Retail is all about selling products, so it is vital to selling as many as possible that businesses do not ignore their loyal customers. To sell a product just once does not sustain a business, it requires customers to return to it regularly. For a consumer to think of that business as their go-to provider of a product they must feel that the business is engaging them in their product and doing all it can to provide the best possible after service. They have to be given no reason to look elsewhere. This is about keeping a customer attracted to a particular business and the products they offer. One way to do this is to create a retail loyalty platform.
So, why create a retail loyalty platform? Well, this article will look at just how important customer loyalty is to retail.
Competitive Market
If a customer’s product is sold by lots of other companies then that company must compete against all those other companies for the business. It is more important than ever to have customer loyalty in these instances. Once you start to lose customers to the competition it can be hard to get that business back again. You have to work twice as hard to attract it back again. So, the best way is to attract that business in the first instance and then to keep it for as long as you can with repeat business. This can be achieved through retail loyalty platforms and retail marketing automation. It makes good business sense to send specially targeted offers and reminders out to customers and keep your loyal customer base interested through automatically triggered emails.
The Expense of Obtaining New Business
It is more cost-effective to retain existing business than to seek out new business. Of course, we will want to do both but will hope that a lot of our business comes in because of our previous good service. A business does then, in lean times, not have to spend so much money on advertising when there is repeat business to sustain it through a period when cash flow is an issue.
Growing a Business
If a business is to grow beyond a start-up company then it has to build on the fact it has a loyal customer base and will grow by attracting new customers to add to it. If a business is contantly seeking new customers only then they are effectively not making any progress at all, because for every customer they gain they have lost an existing one. It is for this reason that a company should take care of its existing customers. We see how in many sectors there is a greater discount offered to new customers than as a loyalty discount. This is something we should take care to strike a balance with not to deter existing customers from staying with us, as much effort has gone into attracting them to our company in the first place. So, the same effort must be made in retaining existing customers as gaining new ones.
In summary, customer loyalty is important for a retailer because markets are competitive and there are so many options for consumers to choose from. Obtaining new business can be expensive so it pays to retain as many existing customers as possible. Once you have located your customer, it is cheaper to contact them as this can then be by email. To grow a business it is necessary to retain and accumulate, so it is a case of keeping existing customers engaged at the same time as attracting new ones. This balancing act is how a company can improve its productivity and grow amongst the competition. Selling similar products means greater competition and it is through customer loyalty a company can help combat that competition. So, this is where retail loyalty platforms become an invaluable option when trading or advertising one’s products or services online.