We all know how loyal customers bring most brands’ profits. But how many do you think have proper customer retention management?
If you just throw a “retention strategy” on the table without any planning (or process) to back it up, you are in for a rude wake-up call. And we don’t want that to happen.
The good news? Managing your customer retention isn’t as hard as landing on the moon. You just need a clear system, the right tools, and some strategies.
And that’s what we’ll discuss here. But first, let’s define what customer retention management is.
What is Customer Retention Management?
Customer retention management is when you take intentional (or planned) steps to keep your existing customers for as long as possible.
It’s the customer retention efforts you do every day, every month, and so on. That includes personalized emails, post-purchase support, loyal members’ perks, customer feedback collection, and even monitoring metrics like churn and repeat purchase rate.
In short, the whole customer experience.
And because of how effective relationship-based models are, more brands are moving from one-time sales (aka transactional) to relationship-based business models. They are becoming the “new normal” because customers crave that level of connection.
The Real Value of Keeping Your Customers
Profit, resilience, and fewer expenses. These are some of the best things we like about having loyal customers.
We’ve seen our clients survive slow seasons and unexpected changes because they had loyal customers who stuck with them. They are good at customer retention management, and it shows.
Let me show you some proof.
How Customer Retention Builds a Stronger Business
Customer retention allows you to enjoy three things: more profit, better resilience, and lower marketing costs. Let me give you more info on those.
Profit is the most obvious result of having loyal customers. Adobe mentioned that there’s a 70% chance of them buying again. And through these customers, your store can grow by up to 20%.
Here’s another fave benefit: Better resilience. We know how ruthless the 2020 pandemic has been to businesses.
Over 700,000 U.S. companies closed in the second quarter alone. But…some survived because of customer retention.
Take Cocokind. This skincare brand conquered the no-mercy season and even scored high sales in the middle of it.
How was that possible? They continued to build relationships with their existing customers. They did it through updates, pre-orders, and product drops.
Now, let’s talk about expenses. Do you know how much it costs to get one new customer? It ranges from $21 to $377, depending on what you sell (electronics being the highest).
Let’s say you own a gadget store and you want to achieve $50,000 in sales. If your average order is $400, you’ll need 125 new customers. At $377 each, you’d have to spend $47,125. Wow. That’s almost the entire revenue.
Top 4 Customer Retention Management Tools
You don’t have to waste time checking every software out there. We know you’ve got a full plate, so we put together four of the best tools for customer retention management.
We picked HubSpot, Zendesk, Yotpo, and Salesforce based on their reliability, customer reviews, and the features that actually help ecommerce brands retain customers, not just attract new ones.
| Platform | Best For | Pricing (per user/month) | G2 Rating (/5) | Capterra Rating (/5) |
| HubSpot CRM Suite | All-in-one CRM for retention | ~$15/month to $3600/month (pricing varies largely, free plan available) | 4.4 | 4.5 |
| Zendesk Support/Suite | Customer support and feedback loops | ~$19/month (free trial available and offer build your own plan) | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| Yotpo | Post-purchase reviews & UGC | ~$79/month (free plan and build your own bundle) | 4.3 | 4.5 |
| Salesforce Service Cloud | Large-scale CRM & service automation | ~$25/month (free 30-day trial) | 4.4 | 4.5 |
1. HubSpot (Best Overall)
HubSpot is a solid customer relationship management (CRM) software. It has tools grouped into “hubs” that can help you improve customer loyalty and measure customer retention success.
Key Features for Customer Retention
- Powerful CRM: You can track where each of your customer is in their journey (new, loyal, or on the verge of churning). It helps you organize your retention tasks and reach the right people at the right time.
- Service Tools: Your customer service team can save you from the heartbreak of losing customers. But they need the best tools to do that. HubSpot lets your team create a shared inbox, automate ticket routing, and build a help center customers can use anytime.
- Reports That Actually Help: Their custom reports show you how your retention campaigns are doing. You’ll know which emails brought people back and which perks worked best.
Why Use HubSpot for Customer Retention Management?
We like how HubSpot combined marketing, support, and sales into one flow. You can focus on what you’re lacking without having to switch platforms. One user from G2 said it best: It shows you which efforts actually bring people back.
2. Zendesk (Best for Customer Support)
Next up is Zendesk, and it’s an AI-powered software that helps ecommerce teams retain customers through responsive support and feedback loops.
For example, if you notice that customers are dropping off after a delivery issue, Zendesk can automatically flag that behavior using sentiment analysis and conversation trends.
Key Features for Customer Retention
- AI-Powered Automation: Your team may need some help if you’re getting over x number of inquiries, requests, and complaints every day. Zendesk can take over the usual tasks, such as answering FAQs or tagging tickets. So, your support agents can focus on the harder problems (yay!).
- Omnichannel Customer Monitoring: Your buyers use different channels to reach out. Some email, others chat on your site, or send a quick message on Instagram. If you want to keep the experience smooth, you have to meet them where they are. And Zendesk helps you do that easily.
- AI-Quality Assurance: We’re pro-humans here. But this feature helps when your QA team can’t review every single interaction. Zendesk’s AutoQA flags weak replies and failed resolutions across all channels. That way, you can build a more solid CS that will stop customers from leaving.
Why Use Zendesk for Customer Retention?
We recommend Zendesk because it’s super easy to use and offers the tools you need to actually improve how you handle customer issues day to day.
3. Yotpo (Best for Post-Purchase)
Yotpo has ecommerce marketing tools you need to increase customer lifetime value, collect real feedback, and re-engage buyers after the sale.
Imagine you ran a haircare brand and someone bought your best-selling conditioner. Yotpo lets you set up a quick post-purchase email to ask for a review after two weeks. Then a follow-up message suggested a matching hair serum.
You can say hello to more repeat orders and satisfied customers.
Key Features for Customer Retention
- Retention Insights That Make Sense: You’ll get a simple dashboard where you can see what’s working and what’s not. That means you can focus on what actually helps increase your customer retention rate.
- Real Reviews and UGC: Yotpo helps you show them on your product pages so shoppers feel more confident buying. That little boost in trust helps build long-term customer success.
- Simple Automations That Work: Stay close to your customers even after the sale. You can set up personalized SMS and email flows that feel friendly, not robotic. You know… messages that follow up without being annoying.
Why Use Yotpo for Customer Retention?
We added Yotpo to this list because of its post-purchase features. It holds the title for being one of the best tools to increase customer retention through personalized follow-ups and review requests.
Plus, it’s easy to set up campaigns with it (we can’t ignore this pro). And they have a quick, responsive support team that many users actually mention as a big help.
4. Salesforce (Best for Large E-commerce Businesses)
Salesforce is one of the most powerful CRMs around (I’m pretty sure you know this already).
It’s like Hubspot, but… on Red Bull. It offers more tools, customization, and integration. But of course, we’ll only focus on the e-commerce and customer retention side for this.
This customer retention software is for larger businesses that prioritize data and more advanced features to meet customer expectations.
Key Features for Customer Retention
- Customer 360 View: You get one clean place to track every customer interaction. That includes support tickets, purchases, emails, and more. You can spot who’s active, who’s drifting, and who needs a little nudge to stay.
- Personalized Campaigns with Automation: Salesforce helps you send behavior-based emails that make sense. Like a win-back message if someone hasn’t ordered in 60 days, or a how-to guide if they just bought something new.
- Proactive Support Tools: Act before the “churn” doom comes with Salesforce’s Service Cloud. You can set alerts for low-rating surveys, negative reviews, or slow responses. So, your team can focus on the right issues.
Why Use Salesforce for Customer Retention?
Salesforce is the best option if your store handles a high volume of customers. It gives your team a solid view of each buyer, helps you react quickly, and automates your retention process.
How to Choose the Right Customer Retention Management?
The truth is: it takes time to find the best customer retention management solution for any business. Anyone saying otherwise is probably lying (unless they already have a prior system).
For example, if you’re managing a large fashion brand, your loyalty program won’t be similar to an online store selling candles.
But to make things easier, we recommend checking these factors and creating your own checklist by personalizing it.
1. Customer Retention Goal
Do you want to focus on customer engagement? Or maybe you want to track more customer data and understand why repeat purchases are low?
Your goals will give you a clear idea of what to prioritize (loyalty programs, post-purchase process, etc.). And it’ll make building your customer retention program easier.
2. Your Tech Stack and Integration
You have to find platforms that will work perfectly with your existing ones. Because if you don’t, managing will be 100x harder.
If you’re using Shopify and looking for a loyalty program, it’s better to check “Built for Shopify” apps. And not just randomly picking a third-party software.
3. User Interface
How could you improve customer retention if you can’t onboard your team without calling support? That’ll be tough. The tool you pick should feel easy enough to use after one (or a few) walkthroughs.
If setting up a referral flow takes more than an hour or the dashboard looks like a 2008 spreadsheet, it’s probably not worth it.
Of course, some advanced tools (like HubSpot) need time to learn. And that’s fine, especially if you have a team dedicated to it. But if you’re a lean ecommerce brand doing ten things at once, you need a plug-and-play system.
4. Budget and Growth Opportunity
The good thing is that there are so many affordable choices out there (like our retention platforms). You can also go for pay-per-order, choose to pay annually for a 20% discount, or… find tools that offer solid free plans.
For example, HubSpot allows a mix-and-match setup. And while some of its “hubs” are expensive for small ecommerce teams, the free tools and $9/month starter option make it easier to get started.
PRO-TIP: Go for a tool that has an affordable starting price but also offers decent growth plans. That way, you don’t have to transfer to a different platform once your customer base grows.
5. Reporting and Insights
We can’t emphasize this enough. But monitoring is as important as your customer retention management program.
Imagine you started a community for your wellness or skincare brand. And your goal is to reduce churn rate by encouraging your customers to swap routines, share results, and build a solid relationship.
You went all out on launching this community, but you didn’t track if the members were actually coming back to shop (oops).
Without that data, it’s hard to tell if the community is driving retention or just giving people a space to chat.
PRO-TIP: Choose a tool that offers automated and customizable reports. So, you won’t spend hours pulling numbers manually.
Tips: Advanced Tactics for Boosting Customer Retention
Designing Effective Loyalty Programs and Rewards
If you want to turn your buyers into repeat customers, loyalty programs are the way to go. Why? Because they allow you to reward satisfied customers and convince them to stay with your brand. Plus, give new ones a reason to come back.
One great tool we recommend here is ChannelWill Loloyal. It’s an app built for Shopify owners who want to offer customer loyalty programs (minus the expensive price tag).
Loloyal makes it easy to reward satisfied customers through points, VIP tiers, and referrals. You can also set expiration dates for points, run limited-time offers, and match perks with real customer expectations. For example, free gifts, shipping discounts, and coupons.
It supports multi-language stores (talk about global-ready), works with Shopify POS, and integrates with Klaviyo, Judge.me, and more. Plus, you can customize the rewards panel to look like your brand.
Pricing starts at $0/month for 25 orders. But if you need more features and manage more order volumes, you could upgrade to paid plans that start at $29/month.
If your goal is to keep buyers loyal without extra tools or spend, you 100% have to check this out.
Fostering Customer Communities
A strong customer community keeps people engaged long after the first purchase. And it molds a kind of loyalty that only humans can build (not discounts).
Imagine one of your customers (let’s call her Ellie) bought a cardigan from your store for the third time. She joined your private group, shared a photo of her outfit, and started chatting with others about how to style it. A few days later, she tagged your store on Instagram and replied to a product survey you posted.
Now she’s not just a buyer. She’s part of your brand’s circle.
See how that works?
Some examples of a community can be a Facebook group, a members-only chat, or a space on your website.
PRO-TIP: Ask a few loyal customers to kickstart the community so it doesn’t feel empty when new ones join.
Strategic Upselling and Cross-selling to Retain Customers
Upselling is offering a better version of what someone’s buying (i.e., Decathlon shoes to a Nike one). Cross-selling is suggesting something that goes well with it (i.e., a gym bag to match a customer’s new sneakers).
You might think pushing extra products will turn people away. But if you do it right, you can increase your sales plus improve customer satisfaction. That can help you build a loyal customer base.
WiserNotify reports that cross-selling adds 10 to 30% of eCommerce revenue on average. Strategic upsells can also raise customer lifetime value by 20 to 40%.
But how do they work? Upselling and cross-selling help you give more value to new customers. They’ll appreciate the gesture of “We think this goes well with what you picked,” or “Here’s an upgraded option if you want something better.” And not simply “Buy more of our products.”
Proactive Measures to Combat Customer Churn
Customer churn doesn’t always happen suddenly. There are early signs if you know what to look for. Fewer purchases, skipped emails, or long gaps between orders usually mean someone’s drifting (and we don’t want that to happen).
Have you checked who hasn’t placed an order in the last 60 days? That’s often the first red flag.
Instead of waiting, reach out. A quick check-in or a “We miss you” offer can make a difference. Keep it personal. Something like “Here’s 15% off if you’re running low” feels more human than another promo blast.
Also, don’t ignore their customer feedback. If someone had a bad experience and went quiet after, that’s a sign too. Respond early, not when it’s already too late.
PRO-TIP: Add a simple net promoter score (NPS) survey to your post-purchase flow. It helps you spot unhappy customers fast, so you can follow up before they churn.
Next Step: Keep the Customers You Worked So Hard to Get
Customer retention works best when all your efforts align. Loyalty programs, upsells, community support, and customer data: These are all important in turning first-time buyers into repeat ones.
Ready to get started with your customer retention strategy and see up to a 35% lift in lifetime value? Book a demo with our Loloyal team today.
