When it comes to retail strategies, most brands place an emphasis on the pre-purchase experience, from crafting eye-catching ads to investing in SEO and running smart marketing campaigns. Yet what most retailers don’t realize is how significant the opportunity is in the post-purchase experience, and consumers and retail leaders have quite a different view of this part of the shopping journey.
Customers have come to expect more than just a transaction – they crave personalized interactions, transparent communication and a streamlined journey from click to delivery. A whopping 80% of shoppers believe there’s room for serious improvement in the post-purchase experience, while only 18% of those at the retail helm feel this way. To take this further, a significant 93% of shoppers consider the post-purchase experience to be important, but only 40% of retailers believe that their post-purchase experience is fully optimized.
The Unseen Costs of a Poor Post-Purchase Journey
Bad customer experiences can lead to shoppers leaving your business, even if they love your brand. In the U.S., 59% of customers will stop doing business with a company after several bad experiences, and 17% will do so after just one bad experience.
One bad experience can have a lasting impact on your consumers, especially when customers are likely to share their stories with others and can readily do so via social media and public reviews. It can be difficult to win these customers back once they have left, a particularly pressing issue in today’s retail climate where it can cost up to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
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Relevancy is the New Standard
The key to attracting new customers and keeping existing ones happy is relevancy. Modern consumers crave personalization and relevancy in communications: new Harris Poll data reveals that when shopping experiences don’t feel relevant, 20% to 30% of consumers will walk away.
Here’s how to create relevant shopping experiences for today’s consumers:
- Understand your customers. The first step is to understand your customers and consider the entire journey that the customer takes, from their first interaction with your brand to the moment they make a purchase and beyond.
Harris Poll’s recent survey identified the top priorities for today’s ecommerce shoppers, which include relevant deals, low prices and a personalized shopping experience, particularly at checkout. The survey also revealed that Gen Z consumers globally are optimistic about AI’s role in ecommerce, with 55% of respondents interested in an AI assistant that would make online shopping more convenient. Additionally, 51% of Gen Zers say they are interested in augmented reality and virtual reality shopping experiences. By understanding these consumer interests, needs and pain points, retailers can tailor their communications and experiences to their shoppers and implement new strategies and technologies, like AI, to meet the needs of these shoppers. - Personalize communications with relevant messages. One of the best ways for retailers to create relevant customer experiences is to personalize their communications, using data to understand each individual customer and deliver messages that are relevant to them.
By combining relevancy and personalization, retailers can create customer experiences that are both meaningful and memorable, which helps build stronger relationships with customers and drive loyalty and repeat business. Consumers recently ranked “relevant deals” as the top priority for them when shopping, and 55% of Gen Zers stated that they are interested in curated deals from their favorite influencers and content creators, giving retailers an idea of what types of marketing and communications will work with these shoppers. - Use real-time prioritization. Real-time prioritization is about delivering the right message to the right person at the right moment. Using data and machine learning helps retailers understand what each customer is interested in and what they are likely to respond to.
For example, the window between when a customer places an order and when they leave is a prime time to introduce them to new offers and products. This is the happiest moment in the shopping journey, when customers experience that rush of dopamine related to retail therapy that leaves them open to buying again. This is the perfect time for retailers to present relevant offers and deals to keep consumers further interacting with their brand. Harris Poll’s latest data shows that 67% of Gen Z shoppers “enjoy the feeling of adding a little something extra to my online shopping cart when I’m checking out.” - Take an experience-first approach. An experience-first approach is about creating a customer experience that is so good that it becomes the reason why customers choose a certain brand. This means going beyond simply meeting customer needs and expectations and delivering an experience that exceeds them.
One of today’s biggest pain points for both retailers and customers is the checkout process: 73% of consumers say they often experience some form of frustration or barrier at checkout, including having to log in/make an account (33%), too many ads at checkout (34%) or irrelevant ads and product recommendations (33%). Optimizing the checkout process by presenting relevant deals and simplifying the experience is a key way to exceed customer expectations and take their shopping journey from good to exceptional, especially for Gen Z shoppers, with 73% agreeing that it’s “satisfying when I find something I needed last-minute while checking out.”
The post-purchase experience is more than just receipts and packages – it’s where customers decide whether they’d like to shop with a retailer again or not. With every order placed, retailers have the chance to make a lasting impression by going the extra mile and investing in a relevant post-purchase experience for all consumers.
Paul Frantz, Head of Agency Partnerships at Rokt, leads Rokt’s Agency and Marketing Partnerships team and joined the business in January 2023. Prior to Rokt he worked at Affirm and Stripe, and spent 15 years at Google growing and scaling the large customer sales teams in the U.S. and UK. Frantz began his career at WPP agency Ogilvy Interactive. He holds a BA from Liverpool University and lives with his family in Harlem, NYC.
