The Power of Repeat Purchases: How to Boost Customer Loyalty for Your Shopify Store

In the fast-paced world of ecommerce, marketing and sales leaders constantly face the challenge of not only acquiring new customers but also retaining them. While many businesses focus heavily on customer acquisition, smart brands understand that getting existing customers to buy again is far more profitable and cost-effective. In fact, repeat customers often account for nearly half of a store’s sales. In this guide, we’ll dive into actionable strategies to encourage repeat purchases, backed by insights from over 875 million shoppers.

With online tracking becoming more restricted and customers expecting more personalized experiences, building strong relationships with your customers post-purchase has never been more critical. 

At Cart Potato, a Shopify and Shopify Plus exclusive agency, we specialize in helping businesses maximize customer retention through effective strategies and seamless Shopify integrations.

Whether you’re looking to refine your loyalty programs or leverage first-party data more effectively, we’ve got you covered.

The Importance of Repeat Purchases

Repeat customers are the backbone of sustainable business growth. According to Shopify’s latest reports, returning shoppers have increased by 59% over the past two years. These loyal customers not only return frequently but also tend to spend more per order. In fact, the top 10% of customers often spend twice as much as new shoppers.

For ecommerce brands, balancing new customer acquisition with retention is essential. But to retain customers, it’s crucial to understand their preferences and behaviours—a task that has become increasingly challenging with the phasing out of third-party cookies.

The End of Third-Party Cookies: What It Means for Your Shopify Store

For years, third-party cookies played a significant role in tracking customer behaviour and delivering targeted ads. However, new privacy regulations and changing consumer expectations have made this type of data collection less accessible. Browsers now require explicit customer consent to track online activities, making third-party data less reliable and harder to use effectively.

As a Shopify merchant, this shift emphasizes the need to focus on first-party data—information you collect directly from your customers through website visits, purchase history, and email sign-ups. First-party data allows you to build personalized shopping experiences without breaching privacy regulations, ensuring that your marketing efforts remain both effective and compliant.

Leveraging First-Party Data for Customer Retention

Building a unified view of your customer is key to making the most of your first-party data. Shopify’s advanced analytics tools allow you to consolidate customer interactions across all sales channels, creating a comprehensive profile for each shopper. With this data, you can leverage predictive customer analytics to refine your messaging, improve product offerings, and enhance the overall shopping experience.

By focusing on first-party data, you not only gain a clearer understanding of your customers but also build a foundation for effective loyalty programs and personalized marketing campaigns—key strategies for driving repeat purchases.

Understanding Customer Motivations for Repeat Purchases

Customers return to their favourite brands for a mix of practical and emotional reasons. Understanding these motivations is essential for building lasting relationships. Here are some key drivers of repeat purchases:

1. Loyalty Programs: Reward points, exclusive offers, and membership tiers give customers reasons to return. Creating special experiences or early access to products can enhance this effect.
2. Convenience: Simplified checkouts, saved payment details, and fast shipping options reduce friction and encourage repeat sales.
3. Better Pricing: Exclusive discounts, bundled offers, and subscription services can make it financially beneficial for customers to return.
4. Emotional Connection: A strong brand identity and consistent quality can foster a sense of loyalty and attachment, encouraging customers to choose your store over competitors.

In the following sections, we’ll explore proven strategies to boost customer retention and drive repeat purchases for your Shopify store. From loyalty and referral programs to personalized email marketing, you’ll discover actionable tactics that can significantly impact your bottom line.

14 Effective Strategies to Drive Repeat Purchases

Repeat purchases are the lifeline of any successful e-commerce business. Building loyalty among your existing customers is not only more cost-effective than acquiring new ones but also helps in creating a steady stream of revenue. In this blog, we’ll explore 14 powerful strategies that can help you encourage repeat purchases and build long-term customer relationships.

1. Create a Points Program to Incentivize Customer Actions

Points programs are among the most popular loyalty strategies, with 90% of program owners reporting a positive ROI. These programs allow you to reward customers for various micro-actions, such as writing product reviews or sharing on social media, making it easier to encourage repeat purchases.

2. Grow Your Customer Base Through Referral Programs

Referral programs harness the power of “social proof” by encouraging existing customers to bring in new buyers. This strategy not only helps you acquire new customers at a lower cost but also promotes repeat purchases by rewarding both the referrer and the referred.
To maximize the effectiveness of referral programs, integrate them seamlessly into your existing marketing and loyalty efforts, ensuring customers see the value of participating.

3. Improve Customer Retention Through VIP Programs

VIP programs add a layer of exclusivity by offering status-based rewards, such as early access to products, special event invitations, or increased loyalty points. This gamified approach not only encourages repeat purchases but also fosters a deeper emotional connection with your brand.
By appealing to customers’ desire for status and exclusive benefits, VIP programs can significantly enhance retention and repeat sales.

4. Stay in touch through email marketing

Email marketing isn’t just a tool to engage people who’ve joined your mailing list without buying. Create a segmented email campaign that targets previous shoppers, keeps your products top of mind, and reminds customers of the value you offer.

Content that engages this customer segment includes:

• New product launches
• Exclusive discounts
• Upcoming sales or promotions

Personalize your email campaigns based on customer data you’ve already collected. If an existing customer has already bought your soap, cross-sell or upsell complementary products like refill packs or hand sanitizers.

5. Provide exceptional customer service

For many online shoppers, the chatbot or “Contact Us” page on an online store is the first point of call when they’re stuck during the purchasing journey. Ecommerce customer service teams often prioritize new customers for the thrill of converting them.

But it’s not just new customers that rely on your customer service team for support. Some 89% of people are likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience, making it a huge opportunity to increase repeat sales and customer retention rates.

Train your staff to be knowledgeable, friendly, and attentive to repeat customers’ needs. They should respond promptly to inquiries and resolve any issues quickly and satisfactorily. Prove to existing shoppers that you’re using their customer feedback to improve.

6. Launch a subscription service

Keep customers coming back to your business with an ecommerce subscription model. It charges people a set amount per week, month, or year for a regular supply of products. Beyond providing convenience for customers, subscription services are powerful retention drivers that significantly increase customer lifetime value.

Shopify apps like Recharge and Loop Subscriptions can trigger orders and bill a customer’s card on file according to the subscription frequency they opt for during the registration process.

7. Provide personalized experiences and product recommendations

Almost half of shoppers say they like it when stores offer experiences made just for them. When businesses show customers products picked specially for them, people often come back to shop more.

8. Upsell at checkout

Suggesting extra items when customers are about to buy can significantly boost your average order value (AOV) and revenue. For instance, if a customer adds a pair of running shoes to their cart, your system can automatically suggest moisture-wicking running socks for $12 (regular price $20). These socks complement the shoes by preventing blisters and enhancing comfort.

Shoppers who are ready to purchase are more likely to add complementary items if they seem useful and relevant. To automate this process, Shopify offers dedicated checkout upsell apps. By integrating these apps, you can streamline upselling and enhance the overall shopping experience, encouraging customers to spend more.

9. Use a high-performance checkout

A fast and seamless checkout process can drastically reduce cart abandonment rates. Even if customers find great products, they may leave without completing the purchase if the checkout feels slow or cumbersome.

Shop Pay is a high-performance checkout option that stores customer payment and shipping information securely, enabling one-click purchases. This speeds up checkout from minutes to seconds, offering several advantages:

• Increased return customers: Shoppers are 77% more likely to buy again from any Shopify store after using Shop Pay once.
• Higher preference: 68% of users choose Shop Pay when available due to its speed and ease.
• Better conversions: Shop Pay can convert up to 50% better than traditional guest checkouts.
• Superior to other fast checkouts: Shop Pay performs at least 10% better than other quick checkout options, boosting late-stage conversions by 5%.

10. Offer B2B as a channel

Expanding into B2B sales can substantially increase your revenue through more frequent and larger orders compared to individual customers. Businesses tend to place higher-value orders more regularly, making B2B a lucrative addition to your existing DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) strategy.

Benefits of B2B on Shopify:

• Up to 70% more self-serve orders within six months.
• 3.2 times more frequent reorders compared to regular customer orders.

Key features of Shopify’s B2B capabilities:

• Custom experiences for each business buyer, including special pricing and product access.
• A unified dashboard to manage both B2B and DTC sales efficiently.
• Automated features like reorder reminders to save time and enhance customer relationships.

11. Create brand partnerships

Collaborating with other brands can expand your product offerings, attract new customers, and open doors to different markets—all without the need for heavy investments in inventory or storage. Partnering with complementary brands allows you to leverage each other’s strengths for mutual growth.

Shopify Collective simplifies brand partnerships by enabling stores to:

• Sell partner products without upfront inventory costs: Feature products from partner brands on your store without worrying about stocking or warehousing them.
• Launch co-branded campaigns: Collaborate on limited-edition items or themed collections to generate buzz and attract a wider audience.
• Build a mini-marketplace: Invite selected sellers to showcase their products alongside yours, offering more variety to keep customers returning.
• Streamline operations: Leverage Shopify’s existing seller network to add partner products easily compared to traditional methods.

12. Create Seamless Experiences Through Unified Commerce

Today’s shoppers want a smooth and consistent experience, whether they’re buying online, in-store, or both. Unified commerce integrates all sales channels—online and offline—ensuring consistent product information, accurate inventory tracking, and personalized customer experiences.

Benefits of Unified Commerce on Shopify:

• Consistent Branding: Maintain uniform product details and pricing across all channels to build trust.
• Centralized Inventory Management: Avoid stockouts by managing inventory from a single dashboard.
• Personalized Customer Experience: Access to customer data enables personalized recommendations and service.

13. Build Retargeting Campaigns for Existing Customers

Retargeting campaigns focus on customers who have visited your website, signed up for emails, or made previous purchases. These shoppers are more likely to buy again, making retargeting a cost-effective strategy.

How Shopify Audiences Enhances Retargeting:

• Increased ROI: Shopify Audiences’ Retargeting Boost lists can deliver up to 2x more orders per marketing dollar compared to standard methods.
• Efficient Customer Acquisition: Helps find new customers similar to your current ones at a lower cost.
• Better Customer Reach: The “Existing Customer” list reaches 40% more actual past customers than typical ad platform lists.

Integration: Shopify Audiences connects directly to Facebook and Google, making it easy to deploy targeted ads without manual uploads. This streamlines your marketing efforts and ensures your ads reach the right audience.

14. Use the Shop App for Repeat Purchases

The Shop App by Shopify is a powerful tool to drive repeat purchases. It combines a large shopper network with a digital wallet – Shop Pay, making it easier for customers to discover and buy from your store.

Key Advantages of the Shop App:

• Boosts Discoverability: Shoppers using the app to track orders often explore new brands. Featuring your products here can attract interested buyers without high ad costs.
• Accelerates Repeat Purchases: Brands using the Shop app see customers buying again up to 6.3 times faster compared to those only selling on a website.
• Simplifies Checkout: Shop Pay one-tap checkout reduces cart abandonment by speeding up the payment process.

The Shop app not only helps attract new customers but also strengthens relationships with existing ones by making the buying process faster and more convenient.

Conclusion: Drive Growth with Shopify’s Advanced Features

In today’s fast-paced eCommerce landscape, retaining customers and driving repeat purchases are more important than ever. Shopify’s robust suite of tools—ranging from unified commerce solutions and retargeting campaigns to the Shop app—empowers businesses to enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and maximize revenue.

By integrating all sales channels through unified commerce, businesses can offer a seamless and personalized shopping journey. Meanwhile, retargeting campaigns powered by Shopify Audiences ensure that your marketing dollars are spent efficiently, focusing on customers most likely to buy again. The Shop app further boosts customer loyalty with its simplified checkout and discovery features.

Leveraging these tools not only helps you convert first-time buyers into loyal customers but also positions your brand for sustainable growth. As you implement these strategies, you’ll find it easier to manage your store, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve higher sales—making Shopify an indispensable partner in your eCommerce success.