If you had to pick just one retention metric, customer lifetime value (CLV) is arguably the most important one. CLV is exactly what it sounds like: the amount of money a customer is projected to spend at your business during their lifetime.
Customer retention rates matter to all kinds of businesses. So it should come as no surprise that depending on the type of consumer website you’re running, metrics that matter to you may vary.
For most eCommerce sites, the goal is to get customers to buy your products or services. But for other consumer websites, like social media platforms, the goal may be activity and engagement within the platform.
Yet while there is certainly variance in what retention metric means the most to your business, one part is clear - practically all consumer websites care about customer acquisition, retaining customers, and developing loyal customers. No one wants to lose customers.
Yes, it’s important to grow your customer base. But a solid retention strategy often has a far better return on investment.
In fact, for B2B companies in particular, improving customer retention can have massive impacts. B2B brands that increase retention by just 5% see profit increases anywhere from 25% to 95%.
And for eCommerce companies, it can often be more challenging to initially acquire new customers than it is for their competitors who have a brick-and-mortar location. The Harvard Business School reports that new customers can cost 20% to 40% more for companies that are exclusively eCommerce brands, compared to traditional retailers who also have online stores.
Furthermore, customer churn costs US businesses alone an average of $136 billion per year, and loyal customers spend an average of 23% more than average customers.
Consequently, the goal of customer retention - or keeping existing customers loyal to your brand for as long as possible - is critical to your bottom line.
If you had to pick just one retention metric, customer lifetime value is arguably the most important one.
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is exactly what it sounds like: the amount of money a customer is projected to spend at your business, during their lifetime.
Obviously, this varies by business. Big-ticket items like vehicles might tap out around $200K. Businesses that offer everyday items, like grocery stores, may have significantly higher lifetime values.
And brands that inspire intense loyalty (i.e. Starbucks vs. Dunkin) may have specific kinds of customers (coffee addicts!) whose lifetime value far outpaces that of casual customers.
CLV is such a significant metric because of the kind of insight it provides. Firstly, knowing the CLV of a particular customer (or a particular group of customers) tells you how much time to invest in building a relationship with them, and just how critical it is to retain them.
If you’re a manufacturer and you have B2B customers who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with you, they’re obviously worth investing in retaining. But if you have a customer whose CLV is $25,000, then you wouldn’t want to sink too much time into retaining them, as it just wouldn’t be profitable.
Additionally, you can determine who your most profitable types of customers are. Perhaps the businesses that spend half-a-million per year all fall into a specific category, geographic area, or other delineators.
Customer lifetime value will also tell you what kinds of products customers with a high CLV want, and accordingly, what products have the highest profitability.
Calculating CLV is actually somewhat simple. You’ll need to know the average value of a purchase, and then multiply that by the number of times a customer makes a purchase each year, then multiply that by the average length of a customer relationship.
So, the formula would look like: Average Purchase X Frequency of Purchases X Average Customer Relationship Length = Customer Lifetime Value.
For example, a thirty-something man who regularly purchases clothing from your eCommerce store might have a CLV like this:
$300 per transaction X 2 transactions per year X 7 years = $4,200
But a mom who has 3 children, and her entire family shops online at your store, could have a CLV that looks more like:
$500 per transaction X 3 transactions per year X 6 years = $9,000
Clearly, it’s more profitable to attract families than singular customers, or to at least spend a larger period of time nurturing relationships with the percentage of your customers who have families.
We’ve already established that it’s easier to retain customers acquired than it is to continually grow your number of new customers.
But it’s also true that you’re roughly 65% more likely to sell to a current customer, which means that focusing on increasing CLV among your loyal customers is essential for your bottom line.
Boosting CLV requires a number of strategies:
How easy is it for your customer to navigate your site? Is it optimized not only for mobile, but for other devices, like voice commerce? Do you offer a seamless, omnichannel experience?
If a customer needs something, how accessible is customer service? Can they chat you via Facebook messenger, or do they need to sit on hold via a 1-800 number
What if they need to return an item? Is this something they can easily do via self-service, or is the process cumbersome?
These are just a few key parts of keeping customers satisfied and ensuring repeat purchases.
Customers increasingly prefer personalization, especially from brands on whom they spend a lot of time and money.
Meaningful personalization can not only result in happy customers, but in increased sales, as customers may discover products through your personalized marketing that they otherwise would not have known about
Consider creating a customer loyalty program, that rewards repeat purchases. Rewards can include things like exclusive discount codes, freebies and samples, free shipping, or advanced access to sales.
Don’t take the customer relationship for granted. Emails are one-sided forms of communication; two-way platforms like social media outlets allow customers to interact with your brand and be heard. Make your business accessible to customers when they want to reach out.
Customer retention is critical. Attracting and retaining longterm customers who have a high customer lifetime value impacts your bottom line and results in repeat purchases, referrals, and peer-to-peer advocates.
Not sure how to launch your retention strategy, or overhaul your site to enhance the customer experience? Reach out to the team of experts at Object Edge today.
