20 Powerful Ways To Reduce (And Prevent) eCommerce Churn

Most businesses tend to believe that high churn rates are either due to dissatisfactory products or poor customer service. While these do contribute to churn–but these are not it.

There are a bunch of reasons why your customers might choose a different store over yours. Some of the common reasons apart from the ones on top are:

Top reasons for customer churn in your eCommerce store

1. Lack of personalized experiences: Customers feel undervalued when products and services are not tailored to their preferences and needs.

2. Missing omnichannel support: Inconsistent or absent customer service across different channels.

3. No value outside the product: Failing to provide additional benefits, such as educational content or community engagement.

4. Not asking customers for feedback: Ignoring customer input and not paying attention to understanding and addressing user needs and concerns.

5. Absence of post-purchase processes: Not checking in or offering support after a sale can make customers feel forgotten.

6. Low perceived value of products: When customers believe the product does not justify the price—leading to dissatisfaction and churn.

7. Competitors with better offerings: Customers will jump ship if they find better value, quality, or service elsewhere.

8. Ineffective return policies: Complicated or unfair return policies can deter customers from making purchases.

9. Lack of engagement: Minimal interaction with customers.

In this article, we will dive deeper into the concept of churn rate in eCommerce stores and discuss some unfailing ways to reduce churn.

What is ‘churn rate’ in eCommerce

What is an acceptable churn rate in eCommerce?

8 sure-shot ways to bring back churned customers

12 effective ways to prevent customer churn

What is eCommerce churn rate?

eCommerce churn rate is the percentage of lost customers your business sees over a given period of time.

A simple formula to calculate it for your store:

What is an acceptable churn rate in eCommerce?

Your churn rate may vary depending on the industry you are working in.

​​The following are the average churn rates for eCommerce over a year-long span:

• Beauty and fitness: 62% churn rate
• People and society: 63% churn rate
• Food and drinks: 64% churn rate
• Health: 65% churn rate
• Books at literature: 69% churn rate
• Pets and animals: 70% churn rate
• Sports: 70% churn rate
• Apparel: 71% churn rate
• Home and garden: 75% churn rate
• Toys and hobbies: 77% churn rate
• Shoes: 78% churn rate
• Apparel clothing accessories: 79% churn rate
• Consumer electronics: 82% churn rate
• Gifts and special events: 82% churn rate

These metrics may help you understand how your churn rate compares to your competitors.

However, if your churn rate doesn’t stack up, don’t be discouraged–the biggest challenge is to continually improve your metrics, not necessarily outpace your competitors–at least in the short term.

By optimizing your store and focusing on lowering your churn rate month after month, you’ll develop a highly competitive score in due time.

8 sure-shot ways to bring back churned customers

1. Bring them back with win-back campaigns

As we discussed, there are several reasons why your customers leave you–and unless the reason is severely disheartening, your customers can be brought back.

All you have to do is please them with a few offers–especially curated for them.

Segment your customers and find out which ones haven’t shopped from you in a while.

Share a personalized coupon code (perhaps add their name to the code).

Let them avail of a flat percentage discount or a BOGO deal through the coupon–make sure to limit the time validity of the coupon to drive action fast.

While a discount can get an inactive customer to buy again, it doesn’t encourage someone to purchase frequently again.

Once you’ve convinced someone to come back, you’ll need to continuously deliver a good experience to build that customer loyalty and ensure that they keep engaging with your brand.

2. Educate customers about pausing options

If you are providing subscription services, this advice is particularly for you.

Run email campaigns to tell your churned customers that when they come back, they have the option to pause their subscription at any point in time.

This reduces the friction of commitment–and encourages shoppers to come back to you.

Let the heading of your email tell your disengaged customers that they can pause the subscription anytime. List down the benefits of the subscription and lastly, ask them to rejoin in the CTA.

3. Share helpful content

Shoppers take a lot of buying inspiration online–Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.

The issue they face oftentimes is that they don’t know where to get the trending items from.

Solve this problem and reduce your eCommerce churn by sending routine newsletters to your shoppers and telling them what’s trending and that you have it at your eCommerce store.

Now, where a majority of stores go wrong is–their entire newsletter is only about products.

What we would suggest is–go a step further and share valuable information about your niche along with your products.

For example: If you are selling fitness gear, you can share a newsletter about trending fitness routines and health tips along with products that will be required for it.

4. Send personalized product launch updates

You have the data of which shoppers are interested in which category of products.

Use this data to your advantage.

Segment customers based on their purchase behaviors.

Every time you launch a new product, check which categories it fits into.

Share a ‘new product launch’ email and SMS to the segments of customers who have previously shown interest in similar products.

For example: Let’s say you are running a home decor eCommerce store and you have added a bedside lamp to your catalog. You can shoot a ‘New Product Launch’ update to the following segments:

• Customers who had purchased or added to cart any decorative lights
• Shoppers who had purchased night stand or a bed–recommend a lamp as a complimentary product
• Shoppers who had bought decor products for living room or bedroom–they might get interested in a lamp as well

Pro tip: Make the email super personalized–tell them how the product will benefit them.

5. Change your engagement style

People often say–out of sight, out of mind.

Well, the reverse is also true.

The more your customers stay in touch with your brand, the more likely they are to come back and buy from you.

If you see the churn rate of your store increase–your shoppers are not buying from you anymore–check for their engagement on emails.

If you notice that the churned customers are not engaging on emails as well–it’s a good idea to recommend less demanding ways for them to stay in touch.

Consider switching to a more concise email format–such as a weekly summary.

Ask them to follow your Facebook, Instagram pages, or blog so they can receive regular updates through social media.

Give them a free eBook as a thank you.

This approach lets your customers an opportunity to choose how they want to receive content.

6. Re-engage inactive customers with seasonal campaigns

You don’t need to send the same win-back emails all year long.

Take advantage of the change of seasons, holidays and festivals.

Curate special packages or offers for special occasions and share them with lost customers.

By sharing multiple options around the year, you can increase the chances of your success.

Also read: 32 Holiday Marketing Ideas for eCommerce Stores (2024 Update)

7. Collect feedback

We can’t emphasize the importance of getting in touch with your customers.

Ask them–why haven’t they made a purchase in a while?

Ensure you give them something in return for their time–this could be a voucher or a free gift along with a purchase–start your email with this and ask for their feedback in the CTA.

Make a note of what went wrong and go back with a solution.

This activity will not only help you bring back churned customers but you can also make improvements to retain existing shoppers.

8. Invite customers to visit your stores

Your win-back campaign doesn’t have to focus solely on driving customers back to your website. If you are offering a discount coupon, mention that it can be used online and in-store.

Go a step further.

You have the customer data–use it to dynamically load the location of the nearest store for each of the recipients and even include a map in the email itself.

12 effective ways to prevent customer churn

1. Create an impressionable “Thank you” page

Your ‘Thank you’ page should create a lasting impression on your shoppers.

When you make your shoppers feel special after the purchase–they know that you are just not a business that wants to sell products but you truly care about them.

Provide an order tracking link or ID to your shoppers and mention the estimated date of delivery.

Give them your contact details–in case they want to reach out to you to enquire about the delivery of their products.

Consider adding some post-purchase offers–that they can make use of in the next purchase.

Also, ask for feedback on the shopping experience–the website experience and the checkout flow.

2. Launch a tiered loyalty program

A sense of achievement gives rise to intrinsic motivation for people to take action–this is exactly what a tiered loyalty program does.

Make each tier aspirational so that shoppers are driven to reach there.

To keep your customers motivated, show the next-tier benefits to your shoppers on the thank you page and in personalized emails. Also, tell them how far they are from getting there.

This will encourage them to shop from you thereby reducing the churn of your eCommerce store.

3. Nudge shoppers to download your app

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

When your app is in your shoppers' phones, the chances of them churning go down by 20-40%.

So, if you have an app, push your shoppers to download it–offer app-only deals and promote the app and offers on your website and social media channels.

And do not forget to send push notifications–49% of shoppers who get push notifications return to the app in a month vs 9% of shoppers who don’t get them. So, once your app gets downloaded, work on some catchy push notifications.

Also read: 32 Ways to Increase eCommerce Mobile Conversion Rate in 2024

4. Have your shoppers create an account,  but post-purchase

Account creating process is a bittersweet activity–on one hand, it creates friction for

shoppers during the purchase process, and on the other hand it eases the buying process during the next purchase.

A simple solution to this problem is–ask your shoppers to create an account after their purchase is complete.

Save their details and make your checkout flow smooth–perhaps a click or two.

5. Stay in touch even after the sale

A poor post-purchase experience leaves first-time customers wary about your brand and confused about what to expect next: When will the product arrive? How long can I get a refund? Did they get my address right? All of these could be factors in a customer's decision not to return to your brand.

Send regular shipping updates to your shoppers through emails, SMS or Whatsapp–or all of them. This will help reduce shoppers’ anxiety and increase their trust in your brand.

6. Offer subscription services

Get your shoppers to commit to a subscription–this will be instrumental in reducing your churn rate.

Once your customer subscribes to your products at a fixed frequency–just give a great service and you are good to go.

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

7. Consider gifting promotional merchandise

Promotional merch is a way of becoming a part of your consumers’ lives–beyond the products they purchase from you.

Imagine seeing a pen holder from a particular brand every day on your workstation. You will recall the brand every time you make a purchase.

Gift items such as calendars, stickers, bookmarks etc to your shoppers along with the purchase–items that they can use in their daily lives–which can serve as a constant reminder that you exist.

And when they can’t get you out of their minds, they will keep coming back–reducing the churn rate of your eCommerce store.

8. Enable easy returns and refunds

If your shopper gets stuck with a damaged product, and can’t do anything about it, he is definitely never coming back.

Your customer will also churn if the effort that goes into return and refund is too high.

The best way to enable easy returns and refunds is to have an online return feature.

Also, make sure that you update the order status once the return is initiated–visibility always helps in establishing trust.

Pro tip: Try to encourage exchanges instead of returns.

9. Offer stellar customer support

The key to cracking support is reducing customer effort.

Reducing customer effort means that customers don’t have to search hard for ways to find you or wait a long time for an answer.

For this, deploy omnichannel customer support.

Also, whether customers want to call, text, or message you on Instagram–or a combination of all three–they shouldn’t have to re-explain the problem.

This kind of meet-them-where-they-are support is the new baseline for customer service, and anything less may drive customers away.

10. Take your packaging to the next level

High-quality, aesthetically pleasing packaging can leave a lasting impression on customers–making them feel valued.

Additionally, packaging that aligns with the brand’s identity enhances recognition and fosters a sense of familiarity and trust. When customers consistently receive well-presented products, their overall satisfaction increases, reducing the likelihood of churn.

Personalized touches, such as thank-you notes or custom messages, can also strengthen the emotional connection between the customer and the brand.

Furthermore, incorporating practical elements such as protective features and sustainability can enhance customer loyalty. Packaging that ensures products arrive in perfect condition minimizes dissatisfaction due to damage.

Keep in mind–eco-friendly materials appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

11. Tell shoppers that you stand for a cause

Campaigns that highlight the positive outcomes of customer contributions can create a community of loyal customers and help in churn prevention.

By integrating cause-related marketing into your business strategy, you not only reduce the churn rate but also contribute to positive social change, creating a win-win scenario for both your brand and your customers.

12. Build a virtual community

When you offer your shoppers to be a part of something bigger and exclusive; they get promoted from your customer to a member of your brand.

While what you can do with the community will be very unique for each brand, a few points to build the skeleton for your strategy are:

• Formulate clear boundaries that distinguish your community–the more defined the community is, the more engaged the members are
• Assign a clear goal to your community that will guide interactions and engagements
• Use qualifiers to specify your community’s focus–for instance, “This is a community for health-conscious individuals who focus on organic nutrition.”

Next steps

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

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:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.