eCommerce – Beyond acquisition, more focus on Customer Lifetime Value

Share of eCommerce in the overall retail sales has been steadily growing and as per a report it will contribute 15.5% of total global retail sales by 2021.  This channel is undergoing rapid changes with the advancement of digital and technology.  Two key trends impacting this industry are mobile adoption and cloud services.  RetailDIVE recently published findings from a survey conducted among retail professionals by RSR research.  90% of the respondents claimed more site traffic now comes from mobile devices than ever before and those who consider cloud as a differentiator in an eCommerce offering grew from 25% in 2016 to 39% in 2017

It’s beyond doubt that eCommerce will play a significant role in the marketing mix of companies across industries and success in this channel will influence the overall performance.  Therefore, it’s crucial to understand exactly what constitutes success in eCommerce.  Crealytics, a company focused on eCommerce performance cites Customer Lifetime Value as the single most important metric to measure.   Many companies are still focused on acquisition metrics that seldom differentiates between profitable vs. non-profitable customers. But by developing a strategy around Customer Lifetime Value, efforts are focused on optimising performance by profitable customers.  At Centric, we have been focusing on this metric and in the case of one of our clients that targets new Mothers, we have developed tactics to follow them through different stages.  We have tailored messages around their specific needs from the time they deliver to after 3months, 6months and 9months.   We track the performance of these messages and have been able to focus on the more profitable customers.  This has resulted in our client registering higher returns year-on-year.