12 ways to increase number of transactions per year

In the clients mind you are their go to for the thing that you sell or service you provide. You have done an exceptional job at retaining your customers. Now you want to think about how you can get your loyal customers to increase the frequency of purchases they make per year. 

Repeat Purchase Rate = Number of Returning Customers / Number of Total Customers

Here are 12 ways to increase the number of transactions that loyal customers make per year.

1. Subscriptions 

Memberships and subscriptions are a great way to retain clients. If you sell a consumable product or a service that is required on an ongoing basis, why not provide options for a subscription. Some products I've seen lately that can be purchased on a subscription include coffee, pet food and even toothbrushes. They simply allow you to select what type or product, how much and how often you would like it. Providing your business with a predictable income and making your customer life easier.

2. Loyalty program 

Loyalty programs can be as simple as your coffee card that gets stamped after every purchase or something more complex using loyalty program software. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you know what would keep your customers coming back and what benefits they are interested in. Qantas Points offer great rewards and incentives for members. 

3. Email marketing 

Sending out regular emails to your subscribers as well as your customers who have only purchased a few times can really help boost the number of transactions per year. Additionally, everytime someone purchases you can add them to an automated nurture funnel to keep them reminded how great your business is. Think about the emails you could include in the sequence. You could send them helpful information about the items they just bought or cross sell potential products that complement their purchase. 

4. Upsell your loyalty and subscription programs

Having a loyalty program and a membership program is one thing but making sure your loyal customers know about it is another. Ensure you upsell your programs at every given opportunity. At the point of sale is common. Remind your customers what they are missing out on or the consequences of not being part of your programs. That last minute dash to the shop to buy loo paper or to pick up some dog food. If your customers aren't part of your programs they could be enticed to shop based on price. 

5. Book in next appointment/ meeting

Common practise with service based businesses such as hairdressers and massage therapists. That way the customer is likely to continue with a regular purchase interval. Sometimes life just gets in the way so having your next appointment booked in is a way to ensure they don't forget. Also be sure to send reminder messages a few days leading up to the appointment. There's nothing worse than wasting valuable appointment slots for a no show. 

6. Following up after average use time/recommended servicing 

This is a good idea to ensure repeated purchases. Say your customers are buying a cleaning product that on average lasts 3 months. You can remind them about the need to restock through clever email marketing or updates. Sephora does an excellent job of this.

7. Attend events where your customer go 

Knowing where your target market hangs out and spends their time is quintessential to marketing right? The same goes for engaging with your loyal clients. Do they typically attend certain events or engage in various activities? Setting up shop in these spaces can help your loyal customers find you. 

8. Get your customers to follow your socials

Make use of opportunities to remind your customers to follow you on social media. Adding follow and tag us business cards in orders to remind customers to follow and even tag you in a photo of their recent purchase. This allows your organic content strategy to work in the background.

9. Offer a discount for the next purchase. 

Give customers an incentive to come back to you. Offer discounts on the next purchase.

10. Make use of e-receipts and order confirmations. 

The open rate e-receipts and order confirmations is much higher than that of general email marketing emails. So make use of this valuable real estate by applying cross sell techniques and other valuable information. 

11. Retargeting 

Make use of retargeting ads through facebook and instagram by targeting people who have recently purchased. You can optimise the ads for purchase frequency and location. Be sure not to retarget them with the same product they just purchased. You will just be wasting ad spend and annoying your clients. Check out our article on 6 benefits of paid social media marketing.

12. Make checking out easy

Make the purchasing process as seamless as possible. The less details a customer has to enter in the better. I have lost track of the amount of times I've not purchased something because I had to find my card because I can't remember that number on the back. Give customers the option to make accounts so all their details can be saved. 

Setting up these strategies to increase the purchases of your loyal customers is well worth the effort. You have a loyal base of customers so finding ways to service them even better will help them stick around for the long haul.

Increasing the number of transaction per year is just one way to grow your business. To find out other ways to grow your business, check out our Business Success Map. A free resource (no email address required) that is designed to help business owners work on the right things at the right time.