How do I get repeat sales from existing customers?
While chasing new customers we forget the ones we have. The advertising budget goes entirely to new people while the list of those who already bought sits untouched. 🔁
Repeat purchase is digital’s cheapest channel: you already know the person and trust is already built. It is still the least managed channel of all.
Short answer: loyalty is not a card scheme. It rests on three things — right timing, a reminder, a privilege. 🎯
Related reading from the archive: demand management with CRM · how to increase customer loyalty.
Why is repeat purchase so cheap?
Because the hard part of the sale is already done. 💰
How do you find the right timing?
Timing is repeat purchase’s lifeline. ⏰
How is the reminder sent?
The channel matters less than the content. 📨
How is privilege designed?
Loyalty is about treatment more than discounts. 👑
How is it measured?
Three numbers, one table. 📊
What should I do today?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Step 1: calculate the cycle
- Step 2: set up one reminder
- Step 3: separate the dormant list
- If you want help
Three steps, one day. 🪜
Step 1: calculate the cycle
What is the average gap between two orders? That single number writes your calendar. 🧮
Step 2: set up one reminder
For your best-selling product or service, a single message before the cycle closes. The fastest gain is here. 📨
Step 3: separate the dormant list
List those past twice the cycle and write them a different message. That list is usually surprisingly large. 😴
If you want help
Let us calculate the cycle and build the reminder calendar: use the consult your expert form. For your current picture see the digital audit; the whole sits on the digital marketing consulting page. 🎯
📝 Notes From the Field
At one online retailer the entire ad budget went to new customers. The order data was examined: the average repeat interval was plainly visible. A single reminder was set to go out before the cycle closed. That month’s highest-converting campaign was the message that cost nothing in advertising.
📖 Short Glossary
Consumption cycle: the average time until a product runs out or needs renewing. Dormant customer: someone past twice the cycle who has not returned. Lifetime value: total profit from a customer across the whole relationship. Privilege: a non-discount, treatment-based loyalty element.
⚡ Quick Summary
Repeat purchase is digital’s cheapest and least managed channel. 🔁 It rests on timing, reminders and privilege. The cycle is calculated from past orders and writes the calendar itself. Discounts are not required when the timing is right.
🎯 Next Step
Let us calculate the cycle and build the reminder calendar: use the consult your expert form. For your current picture see the digital audit; the referral side sits in the referral programme guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Finding and persuading: the person knows you, knows where you are, and has already paid once. What remains is reminding. 🧲
A returning customer usually negotiates less, returns less and produces referrals. Three benefits from one person. 💎
Because it is invisible: a new customer shows up as a number in the panel, while a repeat purchase happens quietly. What is not measured is not managed. 🌑
In any business with a consumption cycle: food, cosmetics, servicing, health follow-up, education, spare parts. 🏪
How many days on average until your product runs out or needs renewing? That number writes your reminder calendar by itself. 📅
From past orders: the average gap between the same customer’s two purchases. One query gives you the whole campaign calendar. 🧮
Shortly before the cycle closes. A reminder sent after it has ended finds the customer at a competitor. ⚡
Through maintenance and check dates: “it’s been six months” is the highest-converting message in service work. 🔧
Whichever they permitted: email, message or phone. Messaging discipline sits in the WhatsApp and SMS guide. 📱
Not a campaign but a reminder: “you bought this on that date, it’s about due”. A message carrying personal information beats a discounted bulk send. ✍️
No: with the right timing, no discount is needed. A brand adding a discount to every reminder teaches customers to wait. 🎓
Yes: cycle-based reminders should run automatically. A manual reminder gets forgotten in busy weeks. ⚙️
Priority, early access, a small free service, personal contact. These cost little or nothing and change perception. ⭐
Useful in high-frequency businesses; meaningless in low-frequency ones. Nobody collects points on something bought twice a year. 🎟️
Keep them simple: two tiers is enough. A complicated tier table goes unread. 🪜
Being known: a customer addressed by name whose history is remembered does not go elsewhere. That is a product of record-keeping discipline. 🤝
Repeat purchase rate, gap between orders, and customer lifetime value. The third changes budget decisions. 🔢
It tells you what you can afford to pay for a new customer. Without that figure, ad budgets are set by guesswork; the arithmetic sits in the ROI guide. 💰
One who has passed twice the cycle length. That group is handled separately: the win-back message is written differently. 😴
A falling repeat rate. If new customers rise while repeat rate falls, the business is filling a bucket with a hole in it. 🪣
At small scale yes: a table holding order date and customer details is enough. What matters is not software but that records sit in one place and carry dates.
Not when the timing is right; they are often received as useful. What annoys people is not the reminder but frequent campaign messages unrelated to their cycle.
It is usually cheaper than finding new ones. But keep it to a single attempt; writing repeatedly to a list that does not respond creates permission and reputation risk.
Source: Google Analytics Help — customer behaviour and conversion measurement