Repeat orders can be an important part of a company’s revenue. Regardless of your role in an organization, knowing how to measure and increase repeat orders can have a positive impact on the bottom line.
Becoming familiar with ways to increase repeat orders can be a valuable skill in a sales and marketing position.
In this article, we discuss what repeat orders are, how repeat customers influence them, how to measure repeat orders and provide tips for increasing repeat sales.
Table Of Content
1 What are repeat orders?
2 How do repeat customers affect repeat orders?
2.1 Become more likely to buy from you in the future
2.2 Spending more for every purchase they make
2.3 Spend more money during peak sales
2.4 Become easily converted into a paying customer
2.5 Recommend your business to others
3 How to measure repeat orders?
4 Strategies to increase your customer’s repeat orders
4.1 Create a referral program or referral
4.2 Create a loyalty points program
4.3 Use data to personalize product recommendations
4.4 Create a rewarding customer service experience
4.5 Use your customer feedback to improve
4.6 Make the buying experience unforgettable
4.7 Increase your brand status by taking social action
What are repeat orders?
Repeat orders occur when customers buy certain goods or services to replace the same goods or services they have previously purchased and consumed.
Repeat orders can demonstrate customer loyalty to a brand, which can reduce a brand’s cost of acquiring new customers and therefore increase their overall profit.
They can also be an opportunity for brands to establish long-term relationships with customers, ensuring they continue to purchase their goods or services in the future.
Companies can use the repeat order volume metric to determine sales resulting from repeat orders. It shows the number of times a customer has made a purchase and helps management identify loyal customers and best-selling products and services.
Sales managers can assess this information and communicate the need to restock certain products or to focus more marketing efforts on specific products and services.
How do repeat customers affect repeat orders?
Regular customers can influence repeat orders by:
Become more likely to buy from you in the future
As the frequency with which customers buy from you increases, the likelihood that they will return in the future to make another purchase may also increase.
Spending more for every purchase they make
The amount of money a repeat customer spends on a single purchase usually increases, along with the number of purchases made from the same brand.
Customers’ trust in a brand can increase with each successful purchase, encouraging them to make future purchases.
Spend more money during peak sales
Repeat customers may spend more money especially during busy sales periods. Although shoppers on average spend more at peak sales times, such as the holiday season, repeat customers typically spend more at these times.
Become easily converted into a paying customer
Repeat customers often have a higher chance of completing a purchase once they have shown an interest in a product or service.
Recommend your business to others
Repeat customers are more likely to advertise your products and services to others. This can lead to more sales and reduce marketing costs, as word of mouth can be a source of high-quality customers.
How to measure repeat orders?
Customers who return for a second transaction with your organization are repeat customers, and you can measure repeat sales by calculating the repeat order rate.
The repeat order rate is the proportion of customers who buy from you more than once and you can measure it as a percentage.
The formula looks like this:
(Number of regulars / number of subscribers) x 100 = Repeat order rate
To calculate the repeat order rate, you can follow these steps:
- Find the total number of customers who bought from you more than once in a given time period.
- Find the total number of customers who made purchases from your organization during the same time period.
- Divide the total number of customers who purchased more than once from you by the total number of customers.
- Multiply by 100 for the repeat order rate in percent.
Example: Robert’s Fine Shoes wants to find the repeat order rate for the previous year. The company has a total of 3,000 customers for the year, with 500 of them making repeat orders. They divided 500 by 3,000 using the formula and found that they had a 16% repeat order rate for the year:
(500 / 3.000) x 100 = 16
Strategies to increase your customer’s repeat orders
You can consider the following tips to increase the repeat order rate for your brand:
Create a referral program or referral
Repeat customers are more likely to recommend your brand to others and it can be a very effective marketing tool. Creating a referral program can help generate new business but can also increase repeat order rates because existing customers can get incentives, such as discounts, to promote your business.
Create a loyalty points program
Introducing a loyalty points program can be an effective way to motivate customers to repeat their purchases.
Rewarding points on every purchase and allowing customers to use those points to redeem for special gifts or discounts can encourage them to come back.
Use data to personalize product recommendations
Recording every customer interaction can yield relevant data about their shopping habits. You can then use that data to send them personalized product recommendations, which can increase the likelihood that they will be interested in making another purchase.
Create a rewarding customer service experience
Good customer service can also be an important factor in creating repeat customers. A positive and rewarding customer service experience can strengthen customer loyalty to your brand and encourage them to repeat orders.
Use your customer feedback to improve
You can improve the way your customers and prospects perceive your brand by making changes based on their feedback.
Adapting to customer demands and showing the customer base that your business is flexible and can accommodate their needs can lead to higher repeat order rates.
Make the buying experience unforgettable
Companies can improve their customers’ buying experience as a way to increase their repeat order rates.
Depending on the goods or services you sell, marketing techniques such as creating memorable packaging, offering promotional products, and other similar actions can help increase your repeat order rate.
Increase your brand status by taking social action
Most customers expect the brands they do business with to align with the same beliefs about certain issues they care about.
Social activities such as encouraging your employees to volunteer for the local community or promoting healthy living habits can help convince customers to buy from you again.