Using AI to improve customer retention with Shanif Dhanani from Apteo

Apteo is a platform which uses AI to automate and personalise marketing campaigns.  We talked to Shanif Dhanani from Apteo to get their tips on how to increase your customer retention and how AI can help.

5 Top things which eCommerce stores should be doing to increase customer retention

1. Stay in touch with your customers.  Your customer will be lost if you do not stay in touch via email and ads.
2. Personalise.  70-80% of customers only buy once.  Reaching out to them with relevant offers will increase the conversion rate whilst irrelevant offers will be ignored.
3. Create a sense of urgency. If you are sending out constant offers, customers will just wait for the next offer to make a purchase.  By sending a limited time offer to targeted customers you will encourage people to appreciate your brand to make repeat purchases.  Free shipping works well with loyal customers.
4. Tell your story.  To stand out, you should tell your story to give your brand personality.
5. Cross-sell.  Use your data to create relevant offers cross channel. 

Using AI to help with retention marketing

Running targeted marketing campaigns is time-consuming.  AI tools such as Apteo can help segment your customer data, enabling you to save time and create more personalised campaigns.  Apteo is a Shopify app and integrates directly with the major email tools.  Example uses of AI created custom segments include:

• Customised campaigns
• Customer emails
• Insert dynamic products into emails

Shanif talked to Trevor Ginn from vendlab.com, an eCommerce agency specialising in online marketplaces and e-commerce sales platforms.