E-commerce focuses on a simple yet effective thumb-rule,”…it is easier and comparatively cheaper to retain your existing customer than to acquire a new one…“. For a very long time, online businesses have been focussing on improving their customer retention. It is considered as the most effective way for creating brand awareness. Moreover, focusing on your existing and most probably satisfied customers, you are actually spending zero money on marketing. Hence, customer loyalty must be among the top priorities when it comes to online businesses. Keeping that in mind, in today’s article we will be discussing some of the best ways to help online business owners boost their customer loyalty starting from the moment the customers open their packages.
The first impression is surely the last impression. When it comes to online businesses, the customers don’t physically see the product that they are buying. It gives a great opportunity for the business owners to put efforts into making the first impression count. In this article, we will cover some interesting ways packaging inserts helps in creating a great first impression and in turn boost the revenue.
What are Packaging inserts..?
Traditionally, Packaging Insert is defined as the do with the packaging inserts. They can be used in the form of personalized notes, stuffed toys, festival greetings, etc. However, one of the best use store owners can put them to, is a way to publicize their products among masses. With the help of packaging inserts, online store owners have been able to increase the brand loyalty among the customers and increase the revenue in a long run.
Why Use Packaging Inserts..?
You might be wondering while handling a business, store owners might be taking some measures to ensure customer loyalty as well as the popularity of the store. Then why take the extra pain for one more thing. Well, the following points may force you to think twice.
- Comparatively Negligible Cost
Online business owners may spend a lot of money to maintain customer loyalty as well in publicising their store. It may include posting ads on Google or Facebook, etc. Though these things are necessary, it costs comparatively very high. Packaging inserts, on the other hand, cost very less and can deliver many times their cost. - Very Lightweight
Packing inserts are very lightweight as compared to the actual product. Sending product samples and gift-cards won’t be adding up to the package weight or space. In addition to this, store owners can get all the benefits of the marketing and customer retention. - More Targeted
Again, talking about other measures of marketing perform randomly over a huge customer base. However, packaging inserts are more targetted. Since you know which customers are coming back to your store, you can deliver a targetted effort for that volume of customers. - Best for getting rid of excessive products
Once bought, the cost of purchasing can only be balanced by selling the products. However, in case of excessive products, those can be converted to marketing expense. This way those products help to maintain a great customer relationship. - Great for Cross-Selling
One of the biggest advantages of packaging inserts is that it provides a free-of-cost marketing for all the products in the store. Since the customer has already bought one product, by including other recommended products in packaging inserts can increase the chances of the customer buying other products too.
Now, since we are clear about why online business owners should make use of packaging inserts, let’s see how the store owners can use these small things to make a huge difference in terms of revenue and customer loyalty.
Thank your customers
One of the best and the easiest way to please your customers is by simply being courteous. Sending a “Thank You” note would be the best way to let them know that it means a lot to the brand that the customers have chosen their product among so many others. Taking it to the next level, you can include a personalized hand-written note describing the contents of the package.
Discount Coupons – The Best Way to Promote Sales
How great would it be if the store from where you have bought a beautiful dress, sends you a 20% discount coupon inside the package..?
Exactly! Discount coupons in the form of packaging inserts can be a game changer when it comes to leaving a mark in the minds of the customers. Either way, online store owners provide discounts or special access to some limited edition products to their customers. The trick is to focus on your existing loyal customers and provide them an early insight into what your store is planning. Making the existing customers feel special is a direct way to tell them that when it comes to brand loyalty, the store also knows how to take care of their customers.
The Cheapest Marketing Strategy
The success of an online business, especially dropshipping, is driven by the success of its marketing strategy. One of the fastest and free-of-cost ways to increase brand awareness is with the help of Social Media. So how about using the packaging inserts to ask your customers to post their picture with the product on your store’s Facebook or Instagram page..? This will not only build up your brand value but will also attract other customers towards you. Moreover, in the modern-day scenario, the number of followers on the social media is in itself a dedicated factor that defines the success of a business.
Product Samples
This one provides a great opportunity for online store owners to create a market for their upcoming products. For example, if you are handling an online store which deals with makeup accessories or perfumes, it would be a great idea for you to provide sample products to your customers inside the package. Either way, dealing with such products, store owners may get extra sample products free-of-cost. By providing customers access to these samples may result in them opting for that product instead of the ones that they are currently using. The store owners can even ask for the feedback of the customers. This way they can be sure that whether the next line of products will be a success or not.
As a Cross-Selling Platform
How often you see the E-commerce websites providing suggestion based on your product search history..? Well, this thing proves to increase the sales of similar kind of products. Besides, providing store owners similar types of products as recommendations can also increase the time they spend on your website.
This was all about the pre-sale side of it. However, the same can be achieved post-sale too. Online store owners can use the packaging inserts as the way to provide recommendations based on the product that the customer has bought. Take the example of an online mobile store. On every purchase, the store owners can provide a packaging insert containing other accessories that the mobile phone supports. This can cause the customer to purchase one of the recommended products and hence contribute to cross-selling of products.
Free Gifts
This may be one of the oldest tricks in the book. However, customers still seem to be happy whenever they receive a free gift inside a package that they have bought. No matter the size or the quality of the gift, the fact that it wasn’t even expected makes a huge impact on the customers. Moreover, there are quite high chances that the customers may end up posting their experience with your store on social media. You never know when and what customers may publicise your services. So, it is always better to make use of every opportunity.
Summary…
In this article, we discussed packaging inserts and why they are one of the cheapest and effective ways to improve customer loyalty. This article covers some of the best and creative ways to use packaging inserts for amazing results. The modern-day idea of packaging inserts is about creating a great first impression for the customers. Moreover, using package inserts, online store owners have a great opportunity to focus on their existing satisfied customers. Online store owners can easily make the most out of these small things and can boost their business without any investment.
If you have any suggestions or queries regarding the content written in the article, feel free to share your views in the comment section below. This will give us the opportunity to improve the content of this article better. This way it can help more people understand the importance of the packaging inserts as well as its impact on the customers. In addition, you can check out our post regarding the best ways to provide shipping discounts, here.