – Rewards those with the highest engagement
- Paid – Payment serves as the reward
Some businesses also offer shipping perks as part of their loyalty rewards program.
An example of a business offering shipping perks as a loyalty reward is Costco, a multinational chain of membership-only retail stores. Costco offers shipping perks as one of its rewards for loyal customers.
Pick a loyalty program type based on your specific business. Once you create a customer loyalty reward program, use it to build better relationships with buyers through more proactive customer support.
For example, use a Customer Relationship Management tool to help you gather valuable customer data or train your staff to use customer service phrases that will turn prospective buyers into customers.
What are Shipping Perks?
Shipping perks are benefits you get from shopping online.
The benefits of free shipping include increased sales and improved customer loyalty. If your competitors do not offer free shipping, it also gives you a competitive advantage. In addition to free shipping, some businesses offer fast international shipping as a perk.
Shipping perks depend on the types of e-commerce, such as white labeling or subscription services. For instance, it only makes sense for merchants who sell physical products (compared to digital products) to require shipping costs.
For example, if you’re in the dropshipping business, your business’s low-profit margins should discourage you from offering free shipping.
How to Use Shipping Perks as a Form of Customer Loyalty Reward
Offer free shipping for people who join your mailing list or are making their first purchase on your site. This strategy enables you to engage people in other channels of your e-commerce platforms.
Make the process as creative and engaging as possible for customers. Below are three more ways to build and maintain customer loyalty with shipping perks:
- Waive shipping fees if they join your loyalty program – Get them onboard with your loyalty reward so they will hand over their data. Then, send them marketing emails to help raise your sales (and offset any losses you may incur) by shipping their orders for free.
- Provide free shipping if they go beyond the minimum threshold – Set the minimum amount that lets them get a free shipping privilege — not too high or low. This practice compensates for the costs of offering free shipping with the rise in order value. It also entices customers to buy more items from you.
- Give free shipping to those in specific locations – Survey where most of your buyers live. Then, subscribe to a shipping service that can deliver those people’s products for a fraction of the cost. This practice encourages those in a specific area to buy from you.
Conclusion
Be sure to link your free shipping offer to your customer loyalty program to inform customers of your promo.
On your website, place a sign at the above-the-fold portion. This way, your promo will be the first thing a customer sees. From then on, they will have the mindset that they can take advantage of the free shipping promo if they meet your requirements.
