26 Brilliant Ways To Boost eCommerce Repeat Sales

According to Bain, a 5% increase in repeat sales can boost profits by up to 75%.

No kidding.

Returning customers spend more money, buy more often and can be counted on to sing your praises, and refer their friends and family to your eCommerce store.

We recommend putting dedicated effort into encouraging your shoppers to keep coming back.

In this post, we will take you through some low-effort, high-reward strategies to boost your repeat sales.

Let’s go!

1. Offer discounts on the next order to boost repeat purchases

2. Add ‘what’s new’ in the nav bar

3. Create enticing loyalty programs

4. Incentivize customer feedback

5. Drive repeat orders through personalized product recommendations

6. Feature happy customers on social media

7. Treat your shoppers on special occasions

8. Go the extra mile to delight your customers

9. Add *something extra* to the shopping bag – for free

10. Give *early access* to increase repeat sales

11. Offer subscription services

12. Save information and enable autofill

13. Be very efficient with customer support

14. Nudge customers to replenish their stock

15. Gamify to maximize repeat orders

16. Send special coupons to churned customers

17. *Show* your products – outside the website as well

18. Drive FOMO through flash sales

19. Add a ‘Reorder’ feature

20. Include all popular payment methods

21. Send newsletters – stay connected

22. Let them know when an offer is expiring

23. Keep updating the first fold of your homepage

24. Harness the power of gift cards

25. Encourage shoppers to download your app

26. Connect users to your brand through a community

26 excellent hacks to increase repeat sales for your eCommerce site

1. Offer discounts on the next order to boost repeat purchases

Even if your shoppers loved the first product they bought from you, it is never a bad idea to incentivize them to buy from you again – gotta make them cozy with your online store.

Although we are primarily talking about discounts here, there are various other deals that you can offer – free gifts, BOGO offers, cashback, etc.

Make sure to let your customers know about this offer:

• Mention this on the order confirmation page
• Send the coupon code/offer along with the order confirmation email
• Let the customer know about the offer in the follow-up sequence – after 2-4 weeks of purchase
• Add a physical coupon with the product

Pro tip: You can also make it a limited-time offer. Send emails and SMSes informing about the expiry of the offer. It will further push customers to make a repeat purchase.

2. Add ‘what’s new’ in the nav bar

For shoppers to keep coming back – build excitement for your products.

Constantly update your catalog – add new items so they don’t get bored looking at the same old items.

AND make it super easy for them to find these new products.

Add a ‘What’s new’ link in your navigation bar – the products in this category should be updated at a regular frequency.

You can add trending items, seasonal products or just about anything your shoppers might prefer.

Everlane has added ‘New Arrivals’ as the very first link in their navigation bar making it easy for shoppers to look at fresh products – helping them generate repeat orders.

3. Create enticing loyalty programs

This is by far the most effective way to increase repeat sales.

Loyalty programs enforce an endowment progress effect on your shoppers – what it essentially means is that if someone has made some progress towards a goal, they are likely to move further in that direction.

Basically, if you give your customers some loyalty points, they will come back for more unless they derive some benefit out of them – and by then you will already have formed a habit for them to buy from you.

Reward your shoppers with points for:

• Buying from you
• Creating an account on your website
• Following you on social media
• Referring a friend
• Writing a review etc.

This will not only get your customers excited about the rising points in their account but it will also help you stay in touch with them to drive repeat sales.

Let’s look at Olly’s loyalty program – they have designed it to really get shoppers to engage with them – resulting in repeat orders.

4. Incentivize customer feedback

Being cared for is always a great feeling – and that’s what feedback makes your shoppers feel – like they have a say in your business – like they matter.

Hence, getting feedback not only helps you gain customer insights but also roots your shoppers more strongly to your brand.

You can take feedback about the shopping experience, products, complaint resolution etc.

Ask for feedback by:

• Sharing the feedback link in the ‘thank you’ email

• Asking for feedback in the delivery confirmation email
• Giving loyalty points in return
• Unlocking a free gift with the next order on providing feedback
• Giving a Likert scale right after complaint/query resolution

Pro tip: After the feedback is given, do flash a message thanking the customer and letting them know that your team will review the feedback and make necessary changes – this will bring them back to your website again for repeat purchases.

5. Drive repeat orders through personalized product recommendations

There are a lot of conversations about personalization and we know that it isn’t always easy to implement it – this is where good tech comes into picture.

Make use of AI powered tools that analyze shoppers’ behavior, engagement, interactions, buying patterns, previous transactions, shopping preferences, trends, and more – and suggest very specific products that are highly likely to catch the attention of your potential customers.

A few personalization ideas to boost repeat orders are:

• Suggest products based on browsing history in emails
• Show bestsellers and trending products on the homepage
• Share products similar to the abandoned cart products in emails
• Display frequently bought together products on the cart page
• Send back-in-stock products – products which shoppers looked at but weren’t in stock – add them to emails, SMS or Whatsapp campaigns

Also read: eCommerce marketing automation: 9 underrated ideas

6. Feature happy customers on social media

This is such a great tactic – it kills three birds with one stone. Let’s us tell you how:

• It makes your happy customers excited about your brand – they feel like a part of your brand’s journey – driving repeat sales
• It acts as social proof – convinces potential customers to try out your products first time and again
• It gives you a ton of good UGC for your brand

Facilitate this by:

• Constantly sharing tagged pictures on your social media
• Replying to comments and interacting with customers
• Encouraging them to tag you – on your digital communication and packaging
• Share this UGC on your website homepage as well

Thera Box features their happy customers’ posts along with the captions on their homepage – an insanely effective way to encourage website visitors to make a repeat purchase.

7. Treat your shoppers on special occasions

Birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions are when shoppers plan to spend – and if you show up with a coupon or an offer – chances that they will choose you to go through the roof.

Create an offer – a gift card, percentage discount, free goodies, flat discounts or BOGO deals – and share it with your customers 2-3 weeks prior to the occasion.

Share it with them on emails and SMS and encourage repeat purchases.

8. Go the extra mile to delight your customers

In a world where businesses are standardizing processes to save cost and time, a little effort in personalizing experiences goes a long way – more than you can imagine.

Personalization efforts can really U-turn the emotions of your shoppers – deepening the bond with your customers – impacting your repeat orders. Activities can range from handwritten notes along with the products to surprise gifts on birthdays and anniversaries.

9. Add *something extra* to the shopping bag – for free

When your shoppers know that they might get something extra from you – they immediately perceive the value of their cart higher – which pulls them back to your store to place repeat orders.

Delight them by adding the free gift directly into their cart – could be a product or a sample.

For products, you can also consider adding a threshold to unlock the gift.

10. Give *early access* to increase repeat sales

Who doesn’t fancy skipping the queue and getting priority access to their favorite products? – Great lure for your shoppers to place repeat orders.

By providing early access, your shoppers receive the privilege of being among the first to discover and purchase new offerings before the general public – creating a sense of exclusivity and anticipation.

To implement early access effectively, consider creating a VIP or loyalty program that grants members exclusive benefits, such as sneak peeks of upcoming collections, pre-order opportunities, or access to limited-edition releases.

Promote early access through targeted email campaigns, SMSes and personalized notifications.

11. Offer subscription services

Get your shoppers to commit and you won’t have to worry about “getting” them back again. Just give a great service and you are good to go.

For this create a subscription service – refill their stock at a fixed frequency.

Additionally,

• Let shoppers skip orders
• Let them swap products
• Remove friction from adding one-off products
• Offer multiple plans and tiered pricing
• Offer a trial or a freemium model

Pro tip: Offer subscriptions on essential items – at a discounted rate. For example: moisturizers, t-shirts, notebooks etc.  

12. Save information and enable autofill

Filling the billing and shipping details over and over again is beyond frustrating – save this information for your customers and autofill it every time they make a purchase.

This tiny hack will be instrumental in getting repeat sales for your business.

Also read: Nailing eCommerce Shopping Cart Optimization: 50 Brilliant Strategies

13. Be very efficient with customer support

While onsite support is crucial to drive sales, repeat sales are driven by post-sales service.

When a customer is not getting the delivery within time, if the product is damaged or of unsatisfactory quality, or if the product needs to be replaced for any reason – how easy and fast is it for the shoppers to reach out to you and get their concerns resolved – is key.

Few ideas to consider:

• Add your support email and contact number clearly in the footer of your website
• Be available – don’t take more than a couple of hours to get back to your shoppers
• Have a human respond to queries – he/she should be able to handhold the customers through replacement, returns and refund policies

14. Nudge customers to replenish their stock

Did you know that replenishment emails convert more than any other type of email?

Must go after it.

First, figure out the frequency.

You can get a decent estimate of this by adding up the total number of purchases made during a given time period, and then dividing it by the number of unique customers who bought during that period.

For businesses with a single type of product, a top-level figure will do just fine. Toothpaste, for example—it’s reasonable to assume there’ll be no great variance in purchase frequencies from one product to another.

But if you carry multiple different product lines, it makes sense to calculate the average purchase frequency for each category.

Now, subject lines – clarity is killer.

Few examples are:

• Time to stock up?
• Running low on [product name]?
• It’s time to buy [product name] again

Coming to the messaging – keep it simple.

• Remind customers that it’s time to buy again
• Showcase the products they bought last time
• Give them an easy path to conversion

Check how Violet Grey keeps it super neat on their replenishment emails to increase repeat orders.

15. Gamify to maximize repeat orders

Imagine these two scenarios – getting a 15% off written on a banner as opposed to spinning a wheel and winning a 15% discount.

The second one is definitely more enticing, isn’t it?

Gamification on your website can take shopping experiences to a whole new level – and the more the shoppers enjoy buying from you, the more they will come back and repeat the purchase.

You can include the following in your entry popups:

• Spin-the-wheel
• Pich a gift
• Scratch the card
• Memory match challenge
• Lotteries
• Pick a card

Also read: 15 Brilliant (Non-Intrusive) Mobile Pop-up Examples In eCommerce

16. Send special coupons to churned customers

Sometimes, some of your shoppers wander away to other websites – and that is bound to happen but the good news is that you can bring some of them back for repeat orders– by incentivizing them.

Enable special offers only to those who haven’t interacted with you in a while.

Send personalized emails and ask them to shop from you.

17. *Show* your products – outside the website as well

We have extensively spoken about sending emails. There are strategies about subject lines, messaging, CTAs etc. but let’s not forget that it is ultimately the product that the shoppers are going to buy – and these products are your heroes – and they drive repeat sales.

Your product display needs to be stellar.

Show your product in action – add images and gifs of your products in use. Give the viewers a feel of what it would be like if they bought the product for themselves.

You might also want to read: 24 Scientific Strategies to Increase your eCommerce Conversion Rate

18. Drive FOMO through flash sales

Flash sales can have thousands of shoppers check out your website in just a couple of minutes – and also place repeat orders. What we suggest is that if you have the inventory management capacity and shipping arrangements, go for it.

Few useful tips:

• Select items based on high-traffic or low-purchase volumes
• Flash-sell items only to segments that have expressed some interest in them in the past (visited product page, clicked on an ad, etc.)
• Hold a “secret” and ongoing sale for existing customers, promoted through abandoned-cart emails
• Hold the sale for a maximum of 36 hours
• Promote your sale early – share with your email and SMS list – create countdowns to build excitement

19. Add a ‘Reorder’ feature

If you are an essential items business or a certain routine beauty items website – basically have products that are bought repeatedly, consider this advice.

Add a ‘Past Purchases’ section and a reorder feature.

A list of previously ordered items not only allows users to efficiently find specific items to reorder but also serves to “jog their memory” – and add a couple of extra items that they might have missed.

To provide the quickest and most efficient path for repeat orders, the homepage should prominently feature “Past Purchases”, making it easy to reorder these items without the need to navigate or search.

20. Include all popular payment methods

You don’t want customers abandoning carts just because they don’t find the available payment methods convenient. Would be such a bummer!

Prioritize offering popular payment methods on your checkout page – major credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Also add digital wallet solutions like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Furthermore, considering alternative payment options like Klarna or Afterpay can appeal to customers who prefer flexible payment plans or installment options.

This really makes it very convenient for returning customers to make repeat purchases.

21. Send newsletters – stay connected

Newsletters are more than just sales pitches – they are high-value interactions that keep your audience engaged with your brand.

And,

More engagement = more repeat sales.

Some email newsletters best practices are:

• Check your email software and personalize as much as you can
• Ask a question in your subject line and preheader – it helps build interest
• Design your newsletters in an inverted pyramid shape – grab attention using brand imagery – then move down the pyramid – the writing builds anticipation – pointing to a final CTA

• Write off-beat copies on CTAs
• You can make them interactive using gamification
• Add UGC to your newsletters
• Consider adding emojis
• Don’t fear whitespace – it is good

22. Let them know when an offer is expiring

This advice is again capitalizing on FOMO – losing a good deal that they may not get again.

All you have to do is send an email informing shoppers that the deal is coming to an end. This could be:

• A sale
• Loyalty points expiring
• Coupons
• Early access items/events
• Seasonal promotions

When shoppers know that the deal is coming to an end – they impulse buy and repeat purchase.

23. Keep updating the first fold of your homepage

It’s just a matter of a couple of seconds in which your website visitors decide whether they want to stay and explore or bounce – and the deciding factor is usually the images on the first fold of your website.

If the shoppers feel that the items are the same old – it is likely that they wouldn’t want to explore further and would want to check out products on some websites.

We have already spoken about figuring out the frequency of purchases of your shoppers – once you have that – use it to update the images on your homepage routinely.

• Add products from different categories
• Show what’s trending
• Add seasonal products
• Display gift items during holidays and festivals
• Show any new additions, if you have

24. Harness the power of gift cards

Gift cards are essentially money that they can see but can’t use – these really push shoppers for repeat purchases – basically use that frozen money!

Once your shoppers reach a certain threshold of shopping – give them a gift card they can redeem on their next purchase.

Make sure you promote the gift cards on your product pages and cart page saying something like – “Shop for $X and get a gift card of $Y”.

25. Encourage shoppers to download your app

Having your mobile app on your customer’s phone is like setting up shop in their home.

You become their go-to shop, there is easy order placement and easy checkout and you can get in touch with them – literally anytime – through push notifications.

You must ask your shoppers to download your app – this will make it really easy for shoppers to place repeat orders.

Some of the more economical methods to do this are:

• Add exclusive deals on products – on the app only – advertise this on one section of your homepage

• Add a sticky footer for mobile shoppers – saying ‘It is easier on the app’ and add a CTA to get the app
• Give a one-time cashback for shoppers who shop on the app – run a campaign promoting this offer – through emails and SMS
• Promote the app-only offers on your product’s packaging – add a QR code linked to your app’s download page
• Integrate your website’s wishlist to the app – prompt users to download the app and access their wishlist on the go
• Promote your app on your social media handles

26. Connect users to your brand through a community

Stay in front of their eyes – be on top of their minds.

Your brand community does this without coming across as pushy or annoying.

The key to getting your community right is – not to treat it as a platform to serve your business but rather use it to serve the members in it.

Publish content that is valuable and what your members want to know – ask them for this.

Test different content formats and figure out the best ones based on feedback.

And most importantly, let everyone talk. Encourage dialogue and participation. When shoppers feel like they belong, they go for repeat orders.

If you have an app, we would highly recommend that you host your community on your app, otherwise, Facebook groups, Discord communities and slack channels are also some good options.

Make sure your shoppers know about your community – promote it on your website, mobile app, social media, email newsletters etc.

Let’s boost your conversion rate further

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Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem ConvertCart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who are repeat customers?

A repeat customer, or repeat buyer, is a customer who makes at least two purchases with the same company.

2. How do you calculate repeat sales?

Repeat sales can be calculated by dividing the number of returning customers by the total number of customers, and multiplying by 100 to convert to a percentage. This can be calculated based on a variety of time frames such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

3. What is a good repeat purchase rate in eCommerce?

Although benchmarks vary from company to company, most eCommerce businesses have 25-30% returning customers.

4. Are new customers better than repeat customers?

It's cheaper to retain a current customer than it is to attract a new one. Acquiring new customers costs five to 10 times more than selling to a current customer, and current customers spend 67 per cent more on average than those new to your business, according to BIA Advisory.

5. What is the difference between retention rate and repeat rate?

Customer retention rate answers the question: how many of your customers are you retaining over time? Customer repurchase rate answers the question: how many of your customers are making repeat purchases 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 more times

6. What does a high repeat purchase rate mean?

A high repeat purchase rate means a large percentage of shoppers are returning to your store to buy the same items.

7. What is an example of a repeat purchase?

Shampoo is an example of a repeat purchase. People might make their first purchase in January, then head back to the retailer’s online store to repurchase the same product in February, when their previous bottle has run empty.