The Ecommerce Sales Life Cycle Doesn't End With a Purchase

As a Shopify business owner, you likely put a lot of effort into your marketing to drive sales and revenue. That makes sense, but the ecommerce sales life cycle doesn't end with a purchase. Fostering post-purchase engagement is crucial to building brand loyalty and turning customers into repeat buyers.

The moment a customer places an order is just the beginning of their relationship with your brand. This is a perfect time to ask for their feedback, follow up with post-sales service, and show that you value their business. If you do it right, they'll keep coming back and become your brand advocates.

Interested to find out more? Let's look at each stage of the ecommerce sales life cycle and the best practices for customer retention.

Stages of the ecommerce sales life cycle

The ecommerce sales cycle aligns with the customer journey, encompassing all the stages a buyer goes through from the moment they discover your brand. What you want to do is tailor your marketing efforts to each stage, track the results, and identify areas for improvement.

These stages vary by industry and target audience, but they generally include the following:

1. Prospecting: Identify and engage with potential customers. The goal is to define your target audience, learn about their pain points, and establish contact.
2. Qualification: Evaluate prospects based on their potential value and likelihood to buy. You'll want to pay close attention to whether they are a good fit. For example, you can set up discovery calls to discuss their needs and the problem they want to solve.
3. Outreach: Prospects in this stage know about your products, but they're still researching their options. Depending on what you sell, you could set up a presentation or demo, send out newsletters with more information, or make personalized product recommendations.
4. Acquisition: Nurture your prospects to turn them into first-time customers. For instance, ensure your ecommerce site features helpful content about the products they're interested in. From product pages to blog posts, every piece of content should provide the insights they need to make a buying decision.
5. Conversion: Focus on optimizing the user experience to close the deal. You could offer discounts on first-time orders, streamline the checkout process, and remove friction points that cause visitors to leave your website.
6. Follow-up: After a customer makes a purchase, follow up to keep them informed about product delivery and offer post-sales support. This is a good time to send thank-you emails, ask for referrals, and collect feedback.

Again, the ecommerce sales cycle will look different for every business.

Let’s assume you sell software products for B2B software products. In this case, you could make a presentation or demo and then draft a proposal to get buy-in from department managers or other decision-makers. Also, be prepared to negotiate prices and put together a custom offer.

These steps aren’t necessary if you sell clothing or other customer goods. The B2C sales life cycle is shorter and more direct, as it doesn’t involve multiple decision-makers, personalized consultations, or negotiations.

Grasp the ecommerce sales life cycle to drive repeat business

Many Shopify brands struggle with customer churn, low repeat purchase rates, inefficient post-purchase communication, and other issues. These problems often stem from a poor understanding of the ecommerce life cycle.

For example, in a recent survey of 100 Shopify business owners, 98% of respondents admitted they have difficulty aligning inventory and production with fluctuating demand. These findings indicate a gap between understanding customer demand and maintaining operational efficiency.

By thoroughly researching your customers, you better understand their buying patterns. Then, follow up to assess their experience with your brand and predict demand more accurately.

Below are some strategies you can use at every stage of the ecommerce sales life cycle to close more deals and drive repeat business. Let’s dive in.

Prospecting

Prospecting isn't just about finding leads or making contact. It also involves learning about potential customers and their needs, demonstrating your value, and laying the foundation for future relationships.

Start with customer research. For instance, you can check your website and social media analytics to see where your leads come from, what products they're interested in, and how they engage with your brand. After that, build buyer personas based on age, gender, average income, shopping behavior, interests, and other criteria.

If, say, you sell compression leggings for women, one of your buyer personas could be Sarah, a 20-year-old woman passionate about health and fitness. She wants to look good, perform at her best, and recover faster from training.

Later, you can extend this approach to personalize your marketing efforts for every customer group.

What to do:

• Engage with potential customers: Join forums, chat rooms, social groups, and other platforms where your potential customers hang out. Read their comments, participate in conversations, and ask questions to understand their pain points and see where you can provide value.
• Leverage existing relationships: Review your customer base to identify leads that haven’t converted yet. Also, review your personal and professional connections to find potential buyers. For example, if you sell office supplies, reach out to friends or family members who run a business and could use your products.
• Offer freebies: Provide value through downloadable guides, eBooks, webinars, and other free resources. Feature them on your site or social media pages to capture leads’ contact information.
• Host digital events: Run webinars, Q&A sessions, or other virtual events to learn more about your target audience and connect with potential customers. Think of it as a way to generate warm leads and showcase your offerings.

Prospecting is an integral part of running an online business, so set aside time for it. Decide when and how often you'll make outbound calls, send emails, and engage with potential buyers on social media. Make sure each task has a designated time slot on your calendar.

Qualification

In the second stage of the sales cycle, you determine which leads are a good fit for your products or services — and which ones have the highest potential to become customers.

What to do:

• Focus on quality, not quantity: Time is money, so don't waste it on consumers who don't want or need your products. Instead, review your ideal customer profile and define the criteria for qualifying leads.

For example, you could use the BANT framework for B2B sales. This acronym, which stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing, can help determine which leads are worth pursuing.

• Tap into predictive analytics: Leverage predictive analytics to qualify and score leads based on their likelihood to buy.

With this approach, you'll analyze data from your website, sales reports, email marketing campaigns, and other sources to identify patterns in customer behavior. Focus on those patterns indicating a greater likelihood of conversion, such as repeated engagement with promotional emails or frequent visits to product pages.

• Identify key decision-makers: When qualifying B2B leads, prioritize key decision-makers. These are company founders, executives, and other people who make the final call on whether or not to buy your products. Use LinkedIn and tools like ZoomInfo, Hunter, or Overloop AI (previously Prospect.io) to get their contact details.

It's also a good idea to offer live chat support. Consider using an AI-powered chatbot to engage with prospects, ask qualifying questions, and capture contact information.

Outreach

Once you have a list of qualified leads, reach out to them via email, social media, or other channels to move them further down the sales funnel.

What to do:

• Create a compelling sales presentation: Whether you're targeting B2B or B2C customers, walk them through your offerings to get their attention. Invite them to a sales presentation that addresses their needs and pain points, and show how your product would fit into their lives or solve their problems.
• Set up personalized demos: Create personalized product demos for each customer group. Go one step further and make them interactive to drive engagement. Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP), emphasizing the product's benefits rather than the features.
• Tailor your outreach efforts: Customize your outreach strategy based on the lead's behavior, preferences, and past interactions. For instance, you could send personalized emails featuring specific products they viewed or showed interest in. Most importantly, provide value at every touchpoint to keep your brand top of mind and build trust.

For best results, engage with potential customers where they are. If, say, most of your prospects spend a good chunk of their time on Facebook, then this is where you should focus your efforts.

As a general rule, use email as your primary channel for sharing detailed information, LinkedIn for B2B relationship building, and SMS for time-sensitive offers. You can also leverage direct mail to engage with high-value B2B prospects.

Acquisition

Prospects who reach out through your contact form, by email, over the phone, or via other channels are in the acquisition stage. They’re interested in your products but need an extra push to take action.

What to do:

• Build trust and credibility: Leverage user-generated content, such as customer testimonials, to build trust with your target audience. If you have a new business without any customer reviews, display industry seals, security badges, or awards on your Shopify website. You could also show off your milestones, such as achieving industry certifications or getting featured in a local publication.
• Provide support: Address customers' concerns and offer tailored solutions. If possible, offer live support to ensure timely replies. For example, you could use a platform like OpenDesk to manage customer inquiries, prioritize time-sensitive messages, and automate responses.
• Nurture potential customers: Share additional resources about your products to entice prospects to move to the next step in their journey. Think ultimate guides, video tutorials, eBooks, case studies, free trials, and helpful blog content. You could also host a Q&A session to answer any questions your audience may have.

For example, sock brand Bombas hosts a quiz on their website to help customers find the best sock style for their needs.

Customers in this stage of the sales life cycle tend to read online reviews and compare products from different vendors. They know what they want but are trying to find the best option. This is a great time to position your product as the solution to their needs.

Let's say a potential customer with elbow pain wants to buy an arm brace. They already know what to look for but may feel overwhelmed by all of the options out there.

To win their business, you need to prove your product's value and how it differs from other braces on the market. One solution is to host a live demonstration or publish a series of blog posts about elbow pain and how the brace can help.

Conversion

This stage of the ecommerce life cycle refers to the moment when potential buyers become paying customers. However, you may still have to do a few things to encourage purchases and remove friction points.

What to do:

• Optimize your landing pages: Make sure your landing pages are SEO-friendly, visually appealing, and easy to navigate, with clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons. Consider offering dynamic content to improve the ecommerce customer experience. This means the page content will change based on the user's location, browsing history, or preferences.
• Simplify the checkout process: According to a Baymard Institute survey, 22% of consumers have abandoned their carts because the checkout process was too long or complicated. More than 25% have done the same because the site required them to create an account.

To reduce cart abandonment, cut the number of steps needed to place an order. Also, let shoppers check out as guests and buy with one click. For instance, online mattress retailer Casper has a one-page checkout where customers enter their contact details, choose a shipping method, and pay. They can also opt for an express checkout to speed things up.

• Offer personalized incentives: Consider giving discounts on first-time orders to encourage immediate action. You could also provide extra perks like early access to sales events, premium memberships, satisfaction guarantees, or free shipping. To improve conversion rates, tailor these incentives to the preferences and interests of different customer groups.
• Streamline the shopping experience: Allow customers to create wishlists, save their carts for later purchases, and choose from multiple payment options. Also, make sure they can easily check their loyalty status, modify orders, and set up alerts for when a product is back in stock or when the price falls. These features can enhance their experience with your brand and decrease churn.
• Speed up your website: Compress large files, remove unnecessary code, and reduce redirects to make your site faster. A mere 0.1-second improvement in mobile site speed can increase retail conversions by 8.4% and average order value by over 9%.

It’s also a good idea to conduct regular website audits to detect issues like broken links and non-secure pages. Seventeen percent of consumers surveyed by the Baymard Institute said they have left their shopping carts due to website errors. See this SEO checklist for your ecommerce business to understand what you should look for.

Another way to boost sales in the conversion stage is to re-engage visitors who leave your site without making a purchase. For example, you could display retargeting ads on social media or send cart abandonment emails with discounts and relevant product recommendations.

Follow up

The follow-up stage involves nurturing existing customers to drive repeat sales and building lasting relationships. This is your chance to earn their loyalty and turn them into brand ambassadors.

What to do:

• Commit to customer service excellence: Use OpenDesk to manage post-sales interactions across all channels. Powered by AI, our platform allows you to personalize customer service, uncover buyer pain points, and automate replies to common inquiries. It also brings all your messages into one place, making it easier to optimize your customer support.
• Keep customers in the loop: After a purchase, update buyers on their order status by email or SMS. Also, make this information available on your website for registered customers. If there are any delays, explain what happened and offer a solution.
• Provide exclusive perks: Reward your customers with exclusive offers, volume discounts, free samples, and other perks. For example, existing buyers could benefit from 24/7 support or personalized shopping assistance.
• Create a referral program: Incentivize customers with branded swag, reward points, coupons, or gift cards to recommend your business and products. According to one study, 89% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know. A referral program could help you drive brand awareness and generate ongoing revenue.
• Collect feedback: Incorporate surveys, polls, or feedback forms into your follow-up messages. These insights can help better understand customer needs and the psychology of the post-purchase sales experience. For instance, you could ask buyers what they like most about your products, what they would change, and how they would rate the support received.
• Make personalized recommendations: The follow-up stage also opens a window of opportunity for upselling or cross-selling products and services. Make relevant product recommendations based on their purchase history, browsing behavior, wishlists, and other data points.
• Provide added value: Drive customer engagement by showing value with every follow-up. Share insider tips, in-house research, or exclusive resources to keep buyers interested in your brand. Also, send regular updates on special offers, new product features, or any relevant projects you’re working on.

Acquiring new buyers can cost five times more than retaining the ones you have. That's why you should create a smooth post-sales experience and focus on building customer loyalty. Satisfied customers are also more likely to spread the word about your products and help you reach your business goals.

Build your tech stack for ecommerce sales success

Managing each of these stages requires specific tools. For example, you can use AI-powered apps to automate lead generation and scoring, email marketing, or customer service.

Here are some options to consider if your ecommerce business is powered by Shopify:

• OpenDesk: Respond faster to customers, personalize your messages, and gain insights from every interaction. Take your customer service to a new level by managing all your inboxes in one place and tapping into the power of automation.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Use this tool to identify key decision-makers across various industries and personalize your outreach based on real-time insights. Integrate it with your customer relationship management system (CRM) to track and manage leads effortlessly.
• Shopify Flow: This app lets you build and automate workflows to better manage loyalty programs, order fulfillment, refunds, and other sales activities. Create custom workflows or use pre-built templates to get started right away.
• Shopify Analytics: Track every step of the customer journey and see your key performance metrics at one glance. Analyze user interactions with your brand, gain insights into customer behavior, and monitor the impact of your marketing campaigns.
• Rivo: Create loyalty or referral programs in minutes and reward your customers for their support. If your business is new, start with Rivo's free plan, which includes a loyalty points program and tools for email marketing automation, branding, and order management.
• Judge.me: Collect and share product reviews, display star ratings, and incentivize customers from one platform. This fully customizable app also allows you to import reviews from third-party platforms like Etsy and Amazon and control how they appear on your website.
• Polar Analytics: Turn customer data into actionable insights and generate custom reports. This tool will centralize your data from online commerce channels, ad platforms, analytics apps, and other sources, providing a 360-degree view of your Shopify brand.

Offer stellar support through the sales cycle with OpenDesk

Customer support plays a key role in the ecommerce sales life cycle, enabling businesses to create positive experiences at every stage of the buyer's journey. Not only does it streamline communication, but it can also help you turn one-time shoppers into long-term customers.

With OpenDesk, you can view and manage customer inquiries in one place and unlock insights to grow your Shopify business. Think of it as a centralized platform for tracking customer communications, from pre-purchase inquiries to after-sales service and everything in between.

Use the insights from these interactions to build trust and solve issues before they escalate. OpenDesk also makes it easier to personalize your responses for a stellar post-purchase experience that drives repeat business. Plus, you can prioritize time-sensitive messages based on predefined criteria to ensure a fast resolution.

Our customer support automation app takes less than three minutes to set up. Sign up for a free trial of OpenDesk to see it in action, or book a demo to discover how it can benefit your business.