This post is part of a series of resources for our free online course on CRM for e-commerce companies.
This article will focus on the impact of a CRM in a hypothetical case.
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The most successful tech companies will differientiate from their competition with their ability to retain their customers.
An E-commerce business is no different.
A CRM platform can help you improve your store performance in both the pre-purchase and post-purchase stages.
Let's recap what we learn in the last post:
Let's imagine GlowBite, a mid-sized e-commerce company that sells high-quality fitness and lifestyle products. Their store runs on Shopify, where they manage orders, shipping, and inventory. However, they have been struggling with customer retention, as repeat purchases were lower than expected.
Challenge: GlowBite realized they lacked a comprehensive view of their customer's journey. Although Shopify provided data on orders and basic customer info, there was no centralized system to track interactions, purchase behaviors, or engagement after the sale. They needed a way to unify customer data and gain insights into why customers weren't returning.
Solution: GlowBite decided to integrate Shopify with HubSpot CRM to establish a single source of truth. This integration allowed them to centralize all customer data, including purchase history, support tickets, email interactions, and marketing campaign engagement. With the CRM in place, they could track every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle, from browsing their website to making a purchase and returning for repeat business.
Action: Once the integration was complete, GlowBite segmented its customers based on purchase history, favorite product categories, and frequency of orders. By analyzing this data within HubSpot, they identified that a segment of customers who purchased a specific line of fitness gear didn't return because they hadn't been targeted with personalized product recommendations post-purchase.
Using the CRM's automation tools, GlowBite launched personalized email campaigns targeting these customers with follow-up content such as workout routines using the gear they bought, offers for complementary products, and loyalty discounts for repeat purchases.
Result: Within 3 months, GlowBite saw a 20% increase in customer retention from this segment alone. The CRM enabled them to better understand customer behavior and offer targeted experiences that made customers feel valued. By using HubSpot as their single source of truth, they turned raw data into actionable insights that drove loyalty and repeat business.
Following our hypothetical e-commerce company, GlowBite, we've learned that a CRM can help with:
A CRM acts as a single source of truth, enabling e-commerce companies to centralize customer data from various touchpoints like purchase history, support interactions, and marketing engagement. This gives businesses a holistic view of their customer base, allowing for better-informed decisions to improve customer retention and satisfaction.
By using a CRM to segment customers based on specific behaviors and preferences, companies can run more effective marketing campaigns. Personalized post-purchase outreach—like GlowBite's targeted emails with workout tips and discounts—helps deepen the customer relationship, leading to higher engagement and repeat purchases.
A CRM doesn't just store data; it helps turn it into actionable insights. Companies can identify trends or gaps in customer retention and use those insights to fine-tune their offerings. For GlowBite, understanding why certain customers didn't return enabled them to adjust their strategy and improve retention by 20%.