Article

4 Ways to Maximize the Post-Purchase Journey for Ecommerce Brands

Tips for Building a Great Post-Purchase Journey

      1. Ask for Reviews: Harnessing the Power of Social           Proof

The post-purchase stage is a peak moment of engagement in the buying journey. This means that after a customer gets their purchase delivered and has had time to experience your product, it’s the perfect time for brands to encourage customers to share their feedback and experiences through reviews. Indeed, as consumers’ trust in brands grows increasingly dependent on what other customers say, it's imperative that you take advantage of this key stage to collect more reviews. Reviews not only enhance credibility and authenticity, but they can also generate valuable user-generated content (UGC) like photos and videos. This, in turn, acts as vital social proof and helps shoppers make more confident purchasing decisions.

Implementing a review management platform and sending automated review requests can help streamline the review collection process. For example, a good review management platform enables you to strategically send automated and personalized SMS and email review requests at the right time. In addition, they empower you to fully maximize the impact that reviews can have on the long-term success of a brand, like scaling your ability to collect high-quality ecommerce reviews, customizing and optimizing review displays to match your brand’s look and feel, and seamlessly connecting with major platforms for increased visibility. 

By actively gathering and leveraging reviews at the post-purchase stage, ecommerce brands can boost their online reputation, increase conversions, and attract new customers.

    2. Post-Purchase Surveys: Gaining Valuable Insights           and Improving Experiences

Similarly, brands can enhance engagement at the post-purchase stage of the customer journey by soliciting feedback through post-purchase surveys — surveys that allow brands to collect deeper insights about customers after they purchase a product. These quick, seamless, and highly-relevant surveys can cover various aspects, such as:

  • Marketing attribution: These surveys help you to pinpoint which channels are driving results. No marketing team wants to burn resources on efforts that aren’t performing, which is why “How Did You Hear About Us?” surveys are so effective. They allow teams to collect continuous streams of accurate and actionable marketing attribution insights sourced directly from customers.
  • Customer profile completion: Post-purchase surveys also help brands enrich customer profiles with zero-party data, including identity, demographic, preference, behavior, and intent data. Having access to this type of data helps you to further personalize the customer experience and deliver more contextual communications to shoppers, leading to stronger relationships with customers. 
  • Customer satisfaction: These surveys measure your shoppers’ satisfaction levels using best-in-class frameworks such as NPS®, CES, and CSAT. In this ultra-competitive landscape where CX is often a brand’s biggest differentiator, it’s vital to keep close tabs on customer satisfaction so you can  quickly make amendments if the quality of the experiences you offer consistently falls below consumers’ standards. 
  • Customer journey mapping: Surveys also help you understand pain points and areas for improvement in the customer journey. For example, by using surveys to monitor and measure CX, you can identify – and subsequently close – any gaps in your buyer’s journey. Indeed, surveys not only build your understanding of where in your customer’s journey you’re meeting their needs or exceeding their expectations, it also alerts you when you’re doing the opposite.

     3. Personalize Offers and Build Retention Campaigns:          Strengthening Customer Relationships

Personalization is a key driver of customer loyalty and retention. By segmenting customers based on their preferences, purchase history, and behavior, ecommerce brands can create tailored offers and retention campaigns. 

Your goal should always be to make customers feel valued and appreciated, and fostering stronger relationships will increase the likelihood of repeat purchases. Optimizing the post-purchase journey for each unique customer journey through things like personalized product recommendations and customized email & SMS communications allows brands to take their marketing to deliver a more engaging experience. And with the right tools this is easier than ever to do.

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Tools like Pantastic’s LimeSpot can take personalization to the next level by identifying  customer segments based on various attributes and automatically delivering product recommendations based on the store’s goals.  This helps brands to easily offer product suggestions, upsells, cross-sells, and post-purchase offers, and optimize the entire shopping experience. And best of all it will lead to bottom-line benefits — something BeautifiedYou.com saw firsthand when they used LimeSpot to personalize offers and product recommendations which led to an 32% increase in average order volume (AOV).

     4. Incorporate Referral Marketing: Amplifying          Advocacy and Encouraging Growth

Referral marketing can be a powerful tool for brands to fuel their growth. By encouraging existing customers to refer their friends, family, or colleagues to the brand, companies can tap into the trust and influence of their satisfied customers. Positive word-of-mouth referrals have a significant impact on consumer behavior, as people tend to trust recommendations from people they know. Referral marketing leverages this trust, incentivizing customers with rewards, discounts, or exclusive benefits for successful referrals. 

In fact, according to Okendo research on retention and loyalty, 70% of customers say they would be more likely to refer a brand if they received an incentive. This not only leads to new customer acquisitions but also helps build a community of loyal brand advocates who actively promote the brand. As a cost-effective strategy, referral marketing can generate high-quality leads, increase brand visibility, and drive sustainable growth for businesses. 

    Building Stronger Communities Post-Purchase

The post-purchase journey is a valuable opportunity for ecommerce brands to deepen customer relationships, gain loyalty, and attract new customers. By implementing the four strategies mentioned above – asking for reviews, leveraging post-purchase surveys, personalizing offers and retention campaigns, and incorporating referral marketing – brands can maximize the potential of this crucial phase. 

Building a positive post-purchase experience not only ensures customer satisfaction but also contributes to long-term success in an increasingly competitive landscape. Remember, investing in the post-purchase journey is an investment in customer loyalty and advocacy, ultimately leading to sustainable growth and increased return on marketing budgets.

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About Okendo 

Turn customers into superfans with Okendo. Our unified platform for reviews, referrals, loyalty, quizzes and surveys, make it easy to cultivate advocacy, scale word-of-mouth and maximize lifetime value. 8,000+ Shopify brands use Okendo to mobilize their customers for faster and more efficient growth, including SKIMS, Netflix and Oh Polly.

Author

Megan Wenzl 

Megan is the Content Marketing Manager at Okendo. She enjoys creating useful, informative stories to help brands succeed. When not working on content, she’s spending time with family or thinking about her next adventure. 

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