7 Ways to Prevent Customers from Leaving Your Online Store

Not all eCommerce stores work the same way. While some have customers coming in and spending hours on their site, others have customers who leave continuously without buying anything.

Every time a user leaves your site without buying something, you've lost out on potential revenue. And when you see that your costs are far outweighing your income, then it's critical to make changes.

In this post, I'll share some powerful ways you can prevent customers from leaving your online store. This means offering powerful incentives and content that make people want to stick around on your website with the eventual result of creating a sale.

Let's get started!

Incentivize social media shares

If your customer isn't on your website, it's likely that they're on social media.

And that can be a good thing. If you plan and implement this idea correctly, you won't just bring your previous site users to your website again, you'll also get new visitors too.

Here's how you can get your existing visitors to revisit, share your content, and visit again.

Offer discounts that can only be redeemed when a customer shares their purchase on Facebook or Twitter. Create a pre-written template with links that they can instantly share on social media. You can do this on the landing page or the confirmation page after users make a purchase. Or you could send an email with this information.

Such a step will help you gain momentum through social media.

You could also create an affiliate program where your audience gets rewards, discounts, and some other benefits when they share a specific referral link on social media.

Push notifications

The use of push notifications is considered one of the best strategies for retention marketing. This is because it allows you to share an exclusive promotion in real-time with your users through browser notifications. And this is even when they're on another website.

You won't have to wait for customers to come back days later to see your promotional floating bar or your new content on your home page.

You'll get your users to return to your site sooner if you craft a compelling enough message via push notifications.

Share use cases

Very often people don't opt in to buy something because they don't know how a product will benefit them. And this can be especially true if your product is new and innovative.

You need to show customers how your product will be of use to them. Tell them what problems they can solve using the product and show how it has helped other people.

Share video tutorials, case study documents, user-generated content like social media posts, or even hold live webinars to educate your customers.

When your audience understands how your product can help them, they'll be more likely to buy from your online store.

Segment and personalize your on-site marketing

Personalizing your marketing efforts to your customers ensures that you are not wasting time or money trying to convince someone who is not interested in your product. For instance, if the person has just purchased a car then they will probably be more inclined to check out automotive accessories. So, sending them an email with offers on these products is more effective than sending them one about fashion.

Keep segmenting your customers and website visitors. You can do this by creating different lead magnets for different pages and products. Whenever a person signs up for them, you'll be able to segment them based on their choice of downloads. And in this way, you can segment customers and then personalize your push notification offerings - which will keep people on your site longer.

Remind users about abandoned carts

Many of those who visit online stores do so with the intention of buying something but due to various reasons, don't complete the purchase.

You can create simple and unobtrusive sliding popups or push notifications reminding people to finish their purchases.

You can even offer discount codes that expire after a few hours to encourage customers to place their orders right then and there.

Focus on user experience

While it may seem like a small issue, an online store that is not user-friendly can cause shoppers to abandon their purchases.

A user who finds it difficult to find products, check out or otherwise navigate through your site will leave your site rather than deal with its challenges.

Make different strategies for new vs returning users

Find out if your traffic consists of new or returning visitors. Understanding how much of your traffic is brand-new can help you tailor promotions and incentives just for them.

And for returning customers, you can share products related to their previous purchases, upgrades, and other useful content to keep them on your site.

Conclusion

It is never too late to start building your customer retention rates on your eCommerce store.

We've looked at several strategies that you can use. Tactics like audience segmentation, the use of push notifications, and more will allow you to target potential customers with offers or incentives. And your website visitors will stay longer on your website - at least until they buy from you and create revenue.