Best Customer Loyalty Strategies for Your Dropshipping Fashion Store

Customer loyalty refers to how likely a customer is to stay loyal to a business and continue buying from them instead of their competitors. 

Customer loyalty often involves building strong trust and an emotional connection between the customer and the brand, leading buyers to not only frequent that store more often but also serve as brand advocates.

Building such a relationship requires creating a positive customer experience, providing excellent products and services, establishing a strong brand identity, and implementing loyalty programs.

By focusing on these aspects, dropshipping fashion stores can cultivate a loyal customer base that will support their brand for a long time.

Just like it is for any other type of business, building lasting customer connections for dropshipping stores is key.

There are plenty of great customer loyalty strategies that can help you achieve this. However, one thing that will help you create a strong foundation for customer loyalty from the very beginning is partnering with reliable clothing dropshipping suppliers that ensure your customers receive high-quality products and benefit from fast shipping.

This strategic partnership will directly impact your store’s reputation and your customers’ shopping experience.

Building customer loyalty doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual process that takes time and shouldn’t be rushed. 

This process can take months or a year or two, depending on the industry and the level of competition. 

The only bulletproof way to slowly but surely transform visitors into loyal customers is to consistently deliver on your promises and keep up with customer expectations.

Customer loyalty can be measured by using a variety of metrics that can help you understand how efficient your strategies are and identify areas where improvements can be made. Here are a few of the most commonly used ones:

Customer retention rate

• Definition: The customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who continue to purchase from your store over a specific period.
• Formula: (total number of customers at the end of a given period – new customers acquired during that period) / number of customers at the start of that period x 100

Repurchase rate

• Definition: The repeat purchase rate measures the percentage of customers who have made multiple purchases from your store. 
• Formula: number of customers who’ve purchased more than once in a given period / total number of customers in that period x 100

Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)

• Definition: The customer satisfaction score gives you insights into how satisfied your customers are with your products. 
• Formula: Typically, CSAT is determined by asking customers to complete a survey.

Net promoter score (NPS)

• Definition: The net promoter score assesses the percentage of customers who are likely to recommend your products. Typically, customers are asked to rate on a scale from 0 to 10 how likely would be to recommend your business. Depending on their responses, they are categorized into three segments: detractors (score of 6 or below), passives (score of 7-8), and promoters (score of 9-10). 
• Formula: promoters – detractors x 100

Check out: Dropshipping KPIs to track your store’s success

Create a loyalty program that rewards customers for their continued purchases. This type of program allows you to reward your customers by offering them anything from gifts to discounts, exclusive perks, or subscription boxes. 

Check out: Best ways to promote your online boutique

To better understand how a loyalty program works, let’s take a look at the rewards the online boutique LIVELY offers to its customers. 

For instance, when customers sign up for an account, they get 100 points which equals a $10 discount. Other ways customers can earn more points include leaving a review, following their social media accounts, subscribing to their email, or making multiple purchases. 

Based on how much they spend, customers can qualify for three types of memberships, each offering different benefits such as early access to sales and free shipping.

You can use customer data to your advantage and offer personalized recommendations to your customers. The most frequently created ones are without a doubt product recommendations.

A lot of eCommerce stores rely on cross-selling – a strategy that involves offering customers similar products to those they’re interested in buying. 

Such products are often displayed on the checkout page as it allows customers to discover new trending products they might need and spend more than they have intended to.

To illustrate, let’s take a look at the website of the online store Cettire. To encourage customers to purchase additional products to those they’ve planned on buying, just below the checkout option, Cettire has included a recommended product section.

Social media platforms provide an excellent opportunity to connect with your customers on a more personal level. You can always start out by yourself and as your business grows, you can consider hiring a social media manager or benefit from the services offered by social media firms.

There are a lot of activities you can do to create a more personal relationship with your customers:

• create engaging posts that encourage interaction
• share behind-the-scenes content
• respond to customer comments and messages.

Check out: Best engagement interactive social media posts

Take as an example the clothing store Vitkac. Their Instagram and Facebook accounts are constantly updated with posts that promote their products and encourage customers to engage with the brand.

You can create a sense of community around your fashion dropshipping store by encouraging customers to share their shopping experiences with you and engage with one another through online forums or social media groups.

By fostering a community where customers can connect, share tips, and provide support, you create a deeper sense of belonging and loyalty.

Actively seek feedback from your customers and make improvements based on their suggestions.

Showing genuine interest in their opinions demonstrates that you deeply value their input and are willing to make the necessary changes for them to enjoy an even better shopping experience.

This involves regularly reaching out through surveys, feedback forms, or even direct communication channels like email or social media. 

Take a look at the online clothing store Revolve. To make sure their customers feel welcome to leave their opinions, the team of Revolve has created a feedback page consisting of:

• product rating
• questions related to their shipping and return policies
• Questions related to their shopping preferences
• customers’ age groups
• a survey.

Last but not least, regularly keep in touch with your customers through newsletters, text messages, or social media channels.

Share relevant educational content, keep them posted about exclusive offers, notify them about upcoming sales, or inform them of the newest product updates. 

Providing excellent customer service is another cornerstone of building a strong customer loyalty strategy. 

Train your support team to be knowledgeable, friendly, and responsive. Make sure your customer representatives can resolve customer issues promptly and go above and beyond to exceed customers’ expectations.

Check out: Best Shopify apps for customer support

On top of that, you can always rely on AI tools for customer service and leverage the convenience of chatbot apps to build efficient chatbots that can save you a lot of time in answering frequently asked questions.

Check out: How to create better customer service with ChatGPT?

Stores like Nordstrom, and many others, have incorporated a live chat right on their homepage, making it super easy for customers to get in touch with them.

Post-purchase customer care is equally as important as pre-purchase support.

Such care includes providing customers with tracking information for their packages, information on return and refund policies, offering solutions to any issues, and asking for feedback.

To create lasting customer loyalty, you’ll need to stay consistent with all of the strategies above – consistent in product offers, customer service, marketing messages, feedback reviews, and post-purchase support. 

Over time, this consistency becomes synonymous with your brand, turning one-time buyers into loyal consumers.

Building customer loyalty is an ongoing process that requires constant effort and taking a customer-centric approach. 

By implementing the strategies discussed in this article, you can develop lasting connections with your customers and foster a loyal customer base for your clothing dropshipping business. 

Remember, customer loyalty is not just about repeat business but also about creating an emotional bond that keeps customers coming back time and time again.