There are a lot of parts to the shopping process. Exploring the options, comparing and shortlisting them are the interesting parts because customers are driven to get the best for them. Finalizing the cart, applying promo codes and making the purchase are relatively boring parts.
As a WooCommerce store owner, you must be always pondering as to how to increase traffic and sales. But a more important and specific question can be,
‘How can I retain more customers?’
One of the better ways to do this is to make the boring part of the shopping process less boring. Simplifying the UI/UX and upgrading it with the latest design trends, or your best bet yet…
Making it easy for your customers to make repeat purchases
We can all relate to using food ordering mobile apps, right? After ordering food for 3-4 times, we quickly tend to find our comfort zone, and then we keep repeating the stuff we like, with some space for experimentation (reminding ourselves that free will exists, right?).
The makers of these apps are clever enough to bank on this. They quickly introduced the ‘previously ordered’ section at the top of each restaurant’s page. Now, all we have to do is alter the quantity of these orders if we want to and boom! — in a single click, the order is in the cart. If you have payment details saved, it doesn’t take more than a minute to order food.
This idea is becoming synonymous with e-commerce in general, with similar examples available on online marketplaces like Amazon, OYO Rooms, eBay, etc.
Applying the idea to your WooCommerce Store
The same concept can be applied to your WooCommerce store. Let’s say a customer (who is a business person himself) arrives at your Woo Store. To know more about the product you offer, the customer asks some questions and requests for a price quotation. This can, of course, be possible through an ‘enquiry’ plugin.
After you respond to the customer with an appropriate quotation (keeping in mind the B2B nature of the deal), the customer checks out and completes the purchase.
Now, let’s say that he or she is looking to buy again the same product(s) (which can be frequent for a business person) from your store again.
Now, here is an opportunity to convert your repeat purchaser into a loyalist.
Wouldn’t it be extremely convenient if you could allow this customer to simply repeat the previous order (at the same price, for the same quantity)?
Simplifying the buying process
Using the option to repeat previous orders, your customer will be able to quickly complete the purchase with just a few clicks – just like we all like to repeat our food orders while ordering online. The customer won’t have to take the long route of proceeding with a quotation request and so forth…
Here’s a simple idea that can help you:
- shorten the buying process,
- improve customer experience,
- increase the number of purchases, and
- build customer loyalty
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One of the better plugins for the job is WISDM Product Enquiry Pro that not only allows you to add an ‘Enquiry’ or ‘Request a Quote’ button to your WooCommerce store and can be easily customized to allow your customers to make repeat purchases for the previous order buying data (price, quantity, and the product).
Grow your WooCommerce Store by retaining more customers
Once a customer has made a purchase, the shopping experience and post-sales experience (support, future communication) determines if the customer will come back to purchase again, thereby increasing chances of getting the customer converted into a loyalist or an advocate.
You should be focussing on putting more customers in the ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Advocacy’ phases of the customer lifecycle (easier done than said!). The real value thus starts with customer retention. It’s better to retain customers and push them up in the cycle instead of losing a customer and focusing on creating more leads.
Using techniques like easy repeat purchases for customers, you can create a smoother buying process on your WooCommerce store. The more comfortable your customers are with your brand and the website experience, greater are the chances of making them loyalists.
Making customers loyalists is not overnight work. However, you can start with easing the buying process for your customers by introducing simplified repeat purchases using a suitable enquiry plugin.