Why customer loyalty is profitable
Acquiring customers is getting more and more expensive: advertising costs rise and competition for every click increases. A customer who buys again doesn't cost another campaign, and tends to spend more and recommend more.
That's why at Webimpacto we see retention as a sales channel, not an extra. The goal is for a growing share of revenue to come from owned channels (email, app, loyalty programme) instead of depending on advertising alone.
The strategies that work
There's no ideal programme for every brand, but there is a foundation that works for almost all of them. These are the levers we use most, in their usual order of impact.
- Flawless after-sales: fast shipping, clear tracking and easy returns. Without this, nothing else works.
- Automated flows: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, replenishment and reactivation.
- Personalisation: recommendations based on what they bought and when, not the same email for everyone.
- Loyalty programme: points, tiers or a club with benefits the customer genuinely values.
- Subscription, for regularly consumed products.
- An app, when purchase frequency and volume justify it.
How to design a loyalty programme
The most common mistake is copying another brand's points programme. First you have to answer three questions: what makes your customer come back, how often they buy and which benefit they value most (price, exclusivity, service or experience).
A points programme works for brands with frequent purchases. A tiered one rewards the best customers with increasing benefits. A club, like the one we designed for Talkual, gives access to exclusive benefits and content. In every case, the benefit has to be understood in five seconds.
Email and app: the two owned channels
Email is still the owned channel with the highest return for most ecommerce businesses. At Carmela Shoes, by redesigning the flows and the acquisition strategy, email went from 6% to 14% of revenue in four months.
The app is the channel of the most loyal customers: they buy more often and with bigger baskets. At Bulevip, the app went from 4.8% to 13.4% of total revenue, and at Verdecora the average basket in the app is 24% higher than in other channels.
How to measure customer loyalty
What isn't measured in sales can't be defended in a board meeting. These are the indicators we review every month with the brands we work with.
- Repeat purchase rate: what percentage of customers buy more than once.
- Frequency and time between purchases.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV), by acquisition cohort.
- Share of owned channels (email, app, club) in revenue.
- Acquisition cost versus customer value.
Frequently asked questions
What is customer loyalty?
It's the set of actions that make a customer buy again and keep choosing the brand: good service, personalised communication, programmes with benefits and owned channels such as email or an app.
Which loyalty programme is best for an ecommerce business?
It depends on purchase frequency and what the customer values. Points work for frequent purchases; tiers, to reward your best customers; a club, when there's exclusive content or benefits to offer.
How do you measure whether loyalty is working?
With the repeat purchase rate, purchase frequency, customer value by cohort and the share of owned channels in revenue.
We’ll tell you what we would do in your case, no strings attached. A real person from the team replies.
Retention Manager at Webimpacto. Works with brands that sell online so their customers come back to buy again: apps, loyalty, conversion and repeat purchase measured in sales.