Customer experience is at the heart of every retail brand promise, but with luxury ecommerce brands, the experience for shoppers must be unique and memorable. As such, it should come as no surprise that these same shoppers have that expectation for their online experience.
It has become more apparent that luxury ecommerce brands can’t rely on the exclusivity of a shopper visiting their store. And, while in-store shopping continues to recover, Forrester data shows that adults in the United States who are shopping online for luxury products spent more ($1,814) compared to those who shopped in-store ($1,187). So, if you are not putting more energy into your customer’s end-to-end online purchasing experience, this is your sign to do so.
Evaluate Your Post-Purchase Experience
A good place to start is by looking at your current . The post-purchase experience refers to the activities that take place after a customer buys something from your store. This includes everything from the order confirmation to opening their package. This is an overlooked and important part of your customer journey. Yes, your customer journey does not stop at the point of sale! In fact, view it as the most emotional part of any shopping experience.
How you treat your customer after a sale serves as a big differentiator and luxury customers have high expectations of digital experiences, features, and functionality. This is your chance to stand out, build brand loyalty, and reduce customer support tickets by elevating and streamlining your post-purchase experience.
A Luxury Experience After the Purchase
Whether you are currently using a post-purchase software or thinking about implementing one, there are steps you can take to ensure your brand gives every customer VIP treatment. These include:
1. Mapping your customer journey
To ensure your customer has a seamless experience across multiple brand touchpoints and interactions, you need to understand what happens in the backend after a customer completes the checkout process. You will need to know answers to questions like:
- Where does the order information go once a purchase is confirmed?
- How long does it take to pick, pack, and ship an item?
- Which carrier is assigned to which orders?
When you answer these questions, you can determine the type of communication you want to send to your customers. From there, you can design an easy-to-navigate order page that will be informational to the customer and increase conversions.
2. Branding the post-purchase experience
For luxury e-commerce brands especially, it is important that every touchpoint you have with your customer aligns with your overall brand identity. To keep your post-purchase experience on brand, you should make sure:
- Your communication is consistent with your messaging pre-purchase marketing.
- Ensure all touchpoints follow the brand’s look and feel.
- If possible, host from your own website rather than relying on a third party to provide shipping updates. This opens up more opportunities for additional brand interactions and sales since you are driving customers back to your website.
3. Identifying any trends and finding areas of improvement
To further elevate your post-purchase experience and your brand’s reputation, you should have insights into post-purchase analyses and logistics reporting so your brand can continuously improve. Here are some metrics that can provide direction on any trends or growth opportunities:
- Email open rates and click-through rates
- Website Traffic
- Logistics performance
- Customer support tickets
- Customer retention and repeat purchases
- Return and exchange rates
- Qualitative customer feedback
Innovate to Stay Ahead of the Game
Offer Advanced Omnichannel Services
According to , the top-scoring brands offered advanced omnichannel services. This can include making sure customers can easily access their order information no matter where they are. On the other hand, brands should make sure shoppers can get the customer support they need through a preferred channel.
Some shoppers may not want to make a phone call to resolve an issue. By implementing a live chatbot, providing an email, or an online knowledge base, you broaden the options for your customer. This way, you provide them with the luxury of convenience that they may expect from your brand’s reputation especially when they have made or will make a big purchase.
Build a Strong Digital Presence
Another top-scoring differentiator Forrester mentioned was a digital presence. The luxury brands mentioned in the report all had very strong social media presence that focuses on high-quality content, storytelling, and emotional engagement.
Encourage your shoppers to tag your brand in social media posts when they receive their order or repost their content. Linking your social media accounts in is a great way to boost engagement and build brand loyalty.
Luxury Brands are Seeing Results of a Tailored Post-Purchase Experience
Fashionette Personalizes for Better Conversions
Fashionette is committed to delivering memorable, valuable experiences for its customers. To do so, they send automated and personalized shipping messages straight to their shopper’s inboxes. These emails contain relevant product recommendations to drive repeat purchases. In addition, this brand has an embedded tracking page that lets customers see their orders in near real-time and keeps them in their ecosystem.
By paying closer attention to their shopper’s post-purchase experience, Fashionette was able to drive 75% of its customers back to its website and they increased their revenue by 45%.
FARFETCH Boosts Customer Satisfaction
Another shining example of a brand that has reported a significant increase in customer satisfaction is . Their complex supply chain made it quite challenging to deliver a consistent post-purchase experience.
Through partnering with parcelLab, FARFETCH was able to consolidate multiple orders and tracking links to the same communication and tracking page. The teams collaborated on designing a communication workflow that ensures each touchpoint is fully customizable, personalized, and sent from FARFETCH’s ecosystem.
They now have control of the end-to-end experience as well as access to valuable data that allows them the opportunity to connect more with their customers.
Elevate Your Post-Purchase Experience with parcelLab
Interested in learning more about how parcelLab can take your brand’s post-purchase experience to the next level? Contact us today!
FAQ
A post-purchase platform is a technology solution designed to help online brands optimize their post-purchase experiences. These solutions usually offer a range of tools and features that allow businesses to engage with their customers after a purchase, such as email automation, order tracking, customer feedback management, and loyalty program management.
Post-purchase platforms can also provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences to inform future marketing and sales strategies.
As such, the best way to implement the tips above is to use a post-purchase platform. Doing so can streamline your processes, improve customer satisfaction, and drive more repeat business.
The post-purchase stage is a critical component of the customer journey, as it can significantly impact customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. It’s the most emotional phase of the shopping journey and can often make or break your customers’ decision to buy from you again.
The post-purchase stage also gives you opportunities to:
- Gather feedback
- Upsell and cross-sell customers
- Reinforce your brand story and values
- Drive customer loyalty and retention
You can measure customer satisfaction post-purchase by conducting surveys, collecting Net Promoter Score (NPS) data, and monitoring customer reviews. Whichever method you decide to use, know that tracking customer satisfaction during this stage is critical, as it helps you surface areas for improvement.
The primary roles of loyalty programs are to increase customer loyalty and drive repeat purchases. When implemented successfully, loyalty programs enable you to:
- Encourage shoppers to come back
- Promote a sense of loyalty and connection to your brand
- Boost customer lifetime value
- Drive customer referrals
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