Encourage Repeat Purchases in Shopify

E-commerce experienced explosive growth this year. On Cyber Monday alone, sales increased by 75% compared to 2019.

Now, as brands transition to platforms like Shopify, many businesses are receiving their first online orders.

However, it’s not just about acquiring new buyers. In fact, Shopify recently reported that 80% of their merchants’ profits come from returning customers.
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Why returning customers are so important

In November and December, merchants see a surge in sales from new buyers.
As the holiday season winds down, the number of new buyers starts to decrease.
That’s where your opportunity lies.
This is the time to focus on promoting your product to your existing customers.

These customers are extremely valuable because, compared to new buyers, they are:

• 9x more likely to convert
• Order 3x the average order value
• 20% more profitable
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Customer win-back emails

If you’ve ever made an online purchase, you’ve probably received a customer win-back email (or 67). Really, just search your inbox for ‘we miss you’ or ‘come back’. I bet you’ll find at least one.

Customer win-back emails are meant to bring your customer back to your store. Setting them up is easy, and they are sent automatically once they are enabled.

First, design your email.
The goal is to remind a customer that they have purchased from you (people are busy) and convince them to buy from you again (new recipe, discount, their favorite influencer uses the product, etc.).

Here are some designs we like: This one from Recess. 

Or Drop:

And, finally, Magic Spoon.

Next, choose how many days should pass after an order has been placed or fulfilled before these emails are sent.

This varies by product type, but for most customers, the sweet spot is 30-45 days.
We recommend triggering it based on fulfillment, so your customer has time to receive and try the product.

And the last step is to turn on the emails!
The best part about this setup is that once these emails are live, you can see exactly how much revenue they are generating for you.
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Purchase follow-up emails

These are the emails sent as soon as you buy something. Often, they are only used to send you a receipt or confirm your order.

A missed opportunity, because these emails can do so much more. Customers use Purchase Follow-Up emails to:

1. Cross-sell their catalog
2. Grow their social media following
3. Encourage referrals

In this example, CurlMix invites customers to join their Facebook group, where other customers discuss their products and share styling tips.

Homes by Hand offers a discount code that customers can use for repeat purchases or send to a friend.

They even set the code to expire within 7 days to increase urgency.

Just like customer win-back emails, these emails are sent automatically.
You can even trigger them based on the number of orders, product type, or how much a customer has spent.