A walk in the park. That’s what an online shopping experience should feel like. It’s what every eCommerce operator aims for: building customer engagement and loyalty through a simple and rewarding journey.
Of course, making something seem truly effortless for your customer takes tremendous effort behind the scenes. But it’s achievable with smart technology, smooth operations and personalized experiences. That’s exactly what we do at S-kaupat, Finland’s most popular online grocery store, operating across more than 300 stores. S-kaupat had a great year in 2023: our sales grew 15.8% and we strengthened our market leadership position.
We motivate our customers to proceed along their journey with diverse automated and triggered 1:1 marketing programs. And you can do the same, whether selling food, clothes, electronics, books, or anything else.
Here are three winning tips for eCom operators to boost customer engagement and loyalty:
1. Build a hungry, cross-functional team
To successfully carry out automated and triggered 1:1 marketing, it’s essential to have an agile cross-functional team at the very center of your business, in close cooperation with sales, technology and data. Your team should have a shared goal of achieving results by planning and executing multiple different tactics through a process of trial and error.
Our high-performing S-kaupat team, where in-house specialists work side by side with professionals from our selected partner agencies including Luxid and Heku, has proven that a collaborative approach is key. An empowered, cross-functional marketing team is essential for rapidly planning and executing personalised campaigns.
2. Aim for growth with a data-driven mindset
Effective 1:1 marketing programs should take place all along the whole eCom customer journey, from initial awareness through consideration to building loyalty. Set clear goals and KPIs for each stage throughout the journey. To measure the long-term success of your marketing actions, you need defined metrics and ongoing follow-up by the team.
What kind of marketing content is working? Where do you need to improve? Dashboards are not for decoration: your marketing team should follow them on a daily basis and be hungry for growth and results, always. And your team should not be afraid to fail. It’s all about learning.
The key is accessing, analyzing and fully utilizing data with an agile approach to enable revenue growth.
3. Have the patience for a systematic & ongoing process
Here’s one final thing you absolutely need to take into account. Even if your organization has sophisticated and robust data along with world-class competences, there can be no systematic growth without standardized and structured processes, tools and templates.
For example in our continuous marketing at S-kaupat, we follow the process of setting specific business priorities, and for each business priority, we pose and answer the following set of questions:
- How do we reach our goals?
- What are our hypotheses for reaching the goals?
- What are the actions to reach the goals?
- What is needed to execute appropriate triggered 1:1 marketing programs?
We continually test, analyse results, optimise, and scale successful programs. It's a standardised cycle of continuous learning and improvement.
With cross-functional teams, a data-driven mindset, and robust processes, you'll be well-equipped to build true customer engagement and loyalty. By making the eCom experience effortless, you can turn your brand into a daily companion that customers love.
Johanna Koskela
Marketing Lead
S-kaupat Food eCommerce
