The conversion point you choose for returning customers has a big impact on the effectiveness of your retention marketing efforts. You can send those customers back to your site, but most of those pages are built with an acquisition first mentality.
Those on site pages are designed to convince someone to give you a try and for future customers to discover everything you have to offer. The Repeat Cart is designed specifically for your returning customers. A conversion point designed for customers in “buy” mode to easily reorder.
Let’s go through why the Repeat Cart is built the way it is, and how that helps you maximize the revenue you can generate from your retention marketing efforts.
Purpose of the Repeat Cart
Before we go into the specific sections of the Repeat Cart let’s discuss why it exists at all. We created the Repeat Cart to be the best reordering experience for returning customers on the internet.
It's designed to provide personalization to each customer while also being as fast and easy as possible to buy again. This leads to higher conversion rates, higher AOV, and less time spent building complicated post-purchase flows.
With the Repeat Cart you will see the following from your returning customers:
- 15% higher conversion vs sending customers back to the site
- 30% higher average order value vs sending customers back to the site
- Reorders completed in 20 seconds
Now we can explain how each section of the Repeat Cart is designed to make each of those benefits possible.
The Sections of the Repeat Cart
Due to Reorder
The products that a customer is likely to purchase again are preloaded.
One of the hardest parts of any reordering strategy is getting the timing right. Traditionally you would conduct a deep dive into your data or use a BI tool to understand when customers are most likely to buy again. From there you would set up reorder reminders for each product with a set time delay. Not anymore, Repeat does that for you, and sends each customer to a personalized conversion point with what they need to buy again.
The most likely product for someone to purchase is a product that they are already familiar with. The due to reorder section of the Repeat cart combines the power of a personalized offer with the power of personalized timing.
A personalized offer and the right timing in this section of the cart is one of many reasons a Repeat cart sees higher conversions than sending a customer to the site to purchase. It also creates a landing page that can reduce the complexity of your replenishment flows.
More Options
More options is a subsection of the Repeat cart that allows a customer to see other variations of the products they bought in the past. This could include different size packages, different flavors, and even related products.
This section also allows customers to bundle up reorder or bundle down reorder. . Starter packs are one of the most common first purchases as customers trial your offerings. The problem is that not everyone wants that starter pack again. The more options section of a bundle can let those customers choose their favorites, while showing a bundle to those who bought just a single product in the past.
This ability to seamlessly swap and add products is just one of the reasons that we see a 30% higher AOV when customers checkout via a Repeat cart.
Previously Purchased
The main difference between this section and “Due to Reorder” is that these items are not automatically added to the cart but are instead put just a click away.
The items in this section are a full history of what that customer has bought in the past. It makes it easy for a customer to quickly add additional items that they have enjoyed in the past to their current order. There's a reason most retail apps start shoppers with their previous history. Most people start a current purchase with an item(s) from a previous one.
With these relevant items just a click away it's easy to see how a Repeat cart increases AOV. Other products a customer has enjoyed in the past are right there for them.
You Might Also Like
If the first two sections are about familiarity, this section is all about discovery. Not every reorder is about picking up the same thing as last time (or the past). A customer can fall in love with your brand and want to place an order for something completely new. That's the purpose of the You Might Also Like (YMAL) section.
This final section of the Repeat cart can be used in a multitude of ways, but the end result is the same. Increase the value/size of the reorder. We recommend filling the YMAL section in one of four ways.
- Add items that are likely to be purchased on a reorder
- Add merch or swag
- Add new releases and limited time offers
- Add your best selling items
I’m going to do a quick strategy breakdown for each of these options and they are in the order of what I believe to be the most effective.
1. Add items that are popular in a reorder
This is not to be confused with your top selling products. There are a lot of products that may not be popular with first time shoppers but become popular once a customer has already tried your brand. By discovering these products you can increase the likelihood of additional products making it into the cart. We already have a post on how you can find these products using the insights tab of Repeat.
2. Add merch or swag
Merch such as hats, t-shirts, and sweatshirts are great items to add to the YMAL section because they are products that become more desirable as a customer interacts with your brand.
Because the Repeat cart is a returning customer conversion point all traffic to the cart will be from customers with at least one previous purchase. I love repping the swag of the brands I buy from all the time. You’ll find me frequently repping my Liquid Death and Two Bears hats.
3. Add new releases and limited time offers
These can both make fantastic additions to the YMAL section depending on how “new” the product is. A new flavor or limited time offer flavor does not require much explaining and is a great fit for someone to quickly add to their cart.
However, if your new product is groundbreaking or quite different from previous offerings you may actually want customers to discover more about it on the PDP where you can be a bit more robust.
4. Add your best selling items
You should be asking yourself, Alex, why is this your least favorite strategy for the YMAL section? Because your best selling items are almost always the best selling because they are popular with first time shoppers.
That first time popularity means that they are great for trial and discoverability (like a starter kit) but may not have the margins or repeatability of some of the items we would classify in strategy one. If your best seller is also a popular product for reorders and has a strong reorder interval and great margins you should for sure add it to the YMAL.
A fast and personalized way for customers to buy again
The composition of the Repeat cart is something that we obsess over. Every section and decision we make is designed to do one of three things:
- Increase the conversion rate of returning customers
- Increase AOV for those who are sent to the cart
- Streamline the purchase for speed
As you can see each section has a very specific role in bringing those to life. Wan't to add the Repeat Cart to your retention marketing efforts. Grab a time or choose a plan.
