It’s fair to say that not everyone you sell to is your ideal customer, but in the quest to encourage repeat purchases, many retailers fall into the trap of hard discounting. Although this may delight shoppers, there’s no guarantee they’ll come back to your store or even buy from your website in the future.

It’s not clear why discounting has become so commonplace with Independents, but it’s a big problem. That’s not to say it isn’t appropriate in certain situations; if it’s needed to secure the sale, it can make good sense. This is especially true if:

  • There’s lots of choice to buy the same thing nearby
  • There’s no real potential of future sales with the customer
  • Ongoing support isn’t necessary for them to get the most out of what they buy

Data suggests that around 60% of the customers you sell to will not become a repeat customer. That means that 6 out of 10 people receiving an upfront discount will not see it as a reason to return. To put it another way, 60% of all upfront discounting returns no long-term benefits to you.

Even if a customer does come back to you, how do you recognise them? Or, do you just give everyone who walks through the door 10% off what they buy, regardless of whether they come back or not? If this is the case, you could be sleepwalking in to giving away a significant chunk of your profits.

Rather than use discounting to drive purchases, the smart thing to do is find your ideal customers. Those customers are repeat customers.

This is why a loyalty scheme is essential to Independents like you. Done right, a loyalty scheme will help you find more of your ideal customers. It will protect margins, boost revenues and support growth.

Cloud POS Loyalty is a simple tool that delivers powerful results for your business. It’s always available to your ideal customers, whether they shop in-store or online. Using Cloud POS Loyalty, you can offer customers money off their next purchase, which helps secure the current sale and gives them more of an incentive to return to you store or website. Repeat purchasers make ideal customers.

And, when it comes to finding time to stay in touch with your customers, Cloud POS Loyalty can do that for you too. By reducing the amount of time and admin you spend on customer acquisition and retention, you can get on with running your business.

Cloud POS Loyalty is well worth it. The cost of acquisition of a new customer is high anyway, so if you’ve already got a customer and you give them 5% off their next purchase, it’s actually quite cheap acquisition. There’s a high usage of them and it’s very good. It helps build a brand.

Tom Bowden – Owner, Working Class Heroes