From a retailers’ point of view, there has never been a better time to offer great pricing deals for your customers. A decade back, traditional retailers faced onslaught from the ecommerce retailers who could afford to cut down on their selling price owing to the lower costs incurred by them on holding inventory and distribution.
Today, the online retail market has itself matured so much that these businesses are not competing against traditional retailers but among themselves. Dynamic pricing tools like Wiser make it possible for online retailers to dynamically adjust the price of their products in such a way that they can always beat competition in a price-war.
Technology can be a double-edged sword. While dynamic pricing is an exciting way to acquire customers, it also makes it difficult for retailers to build a loyal clientele. Customers today have a wonderful array of choices when it comes to picking a website to shop from. There are always instances when you may not be able to sell some products below a price-point for the fear of selling at a loss. How can you build a loyal customer base for these products? The following strategies may help:
Train Customers To Look Beyond The Product Price:
Customers are likely to engage in price comparison only when you have the same product being sold at different prices by different retailers. The trick here is to offer customers additional value that cannot be measured in dollar terms. One of the most common ways to achieve this is by offering free support, insurance or product training to the customer, depending on the product category. This way, retailers can build a clientele that starts enjoying the additional perks of shopping at your website and therefore does not come to you for the price.
Setup A Data-Driven Newsletter Strategy:
Email newsletters are one of the most effective tools in engaging with your existing customers. Yet, a lot of retailers do not invest the time and resources in crafting the right newsletter strategy. A major chunk of online retailers continue to send generic mass-emailers to all their subscribers with the hope that a percentage of these recipients convert into buyers. This is despite the fact that data-driven newsletters have been proven to offer higher conversion rates.
Make Your Product More Affordable Than It Really Is:
Not everyone can afford to spend $999 on a new computer. You could make this purchase affordable by tying up with banks that offer EMIs on credit card purchases. This way, the customer who may have otherwise found a $999 purchase unaffordable could now make the payment over a six month period. Such tie-ups are a win-win for all parties involved – customers get their product at more affordable monthly price, banks win a new customer and the retailer gets to offer their product at a more affordable price. Such partnerships also motivate the customer to reach out to you for future purchases.
Customer loyalty is something that is borne out of the trust a customer places on a business. By walking the extra mile in terms of making the product and your engagement more personalized to your customer, you can ensure that these customers come back to you for future purchases. What are your thoughts?
