Tips to improve purchase frequency

Typically, the more often a customer buys from you, the more money you’ll make. Not exactly rocket science! But what isn’t as well known by many business owners is exactly how much of their revenue comes from repeat customers, and how to influence purchase frequency.

Measuring your customers’ purchase frequency

First things first. You need to know how often your customers are coming back to buy from you. This is known as purchase frequency. To determine your customers’ purchase frequency, you’ll need to gather some data.

Using a fixed timeframe, say a year, divide your total number of orders by your total number of unique customers. You could do this for all of your customers or for a specific category or segment of your customers and then calculate the purchase frequency for each. Now you have a baseline, it’s time to improve it.

Ways to increase purchase frequency

It all comes back to the customer. What you’re really doing is building and investing in a long-term and valuable relationship with them. So, it’s critical that you know what they want, and when they are likely to want it. Once you know this, you can use this information to create effective marketing tactics. The more personalised your communications are, the more effective they will be, which in turn may lead to significant increases in repeat sales.

Effective marketing tactics

Email marketing to your existing customers can be a very effective way to increase purchase frequency. They can be used to send reminders to customers when it’s time to repurchase, to provide helpful “how-to-use” content that could also increase usage and will keep your brand top-of-mind.

Retargeting ads can also be used to remind your customers about products they’ve previously purchased or expressed interest in. You can time these ads to coincide with the time your customers are likely to be ready to repurchase.

Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty

Remember, your relationship with your customers extends beyond the sale. Be ready to help them with any issues. Keep an eye on reviews – show gratitude for the positive ones and follow up on the negative ones.

Exclusive discounts, VIP sales events and loyalty programs are all very effective ways to retain customers and encourage increased purchasing

Keep measuring and keep improving

Don’t do all this great work and then forget to check if it’s working! Re-measure your customers’ purchase frequency to see if there has been an uplift.

Keep an eye on how your emails and ads are performing, so you can continue to optimise your marketing efforts. Take note of the initiatives that lead to an increase in purchases, and those that don’t.

The more you can encourage your customers to purchase again and again, the more your revenue will thank you.