5 simple WooCommerce emails that will drive repeat sales

What do you spend more time on: bringing in new customers or keeping existing ones? Both are hugely important for any WooCommerce business, but there’s overwhelming evidence that shows a repeat customer is more likely to shop with you again and again.

According to an Adobe Digital Index report, 41% of online revenue comes from returning and repeat shoppers, who represent only 8% of all visitors. What’s more, retailers need to bring in 7 customers in Europe and 5 in the U.S. in order to equal the revenue of 1 repeat shopper.

So how do you get that repeat business? You need to remind customers that you’re around — and more than once. Typically you should expect to remind a customer 5-7 times before they make a repeat purchase.

The more times you get a customer to return, the greater their potential lifetime value becomes. With that in mind, AutomateWoo can help you can increase the profitability of your store with well-timed, personalized WooCommerce emails that encourage your existing customers to come back for a second and third time.

Here are 5 effective follow-up WooCommerce emails you can create in AutomateWoo for increased customer retention and happy shoppers.

1. Win back old customers with a discount

Everyone loves a deal! For customers who haven’t made a purchase in a while, send them a WooCommerce email with a special offer to win them back.

For example, you could create a workflow to send out an email with apersonalized coupon code if the customer hasn’t made a purchase after a certain number of days.

In AutomateWoo, you can do so with the following trigger/action workflow:

2. Tell customers when an item on their wishlist goes on sale

When a customer adds a product to their wishlist, they’re making a strong indication that they’re interested in buying it.

When you have a storewide sale, or even just a few product lines on sale, of course you’ll want to let customers know about it. But you can go the extra mile for existing customers by letting them know when their wishlist items are on sale.

This is a useful tactic for reminding customers about products they loved but weren’t quite ready to buy, or simply forgot about. When a customer sees an item that they already want and it’s on sale, it can be extremely effective to push them to buy. This is personalized marketing automation at its best.

In AutomateWoo, you can create this workflow with the following trigger and action:

Note: You’ll need to install and activate the YITH WooCommerce Wishlist plugin for this workflow. You can download the plugin for free from the WordPress.org plugin repository, and upgrade to the premium version for more features.

3. Make product recommendations with a cross-sell

Cross-selling is a simple yet hugely effective way to sell to existing customers. Amazon is a great example of how this technique can get customers spending more by purchasing products related to what they’re bought already.

You may already be using cross-selling techniques to influence customers at the time of purchase to check out other items they might be interested in. With AutomateWoo, you can use this same concept, but post-purchase via WooCommerce email.

For example, say one of your customers buys a dress from your store. Once it has shipped, they’ve received it, and tried it on, now’s the time to remind them about those perfect boots to complete the outfit.

Using the order.cross_sells variable in AutomateWoo, you can display product recommendations in a WooCommerce email to customers after their purchase is completed. Here’s an example workflow:

4. Recover an abandoned cart

You’ve probably done this one yourself: visited an online store, put something in your cart, and then never got around to completing the purchase.

Cart abandonment is a growing challenge for WooCommerce store owners. Around 75% of online shopping carts were abandoned in 2018 — that’s a lot of people browsing your site, adding items to their cart, and then losing interest and closing the browser tab.

Fortunately, with an abandoned cart email you can recoup your losses.

With an abandoned cart email, you can reach out to your customers, and your almost-customers, and remind them about the items in their cart. Often, all they need is a little push to complete their purchase. You could even give customers a discount to further incentivize them.

To set up an abandoned cart email, here’s an example workflow in AutomateWoo:

5. Offer loyal customers a discount

A great way to keep your top customers happy is to reward loyalty with a discount. Not only will you delight shoppers who aren’t expecting it, but it will help create an even stronger bond between your customers and your brand.

For example, you could target shoppers whose total spend has reached a certain amount and send them a thank you WooCommerce email containing a personalized coupon.

In AutomateWoo, you can create this workflow with the following trigger and action:

Wrapping up

Tapping into your existing customer base is one of the best ways to drive sales. The evidence is clear: repeat customers are more likely to shop with you again and again. And the more times they shop with you, the more they are likely to spend.

So help get shoppers back to your store with the 5 customer retention strategies above. With a few simple AutomateWoo workflows, you can create effective, personalized, and timely WooCommerce email campaigns that deliver results for minimal effort and make a bit impact on your bottom line.

Have you set up any of these workflows? What are your tips for increased customer retention? Share your thoughts in the comments below!