How to increase repeat purchases in ecommerce

00:00 Why Existing Customers Are a Revenue Growth Opportunity

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Listrak Spark session on how to increase revenue from the customers you already have. I'm Rob Burkholder, Enterprise Client Success Manager here at Listrak, and I'm joined by Ryan Ogurcak, Principal Client Success. Today, we're going to talk about why it's important to focus on generating more revenue from your existing customers, not just acquiring new subscribers and encouraging their first purchase, but driving that second, third, and future purchases.

New customer acquisition continues to be a major challenge for retailers, especially as acquisition costs rise. But there are meaningful growth opportunities within your existing customer base. As customers engage with your brand, you collect valuable data about what they've purchased, what they've browsed, and what they're interested in. That information can help you create more relevant experiences, improve engagement, and drive additional revenue.

Email volume is also at an all-time high, making it increasingly important to focus on smarter targeting rather than simply sending more messages. By understanding customer behavior, recency, lifecycle stage, and preferred communication channels, you can deliver messages at a cadence that makes sense for each customer.

There are three key strategies we'll focus on today: automation, personalization, and orchestration. Automation helps determine when to engage customers based on their behavior. Personalization ensures the right content reaches the right people. And orchestration helps deliver those messages through the channels where customers are most likely to engage. These strategies aren't meant to work independently. When combined, they create more opportunities to engage existing customers and drive revenue.

03:58 Automation: Trigger Journeys Based on Customer Behavior

Let's start with automation. You're probably already running several automated campaigns, such as shopping cart abandonment and welcome series. But one opportunity we think is underutilized, especially within Listrak's NextGen platform, is segment entry events. While a shopping cart abandonment journey is triggered by a single behavior, segment entry events allow you to combine multiple customer behaviors and attributes to trigger an automated journey.

For example, think about how you define your VIP customers. You might consider someone a VIP based on how many purchases they've made or how much they've spent. With segment entry events, you can automatically trigger a series of messages as soon as someone qualifies as a VIP. You can also use segment exit events to identify when a customer no longer meets those criteria and trigger a different message or journey to re-engage them.

Segment entry and exit events are incredibly flexible because they can use the customer data you already have available in Listrak. Rather than waiting for the next scheduled campaign, you can engage customers when their behavior, product interests, or lifecycle stage changes. This creates opportunities to deliver more timely, relevant messages based on customer intent and helps you get more value from your existing automated marketing programs.

06:00 Personalization: Use Predictive Analytics to Target Smarter

Our second strategy is personalization. This is probably something you're already doing, even if it's as simple as using product recommendations based on a customer's browsing or purchase history. But another opportunity we think is underutilized is Listrak's predictive analytics. This tool helps you identify and segment customers based on a range of behaviors and attributes, going beyond the criteria you might typically use to build an audience.

Predictive analytics can help identify subscribers who are most likely to open, click, or make a purchase. It can also provide insights into customer lifecycle stages, including who's active, who's at risk of churning, and what customers are predicted to spend in the future. These insights can help you improve your broadcast segmentation by identifying subscribers who show a strong likelihood of engaging, even if they fall outside your traditional definition of an active audience.

And it's not just about identifying who's most likely to buy. You can also use predictive analytics to recognize customers who may be at risk of unsubscribing or moving into a less engaged lifecycle stage. This allows you to focus your marketing efforts where there's the greatest opportunity, whether that's reaching someone when they're ready to purchase, re-engaging a customer before they churn, or reducing unnecessary message frequency.

The key is that these predictions are based on your own customer data, including how subscribers interact with your website and marketing messages. Rather than relying on guesswork, you can use these insights to make smarter decisions about who to target, when to engage them, and how to get more value from your existing subscriber base.

08:30 Orchestration: Coordinate Messaging Across Channels

Our third strategy is orchestration, which is really about coordinating your messaging across channels. Sometimes you'll see customers become less engaged with email, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're no longer interested in your brand. They may simply prefer engaging through another channel, like SMS. With orchestration, you can use customer behavior and engagement data to determine which channel makes the most sense for each message and subscriber.

For example, you might have customers who respond better to certain types of messages through email, while others are more likely to engage with SMS. Rather than sending the same message through both channels, you can use channel prioritization to determine which one is most appropriate. You can also coordinate messages in a sequence. Since email is generally less expensive, you might start there and follow up with an SMS if the customer doesn't engage. This allows you to be more intentional about how and when you're communicating with each customer.

Email and SMS are meant to complement one another, not compete. Email gives you the opportunity to tell a more detailed story, showcase products, and provide additional information. SMS is particularly effective for creating urgency and reaching customers when they're showing purchase intent. App push notifications can offer a combination of both for retailers with mobile apps, providing another way to engage customers at relevant moments.

It's also important to consider the cost of each channel. SMS can be highly effective, especially for time-sensitive messages, but it's typically more expensive than email. By understanding where customers are most likely to engage and using each channel strategically, you can create more relevant experiences while managing messaging costs. Ultimately, orchestration isn't just about driving more revenue from your existing customers. It's also about making your marketing investment more efficient.

10:41 RCS: A New Opportunity for Mobile Engagement

Now we have a bonus opportunity to share. We've covered three strategies you can start putting into action relatively quickly, but this next opportunity may require a little more planning. Once you've established a strong foundation with automation, personalization, and orchestration, RCS offers another way to create more engaging mobile experiences and drive additional revenue from your existing customers.

RCS is the next evolution of mobile messaging, building on traditional SMS with richer branding and interactive features. As more mobile devices support RCS, including iPhones, retailers have an opportunity to deliver a more recognizable and engaging messaging experience. For example, you could send the same promotional message announcing a sale or new product, but instead of appearing from a shortcode, it comes from a verified sender with your brand name and logo. You can also include clickable call-to-action buttons, making it easier for customers to engage directly with your message.

RCS combines the immediacy of SMS with enhanced branding, product imagery, interactive buttons, and additional merchandising opportunities, including product recommendations and carousels. Think about what we've learned from email marketing, where buttons often generate stronger engagement than text links because they make the next action more obvious. RCS brings that same opportunity to mobile messaging, and it's worth testing how these interactive elements influence customer engagement.

Early Listrak testing showed a 200% increase in revenue per send and a 58% increase in click-through rates compared to traditional SMS in scenarios where retailers used branded sender information and interactive buttons. These results demonstrate the potential of creating a richer mobile experience without necessarily changing the underlying promotional message. RCS is an exciting opportunity to build on your existing mobile strategy, improve engagement, and generate more revenue from customers you're already reaching.

13:58 Putting Automation, Personalization, and Orchestration Together

Now let's put everything together. As we've discussed, automation, personalization, and orchestration aren't meant to work independently. Think about a traditional broadcast approach where every subscriber receives the same email, with the same message, at the same time. Now imagine a more coordinated approach that uses customer data to determine who should receive a message, what content is most relevant, and which channel will be most effective.

For example, Listrak's predictive analytics could identify customers who are at risk of disengaging. Those customers could receive an email with personalized content based on their interests and behavior. If they don't engage or convert, you could follow up with an SMS, or RCS for eligible subscribers. Once someone makes a purchase, they can automatically enter a new journey designed to nurture that relationship, while being excluded from other messages that are no longer relevant. This creates a more connected experience that adapts to customer behavior rather than treating every subscriber the same way.

The difference is coordination. You're identifying opportunities based on customer signals, delivering more relevant content, following up through the appropriate channels, and adjusting the customer journey based on the results. And because these processes are automated, you can create these experiences without adding more manual work to your team's already full schedule.

When these strategies work together, you have more opportunities to improve engagement, increase conversions, and generate additional revenue from your existing customer base. RCS can help strengthen mobile engagement, automation can create timely opportunities for re-engagement, and predictive analytics can identify subscribers who are likely to purchase but may not be included in your current targeting. Orchestration brings those capabilities together so you're reaching customers more effectively while making better use of your marketing investment.

Ultimately, retention isn't just about preventing customers from leaving. It's also a growth strategy. Customer acquisition and first purchases are important, but there's significant opportunity in using the data you already have to encourage second, third, and future purchases. Whether you're focused on retention, reactivation, or increasing customer lifetime value, automation, personalization, and orchestration provide a framework for identifying and acting on the next revenue opportunity. We hope these ideas give you a few practical ways to get started. Thank you for joining us!