The time between when a customer buys a product and when it arrives at their door is one of the most important times in the relationship between the company and the customer. That time is filled with anticipation, hope, and trust. Remember the old adage: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” If your new customer’s first impression after buying your product is a screen with a short “thank you” and a shipping status link to carriers such as FedEx, UPS, USPS or any other they are likely to think they won’t hear from you again—that is, until you need their money from another sale. Don’t let that time go to waste. Own the post-purchase experience and show your customer how valuable their business is to you. According to a 2017 survey by the CMO Council: “…60 % of 2,000 North American homeowners rated the post-purchase experience with manufacturers as underwhelming or poor. Most were also disappointed with service and support from retailers and e-commerce sites.” That is a lot of bad first impressions.

According to Smart Insights, e-commerce brands spend up to 81% of their budget on SEO & PPC combined. You will expend resources on customer acquisition for the same customer if you don’t have a plan for customer retention. It is 5-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one; and likely more expensive to get that customer back if they’ve had a negative experience. Don’t throw your acquisition efforts away after the sale. Once you convince a customer to buy your product, you want that relationship to grow.

Here’s what you can do to improve the post purchase experience:

• Immediately thank the customer for their business
• Give the customer an accurate date of arrival (not just “label created”)
• Include a map showing where the product is shipping from in relation to their delivery address
• Show them additional available items of potential interest, like a belt matching the new shoes
• Style your confirmation page look and content to match your website and strengthen your branding
• Personalize the experience by using the customer’s name

WISMOlabs can help you own the post purchase experience with an easy-to-use and customizable tracking platform that provides a post-purchase experience unlike any other in the market. Different from the delivery companies’ generic tracking pages, it looks just like your website and gives your customer all of the information they need. You can add your own banner ads for cross-promotion and personalize the content with the customer’s information. Most importantly, the predictive tracking tool is fully customizable and allows you to accurately predict the delivery dates better than other methods. No more “label created” messages – every shipment has an expected date of arrival from the confirmation page forward. The information you provide on the tracking platform puts the customer’s mind at ease and prevents unnecessary “where is my order” calls to your customer service staff.

Using this platform, WISMOlabs Customers have been able to:

• Generate additional 20-30X ROI in repeat sales
• Improve long-term repeat sales conversion rates by 70% in 120 days
•  Improve customer lifetime value by 100% or more
• Save $250,000 annually in cost and support
• Reduce order status inquiries by 90% in 30 days

You’ve spent a lot of your capital capturing leads, nurturing their attention, and converting them to paying customers. Now make sure to continue the relationship after the sale and keep them coming back again and again. Watch our video and learn how you can improve the post-purchase experience.