The customer journey doesn’t stop after a purchase—it’s just the beginning. Once you engage the customer, you can build brand loyalty and turn that engagement into a lasting relationship.
Creating a memorable post-purchase customer experience sets your brand apart and keeps those new customers returning.
If you don’t invest in the post-purchase experience, you could risk losing the new customers you’ve worked so hard to win over. This means you’ll need to continue focusing your time and resources on attracting new customers to keep your business running, instead of building a customer base you can rely on.
Here’s how your business can elevate your post-purchase experience to maximize customer retention and foster growth.
What is the post-purchase experience?
The post-purchase experience consists of customer interactions with your brand after receiving your product or service. These interactions can be as simple as a thoughtful follow-up email or as involved as a customer loyalty program membership. The post-purchase experience is important to your broader customer experience optimization strategy.
With the post-purchase experience, you have an opportunity to reinforce your brand values, address your customers’ needs, and set the stage for repeat purchases. These small touches can have a significant impact.
Key customer touchpoints in the post-purchase experience
There are several key touchpoints in the post-purchase journey where you can engage with customers. These include:
- Order confirmation: As soon as your customer makes a purchase from your online store, send a confirmation email or text message to let them know their order is on the way. Order confirmation emails build trust with your customers and ensure they can access their order details in one place.
- Shipping notifications: In addition to keeping customers informed, shipping notifications create a sense of excitement and anticipation about the product on the way. Using branded shipping updates rather than generic ones is a small touch that can improve your customer relationships.
- Delivery experience: Today’s customers have high expectations of e-commerce brands. Eighty-five percent of consumers will avoid shopping with a brand again if they have a poor delivery experience. Choosing a reputable shipping provider can help you deliver a speedy and safe shipping experience.
- Unboxing: Using sustainable, aesthetically pleasing packaging makes an excellent first impression. You also have an opportunity to connect with customers during the unboxing experience by including engaging materials like product guides, handwritten notes, or samples.
- Customer support: When a customer reaches out to your support team, it’s a make-or-break moment for your relationship. Providing caring, responsive support helps build loyalty and remedy any initial problems the customer may have had.
- Follow-up communication: A well-crafted, concise follow-up message is the perfect opportunity to refocus attention on your brand and gives customers an easy way to reconnect if they need anything.
- Product support and resources: Providing ongoing support helps your customers make the most of their purchases and keeps your brand front-of-mind. This is particularly helpful for complex products with multiple features.
- Promotions and recommendations: As your brand releases new products and services, keep your existing customers up to date with exciting promotions and personalized recommendations.
The exact touchpoints for your customers will vary depending on your products and industry. You can customize your post-purchase strategies to address your audience’s needs.
Why does the post-purchase experience matter?
When you’re so focused on winning new business, it can be easy to neglect the post-purchase experience—but it’s important not to.
Today’s e-commerce brands face competition from around the globe because of improved shipping options. With more choices than ever, consumers face endless options, making even the smallest details important in a highly competitive market.
Here are some of the reasons why a standout post-purchase experience is crucial for meeting customer expectations.
Ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty
Thoughtful touches like real-time order tracking, mindful packaging, and personalized recommendations help boost customer satisfaction after a purchase. Even if you deliver a great product, customers might still feel disappointed if they experience slow shipping times or poor customer service.
A great post-purchase experience results in loyal customers who come back to shop with you again in the future, which helps boost revenue and improves perceptions of your brand. Ninety-three percent of consumers think the post-purchase experience is important, which is why it’s critical to invest in it.
Reinforcing brand image
During the post-purchase experience, you can reinforce your brand’s image and values. You can use post-purchase engagement email marketing with a strong voice and eye-catching visuals to remind customers exactly what your brand offers.
This will make a stronger impact than sending a generic message. A distinct brand image makes your company and products more memorable, so customers will be more inclined to turn to you for future purchases or even recommend your brand to their friends.
Collecting data and insights
Your post-purchase touchpoints can also help you collect customer feedback and data. This gives you helpful insights to improve your products, customer service, and marketing campaigns in the future.
You can use follow-up messages to conduct short surveys and learn what has and hasn’t resonated with your customers. You can also encourage them to leave product reviews on e-commerce platforms like Amazon or directly on your website. Consider providing incentives like loyalty points or discounts to motivate customers to respond.
Consider implementing trackable links in your post-purchase communications to understand customer behavior better. This way, you can see who’s engaging with links in your follow-up emails or social media pages and adjust the content accordingly. You can also see who’s clicking through to specific products on your website to see what’s resonating with customers, which can help inform your marketing efforts.
Strategies for improving the post-purchase experience for customers
There are many strategies you can use to create a positive post-purchase experience for your customers. Here are some of the most effective ways to engage with customers after they’ve placed their order.
1. Personalize customer communication
A simple but effective way to make your customers feel special is to personalize your communications with them. Include their name in emails or SMS messages and specific order details when relevant.
You can also take things further and personalize customer communications based on previous behavior. For example, if a customer puts multiple items in their cart but only buys one, you can send a reminder email encouraging them to return for another purchase. Consider sending personalized messages on their birthday or other special days for more engagement.
2. Launch post-purchase email campaigns
Post-purchase email sequences will help you keep customers engaged while your brand remains fresh in their minds. You should send out these campaigns quickly so they feel timely and relevant.
There are many different types of post-purchase email campaigns, so you can get creative and decide which approach best suits your brand. You could use these emails to upsell, share important information about your shipping and returns process, request customer reviews, or something else entirely—the possibilities are endless.
3. Recommend relevant products or services
One way to encourage repeat purchases is to provide product recommendations to your customers. These recommendations should be based on previous purchases they’ve made or products they’ve shown interest in, rather than recommending items at random.
If a customer purchases a shampoo, you could recommend a conditioner or styling gel for the same hair type. You can send these recommendations via email campaigns or place them strategically on your website or app.
4. Create a memorable unboxing experience
The popularity of unboxing content on social media has proven that consumers appreciate thoughtful packaging and presentation. In 2023 alone, videos with “unboxing” in the title racked up over 25 million views on YouTube. Think of packaging as part of your long-term marketing strategy.
There are many ways to create a better, more engaging unboxing experience. You can use high-quality packaging materials that both look and feel nice. You can also add personalized touches like handwritten notes or customized greeting cards. Some brands even add free samples for an extra surprise!
5. Provide helpful content like guides, tutorials, and FAQs
Giving your customers access to informative digital content will help them make the most of their purchase. You can send them how-to guides, video tutorials, or detailed FAQ sheets with their order confirmation.
There are a few benefits to this approach. Helpful content introduces customers to new features or use cases, which can help boost their overall satisfaction. Providing customers with this information upfront can also reduce customer support requests.
6. Reward repeat customers with discounts or exclusive offers
One way to encourage repeat business is with exclusive promotions. You can offer discounts on future purchases or even access to limited-edition products.
To maximize engagement, make these offers time-sensitive. This creates a sense of urgency and encourages customers to take action quickly.
7. Ensure all customer support channels are optimized for mobile
Many of today’s consumers prefer to shop and communicate with brands on their mobile devices. In 2024, mobile commerce sales are expected to comprise 44.6% of retail ecommerce sales, and over 63% of all internet traffic is from mobile devices. With so many consumers using mobile devices, it’s critical to meet them where they are. If your customer support channels are only accessible via desktop computers, you could be excluding a large part of your customer base.
Instead, provide customer support options that are completely mobile-friendly, and support it with post-purchase engagement SMS marketing. If you have live chat support on your website, use a responsive design that is compatible with mobile browsers. If your brand has a mobile app, add a support feature there as well for convenience.
8. Make calls to action stand out with branded or shortened links
With Bitly short links, you can make your CTA links more eye-catching and professional. Bitly allows you to create custom trackable URLs that fit comfortably into emails, social media captions, and other communications with limited space. You can also customize the URL to reflect your brand for a more cohesive experience.
Optimize your post-purchase experience with Bitly Links
A well-designed post-purchase experience keeps the customer engaged from their initial checkout until their next purchase. Focusing on the customer experience helps you improve customer retention and boost your reputation.
Using a tool like the Bitly Connections Platform can make it easy to optimize your post-purchase experience. With Bitly Links, you can create custom-branded trackable short links to include across any of your post-purchase channels: emails, SMS follow-ups, push notifications, and more. Integrating your branding within these links is an easy way to build trust and enhance your professional appearance.
To see how customers are interacting with your post-purchase campaign links, you can leverage Bitly Analytics. Analytics provides you with valuable insights into the number of engagements you receive over time, and which links are your top performing.
Elevate your customer’s post-purchase journey with trackable links and actionable insights: Get started with Bitly for free today!